2010
Centennial of the birth of Giuseppe Moruzzi (1910-1986)
the great Italian neurophysiologist
who was professor in Ferrara from 1946 to 1949.
A book rich of images
and with several texts
including an article on Moruzzi byMario Tobino
and a transcription of a conference on him
by Rita Levi-Montalcini
has been published
in a bilingual edition by Edizioni ETS of Pisa
Information on this book can be obtained
by clicking on the cover image below:
THE
BOOK PUBLISHER, EDIZIONI ETS - PISA,
HAS MADE AVAILABLE THE VIDEO OF
RITA LEVI-MONTALCINI'S CONFERENCE ON MORUZZI
PRESENTED IN THE FIRST DAY OF THE CORLIANO MEETING.
THE VIDEO HAS BEEN EDITED AND SUBTITLED IN ENGLISH.
MANY THANKS TO VINCENZO LETTA
FOR HIS NICE EDITING OF THE VIDEO
Function:
Professor of General Physiology, Course of Natural Science, University
of Ferrara.
Address:
Università degli Studi di Ferrara
Dipartimento di Biologia,
Sezione di Fisiologia Generale
Via Borsari 46, 44100 Ferrara, Italy
Tel. +39 0532 291 470 FAX +39 0532 207143
E-mail: marco.piccolino@unife.it
Education:
M. D. Catholic University of Rome, 1970 (cum laude).
PhD Course: Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, 1970-1972.
Research interests:
My main research interests are in the study of synaptic transmission
mechanisms in the vertebrate retina and their functional
consequences
for vision. In the past I have investigated the mechanism
of
both forward and feedback transmission from photoreceptors to
horizontal
cells of the turtle retina (in collaboration with Luigi Cervetto at the
Institute of Neurophysiology of the C.N.R. of Pisa (Italy),
and with Hersh Gerschenfeld at Laboratory of Neurobiology of the
École
Normale Supérieure of Paris (France). In Paris I have also
worked
with Gerschenfeld, Jacques Neyton and Paul Witkovsky on the role of
dopamine
in modulating the permeability of gap junctions among retinal
horizontal
cells. I have collaborated with Masao Tachibana at the Department of
Psychology
of the University of Tokyo, in the study of the mechanism of release of
synaptic transmitter from retinal bipolar cells.
My more recent research work deals with the investigation of the
effect
of divalent cations on synaptic transmission from photoreceptors to
horizontal
cells in turtle and salamander retina. This study, started in 1994 at
the
University of Ferrara, in collaboration with Alexei Byzov of theRussian
Academy of Science, has since then continued in an uninterrupted
fashion,
and involved collaboration with the group of Steve Barnes, then
at
the University of Calgary, Andrey Dmitriev of the University of
Alabama,
Peter McNaughton and Vittorio Vellani, then at the King's College
of London. In pursuing further this research I am now collaborating
with
Wallace Thoreson, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The
surprising
conclusion of these studies is that the so called synaptic
transmission
from photoreceptors to horizontal cells is not really
“calcium-independent”.
This is because when you perfuse the retina with solutions
containing
nominally very low concentrations of calcium, you reduce only by a
modest
amount the calcium-concentration in the extracellular space of
the
retina, and surprisingly you can even increase calcium entry into
synaptic terminals of photoreceptors. This paradoxical effect results
from
a modification of external surface potential in photoreceptors due to
lowering
calcium, and is accounted for by the ‘surface charge theory’.
Some of my recent collaborators in Ferrara laboratory are
shown
in the photo below:
From the left: Andrea Moriondo,
Liramalala
A. Rakotobe, with Angela Pignatelli on the right:
Another important aspect of my scientific interests concerns history
of science, with particular reference to subjects connected to my
experimental
research work, i.e. neurophysiology and electrophysiology. In the past
I have analysed the neurophysiological work of Santiago Ramón Y
Cajal; more recently I have been working on the scientific
revolution
in life sciences and on the beginning of electrophysiology, dealing
with
the work of scientists like Marcello Malpighi, Luigi Galvani,
Alessandro
Volta, Lazzaro Spallanzani and John Walsh. In collaboration with a
science
historian, Marco Bresadola, I have just completed a book in Italian on
the work of Luigi Galvani, the famous doctor of Bologna who
started electrophysiology more than two centuries ago with his
experiments
on frog preparations. This book entitled "Rane,
torpedini
e
scintille
/
Galvani,
Volta
e l'elettricità animale"
("Frogs, torpedoes and sparks / Galvani,
Volta
and animal electricity") has just published (July
2003) by Bollati-Boringhieri
of Torino . I have also completede another book (in
English) concerning mainly the work of John Walsh, the English
scientist
that in the period 1772-1775 provided conclusive evidence on the
electrical
nature of the shock of the torpedo and of the eel of the Surinam,:
Walsh's
researches opened the path to the work of Luigi Galvani on the
involvement
of electricity in neuro-muscular function and, moreover, to the
scientific
endeavour of Alessandro Volta culminating in 1799-1800 in the invention
of the electric battery. The book entitled "The
taming
of
the
ray
/
Electric
fish research in the Enlightenment, from
Walsh
to Volta" has been published in
2003)
by
the
publisher
L.
