The idea that schizophrenia could be related to problems of connectivity can be traced back to the 19th century. It was founded on theories concerning the way the brain was thought to work, at a time when the neuron had not yet been identified. In the very beginning were the associationist philosophical views (James and John Stuart Mill), which stated that concepts and ideas were associated with each other by a sort of affinity mirroring the real world: the idea of a horse was associated with that of the rider. Tile influential German psychologist, Wilhelm Wundt, who set up the first psychological laboratory, stated that this principle was based on biological foundations.1 In line with this thinking, Karl Wernicke hypothesized that the disruption of connections between the two language centers (Broca's area and the area he decribed, Wernicke“s area) could also provoke a particular kind of aphasia: conduction aphasia. The confirmation of this theoretical prediction by later observations encouraged him to go beyond this and apply his concept to psychiatric disorders. He proposed that these disorders were related to abnormal
