RESUMEN
Over the last 50 years, neuroscience has enjoyed a spectacular development, with many discoveries greatly expanding our knowledge of brain function. Despite this progress, there has been a disregard for preserving the history of these discoveries. In many European countries, historic objects, instruments, and archives are neglected, while libraries and museums specifically focusing on neuroscience have been closed or drastically cut back. To reverse this trend, the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) has organized a number of projects, including (a) the History of Neuroscience online projects, (b) the European Brain Museum Project (EBM), (c) the History online library, (d) the FENS meeting History Corner, (e) history lectures in historic venues, and (f) a series of history seminars in various European venues. These projects aim to stimulate research in, and increase awareness of, the history of European neuroscience. Our seminars have attracted large audiences of students, researchers, and the general public, who have supported our initiatives for the preservation of the history of neuroscience for future generations and for the promotion of interest in the history of neuroscience. It is therefore urgent to develop new methods for preserving our history, not only in Europe but also in the rest of the world, and to increase greatly teaching and research in this important aspect of our scientific and cultural legacy.
Asunto(s)
Neurociencias/historia , Investigadores/historia , Investigación/historia , Concienciación , Europa (Continente) , Historia del Siglo XX , Humanos , Museos/historiaRESUMEN
This paper examines the epistemological history of physiological tissue regeneration theories from Antiquity to the present time focusing on early clinical observations, microscopic investigations of the 19th C. and molecular aspects of the regeneration of peripheral nerves. We aim to show underlying theoretical implications at stake over centuries, with an extreme diversity of local contexts, while slowly emerging ideas were progressively built in the framework of cell theory and that of molecular biology. The overall epistemological lesson is that this long history is far from finished and requires novel experiments and perspectives, as well as the careful inspection of its rich past, as a true scientific tradition, in order to better understand what is nervous regeneration and how we can use it in medicine.
RESUMEN
This paper reviews aspects of the life and work of Professor Louis Ranvier 140 years after the publication of Leçons sur l'histologie du système nerveux, published in 1878, and shows the importance of the histological description of myelinated fibers of the nodes of Ranvier.
Asunto(s)
Sistema Nervioso/anatomía & histología , Neurología/historia , Nódulos de Ranvier , Historia del Siglo XIX , Historia del Siglo XX , Fibras Nerviosas Mielínicas , ParisRESUMEN
The French neurohistologist Louis-Antoine Ranvier (1835-1922), somewhat neglected in classical histories of nineteenth-century studies on the nervous system, developed a personal style, traditionally referred to as a synthesis between histology and physiology. Ranvier's research was not centered on the brain. Rather, he remained attached to the intimate nature of minute structures, with a style marked by the concept of generality. Ranvier's original style and role in the development of French histology and anatomie générale are analyzed, and their significance evaluated. Ranvier is reassessed as a prominent figure and as the leader in the renewal of the French anatomy.
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Histología/historia , Microscopía/historia , Neuroanatomía/historia , Neurofisiología/historia , Francia , Historia del Siglo XIX , Historia del Siglo XX , Humanos , Sistema NerviosoRESUMEN
Steps in the physiological construction of the neurone concept are described. Early ideas on the function of the nerve cell led to later polemics on the neurone doctrine and the speculative attitude of histophysiology. Researches of Sherrington and Adrian emerged from a specific British context, and confronted American oscillography and Berger rhythm. At the end of various polemics, the neurone was constructed by the intracellular technique and the use of concepts borrowed from other sub-disciplines. Analysis of these paths demonstrates underlying disciplinary interactions as essential factors.
Asunto(s)
Neuronas/fisiología , Neurofisiología/historia , Animales , Francia , Historia del Siglo XIX , Historia del Siglo XX , Investigación/historia , Investigación/tendencias , Reino Unido , Estados UnidosRESUMEN
ABSTRACT This paper reviews aspects of the life and work of Professor Louis Ranvier 140 years after the publication of Leçons sur l'histologie du système nerveux, published in 1878, and shows the importance of the histological description of myelinated fibers of the nodes of Ranvier.
RESUMO Os autores apresentam uma revisão sobre aspectos da vida e obra do Professor Louis Ranvier 140 anos após a publicação de seu livro Leçons sur l'histologie du système nerveux publicado em 1878 e mostra a importância da descrição histológica nas fibras mielínicas dos nodos de Ranvier.
Asunto(s)
Historia del Siglo XIX , Historia del Siglo XX , Nódulos de Ranvier , Sistema Nervioso/anatomía & histología , Neurología/historia , Paris , Fibras Nerviosas MielínicasRESUMEN
This review addresses the history since antiquity of studies on the anatomical and functional relations between nerves and muscles, and the progressive use of newer approaches to this topic. By the Hippocratic era (almost 2500 years ago) the digestive, circulatory and nervous systems were thought to participate in the production of animal spirits. This concept had strong support for nervous conduction, even after the dawn of electrophysiology in the late 18th C. The idea that these spirits explained the nature of the motor command to muscles continued to prevail until work in the mid-to-late 19th C dispelled the concept of "fluid/spirit" transmission by measurements of nerve "action currents" and conduction velocity. In parallel with this work, the functional relations between nerves and muscles were studied with the use of curare, which continued well into the 20th C. In the late 19th C the debate was formalized about whether transmission at the motor endplate was electrical or chemical, which continued as the "soup" vs. "sparks" battle until, surprisingly, the late 1960s. The concept of the motor unit was introduced in the 1920s, this being defined as a motor neuron in the spinal cord connecting to a specific set of muscle fibers. This development accelerated work on two-way trophic relations between nerve and muscles and their essential plasticity in response to the demands of usage and disease. Thus, the relation between nerves and muscles has been on the forefront of neuroscience since antiquity.
