Sir John Eccles AC
John Eccles, shown here at his lab bench
Born	January 27, 1903(1903-01-27) Melbourne, Australia
Died	May 2, 1997 (aged 94)
Nationality	Australian
Fields	Neuroscience
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1963)

Sir John Carew Eccles, AC FRS FRACP FRSNZ FAAS (January 27, 1903 – May 2, 1997) was an Australian neurophysiologist who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the synapse. Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia on 14 February 1975 "for the purpose of according recognition Events 98 - Trajan becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva. Year 1903 ( MCMIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar or a Common year starting Melbourne ( is the second most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 3 Events 1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (Nobelpriset i fysiologi eller medicin is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institute. Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia on 14 February 1975 "for the purpose of according recognition The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a Learned society for science that was founded in 1660 The Royal Australasian College of Physicians, or RACP, is the organisation responsible for training educating and representing over 9000 physicians and Paediatricians Royal Society of New Zealand was founded in 1851 and is the premier Learned society in New Zealand. The Australian Academy of Science (AAS was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of Events 98 - Trajan becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva. Year 1903 ( MCMIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar or a Common year starting Events 1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Neurophysiology (from Greek grc νεῦρον neuron, "nerve" grc φύσις physis, "nature origin" and grc -λογία Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (Nobelpriset i fysiologi eller medicin is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institute. Chemical synapses are specialized junctions through which Neurons signal to each other and to non-neuronal cells such as those in Muscles or Glands He shared the prize together with Andrew Fielding Huxley and Alan Lloyd Hodgkin. Sir Andrew Fielding Huxley, OM, FRS (born 22 November 1917, Hampstead, London) is an English physiologist Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, OM, KBE, FRS (5 February 1914 Banbury, Oxfordshire, England – 20 December 1998 Cambridge

Biography

Eccles was born in Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne ( is the second most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 3 He attended Melbourne High School and graduated from Melbourne University in 1925. The University of Melbourne is a Public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study under Charles Scott Sherrington at Oxford University, where he received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1929. Rhodes Scholarship Rhodes scholar redirects here Rhodes Scholar redirects here Rhodes scholars Sir Charles Scott Sherrington OM, GBE, PRS ( November 27, 1857 - March 4, 1952) was an English neurophysiologist The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the "PhD" redirects here for other uses see PhD (disambiguation. Year 1929 ( MCMXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

In 1937 Eccles returned to Australia, where he worked on military research during World War II. Year 1937 ( MCMXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including After the war, he became a professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand. The University of Otago ( Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo) in Dunedin is New Zealand 's oldest university with over 20000 students enrolled during New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island From 1952 to 1962 he worked as a professor at the Australian National University. Year 1952 ( MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1962 ( MCMLXII) was a Common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Australian National University, commonly abbreviated to ANU, is a public Research university situated in Canberra, Australia. He won the Australian of the Year Award in 1963, the same year he won the Nobel Prize. The Australian of the Year Awards commenced in 1960. From nominations received Australia Day Committees in each state and territory select several finalists

In 1966 he moved to the United States to work at the Institute for Biomedical Research in Chicago. Year 1966 ( MCMLXVI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the 1966 Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. Unhappy with the working conditions there, he left to become a professor at the University at Buffalo from 1968 until he retired in 1975. State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly known as University at Buffalo (UB is a Coeducational public research University, which Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. After retirement, he moved to Switzerland and wrote on the mind-body problem. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Philosophy of mind is the branch of Philosophy that studies the nature of the Mind, Mental events Mental functions mental properties He died in 1997 in Locarno, Switzerland. Locarno is the capital of the Locarno district, located on the northern tip of Lake Maggiore ( Lago Maggiore) in the Swiss canton of

Eccles was a devout theist and a sometime Roman Catholic, and is regarded by many Christians as an exemplar of the successful melding of a life of science with one of faith. Theism, in its most inclusive usage is the belief in at least one Deity. A biography states that, "although not always a practicing Catholic, Eccles was a theist and a spiritual person, and he believed 'that there is a Divine Providence operating over and above the materialistic happenings of biological evolution'. . . "

Eccles was President of the Australian Academy of Science from 1957 to 1961 at the time of the construction of the Shine Dome. The Australian Academy of Science (AAS was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of

