DPAG History of Medical Sciences Seminar: 'Literal or Sense for Sense: Problems with translating Cajal' and 'A short history of connectomics from Willis to Cajal and beyond'

Monday, 22 June 2026, 4pm to 5.30pm

Neely Swanson
Title: Literal or Sense for Sense: Problems with translating Cajal
Abstract: The shorter works of Ramón y Cajal had been translated in the past, but it was the advent of the personal computer that facilitated the translation of his major work. Previous works had been translated literally, making them accurate but sterile. This was not what Cajal himself intended and Swanson and Swanson took a different approach in their three translations: “New Ideas on the Structure of the Nervous System in Man and Vertebrates,” “Histology of the Nervous System in Man and Vertebrates” and finally, “Advice for a Young Investigator.”

Larry Swanson
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Title: A short history of connectomics from Willis to Cajal and beyond
Abstract: Attempts to provide a global model of brain structure-function organization date back over 1500 years. Major conceptual advances by Vesalius, Willis, Cajal and others will be reviewed, and the latest approach based on connectomics will be introduced. This systematic strategy is based on adjacency matrices (connectomes), graph theory, and cluster analysis.

Speaker(s): Professor Larry Swanson (University of Southern California), Neely Swanson (Independent contractor)

Venue: Sherrington Building - Sherrington Library - Sherrington Library Sherrington Building off Parks Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX1 3PT United Kingdom

Department: Physiology Anatomy and Genetics (Department)

Host: Professor Zoltán Molnár, Professor Randy Bruno, Associate Professor Kerry Walker and Professor David Paterson