EP 46 · 45:20

Nerve fiber differentiation

From America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 1

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Electrical recordings revealed differences in the signals carried by nerve fibers. The discussion connects those differences to properties such as fiber thickness and to the use of oscilloscopes in physiology.

Transcript

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45:21discovery of nerve fiber differentiation. >> Yeah, this was huge because uh physiolog physiologists Joseph Heeronger and Herbert Gasser, they utilized the cathode ray oscilloscope which is an electrical instrument. They hooked it up to nerve fibers at Washington University in St. Louis and they recorded little electrical impulses, action potentials. This is the genesis of the action potentials. And they showed that if I if I poke at different parts of the nerve fiber, the action potential looks different. And it depends on how thick the nerve is. Huge.

From the episode
  1. EP 46

    America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 1

    Part one of our America 250 special traces the inventions, institutions, and scientific breakthroughs — from Franklin to Sputnik — that helped build the United States into a global scientific power.

    America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 1

America 250History of Science