(1) Two Ptolemaic period mummies underwent head and neck examination including high-resolution tomography and endoscopic rhinoscopy and cranioscopy.
Phrenology
Definition:
(n.) The science of the special functions of the several parts of the brain, or of the supposed connection between the various faculties of the mind and particular organs in the brain.
(n.) In popular usage, the physiological hypothesis of Gall, that the mental faculties, and traits of character, are shown on the surface of the head or skull; craniology.
Example Sentences:
(1) The paper describes the design and use of a machine, the "Psychograph," which automatically measured the size and shape of the skull and provided evaluations of mental traits according to phrenological principles.
(2) Phrenology, best described as a pseudo or even voodoo science "of the mind", had created its own prolific market for the body parts – especially heads – of Australian and other indigenous people since the late 18th century.
(3) It is held that this circularity of definition reflects the fundamental unity of conscious experience and, as a consequence, that the search for the biological substrate underlying individual functions too readily degenerates into a morphological and biochemical phrenology.
(4) Professor of engineering and psychology in the US, William Uttal, calls these trends in neuroscience "neo-phrenology".
(5) Long after phrenology was widely discredited, Aboriginal skulls were still sought and displayed with the same benign sentiment that one might attach to animal remains.
(6) Practices based on such concepts are now considered by most to be a manifestation of quackery, though phrenology is still believed in by some.
(7) Phrenology is based on the assumption that various modalities of behavior are localized to specific morphologic areas of the brain.
(8) Some of the anthropologists, attracted to phrenology, asked for skulls, while others wanted skin with elaborate tribal markings.