Golgi and Cajal: The neuron doctrine and the 100th anniversary of the 1906 Nobel Prize

Novelties: New species discovered in the expedition to the Foja mountains of New Guinea include an as yet unnamed Callulops frog (top), an unnamed Albericus frog (middle), and a new bird, the smoky honeyeater (bottom). Researchers believe the mountains hold many more as yet unidentified species. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901 with a legacy from Alfred Nobel, the discoverer of dynamite. One of the five prizes to be awarded was in Physiology or Medicine, the decision of whom to receive it to be made by a committee of Professors from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm [1]. The Swiss histologist Rudolf Kölliker had suggested that Camillo Golgi receive the prize in 1901, the very first year that it was to be awarded. But it was not until 1906 that Golgi shared the prize with Santiago Ramón y Cajal. For the first time the prize was shared between two people. The deliberations of the committee [2] reflected the relative contributions of the two men: Golgi had provided the method; Cajal had given us new and penetrating insights into the structure of the brain and spinal cord. Our current understanding of the structure and function of the nervous system is based to a great extent on two principles that were first established in the nineteenth century: functional localization and the neuron doctrine. Functional localization means that different parts of the nervous system, and especially the cerebral cortex, do different things. The neuron doctrine means that the brain and spinal cord are made up of individual elements, called neurons, and their supporting structures. Neurons may touch one another, but they do not fuse. The evidence for functional localization came from a long series of clinical and experimental discoveries throughout the 19th century. The neuron doctrine was