page_title: Lateral sulcus
section_title: Discovery
hierarchical_section_title: Lateral sulcus / Discovery
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration of the sylvian fissure by J. Voort Kamp in the 1641 anatomy book Institutiones Anatomicae by Caspar Bartholin. The lateral fissure (depicted in this book's engraving) was attributed in this book's text to have been discovered by Franciscus Sylvius with the result that it gained the name Sylvian fissure.
context_page_description: The lateral sulcus is one of the most prominent features of the human brain. The lateral sulcus is a deep fissure in each hemisphere that separates the frontal and parietal lobes from the temporal lobe. The insular cortex lies deep within the lateral sulcus.
context_section_description: The cerebral cortex was not depicted in a realistic manner until the 17th century with the Sylvian fissure being first accurately painted  by Girolamo Fabrici d'Acquapendente in 1600 to provide plates for his Tabulae Pictae.
  Its first description is traditionally taken to be in 1641 by  Caspar Bartholin who attributed its discovery to Franciscus Sylvius (1614–1672), professor of medicine at Leiden University his  book Casp. Bartolini Institutiones Anatomicae where it is noted that "F.S. [F.S. probably refers to Franciscus Sylvius] If you examine the indentations which are represented in Figure 5 quite attentively, you will notice that they are very deep and that the brain is divided from one side to the other by the “anfractuosa fissura,” which starts in the front part near the ocular roots, and from there moves backwards above the base of the spinal cord, following the temporal bones, and it divides the upper part of the brain from the lower."
  It has been suggested that since Caspar Bartholin died in 1629 and Franciscus Sylvius only started medicine in 1632 that these words are either by his son Thomas Bartholin or Franciscus Sylvius. In 1663 in his Disputationem Medicarum, Franciscus Sylvius described the lateral fissure: "Particularly noticeable is the deep fissure or hiatus which begins at the roots of the eyes (oculorum radices) . . . it runs posteriorly above the temples as far as the roots of the brain stem (medulla radices). . . . It divides the cerebrum into an upper, larger part and a lower, smaller part".
caption: The engraving by J. Voort Kamp published in 1641 that led to the lateral sulcus being named after Franciscus Sylvius
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