Jorge Eduardo Duque-Parra

Functional neuroanatomy: The first daughter of neuroscience and the mother of neural science

From a holistic point of view, we can approach neuroscience from thousands of years back in the history of humankind from the perspective of those elements associated with macroscopic neuroanatomy. Neural science has been recognized as the study initiated more than a hundred years ago through the microscopic analysis of the neural cell units of the nervous system. Neuroscience has become enriched from other disciplines, which have been incorporated into it as an integrated set of macroscopic, microscopic, physical and molecular knowledge focusing on very selective topics from the neuroscientific perspective. Functional neuroanatomy, it can be argued, bridges neuroscience and neural science. The study of the brain has been the province of several disciplines, among them neuropsychology, which has used the lesion method to determine localization by observing the absence of function after injury, whereas neuroanatomy and neurobiology have mapped neural development and connectivity and have studied functionality in animal models. The boundaries between all these disciplines have become steadily less distinct, thus, giving birth to the broad discipline known as cognitive neuroscience (Andreasen, 1997). Thus, Neurosciences owes its name to the enrichment it has obtained from various areas of knowledge (Duque-Parra, 1999). Neurosciences (because of their integrating quality of several sciences associated with neurology), or simply Neuroscience, is a term that reflects the truly interdisciplinary nature of modern brain research (Beatty, 1995). Particularly in the realm of neuroscience, neural science aims at understanding the biological mechanisms that account for mental activity (Albright et al., 2000). Neuroscience dif-

Anatomic description of the palmaris longus muscle and report of variant nerve supply in the white-footed tamarin (Saguinus leucopus Günther, 1876)

The gross anatomy of the palmaris longus muscle in 12 specimens of Saguinus leucopus was studied by dissection. This muscle was constant and unipennate, originated in the medial epicondyle of the humerus; inserted onto flexor retinaculum and palmar aponeurosis; and innerved by the median nerve, and in one case, together with the ulnar nerve. This is the first report of double innervation for this muscle in primates.

Descripción Anatómica de la Ulna del Tití Gris (Saguinus leucopus Günther, 1876)

El presente trabajo es una descripcion de la anatomia macroscopica y funcional de los relieves oseos de la ulna del titi gris (Saguinus leucopus), un primate neotropical, endemico y monotipico de Colombia, con escasos estudios sobre su anatomia, y por ende de la morfologia ulnar, elemento fundamental para la locomocion cuadrupeda de este animal arboreo que permanece desconocida. Para ello, se tomaron como base del estudio ocho especimenes fijados con formalina al 10 % y de ellos se extrajeron sus ulnas, describiendo los principales relieves oseos con sus funciones de fijacion muscular y ligamentosa. Estos elementos del aparato locomotor con sus multiples relieves anatomicos de la ulna del titi gris, presentan caracteristicas para la adaptacion posicional y articular con otros huesos del miembro toracico de manera armonica para la fijacion de musculos indispensables en su locomocion cuadrupeda arborea.