1st Edition

History of the Synapse

By Max R. Bennett Copyright 2001

    The History of the Synapse provides a history of those discoveries concerning the identification and function of synapses that provide the foundations for research during this new century with a personal view of the process by which new concepts have developed. Previously published as essays, the chapters in this book provide a history of various aspects of synaptic function, beginning with the evolution over two and a half thousand years and how progress was made in the establishment of a conceptual structure that would allow the synapse to be identified at the beginning of the 20th century. Numerous illustrations explain either the technical approach or the experimental finding.

    The Early History of the Synapse: from Plato to Sherrington. Emergence of the Concept of Transmitter Release at Peripheral and Central Synapses. The Discovery of Acetylcholine and the Concept of Receptors at Synapses. The Discovery of Adrenaline and the Concept of Autoreceptors at Synapses. The Discovery of Amino-acid Transmission at Synapses in the Central Nervous System. Monoaminergic Synapse and Schizophrenia: The Discovery of Neuroleptics. The Discovery of Transmitters other than Noradrenaline and Acetylcholine at Synapses in the Peripheral Nervous System. Development of the Concept of a Calcium Sensor in Transmitter Release at Synapses. The Discovery of Quantal Secretion and the Statistics of Transmitter Release at Synapses. Emergence of the Concept of Synapse Formation Molecules.

    Biography

    Max R. Bennett