Neurology is one of the newest sciences. The first scientific research to address the brain mechanisms behind various diseases has only a hundred years of history.

One of the most important figures to address the neurological causes of several 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 will see a brief biography of Joseph Babiński , we will explain what his research consisted of and what his role was in the establishment of modern neuroscience.

Biography of Joseph Babiński

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

Of Polish origin, his parents decided to flee Poland after the invasion of Tsarist Russia, which intended to stifle the country’s claims to independence.

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

Vocational training

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

He was later able to study medicine in Paris, graduating in 1884. That same year he was given the opportunity to work as head of Jean-Martin Charcot’s clinic at the Salpêtrière. The following year, he managed to finish his thesis: Anatomical and clinical study on sclerosis in plaques .

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

At first he wanted to teach at the university, but he had no luck. The reason he was not accepted as a new teacher at the university was that he failed the exam, along with another candidate, Gilles de la Tourette. This was partly due to bad relations between his mentor Charcot and the selection board. After being rejected the first time, Babiński chose to withdraw.

In 1890 he managed to become clinical head at the Pitié , a position he would hold until his retirement in 1922.

Research and work

Babiński focused its research on finding out the mechanisms involved behind psychological disorders and diseases of the nervous system . It was quite common at that time to classify several diseases when they presented unknown causes: hysteria.

While practicing in the Pitié, in 1896 Babiński managed to identify the phenomenon that would later bear his surname: sign of Babiński . This sign implies that there is a reflection on the soles of the feet that makes them spread. 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 injury to the pyramidal ducts.

Following the discovery, Babiński published a short article entitled On cutaneous-plantar reflexes in some organic damage of the central nervous system .

It can be said that before he noticed this phenomenon, the German E. Remak had already described it, but without knowing exactly its neurological origin. Besides, 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 it to a malfunctioning of the nervous system.

In 1898 he published again an article on the same subject. He reported that he could not find this sign in patients with hysteria. In 1903, he published another article explaining that the appearance of the reflex on the soles of the feet occurred when the pyramidal system had been injured in adults, but he also explained that this same reflex could be found in healthy children .

Infants do not have the fully developed pyramid system, which is why they manifest 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

BabiÅ„ski was not only known by the reflection of his last name. In his time he managed to become famous thanks to the fact that he generated a huge scandal at La Salpêtrière. Although at first he shared Charcot’s praxis and his own ideas about hysteria, as time went by he changed his view of it. Moreover, discovered that some cases of hysteria had an important component of autosuggestion , seeing that perhaps they could be cured by persuasion exercised by another person.

In addition, he found that to some extent, doctors like Charcot and his colleagues had been indirectly responsible for generating hysterical symptoms , influencing the patients. This statement caused a real uproar at the Salpêtrière.

The disease of Babiński-Frölich

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 .

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

Death and Legacy

Joseph Babiński was one of the pioneers in the field of neurosurgery , a discipline that at the time was just showing the first signs of life. He made this field known through two works: The section of the external spinal branch in the so-called mental torticollis (1907) and The Decompressive Craniectomy (1991).

He was also known to be one of the first Frenchmen to perform surgery on areas of the nervous system. In 1922 he located a spinal tumor and removed it.

Ten years after this great event in his life, BabiÅ„ski died in 1932 of Parkinson’s disease,

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

Bibliographic references:

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