New dimensions in neuroanatomy: Visualizing the morphology, physiology and chemistry of neurons

Abstract

Traditional neuroanatomical methods provide a means for understanding some aspects of cell and tissue organization in the nervous system. However, the boundaries of the field of neuroanatomy have been blurred in the past twenty-five years by interdisciplinary techniques, such as dye-injection methods that combine electrophysiological and anatomical protocols and immunocytochemistry which combines immunological and histological methods. This review therefore takes a very broad view of neuroanatomy, including within this field a variety of "anatomically-based" methods that allow visualization of physiological and molecular features of neurons. Several representative methods are discussed and examples of the data achieved are provided. Although this area of neurobiology has evolved rapidly in recent years, the future holds promise for an even more dramatic revolution as molecular, computer and confocal-microscopic methods are more widely applied to neuroanatomical problems. Neuroanatomy is therefore viewed in this paper as an interdisciplinary field, and this paper might just as appropriately be entitled, "How are neurons visualized?" The answer involves a wide range of methods that allows description not only of static situations, but also dynamic phenomena in neurons. © 1990 by the American Society of Zoologist.