Cajal's first steps in scientific research

Neuroscience
P J Serrano-Castro, J M Garcia-Torrecillas

Abstract

More than 125 years ago, Santiago Ramón y Cajal was able to draft and prove the neuron doctrine, and later, to develop prophetic theories about neural function and plasticity, many of which have been proven by current neuroscience. It was chance that made Cajal, during his doctorate studies, have his first contact with histology and force him to study the then current theories about pathogenesis of inflammation. Thus, he gained knowledge of the vascular hypothesis, by Julius Cohnheim, a German pathologist who, opposing the opinion of his teacher and father of cellular pathology, Rudolf Virchow, made leukocytes the protagonists of inflammation, given their ability to develop ameboid movements directed by chemical signals. Cohnheim's chemotactic theory deeply influenced Cajal's conception of biology. So, the basic postulates of chemotaxis can be identified at different moments in Cajal's research, from the description of the "growth cone" in embryonic neuroblasts, the origin of the neurotrophic theory, to the proposal of the pathophysiological mechanisms of neuronal plasticity. From Cajal's point of view, the neurons move during their development and also adapt to different external circumstances. Chemical endogenous substances c...Continue Reading

References

Sep 22, 2006·Nature Reviews. Neuroscience·Javier DeFelipe

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Citations

Mar 13, 2014·Current Opinion in Psychiatry·Marek Kubicki, Martha E Shenton
Oct 23, 2018·BioMed Research International·Yan HuDian Gao
Aug 28, 2020·Frontiers in Neurology·Pedro Jesus Serrano-CastroGuillermo Ibañez-Botella

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