Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system, spanning the structure and function of individual nerve cells up through the circuits, networks, and behavior of the whole brain.
Facts
Founded YearCamillo Golgi's 1873 black reaction (la reazione nera), a silver-staining method that revealed individual neurons in their entirety for the first time, gave the field its essential tool; Santiago Ramon y Cajal used the same method to establish the neuron doctrine roughly two decades later. Central QuestionWhat is the biological basis of learning, memory, behavior, perception and consciousness, described by Nobel laureate Eric Kandel as the epic challenge of the biological sciences? 2 ScopeNeuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system, the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system, its functions and its disorders, integrating physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, psychology and computer science. 2 SignificanceSantiago Ramon y Cajal and Camillo Golgi shared the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their observations and classification of neurons, laying the cellular foundation modern neuroscience still builds on. The field only became formally institutionalized in the twentieth century, with the first freestanding neuroscience department founded at the University of California, Irvine in 1964 and the Society for Neuroscience following in 1969. 2 Connections
Founded By
Source Camillo Golgi (Britannica)
Source Neuroscience (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist
Source Anirvan Ghosh (Wikipedia)
Source Arturo Álvarez-Buylla (Wikipedia)
Source Charles Sherrington (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: David H. Hubel
Source Esther Odekunle (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Hugo J. Bellen
Source Ivan Pavlov (Wikipedia)
Source J. W. Kebabian (Wikipedia)
Source Leon Cooper (Wikipedia)
Source Martin Chalfie (Wikipedia)
Source Peggy Assinck (Wikipedia)
Source Rita Levi-Montalcini (Wikipedia)
Source Roderick MacKinnon (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Roger Wolcott Sperry
Source Santiago Ramón y Cajal (Wikipedia)
Source Stanley B. Prusiner (Wikipedia)
Source Surya Ganguli (Wikipedia)
Source Torsten Wiesel - Wikipedia
Has Theory
Source Axial twist theory (Wikipedia)
Source The Neuron Doctrine: Santiago Ramon y Cajal and Camillo Golgi (Hektoen International)
Open Questions
Source Neuroscience (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Same As
Also in Medicine Atlas: the same subject.
Sources
1. An Important Step in Neuroscience: Camillo Golgi and His Discoveries (PMC)
PubMed Central, National Library of MedicineBiography sectionQuote, Biography section
In 1872, Camillo Golgi became Chief of the Hospital of the Chronically Ill in Abbiategrasso, near Milan. This is where he invented, in 1873, the "Black Reaction".
2. Neuroscience (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system, its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developmental biology, cytology, psychology, physics, computer science, chemistry, medicine, statistics, and mathematical modeling to understand the fundamental and emergent properties of neurons, glia, and neural circuits.
- Founded By: Santiago Ramon y Cajal
In Group: Mind and Behavior Sciences, Lead
is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders
View the Source Camillo Golgi (Britannica)
The Neuron Doctrine: Santiago Ramon y Cajal and Camillo Golgi (Hektoen International)
Hektoen International (Center for the History of Medicine), 2023Has Theory: Neuron DoctrineView the Source Wikipedia: Hugo J. Bellen
Has Scientist: Hugo J. Bellen, Infobox, fieldsQuote, Has Scientist: Hugo J. Bellen, Infobox, fields
Infobox fields: Genetics, Developmental Biology, Neuroscience
Esther Odekunle (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist: Esther Odekunle, Infobox, fieldsQuote, Has Scientist: Esther Odekunle, Infobox, fields
Infobox fields: Neuroscience ; Molecular biology ; Pharmacology
Leon Cooper (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist: Leon N. Cooper, Infobox, fieldsQuote, Has Scientist: Leon N. Cooper, Infobox, fields
Infobox fields: Physics Neuroscience
Ivan Pavlov (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Scientist: Ivan Pavlov, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Ivan Pavlov, Lead sentence
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (, ; 27 February 1936) was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist and physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs.
Stanley B. Prusiner (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Scientist: Stanley B. Prusiner, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Stanley B. Prusiner, Lead sentence
Stanley Ben Prusiner (born May 28, 1942) is an American neurologist and biochemist.
Anirvan Ghosh (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist: Anirvan Ghosh, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Anirvan Ghosh, Lead sentence
Anirvan Ghosh () is an American neuroscientist and biotech executive.
