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The Tang School, Spark School and Neuron Wi-Fi

发布时间：

2026-07-30

The Tang School, Spark School and Neuron Wi-Fi

Sun Zuodong

How neurons transmit signals across synaptic clefts has been a core research puzzle in neuroscience for more than a century. The complete research development falls into three major historical stages: the structural controversy between Golgi and Cajal, the century-long debate on synaptic transmission mechanisms between the Soup School and the Spark School, and the newly expanded wireless electromagnetic wave conduction mechanism of neurons originally proposed by myself. These three academic threads advance step by step, jointly drawing a full picture of research on brain signal transmission.

Stage 1: The Golgi-Cajal Controversy (1873–1906)

Camillo Golgi (1843–1926), an Italian histologist, invented the silver nitrate Golgi staining method in 1873, which allowed the first clear observation of intact neuronal morphology. Golgi upheld the reticular theory: all nerve cells in the nervous system fuse together to form a continuous, integrated network without independent cellular boundaries.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852–1934), a Spanish neuroscientist, refined Golgi’s staining technique and conducted extensive observations of vertebrate nervous tissues. He proposed the neuron doctrine: neurons are independent units separated by tiny gaps and do not fuse with one another.

In 1906, the two scientists shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In a dramatic scene at the award ceremony, Golgi delivered a speech defending the reticular theory and rejecting the neuron doctrine, while Cajal delivered an academic rebuttal on the spot. It was not until the emergence of electron microscopy in the 1950s, which clearly visualized synaptic clefts, that the neuron doctrine became the universal consensus in academia. After Golgi and Cajal clarified the independent structure of neurons, scientists were confronted with a key question: how neuronal signals cross the gaps between cells.

Stage 2: The Century-Long Dispute Between the Soup School and the Spark School (1920s–1950s)

The Soup School (Chemical Transmission School)

Core representatives: Otto Loewi (1873–1961), Henry Hallett Dale (1875–1968) In 1921, Otto Loewi completed his classic frog heart experiment, proving that the vagus nerve releases chemical substances to regulate cardiac activity and verifying the existence of chemical signal transmission in peripheral nerves. Loewi and Dale were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1936.

The core standpoint of the Soup School: presynaptic terminals release neurotransmitters, which diffuse across the synaptic cleft and activate receptors on downstream neurons to complete signal transmission—a process vividly analogized to "simmering a broth". To this day, chemical conduction is widely recognized as the dominant transmission mode for most central synapses in higher mammals.

The Spark School (Electrical Transmission School)

Core representative: John Carew Eccles (1903–1997) The Spark School held that neurons transmit signals directly across synaptic clefts via local electric currents, much like electric sparks, with no involvement of chemical neurotransmitters. Eccles argued that the diffusion of chemical substances would create obvious time delays, which cannot match the millisecond-level rapid response of spinal reflexes.

Following the popularization of glass microelectrode technology, researchers recorded fixed delays in synaptic signal conduction that could not be explained by the direct electrical transmission theory. Respecting experimental evidence, Eccles voluntarily abandoned the original viewpoints of the Spark School. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1963 in recognition of his research on neuronal ionic mechanisms.

Objectively speaking, the Spark School’s theory is not entirely erroneous. Electrical synapses that transmit electrical signals directly through gap junctions exist widely in nature, yet such structures only appear in the neural circuits of certain lower organisms and are not the primary communication pathway in the brains of higher animals.

The Soup School and Spark School shared one common premise: neuronal information exchange relies on close physical contact between cells, and signal transmission can only be realized through synaptic structures.

Stage 3: The Wireless Electromagnetic Wave Conduction Mechanism of Neurons (Neuron WiFi Mechanism)

Both the Soup School and the Spark School only focused on contact-based synaptic signal transmission, whereas the wireless electromagnetic wave conduction mechanism of neurons breaks the traditional research framework. Based on the self-established potassium channel origami windmill model, I conducted systematic theoretical deductions combined with Maxwell’s electromagnetic field theory. In 2022, I published the academic paper Neurons Can Generate Electromagnetic Waves, formally elaborating and establishing the electromagnetic wave conduction mechanism of neurons.

Core Principle：When neurons generate action potentials, potassium and sodium ions on the cell membrane continuously flow directionally across the membrane. The periodic movement of electric charges radiates alternating electromagnetic fields outwards. Neurons act as natural biological antennas, enabling long-distance, contact-free information interaction via electromagnetic fields. This accessible analogy is known as the neuron WiFi mechanism.

The brain has evolved the blood-brain barrier and cerebrospinal fluid, forming a natural electromagnetic shielding environment. This wireless communication mechanism most likely serves local information coordination inside the brain and will not interfere with external signals. At present, this mechanism forms an original theoretical system proposed by myself. It opens a brand-new research perspective for interpreting large-scale synchronous activity of brain networks and the integration mechanism of consciousness, and its detailed contents await systematic verification through abundant in vivo experiments.

Over the past century of scientific research, three generations of academic explorations represent three distinct research paths: Golgi and Cajal clarified the basic structure of neurons; the Soup School and Spark School carried out long-term debates over contact-based synaptic signal transmission; the original electromagnetic wave conduction mechanism of neurons proposed by myself expands the research boundary to non-contact wireless information interaction. None of the three theories can be simply judged right or wrong; they jointly reflect humanity’s continuous expansion of exploration into the underlying operating mechanisms of the brain. Only through the collision and verification of diverse theories can humans gradually uncover the profound mysteries of brain function.