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La Sagrada Familia of the Human Body: The Anatomical Record Continues Our Exploration of the Unique World of the Cranial Nerves in Volume 2 of Our Special Issue, Cranial Nerves: Morphology and Clinical Significance

2019; Wiley; Volume: 302; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/ar.24100

1932-8494

Jeffrey T. Laitman, Kurt H. Albertine,

Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience

Both authors of this editorial are most fortunate to have the opportunity to teach anatomy to medical and graduate students. While some colleagues grimace at the thought of peeling away from their research for the sights and smells (did we mention smells?) of an anatomy lab, they would be missing one of the great gifts of academe should they not take the plunge. Showing our young charges the wonders of the human body, and seeing the appreciation on their faces, is indeed a moment that borders on grace. While students genuinely appreciate an introduction to all body parts (ok, a few may yawn at the caecum and only those with peculiarities get excited over toes), some produce genuine gasps of awe and wonder as we encounter the marvels of the bodies' nooks and crannies. No area elicits more fascination, however, then the day we gently, lovingly, reflect the brain to show those sacred highways known as the cranial nerves. What an event "Cranial Nerve" day invariably is in any anatomy course! The closest one can compare it to is a classic Christmas morning when children run downstairs to open their presents with giddy expectation of seeing their treasures (ok, ok, most now look at some iPhone app to see what they got, but allow us our Currier and Ives flashback). In anatomy labs worldwide, students reflect or remove the brain and start searching with their probes, like some Harry Potter character learning to use a magic wand. From their amazement that the olfactory nerve is not on the cranial base with the other nerves (uh, remember we told you in lecture it is part of the brain, so often stays with it!) to desperately trying to coax the hair-thin trochlear to appear from the grasp of the dura (always a little fun to look a bit stern and say "What, no trochlear?" as if the filamentous phantom is easy to find!), to looking in awe at the size of the trigeminal ganglion and wondering what is the odd foramen through which the nerve goes to reach the ganglion (no, dear future neurosurgeons, it is not a bony foramen but Meckel's cave!), to the collection of nerves entering the internal acoustic meatus (see, it is more than the "acoustic" in the mnemonic!), and to the great oddity of the spinal accessory nerve ascending through the foramen magnum only to bow in recognition to caudal fibers of the great vagus and then leave again through the jugular foramen (why is this happening; what is going on embryologically?), our students' brief encounter with the Holy 12 always elicits the same behaviors: they now do not want to leave lab, energized to follow their finds like a prospector newly discovering a promising vein of gold; and a million questions pour forth about the remarkable cables that they have finally become one with. While our young, student charges are atwitter with questions about the cranial nerves, they will soon find that the rest of us have countless unanswered questions as well. Many of these questions are raised anew in this, the second volume, of our Special Issue on the topic entitled, "Cranial Nerves: Morphology and Clinical Significance" Guest Edited, as previously, by Alino Martínez-Marcos of the Universidad Castilla-La Mancha and José Sañudo of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid with our neurobiology Associate Editor, the dashing, ever-energetic, José Luis Trejo (Fig. 1) of the Cajal Institute in Madrid, guiding the path (Martínez-Marcos and Sañudo, 2019a, this volume; Trejo, 2019a, this volume). The second volume focuses on "Morphology and Clinical Significance," the previous having focused on "Phylogeny and Ontogeny" (Laitman and Albertine, 2019; Martínez-Marcos and Sañudo, 2019b; Trejo, 2019b). As with the first volume, looking into The Anatomical Record vaults reveals a host of studies on aspects of the cranial nerves, particularly in the areas of morphology and clinical implications. To do justice to all the cranial nerve-o-philes from our past would take a volume unto itself, so we will mention but a few and apologize to the many. A list of those who put their ideas forth on the nervous system sensu lato and cranial nerves sensu strictu in the early years of our journal reads like a "Who's Who" of the best and brightest of the first part of the twentieth century. Names like, Streeter, Johnston, Mall, Donaldson, Parker, Herrick, Harrison, Sperry, Crosby, and Huber, among others, grace our pages. There is reason why they came, however, and putting these under the microscope offers insight into