Research

In the early 1950s, Eccles and his colleagues performed the research that would win Eccles the Nobel Prize. To study synapses in the peripheral nervous system, Eccles and colleagues used the stretch reflex as a model. A reflex action, also known as a reflex, is an involuntary and almost instant movement in response to stimulus. This reflex is easily studied because it consists of only two neurons: a sensory neuron (the muscle spindle fiber) and the motor neuron. Neurons (ˈnjuːɹɒn also known as neurones and nerve cells) are responsive cells in the Nervous system that process and transmit information Muscle spindles are Sensory receptors within the belly of a Muscle, which primarily detect changes in the length of this muscle In Vertebrates the term motor neuron (or motoneuron) classically applies to Neurons located in the Central nervous system (or CNS that project The sensory neuron synapses onto the motor neuron in the spinal cord. The spinal cord is a long thin tubular bundle of Nerves that is an extension of the Central nervous system from the brain and is enclosed in and protected When Eccles passed a current into the sensory neuron in the quadriceps, the motor neuron innervating the quadriceps produced a small excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP). "Quads" redirects here For other uses see Quad The quadriceps femoris ( Latin for "four-headed of the femur" also In Neuroscience, an excitatory postsynaptic potential ( EPSP) is a temporary depolarization of postsynaptic Membrane potential caused by the flow of positively When he passed the same current through the hamstring, the opposing muscle to the quadriceps, he saw an inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP) in the quadriceps motor neuron. In Human anatomy, a hamstring refers to one of the Tendons that make up the borders of the space behind the knee An Inhibitory Postsynaptic Potential (commonly abbreviated as IPSP) is the change in membrane voltage of a postsynaptic Neuron which results from synaptic Although a single EPSP was not enough to fire an action potential in the motor neuron, the sum of several EPSPs from multiple sensory neurons synapsing onto the motor neuron could cause the motor neuron to fire, thus contracting the quadriceps. In Neurophysiology, the action potential is a self-regenerating Wave of Electrochemical activity that allows Nerve cells to carry a signal On the other hand, IPSPs could subtract from this sum of EPSPs, preventing the motor neuron from firing.

Apart from these seminal experiments, Eccles was key to a number of important developments in neuroscience. Neuroscience is a field devoted to the scientific study of the nervous system Until around 1949, Eccles believed that synaptic transmission was primarily electrical rather than chemical. Year 1949 ( MCMXLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Neurotransmission (latin transmissio = passage crossing from transmitto = send let through also called synaptic transmission, is an electrical movement Although he was wrong in this hypothesis, his arguments led himself and others to perform some of the experiments which proved chemical synaptic transmission. Bernard Katz and Eccles worked together on some of the experiments which elucidated the role of acetylcholine as a neurotransmitter. Sir Bernard Katz, FRS ( 26 March 1911 &ndash 20 April 2003) was a German -born biophysicist, noted for his work The Chemical compound acetylcholine (often abbreviated ACh) is a Neurotransmitter in both the Peripheral nervous system (PNS and Central See Chemical synapse for an introduction to concepts and terminology used in this article

Bibliography

• 1932, Reflex Activity of the Spinal Cord.
• 1953, The neurophysiological basic of the mind: The principles of neurophysiology, Oxford: Clarendon.
• 1957, The Physiology of Nerve Cells.
• 1964, The Physiology of Synapses.
• 1965, The brain and the unity of conscious experience, London: Cambridge University Press.
• 1969, The Inhibitory Pathways of the Central Nervous System.
• 1970, Facing reality: Philosophical Adventures by a Brain Scientist, Berlin: Springer.
• 1973, The Understanding of the Brain.
• 1977, The Self and Its Brain, with Karl Popper, Berlin: Springer. Sir Karl Raimund Popper ( July 28 1902  &ndash September 17 1994) was an Austrian and British Philosopher and a professor
• 1979, The human mystery, Berlin: Springer.
• 1980, The Human Psyche.
• 1984, The Wonder of Being Human - Our Brain & Our Mind, with Daniel N. Robinson, New York, Free Press. Daniel N Robinson (born March 9 1937) is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgetown University and a member
• 1985, Mind and Brain: The Many-Faceted Problems, (Editor), New York : Paragon House.
• 1989, Evolution Of The Brain : Creation Of The Self.
• 1994, How the Self Controls Its Brain. How the Self Controls Its Brain is a book by Sir John Eccles, proposing a theory of philosophical Dualism, and offering a justification of how there can

Styles

• Mr John Eccles (1903-1929)
• Dr John Eccles (1929-1944)
• Prof. John Eccles (1944-1958)
• Sir John Eccles (1958-1997)

External links

• Sir John Eccles Biography. Nobel Foundation.
• Pratt, D. : John Eccles on Mind and Brain. A theosophical view.
• Sabbatini, R. M. E. : Neurons and synapses. The history of its discovery IV. Chemical transmission. Brain & Mind, 2004.