S. Olschkiof Florence. In 2005 I have
published a book on various aspects of the scientific enterprise,
largely inspired by the writings of Galileo:. "Lo
zufolo
e
la
cicala"
/
Divagazioni
galileiane
tra la scienza e la sua storia. Bollati-Boringhieri, Torino.
More
recently,
with
Nick
Wade
of
the University of Dundee in
Scotland, I have published a book dealing with the theme of
ambiguity in art, science and history prompted by our discovery
in an Islamic flag of the Church of the Cavalieri of Pisa of what might
be the earliest example of the visual ambiguity of the
"vase-face"
type (i.e. one one in which you can see either two profiles of
visages at both sides or the silhouette of a vase in the centre).
This flag is illustrated below: try to identify (if you
can) the
faces and the peculiar type of "vase"::
I am now mainly involved in two research projects of historical
character. The first concerns mainly the
importance of reflection on senses and particularly
vision in the scientific work of Galileo Galilei. This is a rather
neglected aspect of Galileo's scientific endeavour, which
is of great importance in the emergence of
modern science In this project I am working in
collaboration with Nick Wade, profiting of his great knowledge of
sensory psychology and of science history. In the second project
I am collaborating with
Stanley Finger of WashingtonUniversity
in St Louis,
a distinguished historian of the neurosciences, in order to write
a book on the historical importance of
electric fish research in the birth of modern electrophysiology.
Main
publications:
Piccolino.
M.,
Wade,
N. J. (2010) Galileo's eye: a revolution in sense physiology
at the dawn of modern era. Oxford Univeristy Press (in preparation).
Finger, S., Piccolino M. (2010)
Shocking fishes: the fascinating "pre-history" of animal electricity.
Oxford University Press. (in the press).
Meulders, M., Piccolino M., and Wade,
N. J. (2010) Giuseppe Moruzzi,
Ritratti di uno scienziato, Portraits of a scientist. E.T.S.
Pisa.
Piccolino, M., and Wade, N.J.
(2009). Galileo e i segni dei sensi. Sapere, Agosto, 56-63.
Piccolino, M., and Wade, N.J. (2008).
Galileo’s eye: a new vision of the senses in the work of Galileo
Galilei. Perception, 37, 1312-1340.
Koehler, P., Finger, S., Piccolino M.
(2009 The “eels” of South America: mid-18th-century Dutch contributions
to the theory of animal electricity. Journal of the History of Biology, 42:
235-251. Piccolino M., Wade, N.J. (2008)
Galileo's eye: A new vision of the senses in the work of Galileo
Galilei. Perception, 37: 1-29.
Piccolino M., Wade, N.J. (2008)
Galileo Galilei’s vision of the senses Trends in Neurosciences.
31:585-590.
Piccolino M. (2008) (a cura di)
"Neuroscienze Controverse / Da Aristotele alla moderna scienza del
linguaggio" Bollati-Boringhieri, Torino.
Piccolino M. (2008) Visual images in
Luigi Galvani's path to animal electricity. The Journal of the history
of Neurosciences. 17:335–348.
Piccolino M. (2008) Hersch M.
Gerschenfeld et les années de la rétine à l'Ecole
Normale Supérieure. in "L'Essor des Neurosciences", C. Debru,
J-G. Barbara & C. Cherici edrs, Hermann, Paris. pp. 323-349.
Piccolino M. (2007) I sensi,
l’ambiguità, la conoscenza nell’opera di Galileo
Galilæana. Journal of Galilean Studies 4: 245-278
Piccolino, M., Wade, N.J. (2007)
"Insegne ambigue / Percorsi obliqui tra storia, scienza e arte, da
Galileo a Magritte". ETS, Pisa.