Peggy Assinck (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist: Peggy Assinck, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Peggy Assinck, Lead sentence
Peggy Assinck (born May 8, 1983) is a Canadian ice sledge hockey athlete and neuroscientist.
Martin Chalfie (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist: Martin Chalfie, Infobox, fieldsQuote, Has Scientist: Martin Chalfie, Infobox, fields
Infobox fields: Neurobiology
Roderick MacKinnon (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist: Roderick MacKinnon, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Roderick MacKinnon, Lead sentence
Roderick MacKinnon (born February 19, 1956) is an American biophysicist, neuroscientist, and businessman.
Rita Levi-Montalcini (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Scientist: Rita Levi-Montalcini, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Rita Levi-Montalcini, Lead sentence
Rita Levi-Montalcini (born Rita Levi; 22 April 1909-30 December 2012) was an Italian neurobiologist.
Charles Sherrington (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Scientist: Charles Sherrington, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Charles Sherrington, Lead sentence
Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (27 November 1857-4 March 1952) was a British neurophysiologist and academic.
Wikipedia: David H. Hubel
Has Scientist: David Hubel, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: David Hubel, Lead sentence
David Hunter Hubel (February 27, 1926, September 22, 2013) was an American Canadian neurophysiologist noted for his studies of the structure and function of the visual cortex.
Torsten Wiesel - Wikipedia
Has Scientist: Torsten Wiesel, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Torsten Wiesel, Lead sentence
Torsten Nils Wiesel (born 3 June 1924) is a Swedish neurophysiologist.
Santiago Ramón y Cajal (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist: Santiago Ramon y Cajal, LeadQuote, Has Scientist: Santiago Ramon y Cajal, Lead
was a Spanish neuroscientist
Wikipedia: Roger Wolcott Sperry
Has Scientist: Roger Sperry, LeadQuote, Has Scientist: Roger Sperry, Lead
was an American neuropsychologist, neurobiologist, cognitive neuroscientist
Surya Ganguli (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist: Surya Ganguli, Infobox: fieldQuote, Has Scientist: Surya Ganguli, Infobox: field
Theoretical Neuroscience Theoretical Physics
Arturo Álvarez-Buylla (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist: Arturo Álvarez-Buylla, Lead, sentence 1Quote, Has Scientist: Arturo Álvarez-Buylla, Lead, sentence 1
Arturo Álvarez-Buylla Roces is a professor and endowed chair in neurological surgery, and a researcher in neurobiology at the University of California, San Francisco.
J. W. Kebabian (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist: J. W. Kebabian, Lead, sentence 2Quote, Has Scientist: J. W. Kebabian, Lead, sentence 2
John W. Kebabian was a neuropharmacologist and neuroscientist who was the first to discover that there were multiple subtypes of dopamine receptors.
Axial twist theory (Wikipedia)
Has Theory: Axial twist theory, Lead, sentence 1Quote, Has Theory: Axial twist theory, Lead, sentence 1
The axial twist theory (a.k.a. axial twist hypothesis) is a proposed scientific theory to explain the optic chiasm and contralateral brain of vertebrates.
Open Questions (1 open question)
What is the biological basis of consciousness?
Neuroscientist and Nobel laureate Eric Kandel described understanding the biological basis of learning, memory, behavior, perception and consciousness as the epic challenge of the biological sciences. Decades of work mapping neurons and circuits have not yet produced an accepted account of how subjective experience arises from physical brain activity.
What would resolve this A theory of consciousness that makes testable predictions linking specific patterns of neural activity to the presence or absence of subjective experience, confirmed across independent experimental paradigms rather than argued from a single framework alone.
Cognitive and computational neuroscienceNeuroscience (Wikipedia)
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Founded By: Santiago Ramon y Cajal
Golgi shared the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Cajal but never accepted the neuron doctrine this founding edge credits Cajal for. In his own Nobel lecture, delivered 11 December 1906, Golgi restated and defended the reticular theory, that nerve fibers fuse into one continuous network rather than remaining separate, contact-connected cells, arguing the evidence Cajal and others read as showing discrete neurons did not settle the question. Carried here as the historical dispute it was: both men are credited as founders of the discipline their shared prize recognized, and neither theory is asserted here to be the one the other man actually held.
A dissenting reading, from Camillo GolgiCamillo Golgi, Nobel Lecture 1906: The Neuron Doctrine, Theory and Facts (NobelPrize.org)
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