Download History of Neurology

History of Neurology
DAVID H. HUBEL MD & TORSTEN WIESEL MD
(1926-2013) (1924-PRESENT)
APRIL 10TH, 2017
NEUROLOGY RESIDENT MORNING REPORT
DAVID H. HUBEL
(1926-2013)
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B Ontario, Canada
McGill Med school & Neurology residency
1959-Hopkins Neurology Fellowship
toof
P&L
for the (WRAIR)
Korean War-drafted into Army-Walter Reed Army Institution
Research
game
– Began recording from primary visual cortex of awake cats
– Invented modern metal electrodes
– Measured firing of brain cells in cats as they watched moving spot on screen
Learned basic machinist skills
1958-Hopkins: began collaborating with Dr. Wiesel
– Both recruited to Harvard; collaborated 20 years
1959-Hubel spent career at HMS till he died
Torsten Wiesel MD
1924-present
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B Uppsala, Sweden
MD- Karolinska Institute
Fac-Physiology & child Psychiatry
1955-Hopkins under Dr. Stephen Kuffler
1958 -Fellowship in Ophthalmology
– Then Asst Prof
– Met Dr. Hubel
1959- Moved to Harvard with Hubel
– Instructor in Pharmacology
1968-Prof Neurobiology; Chair 1971
1983- Rockefeller University
1991-1998 President of RU
Still at RU
David Hubel MD & Torsten Wiesel MD
Discoveries
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Neurophysiology of vision
Information processing in visual system
Cells in occipital cortex respond to straight lines, movement, and
contrast
Some cells fire rapidly in response to horizontal lines, others to
vertical lines or angles (edge motion, stereoscopic, color detectors)
Cells with similar functions are organized into columns (ocular
dominance columns)
David Hubel MD & Torsten Wiesel MD
Discoveries
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Vision does not develop normally if the brain fails to make
connections with the eye early in life.
Experiments; sealed eye shut at birth in cats. Blind in that eye
& light not enough to provide stimulation
David Hubel MD & Torsten Wiesel MD
Discoveries
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Columns in the primary visual cortex receiving inputs from non-blind eye
took over the areas that would normally receive input from the deprived
eye
Ocular dominance develops irreversibly in early childhood
Implications for childhood cataracts and strabismus
Now we operate on infants born with cataracts early in life to prevent
vascular
Also now treat strabismus earlier
David Hubel MD & Torsten Wiesel MD
E. Kandel: “David and Torsten did more than open up the study of
primary visual cortex; they laid the basis of all that was to follow in the
sensory system. Together their body of work stands as one of the
great biologic achievements of the 20th century”
Other “critical periods” have since been found in hearing & language
acquisitions
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine -1981
(shared with Roger Sperry MD)
New York Times: Sept. 24, 2013
Obit for Dr. Hubel
The Discovery!!!!
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David Hubel MD & Torsten Wiesel MD
Brain and Visual Perception: The Story of a 25-Year Collaboration
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2004