Javier Defelipe
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195392708
- eISBN:
- 9780199863525
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195392708.003.0001
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, History of Neuroscience, Molecular and Cellular Systems
This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the many contributions of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who is considered the father of modern neuroscience. He published almost 300 articles and ...
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This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the many contributions of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who is considered the father of modern neuroscience. He published almost 300 articles and several books of great importance, such as the classics Textura del Sistema Nervioso del Hombre y de los Vertebrados (1899-1904) and Estudios Sobre la Degeneración y Regeneración del Sistema Nervioso (1913-1914). He also received numerous awards and distinctions, including some of the most prestigious awards of his time: the Moscow Award (1900); the Helmholtz Gold Medal (1905); and the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (1906). The chapter then goes on to discuss why scientists often referred to trees and forests in their descriptions of the brain and, in particular, of the cerebral cortex, and how these neuronal forests served as an unlimited source of artistic and poetic inspiration to many scientists.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the many contributions of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who is considered the father of modern neuroscience. He published almost 300 articles and several books of great importance, such as the classics Textura del Sistema Nervioso del Hombre y de los Vertebrados (1899-1904) and Estudios Sobre la Degeneración y Regeneración del Sistema Nervioso (1913-1914). He also received numerous awards and distinctions, including some of the most prestigious awards of his time: the Moscow Award (1900); the Helmholtz Gold Medal (1905); and the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (1906). The chapter then goes on to discuss why scientists often referred to trees and forests in their descriptions of the brain and, in particular, of the cerebral cortex, and how these neuronal forests served as an unlimited source of artistic and poetic inspiration to many scientists.
Tobias Rees
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780823266135
- eISBN:
- 9780823266975
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823266135.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
This chapter first focuses on Alain Prochiantz, professor at the École Normale Supérieure, and his lab’s efforts to think about the adult human brain in embryogenetic terms. It then covers the ...
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This chapter first focuses on Alain Prochiantz, professor at the École Normale Supérieure, and his lab’s efforts to think about the adult human brain in embryogenetic terms. It then covers the emergence of (cellular) cerebral pathology from 1820s to 1870s; Ramón y Cajal’s large-scale study of the cellular emergence of the brain in its entirety beginning in the early 1890s; the emergence of new concepts of plasticity and pathology in the mid-1960s; studies on the relevance of adult neurogenesis for rethinking the diseases of the brain, specifically depression; and the rise of adult neurogenesis research, arguably the fastest growing branch of neuroscience between 2000 and 2010.Less
This chapter first focuses on Alain Prochiantz, professor at the École Normale Supérieure, and his lab’s efforts to think about the adult human brain in embryogenetic terms. It then covers the emergence of (cellular) cerebral pathology from 1820s to 1870s; Ramón y Cajal’s large-scale study of the cellular emergence of the brain in its entirety beginning in the early 1890s; the emergence of new concepts of plasticity and pathology in the mid-1960s; studies on the relevance of adult neurogenesis for rethinking the diseases of the brain, specifically depression; and the rise of adult neurogenesis research, arguably the fastest growing branch of neuroscience between 2000 and 2010.
Tobias Rees
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520288126
- eISBN:
- 9780520963177
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520288126.003.0012
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This chapter discusses the author's research methodology to address the question: What venues for living a life, for being neurologically human, have the neuronal sciences opened up since 1891, when ...
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This chapter discusses the author's research methodology to address the question: What venues for living a life, for being neurologically human, have the neuronal sciences opened up since 1891, when Wilhelm Waldeyer introduced the term neuron? He began by studying the genealogy of morals by turning to Santiago Ramón y Cajal, whose histology marked the emergence of the neurological human. What Ramón y Cajal then found when he set out to transform the development of the nervous system into a linear series of ink-pen drawings was that neurons must be thought of as instances of a free growth. From Ramón y Cajal, he then turned to German cytoarchitecture to study the cybernetic theories of the brain.Less
This chapter discusses the author's research methodology to address the question: What venues for living a life, for being neurologically human, have the neuronal sciences opened up since 1891, when Wilhelm Waldeyer introduced the term neuron? He began by studying the genealogy of morals by turning to Santiago Ramón y Cajal, whose histology marked the emergence of the neurological human. What Ramón y Cajal then found when he set out to transform the development of the nervous system into a linear series of ink-pen drawings was that neurons must be thought of as instances of a free growth. From Ramón y Cajal, he then turned to German cytoarchitecture to study the cybernetic theories of the brain.
Rafael Yuste
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262013505
- eISBN:
- 9780262259286
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262013505.003.0002
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Research and Theory
This chapter narrates the discovery of dendritic spines. It begins with Santiago Ramón y Cajal, a Spanish professor of Pathology and Histology, and his work entitled Estractura delos centros ...
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This chapter narrates the discovery of dendritic spines. It begins with Santiago Ramón y Cajal, a Spanish professor of Pathology and Histology, and his work entitled Estractura delos centros nerviosos de la aves (Structure of the Nervous Centers in Birds) and how he discovered the spines using the Golgi technique. Cajal defined “spine” on the spines of a rose bush, as it resembled one when he first investigated it in Purkinje cells.Less
This chapter narrates the discovery of dendritic spines. It begins with Santiago Ramón y Cajal, a Spanish professor of Pathology and Histology, and his work entitled Estractura delos centros nerviosos de la aves (Structure of the Nervous Centers in Birds) and how he discovered the spines using the Golgi technique. Cajal defined “spine” on the spines of a rose bush, as it resembled one when he first investigated it in Purkinje cells.
