One, no-one and a hundred thousand brains: J.C. Eccles, J.Z. Young and the establishment of the neurosciences (1930s–1960s)

Sio, Fabio De

doi:10.1016/bs.pbr.2018.10.014

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Also, it was only by way of modern molecular techniques that some definitions and comparisons of brain structures, regional borders, and neuronal subtypes between lampreys and other vertebrates became possible. After Young’s ascendancy to the Chair of Anatomy at University College, London (UCL) in 1945, his own work turned largely to higher vertebrates and cephalopods ( De Sio, 2011 , 2018 ).…”

Section: Zoology and The Lamprey Nervous System 1860s–1930smentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the 1980s progressed, the lamprey thus had been solidified in biological and medical institutions, from marine laboratories and biology departments to medical schools, as an organism for which presumably conserved features of CNS regeneration, including compensatory plasticity, could be studied at multiple scales. “Plastic” phenomena certainly held general interest: Several groups had been examining the re-wiring of invertebrate neural networks for learning, for instance, as the funding and institutional infrastructures for neuroscience grew rapidly in the decades following WWII (for the infrastrucrues: Schmitt et al, 1975 ; De Sio, 2018 ; Maxson Jones, 2020 ; Prkachin, 2021 ; for studies of invertebrate learning: Kandel and Tauc, 1964 , 1965 ; Alkon, 1973 , 1983 ; Kandel, 1976 ). Yet, in no other vertebrate besides the lamprey could electrical activity and behavioral changes be correlated with axon regeneration and the rearrangement of neural networks with such precision, an assertion that holds to the present day.…”

Section: Compensatory Plasticity In Spinal Cord Regeneration In Lampr...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lampreys and spinal cord regeneration: “a very special claim on the interest of zoologists,” 1830s-present

Jones

Morgan

2023

Front. Cell Dev. Biol.

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Employing history of science methods, including analyses of the scientific literature, archival documents, and interviews with scientists, this paper presents a history of lampreys in neurobiology from the 1830s to the present. We emphasize the lamprey’s roles in helping to elucidate spinal cord regeneration mechanisms. Two attributes have long perpetuated studies of lampreys in neurobiology. First, they possess large neurons, including multiple classes of stereotypically located, ‘identified’ giant neurons in the brain, which project their large axons into the spinal cord. These giant neurons and their axonal fibers have facilitated electrophysiological recordings and imaging across biological scales, ranging from molecular to circuit-level analyses of nervous system structures and functions and including their roles in behavioral output. Second, lampreys have long been considered amongst the most basal extant vertebrates on the planet, so they have facilitated comparative studies pointing to conserved and derived characteristics of vertebrate nervous systems. These features attracted neurologists and zoologists to studies of lampreys between the 1830s and 1930s. But, the same two attributes also facilitated the rise of the lamprey in neural regeneration research after 1959, when biologists first wrote about the spontaneous, robust regeneration of some identified CNS axons in larvae after spinal cord injuries, coupled with recovery of normal swimming. Not only did large neurons promote fresh insights in the field, enabling studies incorporating multiple scales with existing and new technologies. But investigators also were able to attach a broad scope of relevance to their studies, interpreting them as suggesting conserved features of successful, and sometimes even unsuccessful, CNS regeneration. Lamprey research demonstrated that functional recovery takes place without the reformation of the original neuronal connections, for instance, by way of imperfect axonal regrowth and compensatory plasticity. Moreover, research performed in the lamprey model revealed that factors intrinsic to neurons are integral in promoting or hindering regeneration. As this work has helped illuminate why basal vertebrates accomplish CNS regeneration so well, whereas mammals do it so poorly, this history presents a case study in how biological and medical value have been, and could continue to be, gleaned from a non-traditional model organism for which molecular tools have been developed only relatively recently.

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Section: Zoology and The Lamprey Nervous System 1860s–1930smentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Compensatory Plasticity In Spinal Cord Regeneration In Lampr...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Lampreys and spinal cord regeneration: “a very special claim on the interest of zoologists,” 1830s-present

Jones

Morgan

2023

Front. Cell Dev. Biol.

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“You've Got to Work on This Axon”: J. Z. Young and Squid Giant Axon Preparations in 20^th‐Century Neurobiology**

Jones

2022

Ber Wissenschaftsgesch

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Employing and extending Hans-Jörg Rheinberger's analytical concept of epistemic things, this essay proposes one reason why squid giant axons, unusually large invertebrate nerve fibers, had such great impacts on twentieth-century neurobiology. The 1930s characterizations of these axons by John Zachary Young reshaped prevailing assumptions about nerve cells as epistemic things, I argue. Specifically, Young's preparations of these axons, which consisted of fibers attached to laboratory technologies, highlighted similarities between giant axons and more familiar ones via lines of comparative study common to aquatic biology. Young's work convinced other biologists that the squid giant fibers were, in fact, axons, despite their unusual fused (syncytial) structures, thereby promoting further studies, such as intracellular measurements, made possible by the fiber's size. Tracing direct relations between preparations of squid axons and broader interpretations of neurons as epistemic things, this paper renders an actors' category, "preparations," into an analytical one. In turn, it offers glimpses into how aquatic organisms shaped twentieth-century neurobiology and how local experiments can drive broader, disciplinary changes.

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One, no-one and a hundred thousand brains: J.C. Eccles, J.Z. Young and the establishment of the neurosciences (1930s–1960s)

Cited by 2 publications

References 58 publications

Lampreys and spinal cord regeneration: “a very special claim on the interest of zoologists,” 1830s-present

Lampreys and spinal cord regeneration: “a very special claim on the interest of zoologists,” 1830s-present

“You've Got to Work on This Axon”: J. Z. Young and Squid Giant Axon Preparations in 20^th‐Century Neurobiology**

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One, no-one and a hundred thousand brains: J.C. Eccles, J.Z. Young and the establishment of the neurosciences (1930s–1960s)

Cited by 2 publications

References 58 publications

Lampreys and spinal cord regeneration: “a very special claim on the interest of zoologists,” 1830s-present

Lampreys and spinal cord regeneration: “a very special claim on the interest of zoologists,” 1830s-present

“You've Got to Work on This Axon”: J. Z. Young and Squid Giant Axon Preparations in 20th‐Century Neurobiology**

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“You've Got to Work on This Axon”: J. Z. Young and Squid Giant Axon Preparations in 20^th‐Century Neurobiology**