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Sir John Carew Eccles (27 January 1903 – 2 May 1997) was an Australian neurophysiologist and philosopher who won the 1963
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accordi ...
for his work on the
synapse In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that permits a neuron (or nerve cell) to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another neuron or to the target effector cell. Synapses are essential to the transmission of nervous impulses from ...
. He shared the prize with
Andrew Huxley Sir Andrew Fielding Huxley (22 November 191730 May 2012) was an English physiologist and biophysicist. He was born into the prominent Huxley family. After leaving Westminster School in central London, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge ...
and
Alan Lloyd Hodgkin Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin (5 February 1914 – 20 December 1998) was an English physiologist and biophysicist who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Huxley and John Eccles. Early life and education Hodgkin was ...
.


Life and work


Early life

Eccles was born in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...
, Australia. He grew up there with his two sisters and his parents: William and Mary Carew Eccles (both teachers, who
home schooled Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an onl ...
him until he was 12). He initially attended Warrnambool High School originally published in ''Historical Records of Australian Science'', vol.13, no.4, 2001. (now Warrnambool College) (where a science wing is named in his honour), then completed his final year of schooling at
Melbourne High School Melbourne High School is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school for boys, located in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1905, the school caters for boys from Year 9 ...
. Aged 17, he was awarded a senior scholarship to study medicine at the
University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb ...
. As a medical undergraduate, he was never able to find a satisfactory explanation for the interaction of mind and body; he started to think about becoming a neuroscientist. He graduated (with first class honours) in 1925, and was awarded a
Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
to study under
Charles Scott Sherrington Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (27 November 1857 – 4 March 1952) was an eminent English neurophysiologist. His experimental research established many aspects of contemporary neuroscience, including the concept of the spinal reflex as a system ...
at
Magdalen College Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the ...
,
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, where he received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1929. In 1937 Eccles returned to Australia, where he worked on military research during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. During this time Eccles was the director of Kanematsu Institute at
Sydney Medical School The University of Sydney School of Medicine, also known as Sydney Medical School (SMS) is the graduate medical school of the University of Sydney. Established in 1856, it is the first medical school in Australia. In 2018, Sydney Medical School ...
, he and
Bernard Katz Sir Bernard Katz, FRS (; 26 March 1911 – 20 April 2003) was a German-born British physician and biophysicist, noted for his work on nerve physiology. He shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1970 with Julius Axelrod and Ulf ...
gave research lectures at the
University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
, strongly influencing its intellectual environment. After the war, he became a professor at the
University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate ...
in New Zealand. From 1952 to 1962, he worked as a professor at the
John Curtin School of Medical Research The John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) is an Australian multidisciplinary translational medical research institute and postgraduate education centre that forms part of the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. The school w ...
(JCSMR) of the
Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...
. From 1966 to 1968, Eccles worked at the
Feinberg School of Medicine Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is the medical school of Northwestern University and is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1859, Feinberg offers a full-time Doctor of Medicine degree p ...
at
Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...
in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
.


