Editing John Eccles (neurophysiologist) (section)

===Career===
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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]]es: a sensory neurone (the [[muscle spindle]] fibre) and the [[motor neuron]]e. The sensory neurone synapses onto the motor neurone in the [[spinal cord]]. When a current is passed into the sensory neurone in the [[quadriceps]], the motor neurone innervating the quadriceps produced a small [[excitatory postsynaptic potential]] (EPSP). When a similar current is passed through the [[hamstring]], the opposing muscle to the quadriceps, an [[inhibitory postsynaptic potential]] (IPSP) is produced in the quadriceps motor neurone. Although a single EPSP was not enough to fire an [[action potential]] in the motor neurone, the sum of several EPSPs from multiple sensory neurones synapsing onto the motor neurone can cause the motor neurone to fire, thus contracting the quadriceps. On the other hand, IPSPs could subtract from this sum of EPSPs, preventing the motor neurone from firing.

Apart from these seminal experiments, Eccles was key to a number of important developments in [[neuroscience]]. Until around 1949, Eccles believed that [[synaptic transmission]] 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]] and Eccles worked together on some of the experiments which elucidated the role of [[acetylcholine]] as a [[neurotransmitter]] in the brain.