Disciplines
Neuroscience
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
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 Cross-Tradition Connections
Founded By
Has Theory
Part Of
In the Other Atlases
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 sectionQuote, Lead 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.
2. Neuroscience (Wikipedia)
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 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)
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.