Career

In the early 1950s, Eccles and his colleagues performed the research that would lead to his receiving the Nobel Prize. To study synapses in the peripheral nervous system, Eccles and colleagues used the stretch reflex as a model, which is easily studied because it consists of only two
neuron A neuron, neurone, or nerve cell is an electrically excitable cell that communicates with other cells via specialized connections called synapses. The neuron is the main component of nervous tissue in all animals except sponges and placozoa ...
s: a sensory neuron (the
muscle spindle Muscle spindles are stretch receptors within the body of a skeletal muscle that primarily detect changes in the length of the muscle. They convey length information to the central nervous system via afferent nerve fibers. This information can be ...
fibre) and the
motor neuron A motor neuron (or motoneuron or efferent neuron) is a neuron whose cell body is located in the motor cortex, brainstem or the spinal cord, and whose axon (fiber) projects to the spinal cord or outside of the spinal cord to directly or indirect ...
. The sensory neuron synapses onto the motor neuron in the
spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the sp ...
. When a current is passed into the sensory neuron in the
quadriceps The quadriceps femoris muscle (, also called the quadriceps extensor, quadriceps or quads) is a large muscle group that includes the four prevailing muscles on the front of the thigh. It is the sole extensor muscle of the knee, forming a large ...
, the motor neuron innervating the quadriceps produced a small
excitatory postsynaptic potential In neuroscience, an excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) is a postsynaptic potential that makes the postsynaptic neuron more likely to fire an action potential. This temporary depolarization of postsynaptic membrane potential, caused by the ...
(EPSP). When a similar current is passed through the
hamstring In human anatomy, a hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in between the hip and the knee (from medial to lateral: semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris). The hamstrings are susceptible to injury. In quadrupe ...
, the opposing muscle to the quadriceps, an
inhibitory postsynaptic potential An inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP) is a kind of synaptic potential that makes a postsynaptic neuron less likely to generate an action potential.Purves et al. Neuroscience. 4th ed. Sunderland (MA): Sinauer Associates, Incorporated; 2008. ...
(IPSP) is produced in the quadriceps motor neuron. Although a single EPSP was not enough to fire an
action potential An action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific cell location rapidly rises and falls. This depolarization then causes adjacent locations to similarly depolarize. Action potentials occur in several types of animal cells ...
in the motor neuron, the sum of several EPSPs from multiple sensory neurons synapsing onto the motor neuron can cause the motor neuron to fire, thus contracting the quadriceps. On the other hand, IPSPs could subtract from this sum of EPSPs, preventing the motor neuron from firing. Apart from these seminal experiments, Eccles was key to a number of important developments in
neuroscience Neuroscience is the science, scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a Multidisciplinary approach, multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, an ...
. Until around 1949, Eccles believed that
synaptic transmission Neurotransmission (Latin: ''transmissio'' "passage, crossing" from ''transmittere'' "send, let through") is the process by which signaling molecules called neurotransmitters are released by the axon terminal of a neuron (the presynaptic neuron ...
was primarily electrical rather than chemical. Although he was wrong in this hypothesis, his arguments led him and others to perform some of the experiments which proved chemical synaptic transmission.
Bernard Katz Sir Bernard Katz, FRS (; 26 March 1911 – 20 April 2003) was a German-born British physician and biophysicist, noted for his work on nerve physiology. He shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1970 with Julius Axelrod and Ulf ...
and Eccles worked together on some of the experiments which elucidated the role of
acetylcholine Acetylcholine (ACh) is an organic chemical that functions in the brain and body of many types of animals (including humans) as a neurotransmitter. Its name is derived from its chemical structure: it is an ester of acetic acid and choline. Par ...
as a
neurotransmitter A neurotransmitter is a signaling molecule secreted by a neuron to affect another cell across a synapse. The cell receiving the signal, any main body part or target cell, may be another neuron, but could also be a gland or muscle cell. Neu ...
in the brain.


Honours

He was appointed a
Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are ...
in 1958 in recognition of services to physiological research. He won the
Australian of the Year The Australian of the Year is a national award conferred on an Australian citizen by the National Australia Day Council, a not-for-profit Australian Governmentowned social enterprise. Similar awards are also conferred at the State and Territ ...
Award in 1963, the same year he won the Nobel Prize. In 1964 he became an honorary member to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
, and in 1966 he moved to the United States to work at the Institute for Biomedical Research in Chicago. Unhappy with the working conditions there, he left to become a professor at the
University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 18 ...
from 1968 until he retired in 1975. After retirement, he moved to Switzerland and wrote on the mind-body problem. In 1981, Eccles became a founding member of the
World Cultural Council The World Cultural Council is an international organization whose goals are to promote cultural values, goodwill and philanthropy among individuals. The organization founded in 1981 and based in Mexico, has held a yearly award ceremony since 198 ...
. In 1990 he was appointed a Companion of the
Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Go ...
(AC) in recognition of service to science, particularly in the field of neurophysiology. He died in 1997 in Tenero-Contra,
Locarno , neighboring_municipalities= Ascona, Avegno, Cadenazzo, Cugnasco, Gerra (Verzasca), Gambarogno, Gordola, Lavertezzo, Losone, Minusio, Muralto, Orselina, Tegna, Tenero-Contra , twintowns =* Gagra, Georgia * Karlovy Vary, Czech ...
, Switzerland. In March 2012, the Eccles Institute of Neuroscience was constructed in a new wing of the
John Curtin School of Medical Research The John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) is an Australian multidisciplinary translational medical research institute and postgraduate education centre that forms part of the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. The school w ...
, with the assistance of a $63M grant from the Commonwealth Government.