Asunto(s)
Neuronas Motoras/fisiología , Músculo Esquelético/fisiología , Neurociencias/historia , Historia del Siglo XVIII , Historia del Siglo XIX , Historia del Siglo XX , Historia Antigua , Historia Medieval , HumanosRESUMEN
This article addresses the emergence of the "motoneuron concept," i.e., the idea that this cell had properties of particular advantage for its control of muscle activation. The motor function of the ventral roots was established early in the 19th C and the term "motor cell," (or "motor nerve cell") was introduced shortly thereafter by Albrecht von Kölliker and some other histologists. They knew that motor cells were among the neurons with the largest soma in vertebrates and for this reason they were, and remained for many decades, the best and most studied neuronal model. The work of clinicians like Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne and Jean-Martin Charcot on motor degenerative syndromes began before a clear description of motor cells was available, because it was initially more difficult to establish whether the deficits of paralysis and muscle weakness were due to neuronal or muscular lesions. Next, the pioneering physiologist, Charles Sherrington, who was influenced greatly by the anatomical contributions and speculations of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, used the term, "motor neuron," rather than motor cell for the neuron that he considered was functionally "the final common path" for providing command signals to the musculature. In the early 20th C he proposed that activation of a motor neuron resulted from the sum of its various excitatory and inhibitory CNS inputs. The contraction of motor neuron to "motoneuron(e)" was put into common usage by John Fulton (among possibly others) in 1926. The motoneuron concept is still evolving with new discoveries on the horizon.
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Neuronas Motoras/fisiología , Neurociencias/historia , Animales , Historia del Siglo XIX , Historia del Siglo XX , HumanosRESUMEN
The electric catfishes of African rivers and lakes, once depicted on Egyptian tomb art, have been largely overlooked in histories and reviews of electric fish biology and animal electricity. This article examines how Westerners, especially Dominican and Jesuit missionaries, discovered them in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa at the beginning of the seventeenth century. What transpired took place against the backdrop of tales involving the Bible, Prester John's mythical empire, and imaginary animals with fabulous powers. In effect, how they were found is related to attempts to convert Ethiopian Christians to true Catholicism, hopes of discovering great riches, and opportunities to trade, and not with the efforts of skilled natural philosophers to document and conduct experiments on the wildlife of this continent. Nevertheless, the early descriptions by Europeans circulated, and during the next century these catfishes began to be used in experiments that helped to make animal electricity a reality.
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Bagres , Catolicismo/historia , Historia Natural/historia , Torpedo , Animales , Etiopía , Agua Dulce , Historia del Siglo XV , Misioneros , Mitología , Misiones Religiosas/historiaRESUMEN
Long lasting polemics about the mechanisms of the action of curare took place at the Société de Biologie over thirty years. After a period during which poisoning protocols were developed on various animal species, where Claude Bernard, Vulpian and their colleagues were involved, German electrophysiology combined its results with new histological data about motor end-plates, elaborating a theory in which young physiologists fought against Claude Bernard's views and finally managed to convince him. According to the new theory proposed by Vulpian, curare blocked transmission between end-plate and muscle. This first draft of the neurotransmission theory helps us to understand the rise of a novel physiology in the context of the school of Claude Bernard with a better integration of disciplines and a more prominent faith in reductionism and materialism.
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Curare/historia , Fármacos Neuromusculares no Despolarizantes/historia , Fisiología/historia , Animales , Curare/farmacología , Curare/envenenamiento , Electrofisiología/historia , Electrofisiología/métodos , Francia , Historia del Siglo XIX , Humanos , Fármacos Neuromusculares no Despolarizantes/farmacología , Fármacos Neuromusculares no Despolarizantes/envenenamiento , Neurofisiología/historia , Neurofisiología/métodosRESUMEN
At proximal synapses from layer V pyramidal neurons from the rat prefrontal cortex, activation of group II metabotropic glutamate receptors (group II mGlu) by (2S,2'R,3'R)-2-(2',3'-dicarboxycyclopropyl) glycine (DCG IV) induced a long-lasting depression of excitatory postsynaptic currents. Paired-pulse experiments suggested that the depression was expressed presynaptically. Activation of type 1 cannabinoid receptors (CB1) by WIN 55,212-2 occluded the DCG IV-induced depression in a mutually occlusive manner. At the postsynaptic level, WIN 55,212-2 and DCG IV were also occlusive for the activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase. The postsynaptic localization of active extracellular signal-regulated kinase was confirmed by immunocytochemistry after activation of CB1 receptors. However, phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase in layer V pyramidal neurons was dependent on the activation of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors, consequently to a release of glutamate in the local network. Group II mGlu were also shown to be involved in long-term changes in synaptic plasticity induced by high frequency stimulations. The group II mGlu antagonist (RS)-alpha-methylserine-O-phosphate monophenyl ester (MSOPPE) favoured long-term depression. However, no interaction was found between MSOPPE, WIN 55,212-2 and the CB1 receptor antagonist SR 141716A on the modulation of long-term depression or long-term potentiation and the effects of these drugs were rather additive. We suggest that CB1 receptor and group II mGlu signalling may interact through a presynaptic mechanism in the induction of a DCG IV-induced depression. Postsynaptically, an indirect interaction occurs for activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase. However, none of these interactions seem to play a role in synaptic plasticities induced with high frequency stimulations.