Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian

Edgar Douglas Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian OM ( born November 30, 1889 in London, † August 4, 1977 in Cambridge ) was a British anatomist and physiologist. For his discoveries in the field of functions of the neurons he received in 1932, along with Charles Scott Sherrington the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Biography

Edgar Douglas Adrian was the second son of Alfred Douglas Adrian and completed his education at Westminster School, near the Westminster Abbey in London. From 1908 he began to study natural science at Trinity College, Cambridge. His studies, focusing primarily on the physiology, but he finished all other central subjects of the natural sciences and obtained 1911 Bachelor of Arts in five different fields of study with excellent grades.

1913 Adrian was awarded a research grant for his work on the functioning of the nerves and in the same year he began to study medicine. His clinical studies he completed while at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London and in 1915 he was able to complete this study successfully. Until 1919, ie during the entire First World War, he worked clinically in the field of neurology and dealt primarily with soldiers with different neurological diseases. He then returned to Cambridge, where he worked at the physiological institute and courses gave to the human nervous system. His research has focused at this time on basic research in sensory physiology and conduction of excitation in the nerve. From 1925 he began his work on the sense organs with electrical methods that would later earn him the Nobel Prize.

On 14 June 1923 he married Hester Agnes Pinsent, with whom he had three children. This was his daughter Anne Pinsent Adrian, the future wife of the physiologist Richard Keynes, as well as the twins Richard Hume Adrian, 2nd Baron Adrian, who himself physiologist and like his father became a member of the Royal Society, and Jennet Adrian.

1929 Adrian Foulerton Professor of the Royal Society and in 1937 he broke Sir Joseph Barcroft as Professor of Physiology at the University of Cambridge from. This chair he held until 1951, after which he was appointed head of Trinity College until 1965. Between 1955 and 1957 he was also President of the Leicester University College from 1958 Chancellor of the University of Leicester and from 1957 to 1959 Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. From 1950 to 1955 he was President of the Royal Society in 1954 and also of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1934 he was elected a member of the Scholars Academy Leopoldina.

He died on 4 August 1977 in Cambridge.

Honors

In 1923 he was elected as a member ( "Fellow" ) to the Royal Society, in 1934, the Royal Medal in 1946 and the Copley Medal awarded him. Together with Charles Scott Sherrington, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries in the field of the functions of neurons in 1932. Already in 1942, he was awarded the Order of Merit in 1955 and knighted Baron Adrian of Cambridge.

Working

The earliest works of Adrian neurophysiology were already made in his studies, together with Keith Lucas, who in a plane crash was killed in 1916. Adrian and Lucas tried to measure the nerve impulses, failed, however, due to the very inaccurate measurement methods and largely unsuitable nerve preparations.

Edgar Douglas Adrian researched early at the "all or nothing " law ( ANG) in the thrill of nerves. In 1925, he developed a method for the study and presentation of very weak action potentials from single nerve and muscle fibers. For this he isolated single nerve fibers and directed the measured these electrical impulses to amp built in the radio industry. With this structure, he could see the very weak pulses, its voltage lies in the range of a few microvolts and their pulses last only a few milliseconds, making them measurable and show that the strength of a stimulus by the frequency of triggered action potentials is encoded ( so-called frequency modulation). He pointed with his staff together after that the stimulus moves as electrical wave along the nerve, while the electric potential of the fiber was changed. Between the individual pulses, he also showed a short rest, the refractory period. By comparative studies Adrian also showed that the basic nerve function of sensory and motor nerves is not different.

In later work, Adrian showed that nerve also transport substances from the cell body to the synapses, including amino acids, proteins and nutrients. After 1932 he devoted himself to the development of electrical rhythms in the brain and in 1934 he came across the work of Hans Berger on the electroencephalogram and recognized the significance of the discovery. In the field of sensory physiology Adrian concentrated his work on the exploration of the sense of smell, he also worked at the receptors for the sense of balance in the inner ear as well as the links between the sensory and motor areas of the brain.

Works

Edgar Douglas Adrian published during his scientific career, a number of publications in scientific journals. He also wrote the following monographs:

• The Basis of Sensation ( 1927)
• The Mechanism of Nervous Action (1932 )
• Factors Determining Human Behaviour (1937, in the team of authors ).
• The Physical Basis of Perception (1947 )