Neuron Doctrine

 

The neuron doctrine is the concept that the nervous system is made up of discrete individual cells, a discovery due to decisive neuro-anatomical work of 

                                                     Santiago Ramón y Cajal 

Neuron Doctrine, Cajal demonstrated that the brain is composed of discrete cells -neurons- rather than a continous, interconnected network of cell appendages. For this, he was awarded together with C. Golgi the Physiology or Medicine Nobel Prize in 1906.

Neuron Doctrine Theory

Photomicrographs from Cajal’s preparations (housed in the Museo Cajal at the Cajal Institute, Madrid, Spain) of the cerebral cortex of a newborn infant, showing neurons impregnated by the Golgi stain. These two photos have also been published in DeFelipe and Jones “Cajal on the Cerebral Cortex.” Oxford University Press, New York, 1988.

Cajal’s drawing of the cerebellar cortex (from a preparation of the cat cerebellum stained with methylene blue) showing the axons of Purkinje cells which exit from the cortex directed downwards.

Climbing Fibers Are Seen In Cerebellar Cortex

Then And Now 

Snapshot