Philosophy

In ''The Understanding of the Brain'' (1973), Eccles summarises his philosophy: "Now before discussing brain function in detail I will at the beginning give an account of my philosophical position on the so-called 'brain-mind problem' so that you will be able to relate the experimental evidence to this philosophical position. I have written at length on this philosophy in my book ''Facing Reality''. In Fig. 6-1 you will be able to see that I fully accept the recent philosophical achievements of
Sir Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the cl ...
with his concept of three worlds. I was a dualist, now I am a
trialist In sports, a loan involves a particular player being able to temporarily play for a club other than the one to which they are currently contracted. Loan deals may last from a few weeks to a full season, sometimes persisting for multiple seasons ...
! Cartesian dualism has become unfashionable with many people. They embrace
monism Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished: * Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., i ...
to escape the enigma of brain-mind interaction with its perplexing problems. But Sir Karl Popper and I are interactionists, and what is more, ''trialist interactionists''! The three worlds are very easily defined. I believe that in the classification of Fig. 6-1 there is nothing left out. It takes care of everything that is in existence and in our experience. All can be classified in one or other of the categories enumerated under Worlds 1, 2 and 3. Fig. 6-1, Three Worlds "In Fig. 6-1, World 1 is the world of physical objects and states. It comprises the whole cosmos of matter and energy, all of biology including human brains, and all artifacts that man has made for coding information, as for example, the paper and ink of books or the material base of works of art. World 1 is the total world of the materialists. They recognise nothing else. All else is fantasy. "World 2 is the world of states of consciousness and subjective knowledge of all kinds. The totality of our perceptions comes in this world. But there are several levels. In agreement with Polten, I tend to recognise three kinds of levels of World 2, as indicated in Fig. 6-2, but it may be more correct to think of it as a spectrum. FIG. 6-2, World of Consciousness "The first level (outer sense) would be the ordinary perceptions provided by all our sense organs, hearing and touch and sight and smell and pain. All of these perceptions are in World 2, of course: vision with light and colour; sound with music and harmony; touch with all its qualities and vibration; the range of odours and tastes, and so on. These qualities do not exist in World 1, where correspondingly there are but electromagnetic waves, pressure waves in the atmosphere, material objects, and chemical substances. "In addition there is a level of ''inner sense'', which is the world of more subtle perceptions. It is the world of your emotions, of your feelings of joy and sadness and fear and anger and so on. It includes all your memory, and all your imaginings and planning into the future. In fact there is a whole range of levels which could be described at length. All the subtle experiences of the human person are in this inner sensory world. It is all private to you but you can reveal it in linguistic expression, and by gestures of all levels of subtlety. "Finally, at the core of World 2 there is the ''self'' or ''pure ego'', which is the basis of our unity as an experiencing being throughout our whole lifetime. "This World 2 is our ''primary reality''. Our conscious experiences are the basis of our knowledge of World 1, which is thus a world of ''secondary reality'', a derivative world. Whenever I am doing a scientific experiment, for example, I have to plan it cognitively, all in my thoughts, and then consciously carry out my plan of action in the experiment. Finally I have to look at the results and evaluate them in thought. For example, I have to see the traces of the oscilloscope and their photographic records or hear the signals on the loudspeaker. The various signals from the recording equipment have to be received by my sense organs, transmitted to my brain, and so to my consciousness, then appropriately measured and compared before I can begin to think about the significance of the experimental results. We are all the time, in every action we do, incessantly playing backwards and forwards between World 1 and World 2. "And what is World 3? As shown in Fig. 6-1 it is the whole world of culture. It is the world that was created by man and that reciprocally made man. This is my message in which I follow Popper unreservedly. The whole of language is here. All our means of communication, all our intellectual efforts coded in books, coded in the artistic and technological treasures in the museums, coded in every artefact left by man from primitive times—this is World 3 right up to the present time. It is the world of civilisation and culture. Education is the means whereby each human being is brought into relation with World 3. In this manner he becomes immersed in it throughout life, participating in the heritage of mankind and so becoming fully human. World 3 is the world that uniquely relates to man. It is the world which is completely unknown to animals. They are blind to all of World 3. I say that without any reservations. This is then the first part of my story. "Now I come to consider the way in which the three worlds interact..." Despite these words, in his late book ''
How the Self Controls Its Brain ''How the Self Controls Its Brain'' is a book by Sir John Eccles, proposing a theory of philosophical dualism, and offering a justification of how there can be mind-brain action without violating the principle of the conservation of energy. The ...
'', Eccles proposed a dualistic mechanism of mind.