Piccolino M. (2007) I sensi, l’ambiguità, la
conoscenza nell’opera
di Galileo Galilæana.Journal
of Galilean Studies
(in
the
press)
Piccolino M. (2007) Visual images in Luigi Gavani's path to animal
electricity. The Journal of the history of Neurosciences (in the press)
Piccolino M. (2007) (ed.) "Neuroscienze Controverse / Da Aristotele
alla moderna scienza del linguaggio" Bollati-Boringhieri, Torino. (in
the press)
Piccolino, M., G. Demontis, P. Witkovsky, E. Strettoi, G.C.
Cappagli,
M.L. Porceddu, G. De Montis, S. Pepitoni, G. Biggio, E. Meller,K.
Bohmaker
(1989) Involvement of D1 and D2 dopamine receptors in the control of
horizontal
cell electrical coupling in the turtle retina. Eur.J.Neurosci.
1:247-257.
Bodis-Wollner, I. , and M. Piccolino (1988) Dopaminergic mechanisms
in vision. New York: A. R. Liss.
Neyton, J., M. Piccolino , and H.M. Gerschenfeld (1985)
Neurotransmitter-induced
modulation of gap junction permeability in retinal horizontal cells. In
D.C.Spray and M.V.L. Bennett (eds): Gap Junctions. Cold Spring Harbor
Press.,
pp. 381-391.
Piccolino, M., P. Witkovsky, J. Neyton, H.M. Gerschenfeld , and C.
Trimarchi
(1985) Modulation of gap junction permeability by dopamine and GABA in
the network of horizontal cells of the turtle retina. In A. Gallego and
P. Gouras (eds): Neurocircuitry of the Retina, a Cajal Memorial. New
York:
Elsevier, pp.
66-76.
Cervetto, L.,M. Piccolino (1982) Processing of visual signals in
vertebrate
photoreceptors. Arch.It.Biol. 12:242-27O.
Gerschenfeld, H.M., J. Neyton, M. Piccolino,P. Witkovsky (1982)
L-horizontal
cells of the turtle: network organization and coupling modulation.
Biomedical
Research Suppl. 3:21-32.
Piccolino, M. , and J. Neyton (1982) The feedback effect from
luminosity
horizontal cells to cones in the turtle retina: a key to understanding
the response properties of the horizontal cells. In M. Laufer and B.D.
Drujan (eds): The S-potential. New York: A.R.Liss, pp. 161-179.
Gerschenfeld, H.M. , and M. Piccolino (1979) Pharmacology of the
connections
of cones and L-horizontal cells in the vertebrate retina. In F.O.
Schmitt
and F.G. Worden (eds): Neuroscience: Fourth study program.
M.I.T.Press.,Cambrigde,.Mass.,
pp. 313-326.
Piccolino, M.,H.M. Gerschenfeld (1978) Activation of a regenerative
calcium conductance in turtle cones by peripheral stimulation.
Proc.R.Soc.Lond.[Biol.]
201:309-315.
Piccolino, M.,H.M. Gerschenfeld (1977) Lateral interactions in the
outer
plexiform layer of turtle retinas after atropine block of horizontal
cells.
Nature 268:259-261.
Piccolino, M.,H.M. Gerschenfeld (1977) Muscarinic antagonists block
cone to horizontal cell transmission in turtle retina. Nature
268:257-261.
Cervetto, L. , and M. Piccolino (1976) Mechanisms of synaptic
transmission
in the vertebrate retina. In M. Santini (ed): Golgi centennial
symposium.
New York: Raven Press, pp. 577-583.
Piccolino, M. (1976) Strontium-calcium substitution in synaptic
transmission
in the turtle retina. Nature Lond. 261:5O4-5O5.
Cervetto, L.,M. Piccolino (1974) Synaptic transmission between
photoreceptors
and horizontal cells in the turtle retina. Science 183:417-419.
Bisti, S., L. Maffei,M. Piccolino (1973) Visuovestibular
interactions
in the cat superior colliculus. J.Neurophysiol. 38:146-155.
Campbell, F.W., L. Maffei,M. Piccolino (1973) The contrast
sensitivity
of the cat. J.Physiol.(Lond.) 229:719-731.
Bisti, S., L. Maffei, M. Piccolino (1972) Variations of the visual
response
of the superior colliculus in relation to the body roll. Science
75:314-315.
