List of neuroscientists facts for kids

Many famous neuroscientists are from the 20th and 21st century, as neuroscience is a fairly new science. However, many anatomists (who study body structure), physiologists (who study how the body works), biologists, neurologists (doctors who treat brain diseases), psychiatrists (doctors who treat mental health), and psychologists (who study the mind) are also considered neuroscientists.

This article introduces some important neuroscientists and their amazing discoveries. They helped us understand how our brains control everything we do, think, and feel.

What is Neuroscience?

Neuroscience is the field that explores the brain, spinal cord, and all the nerves throughout the body. It looks at how these parts are built and how they work together. Scientists in this field study everything from how tiny brain cells (called neurons) communicate to how complex thoughts and emotions are formed.

Why is the Brain So Important?

The brain is like the control center of your body. It helps you:

• Think and learn new things.
• Feel emotions like joy, sadness, or excitement.
• Move your body and coordinate actions.
• See, hear, smell, taste, and touch the world around you.
• Remember things from the past.

Understanding the brain helps us treat diseases like Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease. It also helps us understand how we learn and behave.

Pioneers of Neuroscience

Many brilliant minds have contributed to our knowledge of the brain. Here are a few examples of neuroscientists who made big discoveries:

Early Thinkers and Discoveries

Even before "neuroscience" was a word, people studied the brain.

• Alcmaeon of Croton (around 510 BCE) from Italy was one of the first to suggest that the brain, not the heart, was the center of thought and sensation.
• Galen (129–c. 216 CE), a Greek physician, performed many dissections and wrote extensively about the brain and nerves. He described parts of the brain, like the Vein of Galen, which is named after him.
• Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564) from the Netherlands created detailed drawings of the human body, including the brain. His work helped correct many old mistakes.
• René Descartes (1596–1650), a French philosopher, thought about how the mind and body interact. He believed the pineal gland in the brain was where this connection happened.
• Luigi Galvani (1737–1798) from Italy discovered that nerves and muscles produce electricity. This was a huge step in understanding how our bodies work.

Understanding Brain Cells

For a long time, scientists debated whether the brain was a network or made of individual cells.

• Camillo Golgi (1843–1926) from Italy developed a special staining method that made it possible to see individual neurons clearly under a microscope. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1906 for this.
• Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852–1934) from Spain used Golgi's method to show that the brain is made of separate cells called neurons. He also won the Nobel Prize in 1906, sharing it with Golgi. His work laid the foundation for modern neuroscience.
• Theodor Schwann (1810–1882) from Germany discovered Schwann cells, which help insulate nerve fibers.

How Nerves Communicate

Scientists also wanted to know how nerve cells send messages.

• Henry Hallett Dale (1875–1968) and Otto Loewi (1873–1961), both Nobel Prize winners in 1936, discovered neurotransmitters. These are chemicals that nerve cells use to communicate with each other.
• Alan Lloyd Hodgkin (1914–1998) and Andrew Huxley (1917–2012) from the United Kingdom won the Nobel Prize in 1963 for explaining how nerve impulses (electrical signals) travel along nerve fibers. Their Hodgkin–Huxley model is still used today.
• Bernard Katz (1911–2003) from Germany, a Nobel Prize winner in 1970, showed how neurotransmitters are released at the connections between nerve cells, called synapses.

Mapping the Brain

Some neuroscientists focused on figuring out which parts of the brain do what.

• Paul Broca (1824–1880) from France discovered that a specific area in the brain, now called Broca's area, is important for speaking. Damage to this area can cause Broca's aphasia, making it hard to form words.
• Karl Wernicke (1848–1905) from Germany found another area, Wernicke's area, which is crucial for understanding language.
• Korbinian Brodmann (1868–1918) from Germany created a map of the brain's outer layer (the cerebral cortex). His Brodmann areas are still used to describe different brain regions.
• Wilder Penfield (1891–1976), a Canadian neurosurgeon, created "maps" of the brain by stimulating different areas during surgery. These Penfield's maps showed which parts of the brain control different body movements and sensations.