the world of the late nineteenth and early twentieth early century science, in particular anatomy. Indeed, this period was a time of excitement and unbridled energy in anatomy, notably in the United States. The focus of science was finally shifting from the historical bastions in England, Germany, and France to our shores. American science was "feeling its oats," so-to-speak, and our scientists starting to take ownership, pride, and centrality in American-based research, discarding the almost inherent inferiority placed on American thought by the Olympian towers of the old world. In this heady time, the American Association of Anatomists (AAA; originally named the Association of American Anatomists to emphasize with pride our newfound equality; name changed in 1908 as we became more self-assured) was founded in 1888 (the American Physiological Association was founded in 1887; we were likely too busy working in labs to convene our meeting earlier). At the beginning of the new century, our society was brimming with enthusiasm that resulted in launching The American Journal of Anatomy in 1901 (now Developmental Dynamics), and our journal, The Anatomical Record, taking its first breath in 1906. Anatomists were energized, proud, and eager to start publishing within the pages of their own journals. While many were prominent, one who deserves special note is Gotthelf Carl Huber, better known as G. C. Huber. Professor Huber was a noted structural anatomist and neurobiologist who spent an incredible 47 years at his beloved University of Michigan School of Medicine rising through the ranks from a Demonstrator in Anatomy to Professor and Director of the Anatomy Laboratories. Indeed, it is hard not to hear "Wolverines" everywhere singing the powerful Michigan fight song, "The Victors," as his name is mentioned with reverence. Indeed, in the moving memorium by his colleague Stacy R. Gould in The Anatomical Record in 1935, it is apparent that Huber's world revolved around The Anatomical Record, the AAA (he was president in 1914) and Michigan (Gould, 1935). Not only did Huber become a mainstay of his great school but also eagerly started to publish his work on cranial nerves and other aspects of the nervous system in The Anatomical Record almost as soon as it was hatched. Indeed, in 1907, Huber was senior author of a paper in the The Anatomical Record that was first-authored by W. H. Lewis (AAA president 1935), which explored the development and nervous system of the otic vesicle and nerves in amphibians (Lewis et al., 1907). In addition, Huber and colleagues long had interest in the elusive and disputed nervus terminalis (sometimes called CN 0, CN XIII, and Zero Nerve) and published a major paper on its anatomy/histology in mammals in The Anatomical Record in 1913 (Huber and Gould, 1913). Huber's relationship with The Anatomical Record, however, goes far beyond the publication of his own science, as he was the de facto first Editor of the journal. Interestingly, when founded in 1906, The Anatomical Record had a small editorial board but no Editor or Editor-in-Chief as we do now (KHA; applause, applause!). In 1910, the AAA decided that someone should direct the journal and Huber became the "Managing" Editor, serving until 1920. Huber can thus be considered as the first of the fine scholars who steered our ship. (Interestingly, John Ladman was appointed as the sixth "Managing" Editor of the journal in 1968 and so recognized as such until the AAA removed the term "Managing" in 1980, leaving the term "Editor" to come into use; Haines, 1998.) Others, noting those particularly in our early years, who focused on the detailed morphology or clinical applications of the cranial nerves included: a study authored by no less than four past and future AAA Presidents, G. L. Streeter (AAA President, 1927), N. W. Ingalls, F. P. Mall (AAA President 1906), F. R. Sabin (first woman President of the AAA, 1925), and W. H. Lewis (AAA President, 1935) in our first volume on new approaches in descriptive neurology, particularly of nerves and their nuclei (Streeter et al., 1907); report by the great neurobiologist J. B. Johnston in our second volume (Johnston, 1907) on the glossopharyngeal nerve in myxinoids (i.e., hagfish) and his study of cranial nerves by new methods of brain dissection (Johnston, 1908); Herrick's (1910) examination of the central and peripheral nervous system in phylogeny; McCotter's (1912) study of the vomeronasal nerves and accessory olfactory bulb in the opossum; a study by Bean (1912) on new suggestions for classifications of the "cephalic" nerves (Bean was more notable as a frequent writer about the existence of human races); the detailed study by Hoag on the microanatomy of the sensory root of the trigeminal nerve in rats (Hoag, 1918); an examination of the structure of the vagus nerve by noted neuroanatomist S. W. Ransom (Ranson and Mihalik, 1932; Ranson became President of the AAA in 