Alan J. McComas
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199751754
- eISBN:
- 9780199897094
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199751754.003.0006
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, History of Neuroscience, Sensory and Motor Systems
Joseph Erlanger becomes the first head of the Physiology Department at Washington University, St Louis, and appoints Herbert Gasser to his staff. Together they attempt to record nerve impulses, after ...
More
Joseph Erlanger becomes the first head of the Physiology Department at Washington University, St Louis, and appoints Herbert Gasser to his staff. Together they attempt to record nerve impulses, after valve amplification, with a cathode ray tube, and eventually succeed. Several deflections are seen in the nerve responses to electrical stimulation and these are assumed to represent activity in groups of fibres with different functions. They find that the form of the nerve response (compound action potential) can be reconstructed if the numbers and diameters of the fibres are known. George Bishop, who is a colleague in this early work, is banished from the department for publishing a report on the C (unmyelinated) fibres without consulting Erlanger. Meanwhile Gasser, having been appointed head of the Pharmacology Department, leaves for a tour of European centres and later bccomes Director of the Rockefeller Institute in New York. Bishop and Erlanger continue their separate ways in St Louis.Less
Joseph Erlanger becomes the first head of the Physiology Department at Washington University, St Louis, and appoints Herbert Gasser to his staff. Together they attempt to record nerve impulses, after valve amplification, with a cathode ray tube, and eventually succeed. Several deflections are seen in the nerve responses to electrical stimulation and these are assumed to represent activity in groups of fibres with different functions. They find that the form of the nerve response (compound action potential) can be reconstructed if the numbers and diameters of the fibres are known. George Bishop, who is a colleague in this early work, is banished from the department for publishing a report on the C (unmyelinated) fibres without consulting Erlanger. Meanwhile Gasser, having been appointed head of the Pharmacology Department, leaves for a tour of European centres and later bccomes Director of the Rockefeller Institute in New York. Bishop and Erlanger continue their separate ways in St Louis.
Alan J. McComas
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199751754
- eISBN:
- 9780199897094
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199751754.003.0007
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, History of Neuroscience, Sensory and Motor Systems
Returning from the war, Adrian continues where he and Lucas had left off. Using the capillary electrometer and Lucas’ mechanical device for correcting distortion, he demonstrates the true form of the ...
More
Returning from the war, Adrian continues where he and Lucas had left off. Using the capillary electrometer and Lucas’ mechanical device for correcting distortion, he demonstrates the true form of the nerve impulse and then investigates the refractoriness that briefly follows the impulse. With the aid of a valve amplifier he detects the spontaneous discharges of sensory nerve fibres as a muscle is stretched by its own weight. This chance observation leads him to study sensory receptors elsewhere and to conclude that information is transmitted to the brain in the form of trains of impulses, the impulses being identical in form but differing in frequency. Among other activities, Adrian shows that contracting muscles also employ a frequency code, and he and Bryan Matthews confirm Berger’s observation of electrical activity that can the recorded from the human brain with electrodes on the scalp (the “EEG”).Less
Returning from the war, Adrian continues where he and Lucas had left off. Using the capillary electrometer and Lucas’ mechanical device for correcting distortion, he demonstrates the true form of the nerve impulse and then investigates the refractoriness that briefly follows the impulse. With the aid of a valve amplifier he detects the spontaneous discharges of sensory nerve fibres as a muscle is stretched by its own weight. This chance observation leads him to study sensory receptors elsewhere and to conclude that information is transmitted to the brain in the form of trains of impulses, the impulses being identical in form but differing in frequency. Among other activities, Adrian shows that contracting muscles also employ a frequency code, and he and Bryan Matthews confirm Berger’s observation of electrical activity that can the recorded from the human brain with electrodes on the scalp (the “EEG”).
