German Society For Neuropathology And Neuroanatomy

Neuropathology is the study of disease of nervous system tissue, usually in the form of either small surgical biopsies or whole-body autopsies. Neuropathology is a subspecialty of anatomic pathology, neurology, and neurosurgery. Established in 1994 with the purposes of promoting and maintaining the harmonisation of neuropathology training and clinical practice throughout Europe, and to promote the science of neuropathology and neuropathology research. It should not be confused with neuropathy, which refers to disorders of the nerves themselves. Neuroanatomy is the study of the anatomy and stereotyped organization of nervous systems. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defined nervous systems, and thus we can make much more precise statements about their neuroanatomy. In vertebrates, the nervous system is segregated into the internal structure of the brain and spinal cord (together called the central nervous system, or CNS) and the routes of the nerves that connect to the rest of the body (known as the peripheral nervous system, or PNS). The delineation of distinct structures and regions of the nervous system has been critical in investigating how it works. For example, much of what neuroscientists have learned comes from observing how damage or "lesions" to specific brain areas affects behavior or other neural functions. For information about the composition of animal nervous systems, see nervous system. For information about the typical structure of the human nervous system, see human brain or peripheral nervous system. This article discusses information pertinent to the study of neuroanatomy. Worldwide, neuropathology - as a branch of anatomic pathology - has virtually developed independently from its mother discipline. Strong influences regarding direction and contents of neuropathology came from

• the blossoming field of neurosurgery which developed in the second half of the 19th century, in particular through the collaboration of neurologists and the neurosurgeon Sir Victor Horsley, as well as through Harvey Cushing and Percival Bailey in the United States,
• psychiatry, which was - thanks to Emil Kraepelin - heavily based on neuropathological morphology, and the foundation of the German Research Institute for Psychiatry in Munich,
• progress in anatomic pathology which has always provided the field of neuropathology with some of its investigative methods

This kind of development was encountered - with regional differences as to its direction - in several European countries and the United States. In Germany, the main impact came from the German Research Institute for Psychiatry where the psychiatrists and neuropathologists Alois Alzheimer, Franz Nissl and Walther Spielmeyer were working. Many impulses and ideas in neuropathology but also in other neuroscientific fields originated from this "Munich School". A second line of development, which proved to be beneficial for neurology and neurosurgery, is associated with the names of Wilhelm Tönnis and Klaus Joachim Zülch. Both of these developmental lines were also called "neuropathology for the rough and for the intricate" . Furthermore, neuroanatomy - and in particular comparative neuroanatomy - played an important part in the development of neuropathology