Joseph Babinski: biography of this famous neurologist

Neurology is one of the most recent sciences. The first scientific investigations to address the brain mechanisms behind various diseases are barely a hundred years old.

One of the most important figures addressing the neurological causes of various disorders, and a pioneer in neurosurgery, was Joseph Babiński. who, in addition to giving his name to a reflex present in infants, contributed significantly to the development of neurology and psychiatry.

In this article we are going to see a short biography of Joseph Babiński, we will explain what his research consisted of and what his role was in the establishment of modern neurosciences.

• Related article: "Neuropsychology: what is it and what is its object of study?"

Biography of Joseph Babiński

Joseph Jules François Félix Babiński was a neurologist who was born on November 17, 1857 in Paris., and he died in that same city on October 29, 1932, at the age of 74.

Of Polish origin, his parents decided to flee Poland after the invasion of Tsarist Russia that tried to quell the country's independence claims.

Babiński grew up in Paris, and in his early years he studied at the Polish school of Batignolles.

Vocational training

In 1879 he was assigned as an internal physician in the service of Victor André Cornil at the Hôtel-Dieu., an institution whose objective was to offer help to orphans, homeless people and pilgrims that was administered by the Church.

He was later able to study medicine in Paris, graduating in 1884. That same year he had the opportunity to be the head of the clinic of Jean-Martin Charcot at the Salpetriere. The following year, he managed to finish his thesis: Anatomical and clinical study on multiple sclerosis.

Babiński was adopted by Charcot as one of his favorite disciples.. In addition to exerting an important influence on him, Joseph Babiński took other illustrious figures from medicine of the time, such as Legrand du Saulle, Ranvier, de Vulpian and Cornil himself, with whom he had worked for years back.

At first he wanted to teach at the university, however he had no luck. The reason he was not accepted as a new professor at the university was that he failed to pass the exam, along with another candidate, Gilles de la Tourette. This was due in part to bad relations between his mentor Charcot and the selection board. After being rejected the first time, Babiński decided to give up.

In 1890 he managed to get to work as chief clinician at La Pitié, since he would maintain until his retirement in 1922.

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Research and work

Babiński focused his research on discover the mechanisms involved behind psychological disorders and diseases of the nervous system. It was quite common at that time to classify various diseases when they had unknown causes: hysteria.

While practicing at the Pitié, in 1896 Babiński he managed to identify the phenomenon that would later bear his last name: Babiński's sign. This sign implies that there is a reflex in the soles of the feet that causes them to extend. In a healthy adult person, it is normal for the foot to flex when faced with this type of stimulation. The origin of this abnormal reflex is due to lesions in the pyramidal pathways.

Following the find, Babiński published a short article titled On the cutaneous-plantar reflexes in some organic damages of the central nervous system.

It should be said that before he noticed this phenomenon, the German E. Remak had already described it, but without knowing exactly its neurological origin. In addition to this, it was Babiński who managed to use the presence of this erratic reflex as a criterion in the differential diagnosis between hysterical and organic hemiparesis, attributing its origin to a malfunction of the nervous system.

In 1898 he republished an article in which he dealt with the same subject. He reported that he failed to find this sign in hysterical patients. After other years, in 1903 he published a new article, explaining that the appearance of the reflection in the soles of the feet occurred when the pyramidal system had been damaged in adults, but also he explained that in healthy children this same reflex could be found.

Infants do not have a fully developed pyramidal system, which is why they show this sign. In phylogenetic terms, the appearance of this reflex in adult life is a regression to a stage in which complete control of locomotion has not yet been achieved.

His studies on hysteria

Babiński was not only known for the reflection that bears his own last name. During his time he managed to become famous thanks to the fact that he caused a huge scandal at the Salpêtrière. Despite the fact that at first he shared Charcot's praxis and his own ideas regarding hysteria, with the passage of time he changed his vision of this. Besides, he discovered that some cases of hysteria had an important component of autosuggestion, seeing that perhaps they could be cured by persuasion exerted by another person.

In addition to this, he discovered that to some extent, doctors like Charcot and his colleagues had been indirectly the ones who had generated hysterical symptomsinfluencing patients. This statement caused a real uproar in the Salpêtrière.

Babiński-Frolich disease

Babiński was key in the investigation of some diseases. An example of this is the adipose-genital syndrome, described in 1900 and later called Babiński-Frölich disease.

This disease implies that the development of the sexual organs is interrupted, in addition to having an excessive accumulation of fat in different parts of the body, headaches and diabetes insipidus. Its origin is in a malfunction in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis.

death and legacy

Joseph Babinski he was one of the pioneers in the field of neurosurgery, a discipline that at the time was just giving the first signs of life. He made this field known through two works: The section of the external branch of the spinal cord in torticollis called mental (1907) and decompressive craniectomy (1991).

He was also known for being one of the first Frenchmen to surgically intervene in areas of the nervous system. In 1922 he located a spinal tumor and removed it.

Ten years after this great event in his life, Babiński died in 1932 from Parkinson's disease,

This scientist served as an example and guide for several neurologists, one of his most notable disciples being Egas Moniz, who in turn was one of the precursors of the prefrontal lobotomy. His own disciples produced, after his death, a work in which several of the studies carried out by Joseph Babiński were compiled (Oeuvre Scientifique, 1934).

Bibliographic references:

• Philippon J, Poirier J. (2009) Joseph Babinski. A biography. New York, USA. oxford university press,
• Massie R. (2004). Charcot and Babinski: beyond a simple teacher-student relationship. The Canadian journal of neurological sciences, 31, 422-426.