Axonal Excitability Workshop
Antalya, December 2012
A short history of electrotonus and threshold electrotonus Hugh Bostock Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, & MRC Centre for Neuromuscular Disease, Institute of Neurology, University College London
Charles Robert Darwin 1809-1882
1859
Edouard Friedrich Wilhelm Pflüger 1829-1910 Founded Pflüger’s Archiv in 1868
1859
J Anat Physiol 1868
William Rutherford MD FRS (1839-1899) Professor of Physiology, University of Edinburgh
J Anat Physiol 1868
William Rutherford MD FRS (1839-1899) Professor of Physiology, University of Edinburgh
William Rutherford’s demonstration of Electrotonus in 1868
Julius Bernstein (1839-1917) Professor of Physiology, University of Halle
Developed Membrane theory of resting and action potentials (1902)
Electrotonus according to the membrane theory. The phenomena connected with electrotonus result from the movement and accumulation of differently charged ions on both sides of the membrane. The positive ions in the external electrolyte migrate to the anode where they add to the positive ions normally present on the exterior of the membrane‌‌ Bernstein Electrobiologie (1912)
Julius Bernstein (1839-1917) Professor of Physiology, University of Halle
Developed Membrane theory of resting and action potentials (1902)
Augustus Desiré Waller, British neurophysiologist (1856-1922), was the son of Augustus Volney Waller, who described ‘Wallerian degeneration’ in frog nerves in 1850. Augustus Desiré Waller was the first person to systematically approach the heart from an electrical point-of-view. His electrocardiograph machine consisted of a Lippmann capillary electrometer fixed to a projector. The trace from the heartbeat was projected onto a photographic plate which was itself fixed to a toy train. This allowed a heartbeat to be recorded in real time. (J. Physiol., 1887) In 1911 he still saw little clinical application for his work.
Augustus Desiré Waller (1856-1922)
Augustus DesirĂŠ Waller (1856-1922)
Augustus Waller’s Royal Institution Lectures of 1897
*
* i.e. Pfluger’s laws of electrotonus
Augustus Waller’s demonstration of Pflüger’s Laws in 1882
Joseph Erlanger 1874 – 1965
Herbert Spencer Gasser 1888 – 1963
Erlanger and Gasser shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1944
Joseph Erlanger 1874 – 1965 Joseph Erlanger shared the 1944 Nobel Prize for Medicine with Herbert Gasser
STUDIES FROM
THE ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH VOLUME 131
A Study of Nerve Physiology Rafael Lorente de No
NEW YORK THE ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH
Rafael Lorente de N贸 1902 - 1990
1947 Made in the United States of America
Electrotonus in frog sciatic nerve, showing contrasting responses to depolarising currents (1-4) and hyperpolarising current (5-8).
Rafael Lorente de N贸 1902 - 1990
Lorente de No: A study of nerve physiology, 1947
Threshold reduction (%)
0
-200
-400 0
100
200 Delay (ms)
300
(Tomlinson et al, 2009)
(Lorente de No, 1947)
(Baker & Bostock, 1988)
400