J. J. Zarranz
Neurosciences and History 2025;13(2): 72-86
Article type: Original
AUTHOR
J. J. Zarranz
Emeritus chair. Department of Neuroscience. Universidad del País Vasco/ Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Leioa, Spain.
Guest lecturer. Degree in medicine. Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao, Spain.
ABSTRACT
Dr Dionisio Nieto received excellent training in neurology, psychiatry, and neuropathology from masters in both Spain (Sanchís Banús, Del Río Hortega) and Germany (Spielmeyer, Bumke, Bonhoeffer, and Kretschmer). He had a calling to continue and expand the brilliant trajectory of these disciplines in the first decades of the 20th century in Spain. Unfortunately, this valuable progress was stopped dead by the Spanish Civil War, which forced many leading figures into exile; this group included Nieto, who emigrated to Mexico, creating his own school there. One of his main disciples was Dr Alfonso Escobar. Together, they developed a significant scientific career that afforded them great prestige in the international neuropathological community. As a result of this status, they were charged with writing six chapters for the first great English-language treatise on neuropathology, edited by Jeff Minckler.
This study presents a detailed review of those six chapters. The review identifies the authors’ mastery of neuropathological technique, their great expertise, and the originality of some of their contributions. Specifically, Nieto and Escobar were pioneers in describing secondary degeneration of limbic structures connected to the sclerotic hippocampus in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, a finding that has been rediscovered thanks to magnetic resonance imaging. Furthermore, using an original method, they observed diffuse gliosis in the midbrain/ diencephalon of patients with schizophrenia; this finding has not been confirmed in subsequent studies, perhaps due to methodological differences. The other four chapters address neurosyphilis, nervous system parasitic diseases, stress, and basic histological staining techniques.
KEYWORDS
Epilepsy, Escobar, Minckler, neuropathology, Nieto, schizophrenia
Neurosciences and History 2025;13(2): 72-86