Birdsey Renshaw (October 10, 1911 – November 23, 1948) was an American electrophysiologist and neuroscientist. He is known for his 1941 discovery of the eponymous

Renshaw cell Renshaw cells are inhibitory interneurons found in the gray matter of the spinal cord, and are associated in two ways with an alpha motor neuron. * They receive an excitatory collateral from the alpha neuron's axon as they emerge from the motor ...

s and the Renshaw inhibition (recurrent inhibition), which is a negative feedback mechanism associated with the Renshaw cell action.

Biography

In 1936 he graduated with an M.D. from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

and then joined Alexander Forbes's neurophysiological research team in Harvard Medical School's physiology department. There he learned how to record cerebral action potentials using

amplifier An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It may increase the power significantly, or its main effect may be to boost the v ...

s and

cathode-ray tube A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms (oscilloscope), pictur ...

s. He developed microelectrodes from ultra-clean Pyrex pipettes and applied the microelectrodes to make extracellular recordings of action potentials found in the mammalian hippocampus and cortex. In 1938 he received his Ph.D. with thesis ''The Electrical Potentials Recorded in the Brain with Microelectrodes''. In 1938, after receiving his Ph.D.. he joined

Herbert Spencer Gasser Herbert Spencer Gasser (July 5, 1888 – May 11, 1963) was an American physiologist, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1944 for his work with action potentials in nerve fibers while on the faculty of Washington Unive ...

's group at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now named

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classif ...

). The research group included David Lloyd (1911–1985),

Rafael Lorente de Nó Rafael Lorente de Nó (April 8, 1902 – April 2, 1990) was a Spanish neuroscientist who advanced the scientific understanding of the nervous system with his seminal research. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Acad ...

, and

Harry Grundfest Harry Grundfest (January 10, 1904 – October 10, 1983) was an American neurologist. He was the president of the Association of Scientific Workers, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, professor emeritus of neurology at the Columbia Unive ...

. In 1948 Renshaw died of

polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...

within three days of the onset of symptoms. In 1954 Eccles, Fatt, and Koketsu used intracellular recording to confirm Renshaw's findings and introduced the term "Renshaw cell".

Family

Birdsey Renshaw's mother was Laura Birdsey Renshaw (1878–1930) and his father was Raemer Rex Renshaw (1880–1938), a professor of organic chemistry at New York University and, during WW I, a U.S. Army captain in the Chemical Warfare Service. Late on the night of September 23, 1938, Professor Raemer Rex Renshaw and his second wife died after falling nineteen stories from their Tudor City apartment at 45

Prospect Place Prospect Place, also known as Trinway Mansion and Prospect Place Mansion, is a 29-room mansion built by abolitionist George Willison Adams (G. W. Adams) in Trinway, Ohio, just north of Dresden in 1856. Today, it is the home of the non-profit ...

in Manhattan. In August 1939 in

Holyoke, Massachusetts Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,238. Located north of Springfield ...

, Birdsey Renshaw married Janet Card Hayes, who graduated from

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

. She had two brothers and two sisters. The younger of her two brothers was Samuel Perkins Hayes Jr. (1910–2002), who was a social psychologist, a consultant to the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F. ...

from 1961 to 1969, and president of the Foreign Policy Association until 1975. Birdsey and Janet Renshaw had two sons, Thomas Hayes Renshaw and Bruce Birdsey Renshaw.

Selected publications

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Renshaw, Birdsey 1911 births 1948 deaths American neuroscientists American physiologists Electrophysiologists Neurophysiologists Harvard Medical School alumni Rockefeller University people People from Middletown, Connecticut