Computer Analysis of Neuronal Structures

It seems particularly appropriate that this pioneering collection of papers should be dedicated to Donald Sholl since those of us who count, measure, and reconstruct elements of the neural en>emble are all very much in his debt.

Sholl was certainly not the first to attempt quantification of certain aspects of brain structure.

No computers were available to him for the kind of answers he sought, and some of his answers - or rather his interpretations - may not stand the test of time.

But we remember him because of the questions he asked and for the reasons he asked them.

At a time when the entire family of Golgi techniques was in almost total eclipse, he had the judgment to rely on them. And in a period when the canonical neuron was a perfect sphere (the enormous dendritic superstructure being almost forgotten), he was one of a very few who looked to dendrite extension and pattern as a prime clue to the overall problem of neuronal connectivity.