The Future of Neuroscience
Milestones in Neuroscience Technology
2nd Century AD
The brain is identified as an organ by Galen of Pergamum.
1808-Franz Joseph Gall proposes that different regions of the brain controls different functions.
1800's
1900's
1906-Alois Alzheimer describes the pathology of Alzheimer's Disease.
2000's
2004-The Nobel Prize is awarded to Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck for organizing the olfactory system and discovering odorant receptors.
Future
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President Obama hopes to find new ways to treat, prevent, and cure diseases such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, and epilepsy with the BRAIN Initiative.
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Specialized devices might enable patients in vegatative states to interact with the outside world.
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Researchers hope to use microRNA's as a marker to detect Alzheimer's Disease in patients earlier than is now possible.
1811-Charles Bell describes the function of dorsal and ventral roots of the spinal cord.
1852-The speed of a nerve impulse in a frog is measured by Hermann von Helmholtz.
1899-Francis Gotch describes refractory periods phases between nerve impulses.
1914-The physiological actions of acetylcholine,
a neurotransmitter, are demonstrated by Henry Dale.
1929-Karl Lashley attempts to localize memory in the brain in a famous program of lesion experiments in rats.
1949-The Hebb rule, a synaptic learning rule, is introduced by Donald Hebb.
1958-Arvid Carlsson finds dopamine to be a transmitter in the brain and proposes that it has a role in diseases like Parkinson's Disease.
1960-Oleh Hornykeiwicz shows that dopamine levels are lower than normal in Parkinson's Disease patients.
1973-Sinemet is introduced as a treatment for Parkinson's Disease.
1993-The gene responsible for Hungtington's Disease is identified.
1997-The Nobel Prize is awarded to Stanley B. Prusiner for the discovery of prions.
2013-President Barack Obama launches a research effort called the "BRAIN" Inititative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies).
2013-Researchers discover that a higher blood sugar level makes brain cells more susceptible to the beta amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer's disease.
