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Updated: Jun 26, 2025

Experimental Manipulation of Body Size to Estimate Morphological Scaling Relationships in Drosophila
Published on: October 1, 2011
François Rabelais and his dystonic giants
Léo Coutinho1, Carlos Henrique Ferreira Camargo1, Hélio Afonso Ghizoni Teive1,2
1Hospital de Clínicas, Departamento de Medicina Interna, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Medicina Interna, Curitiba PR, Brazil.
Abstract:
Spasmodic torticollis was an early designation used for cervical dystonia. The origin of this name is attributed to French physician and writer François Rabelais in the mid-sixteenth century. This early description of torticollis in the book Pantagruel was an inspiration for the understanding of cervical dystonia. The art expressed in Rabelais' literature ‒ which was immortalized by the drawings of Gustave Doré ‒ influenced poetry, art, and photography, and led to the adoption of the term torticollis in the neurological sciences.
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