Mechanical Neuroscience: Emil du Bois-Reymond’s Innovations in Theory and Practice
2015; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 9; Issue: 130 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1536-0334
Autores Tópico(s)Plant and Biological Electrophysiology Studies
ResumoContemporary neuroscience unites three scientific traditions: one in anatomy that goes back to the Greeks (functional localization), one in chemistry that arose in the twentieth-century (neurotransmitters), and one in physics that arose in the nineteenth-century (electrical signals) (Clarke and Jacyna, 1987; Finger, 1994; Valenstein, 2005; McComas, 2011). Emil du Bois-Reymond is the father of the last. He's not quite Victor Frankenstein, but he's close. When du Bois-Reymond began his investigations neurophysiologists were divided. Some followed the physician Luigi Galvani (1737–1798) in ascribing the action of nerves and muscles to vital powers of “animal electricity.” Others sided with the physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827) in believing that the muscular contractions that Galvani observed were an artifact of electricity generated by the contact of metal with organic tissue (Pera, 1992; Piccolino, 1998; Piccolino and Bresadola, 2013). Recognizing value in both positions, du Bois-Reymond solved the problem of contact electricity, set forth a program of biological reduction, and demonstrated the electrical nature of nerve signals. In a little less than two years—from March, 1841 to January, 1843—he created the discipline of electrophysiology. That's the short version of du Bois-Reymond's innovation. We know that it's true because winners write history—at least, that's what we've been told. In the case of du Bois-Reymond, however, the truth is closer to this: those who write history win. Does this fact change his story? Consider the evidence.
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