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REVIEW article
Front. Neuroanat.
Volume 18 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fnana.2024.1476640
This article is part of the Research Topic The Major Discoveries of Cajal and His Disciples: Consolidated Milestones for the Neuroscience of the XXIst Century, Volume II View all 4 articles
CAJAL´S CONTRIBUTIONS TO VESTIBULAR RESEARCH
Provisionally accepted- 1 Department of Surgery, Division of Otolaryngology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
- 2 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Clínica Universidad de Navarra., Madrid, Spain
- 3 Instituto Cajal-CSIC, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-CSIC, Madrid, Spain
- 4 Otoneurology Unit, ENT Department, University Hospital of Salamanca, IBSAL. Surgery Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
The Spanish neurohistologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal is widely regarded as the father of modern Neuroscience. In addition to identifying the individuality of cells in the nervous system (the neuron theory) or the direction followed by nerve impulses (the principle of dynamic polarization), he described numerous details regarding the organization of the different structures of the nervous system. This task was compiled in his magnum opus, "Textura del Sistema Nervioso del Hombre y los Vertebrados", first published in Spanish between 1899 and 1904, and later revised and updated in French as "Histologie du système nerveux de l'homme et des vertébrés" between 1909-1911 for wider distribution among the international scientific community. Some of Cajal´s findings are fundamental to our understanding of the anatomy and histology of the vestibular system. He depicted the nerve endings in the sensory epithelia, the structure of the vestibular nerve and Scarpa ganglion, afferent vestibular fibers, vestibular nuclei, lateral vestibulospinal tract, vestibulocerebellar connections, and the fine structure of the cerebellum. However, most of these pioneering descriptions were published years earlier in Spanish journals with limited circulation. Our study aimed to gather Cajal's findings on the vestibular system and identify his original publications. After this endeavor, we claim a place for Cajal among the founders of anatomy and histology of the vestibular system.
Keywords: cajal, vestibular system, history of neuro-otology, History of neuroanatomy, history of vestibular medicine CNS: central nervous system
Received: 06 Aug 2024; Accepted: 28 Aug 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Espinosa-Sanchez, Perez-Fernandez, de Castro and Batuecas-Caletrio. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Juan M. Espinosa-Sanchez, Department of Surgery, Division of Otolaryngology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
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