Lobotomies separated the prefrontal cortex (shown here in red) from the frontal lobes

View of the prefrontal cortex from the side

Lobotomy, also known as leucotomy, is a type of brain surgery. It was created in 1935 by António Egas Moniz, a Portuguese neurologist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1949 "for his discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain psychoses". The operation cut the connections from the pre-frontal cortex (front part of the frontal lobes) to the rest of the brain. At first it seemed a great success, but the operation is now rarely done.