Henry Dale and the discovery of chemical synaptic transmission

Abstract

Henry Dale received the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 1936 with Otto Loewi for their research which proved chemical synaptic transmission in the peripheral nervous system. Subsequently there was an extended period of controversy between advocates of chemical and electrical transmission before the chemical process was established in the central and peripheral nervous system. This debate and its final resolution was one of the most crucial in the history of neuroscience in the 20th century. Copyright © 2008 S. Karger AG.