Andrea Verga

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Andrea Verga (1811-1895) was an Italian psychiatrist and neurologist who was a native of Treviglio. He was clinical professor of psychiatry at the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan, and in 1864 with Serafino Biffi (1822-1899) founded the Archivio Italiano per le malattie nervose e più particolarmente per le alienazioni mentali (Italian Archives for Nervous Diseases and Mental Illnesses).

Verga is remembered for his pioneer work done in the study of the criminally insane, as well as his early research of acrophobia, a condition he personally suffered from. In 1851 he described a posterior extension of the cavum septum pellucidum. This extension is an anomaly found in a small percentage of human brains, and was later named the cavum vergae (Verga's ventricle), or the sixth ventricle. This name is a misnomer because Verga's ventricle doesn't contain cerebrospinal fluid nor is it lined by ependyma.