Article ID: CBB941012757

Echoes of William Gowers’s concept of abiotrophy (2022)

unapi

Among William Gowers’s many contributions to neurology, the concept of abiotrophy (“an essential failure of vitality”) has been relatively overlooked. In this article, we review the echoes of Gowers’s concept in neurology, ophthalmology, and aging research. We also argue that abiotrophy is broader than both heredodegeneration and neurodegeneration. Unlike the common view that it simply means premature aging, abiotrophy currently can be understood as a progressive degenerative process of a mature specialized tissue, which is nonsynchronous with normal aging and may affect organs or systems early in life, resulting from the age-dependent effects of genetic mutations or variants, even if environmental factors may also causally contribute to the process. Although the term has largely fallen out of use, there are likely to be everlasting echoes of Gowers’s concept, through which he is to be considered a source of the modern thinking about the etiology and nosology of neurological diseases.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB941012757/

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Authors & Contributors
Nadeem Toodayan
Burrell, Brian
Eadie, Mervyn J.
Grimaudo, Sabrina
Lazar, J. Wayne
Lees, Andrew
Journals
Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
História, Ciências, Saúde---Manguinhos
History of Education
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History
Publishers
Oxford University Press
Avery
Edizioni ETS
Simon
University of Nebraska Press
Springer International Publishing
Concepts
Degeneration
Philosophy of medicine
Science and race
Neurology
Eugenics
Psychiatry
People
Gowers, William Richard
Aristotle
Galen
Magnan, Valentin
Morel, Bénédict Auguste
Pound, Ezra Loomis
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
Ancient
21st century
Medieval
Places
Brazil
Great Britain
New York (U.S.)
Vietnam
Denmark
France
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