Modern Discoveries and Breakthroughs

Neuroscience continues to advance rapidly, with many important discoveries in recent decades.

• David H. Hubel (1926–2013) and Torsten Wiesel (1924–) won the Nobel Prize in 1981 for their work on how the brain processes visual information.
• Eric R. Kandel (1929–) from Austria and the United States won the Nobel Prize in 2000 for his research on how memories are formed at the level of individual neurons.
• John O'Keefe (1939–), Edvard Moser (1962–), and May-Britt Moser (1963–) from Norway won the Nobel Prize in 2014 for discovering cells in the brain that help us navigate and understand where we are. These are like the brain's internal GPS!
• Karl Deisseroth (1971–) from the United States is known for developing optogenetics. This amazing technique uses light to control the activity of specific neurons, helping scientists understand brain circuits. He won The Brain Prize in 2013.
• David Julius (1955–) and Ardem Patapoutian (1967–) won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2021 for discovering how we sense touch and temperature.

Notable Neuroscientists and Their Contributions

Here are a few more neuroscientists who have made significant impacts:

• Alois Alzheimer (1864–1915) from Germany was a psychiatrist who first described Alzheimer's disease, a condition that affects memory and thinking.
• Cornelia Bargmann (1961–) from the United States won the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience in 2012 for her work on how genes affect behavior, using tiny worms as a model.
• Brenda Milner (1918–) from the United Kingdom and Canada is a pioneering neuropsychologist who made major discoveries about memory, especially how different types of memory work in the brain. She won the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience in 2014.
• Paul Bach-y-Rita (1934–2006) from the United States was a pioneer in sensory substitution, showing how the brain can adapt to use one sense (like touch) to make up for another (like sight).
• Mayim Bialik (1975–) from the United States is not only a famous actress but also has a PhD in neuroscience. She studied obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• C. Frank Bennett (living in 2020) from the United States won the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2019 for his work on developing treatments for neurological diseases using genetic approaches.
• Silvia Arber (1968–) from Switzerland received the W. Alden Spencer Award in 2018 for her research on the circuits in the spinal cord that control movement.
• György Buzsáki (1949–) from Hungary won The Brain Prize in 2011 for his work on brain rhythms and how they contribute to memory and cognition.
• Gail Carpenter (1948-) from the United States was the first woman to receive the IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award for developing adaptive resonance theory (ART), a type of neural network that models how the brain learns.
• Cécile Charrier (1983–) from France received the Irène Joliot-Curie “Young Female Scientist of the Year” award for her research on brain development.
• Don W. Cleveland (1950–) from the United States won the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2018 for his discoveries related to neurodegenerative diseases like ALS.
• Catherine Dulac (1963–) from France won the Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience in 2019 for her work on the neural circuits that control social behaviors.
• Marian Diamond (1926–2017) from the United States was a groundbreaking neuroscientist who showed that the brain can change and grow based on experience, even in adults.
• Eve Marder (1948–) from the United States won the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience in 2016 for her work on how neural circuits can maintain stable function while also being flexible.
• Bianca Jones Marlin (living in 2020) from the United States was recognized as one of Stat Wunderkinds in 2017 for her research on how parental experiences can be passed down through generations.
• Maryam Shanechi (1981–) from Iran was named one of Science News's 10 scientists to watch in 2019 for her work on brain-computer interfaces.
• Huda Zoghbi (1955–) from Lebanon won the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2017 for her discoveries about the genetic causes of neurological disorders like Rett syndrome.

These are just a few of the many amazing neuroscientists who have helped us understand the most complex organ in the universe – the human brain!

See also

• History of neuroscience
• List of cognitive neuroscientists
• List of neurologists and neurosurgeons
• List of women neuroscientists