SOURCE: "Nervous Starts," in Nature, Vol. 356, No. 6370, April 16, 1992, pp. 624-5.

In the following review, Young observes the significance of Ramóny Cajal's work to modern neuron theory.

Those who probe the nervous system with electrodes probably seldom stop to consider the history of knowledge of the cells they are impaling. Yet it would help them to think about the problems that have arisen in the search for units of nervous activity. Since the days of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, most neuroscientists have depended on a rather simple picture of the neuron, with dendrites, cell body and axon as the essential unit. This has also been the model mostly used in artificial intelligence. Shepherd's book [Foundations of the Neuron Doctrine] provides a survey of the history of the neuronal hypothesis. In his last chapter, he raises the question of whether we should now look for units both larger...