COMMENTARY 120 years of Hippocampal Schaffer Collaterals

Karoly Schaffer (1864-1939) was a Hungarian neurolo- gist who distinguished himself through original discoveries in human neuropathology. At the beginning of his scientific carrier, he described the cellular and fiber structure of the hippocampus, earning him a high reputation in neuroscience. Schaffer (1892) described the so-called ''collateral fiber system'' that connects the CA3 and CA1 regions of the hippocampus, known today as Schaffer collaterals. To decipher the his- tory of this well-known eponym, we review Schaffer's original German publication and follow the impact of his research in the contemporary literature. V C 2012 Wiley Periodicals Inc.