Significance Statement
Some of the basic principles of nervous system function that we now take for granted were once topics of great controversy that required decades of research to resolve. One such principle is that neurons communicate via chemicals. In the “History of Neuroscience” lecture at this year’s meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Floyd Bloom discussed how this principle came to be accepted by the community. In doing so, he hoped to recognize some of the great minds who contributed to the debate and also to remind young scientists that even great minds can sometimes be wrong. This commentary presents some of the key discoveries highlighted in his talk.
The ability of plant alkaloids and animal venoms to affect nervous system function has been known for millennia. People throughout the world have taken advantage of these effects to paralyze prey, kill enemies, keep alert, and enter spiritual states. But an understanding of how neuroactive chemicals work—by affecting synaptic transmission—came about only gradually, beginning in the 19th century. As is often the case, many long-held beliefs had to be overturned before this understanding was reached. In his “History of Neuroscience” lecture at this year’s meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Floyd Bloom described some of the paradigm shifts that were necessary for people to appreciate chemical neurotransmission and “the messengers of the mind.”
Bloom reckoned that the journey began in 1844, with Claude Bernard’s studies of curare. Bernard first administered curare to a living frog. Dissecting the frog immediately after it died, he found that the heart was still beating and muscles still contracted when stimulated electrically. From this he concluded that curare paralyzed the frog by poisoning the nerves rather than the muscles (Black, 1999). Subsequent experiments on isolated nerve–muscle preparations revealed that if only the nerve was bathed in curare, …
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