Personal life and death

Eccles had nine children. Eccles married Irene Miller Eccles (1904-2002) in 1928 and divorced in 1968. After his divorce in 1968, Eccles married Helena Táboríková; a fellow neuropsychologist and M.D. of Charles University. The two often collaborated in research and they remained married until his death. Eccles died on 2 May 1997 in his home of Contra, Switzerland. He was buried in Contra, Switzerland.


Styles

* Mr John Eccles (1903–1929) * Dr John Eccles (1929–1944) * Prof. John Eccles (1944–1958) * Sir John Eccles (1958–1990) * Sir John Eccles AC (1990–1997)


Bibliography

* 1932, ''Reflex Activity of the Spinal Cord''. * 1953, ''The neurophysiological basic of the mind: The principles of neurophysiology'', Oxford: Clarendon. * 1957, ''The Physiology of Nerve Cells''. * 1964, ''The Physiology of Synapses''. * 1965, ''The brain and the unity of conscious experience'', London: Cambridge University Press. * 1969, ''The Inhibitory Pathways of the Central Nervous System''. * 1970, ''Facing reality: Philosophical Adventures by a Brain Scientist'', Berlin: Springer. * 1973, ''The Understanding of the Brain''. * 1977, ''The Self and Its Brain'', with
Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the ...
, Berlin: Springer. * 1979, ''The human mystery'', Berlin: Springer. * 1980, ''The Human Psyche''. * 1984, ''The Wonder of Being Human – Our Brain & Our Mind'', with
Daniel N. Robinson Daniel Nicholas Robinson (March 9, 1937 – September 17, 2018) was an American psychologist who was a professor of psychology at Georgetown University and later in his life became a fellow of the faculty of philosophy at Oxford University. C ...
, New York, Free Press. * 1985, ''Mind and Brain: The Many-Faceted Problems'', (Editor), New York : Paragon House. * 1989, ''Evolution Of The Brain : Creation Of The Self''. * 1994, ''
How the Self Controls Its Brain ''How the Self Controls Its Brain'' is a book by Sir John Eccles, proposing a theory of philosophical dualism, and offering a justification of how there can be mind-brain action without violating the principle of the conservation of energy. The ...
''.


References


External links

* Pratt, D.
''John Eccles on Mind and Brain''
A theosophical view. * Sabbatini, R.M.E.

''Brain & Mind'', 2004.
Interdisciplinary introduction to J.C. Eccles's life and philosophy – Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eccles, John Carew 1903 births 1997 deaths Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Australian Knights Bachelor Australian National University faculty Australian neuroscientists Australian Nobel laureates Australian of the Year Award winners Australian Rhodes Scholars Companions of the Order of Australia Consciousness researchers and theorists Electrophysiologists English people of Australian descent Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Founding members of the World Cultural Council Melbourne Medical School alumni Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine People educated at Melbourne High School Royal Medal winners University at Buffalo faculty University of Otago faculty Neurophysiologists Australian emigrants to Switzerland Australian expatriates in the United States Presidents of the Australian Academy of Science Australian expatriates in Switzerland Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Naturalised citizens of Switzerland Swiss people of Australian descent