Thread by @MariaMjaleman

In an effort to increase my trivia knowledge and call it "studying", I'll start doing 🧵s about how art intersects w/ medicine in a place called neurology!❤️🧠

First one up: Should the Babinski sign be the Botticelli sign?

Short answer: No
Long answer: No, but this is cool 👇🏽

Babinski wrote about the most famous eponym in neurology, the Babinski reflex, on Feb 22 1896.

With only 28 lines he described the abnormal cutaneous plantar reflex and explained how it associates to the pyramidal tract.
bit.ly/3y7vMAA

Although a myriad of pathologies affecting the pyramidal tract can cause the "upgoing toe" with stimulation to the sole of the feet... this finding can be normal in babies while they continue to myelinate their corticospinal tracts.

embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/ind…

Luckily, 400 years before Babinski described it, artists of the Renaissance period had an obsession with painting cute and accurate babies everywhere

Medieval artists had same obsession but with uglier, older looking babies.

In this painting by Botticelli, Madonna and Child, or better yet Madonna exploring Child Neurology; the Madonna seems to be eliciting the reflex while stroking the bottom of the child's foot with her thumb.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2642699/

And although we have all tried to elicit the reflex by using the dull part of our reflex hammer....

It is only through art we can see a Babinski response being induced by the kiss of one of the 3 Magi at the Nativity in the painting "Adoration of the Magi" by da Fabriano.

Here's another one by van der Weyden.

So next time you go to a museum with Medieval - Renaissance - Baroque art challenge yourself to spot a Babinski...

And please someone take me back to Uffizi. 🙏🏽

So once again: la neuro es arte y el resto es historia.
#NeuroTwitter meet #MedArt and #ArtTwitter

@AaronLBerkowitz @gabifpucci @KirtanPatolia @leonardoafuchs @valeroldan23 @DrDelgadoGarci1