1939); Walker's (1933) study of the dura and contiguous structures on the skull base; the insightful and important study by future Nobel laureate R. W. Sperry on the nature of functional recovery following regeneration of the oculomotor nerve in amphibians (Sperry, 1947; and Sperry would go on to do seminal split-brain research that in 1981 led to his receipt of the Nobel Prize along with Hubel and Wiesel). As the mid-century mark came upon us, new technologies and techniques opened up powerful visualizations in microanatomy and allowed for greater appreciation of the breadth of cranial nerve structure and regeneration. Studies appearing in The Anatomical Record include those by: Schwadron and Moffett (1950) on the relationship of cranial nerves to Meckel's cave and the cavernous sinus; detailed study of the facial nerve by Sunderland and Cossar (1953); Jenkins' (1956) detailed observation on special features of cranial nerves in fox squirrels; White's (1965) study of olfactory bulb projections in rats; Vidic and colleagues gross and microscopic studies of the facial nerve and its communicating branches in humans and baboons (Vidic and Young, 1967; Vidic, 1968, 1970) and of the trigeminal in dogs (Augustine et al., 1971); Wozniak and Young's (1968) study on nerve fibers in the extracranial portion of the hypoglossal in human fetuses; Smolen and Truex's (1977) study on the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (R. C. Truex was a most distinguished neurobiologist and AAA President in 1971); the study by Easter on growth and development of the superior oblique muscle and trochlear nerve in juvenile and adult goldfish (Easter, 1979); and Kauer's (1981) study of olfactory receptor cell staining using horseradish peroxidase. Advances in technology allowed colleagues around the world to gain an ever-finer view of the intricacies of the cranial nerves as the end of the twentieth century approached and the new millennium began. A constant, however, was the plethora of fine studies that appeared in The Anatomical Record. These include: Lin et al.'s (1988) study of pathways communicating with the pterygopalatine ganglion in the cat; Plenat et al.'s (1988) examination of the intra and juxtavagal paraganglia in humans; Mu and Sanders' (1999) insightful study on the hypoglossal nerve and neuromuscular organization of the tongue in canids; the study by Henry et al. (2008) on trigeminal distribution and function in the extraordinary, naked mole rat; George and Holliday's (2013) biting study illuminating alligator trigeminal nerve facial sensation (recommended reading for anyone thinking of moving to Florida); Diaz et al.'s (2013) insightful overview of the parts of the olfactory system sensu lato; a thought-provoking paper by Smith et al. (2014) on the vomeronasal organ and its involvement with the olfactory nerve in nonhuman primates (Tim Smith, of Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, is recognized as one of the brightest and most creative thinkers in evolutionary morphology today and, fortunately for The Anatomical Record, is also our Associate Editor); and (Boehm and Kondrashov's (2015) insightful study on the distribution of neuron cell bodies in the intraspinal portion of the spinal accessory nerve, to mention but a few. Our three anatomical conquistadores of the cranial nerves—Professors Martínez-Marcos, Sañudo, and Trejo—have indeed presented us with a towering, intermeshing, Special Issue that shows the cranial nerves in all their complex and complicated glory, in all their majesty. The nerves are often hard to comprehend, indeed, difficult to visualize even when looking directly at them. Their story branches ever upward with each limb straining to enlist and entangle another. This holy family of nerves, indeed, reminds us of another holy family, arguably one of, if not the, most magnificent church in the world: La Sagrada Familia (Figs. 2 and 3). Like the cranial nerves themselves, Antoni Gaudi's Barcelona masterpiece is like no other edifice anywhere. While there are many exquisite churches, cathedrals, mosques, and temples, gracing the globe, there is only one La Sagrada Familia, a basilica whose powerful uniqueness can never be captured by mere words or motionless snapshots in a book. As we read the papers—each part of a larger story, reaching outward and inward all at once—we could not help but think back time and again to the similarities between the two holy families: the cranial nerves and La Sagrada Familia, both wondrous and wonderful and almost impossible to fully decipher. Within their majestic twists and turns lie the stories of life, both biological and spiritual. Deciphering the mysteries of the cranial nerves is—like La Sagrada Familia—a story that is far from fully understood or complete. There is still much to be uncovered about the Holy 12, and we, at The Anatomical Record, are most proud to be a part of the great adventure to understand their world.