On-Line Course on the History of Neuroscience
Learning Self-Assessment
Module II: The Discovery of Bioelectricity

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1. Identify the dominant physical model used by science until the first half of the 18th century to explain how the nervous system works and give examples taken fron Rene Descartes
2. Explain why there was a radical change of the physical paradigm of the neurosciences from mechanics to electricity, listing the motives and main events which were associated to the change
3. Identify the main technical advances which have occurred in the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, which allowed biophysical experimentation with live nervous tissue in the area of bioelectricity, and what were the main methodological contributions
4. Describe the role of Luigi Galvani and his experiments on bioelectricity and describe the nature of the polemic between Galvani and Volta, and how it was solved.
5. Identify the main pioneers in the study of bioelectricity and resting and action potentials in the 19th century, and what were their scientific contributions
6. Describe the discovery of electrical brain waves (electroencephalogram) by Hans Berger
7. List and briefly describe the main contributions made to electrophysiology by Erlanger, Gasser, Adrian, Hodgkin and Huxley.
8. Describe concisely the present status of knowledge about the ionic mechanisms of generation and transmission of bioelectric phenomena at cell level

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Copyright 2004 Renato Marcos Endrizzi Sabbatini

Instituto Edumed para Educação em Medicina e Saúde