Neuronal Specificity and Development of Neuronal Circuits

Abstract

History shows that the most advanced concepts and theories in biology are only gradually assimilated by neurobiology, and the concept of neuronal specificity is no exception. Concepts and theories such as those of adaptive evolution; of the matching of features of the outer world with functions of the organism; of the relations between structural and functional organization, which include the concepts of levels of organization and of localization of function; of homeostasis as a means of ensuring the integrity of structures and stability of functions—these were all appropriated by neurobiology from general biology in the nineteenth century. The present purpose is to show how the concept of neuronal specificity is related to and derived from the neuron theory and earlier concepts.