Rafael Yuste
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262013505
- eISBN:
- 9780262259286
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262013505.001.0001
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Research and Theory
Most neurons in the brain are covered by dendritic spines, small protrusions that arise from dendrites, covering them like leaves on a tree. But a hundred and twenty years after spines were first ...
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Most neurons in the brain are covered by dendritic spines, small protrusions that arise from dendrites, covering them like leaves on a tree. But a hundred and twenty years after spines were first described by Ramón y Cajal, their function is still unclear. Dozens of different functions have been proposed, from Cajal's idea that they enhance neuronal interconnectivity to hypotheses that spines serve as plasticity machines, neuroprotective devices, or even digital logic elements. This book attempts to solve the “spine problem,” searching for the fundamental function of spines. The text does this by examining many aspects of spine biology that been sources of fascination over the years, including their structure, development, motility, plasticity, biophysical properties, and calcium compartmentalization. it argues that we may never understand how the brain works without understanding the specific function of spines. The book offers a synthesis of the information that has been gathered on spines (much of which comes from studies of the mammalian cortex), linking their function with the computational logic of the neuronal circuits that use them. It argues that once viewed from the circuit perspective, all the pieces of the spine puzzle fit together nicely into a single, overarching function. The book connects these two topics, integrating current knowledge of spines with that of key features of the circuits in which they operate. It concludes with a speculative chapter on the computational function of spines, searching for the ultimate logic of their existence in the brain.Less
Most neurons in the brain are covered by dendritic spines, small protrusions that arise from dendrites, covering them like leaves on a tree. But a hundred and twenty years after spines were first described by Ramón y Cajal, their function is still unclear. Dozens of different functions have been proposed, from Cajal's idea that they enhance neuronal interconnectivity to hypotheses that spines serve as plasticity machines, neuroprotective devices, or even digital logic elements. This book attempts to solve the “spine problem,” searching for the fundamental function of spines. The text does this by examining many aspects of spine biology that been sources of fascination over the years, including their structure, development, motility, plasticity, biophysical properties, and calcium compartmentalization. it argues that we may never understand how the brain works without understanding the specific function of spines. The book offers a synthesis of the information that has been gathered on spines (much of which comes from studies of the mammalian cortex), linking their function with the computational logic of the neuronal circuits that use them. It argues that once viewed from the circuit perspective, all the pieces of the spine puzzle fit together nicely into a single, overarching function. The book connects these two topics, integrating current knowledge of spines with that of key features of the circuits in which they operate. It concludes with a speculative chapter on the computational function of spines, searching for the ultimate logic of their existence in the brain.
Antonio M. Battro
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814741405
- eISBN:
- 9780814786550
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814741405.003.0013
- Subject:
- Education, Educational Policy and Politics
This chapter describes the development of a neuroscience project at Ross informed by literature and art. This project explores how a metaphor can serve as a trigger for interdisciplinary work in a ...
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This chapter describes the development of a neuroscience project at Ross informed by literature and art. This project explores how a metaphor can serve as a trigger for interdisciplinary work in a school. Students started with Ramón y Cajal's scientific metaphor equating neurons to butterflies. This served as a launching pad for a series of scholarly investigations ranging from a linguistic analysis of the word butterfly in different contexts, to a review of scientific and other texts about butterflies, to time in the laboratory viewing neurons under the microscope. Students combined their skills about technology, art, neurobiology, and literature to create a digital video that converted the original metaphor into a living, visual form. This project illustrates the beauty of interdisciplinary learning, as well as the role of the spiral curriculum in transforming students' engagement in learning.Less
This chapter describes the development of a neuroscience project at Ross informed by literature and art. This project explores how a metaphor can serve as a trigger for interdisciplinary work in a school. Students started with Ramón y Cajal's scientific metaphor equating neurons to butterflies. This served as a launching pad for a series of scholarly investigations ranging from a linguistic analysis of the word butterfly in different contexts, to a review of scientific and other texts about butterflies, to time in the laboratory viewing neurons under the microscope. Students combined their skills about technology, art, neurobiology, and literature to create a digital video that converted the original metaphor into a living, visual form. This project illustrates the beauty of interdisciplinary learning, as well as the role of the spiral curriculum in transforming students' engagement in learning.
Rafael Yuste
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262013505
- eISBN:
- 9780262259286
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262013505.003.0009
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Research and Theory
The electrical aspect of the function of spines is explored in this chapter. Ramón y Cajal was the first one who proposed the idea of the electrical function of the spine, as he believed that the ...
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The electrical aspect of the function of spines is explored in this chapter. Ramón y Cajal was the first one who proposed the idea of the electrical function of the spine, as he believed that the spine stores electric energy (Ramón y Cajal, 1904). This hypothesis was picked up 50 years later by Chang, who suggested that spines have electrical resistance, hence can attenuate synaptic inputs. It then explained that there are two categories of electrical property models of spines: the active and passive, according to whether they assume the presence of voltage-dependent conductances in spines. The chapter concludes by explaining that the electrical roles of spines has important repercussions for the function of the neuron, and it is likely that better knowledge of the electrical role of spines will change the general understanding of how neurons work.Less
The electrical aspect of the function of spines is explored in this chapter. Ramón y Cajal was the first one who proposed the idea of the electrical function of the spine, as he believed that the spine stores electric energy (Ramón y Cajal, 1904). This hypothesis was picked up 50 years later by Chang, who suggested that spines have electrical resistance, hence can attenuate synaptic inputs. It then explained that there are two categories of electrical property models of spines: the active and passive, according to whether they assume the presence of voltage-dependent conductances in spines. The chapter concludes by explaining that the electrical roles of spines has important repercussions for the function of the neuron, and it is likely that better knowledge of the electrical role of spines will change the general understanding of how neurons work.
