On the Way to Neuroethology: The Identified Neuron Approach

Abstract

The late Kenneth Roeder, whom I had the pleasure of first meeting in 1955, and many times thereafter, was a major source of inspiration. He was singular, for the late 1930’s, in realizing the potential insects offer for a deep understanding of how nerve cells generate and of control behavior. I think the only other person to perceive this potential may have been V.B. Wigglesworth, but Sir. Vincent hated complex instruments, especially cathode-ray oscillographs, and he positively went out of his way to avoid contact with both them and their “slaves”, as he felt insect neuroscientists soon became. By contrast, Roeder manifestly enjoyed playing with oscilloscopes and looking at spikes. Following his retirement, when he was often too ill to travel to his Tufts University laboratory, Roeder would be busy in his garage. There, his devoted students had helped him set up an excellent neurorecording rig. But first and foremost he was a naturalist who loved the subtleties of animal behavior. He felt that his first call was to the whole animal, so he never made a total commitment to neuroscience as a discipline. I think he was afraid of getting lost in what he perceived as the narrow, though seductive, world of biophysics. For him, communication with intercellular neuronal traffic via extracellular action potentials provided ample food for a lively mind. And of course, he wonderfully illuminated our understanding of insect life by his skillful, perceptive probings.