The development of the knowledge of the thalamus has proceeded along many avenues of research. The early workers ranged far and wide, comparing, dividing, and subdividing the thalamus and in general terms catalogued anatomical data. Later the relationship of the thalamus and other areas of the nervous system was discovered and with this began the studies of the thalamocortical and corticothalamic connections. [...]

It is not difficult to conceive of physiological conditions in mammalian life requiring an immediate and generalized augmentation of neuro-muscular activity, with or without an accompanying increase in mental activity. Fear, excitement, pain, and rage, are all examples of situations which cause unusual emphasis to be placed on the ability of the individual to develop a rapid and widespread increase in all muscular forces. [...]

The present investigation was undertaken to examine in man the reactions of the cells within the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei to stalk section and hypophysectomy. Although there are a number of reports of similar studies in a variety of experimental animals, information on the effects in man is scanty. [...]

Experimental demyelination in animals, as is well known, may be produced by a variety of methods. It is unlikely that most of the factors responsible for experimental demyelination are in any way related to those responsible for the commonly recognized clinical demyelinative diseases. However, the pathological picture produced by the use of one of these experimental methods, namely, Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis, is very similar to that produced by some forms of human demyelinating diseases. [...]

This work began as a clinical analysis of patients who suffered unexplained hemipareses following temporal lobectomies. A preliminary survey suggested that the site of disturbance was the internal capsule and that the cause was vascular interference. Further study confirmed this impression and produced strong clinical evidence that the disability was caused by spasm of the capsular arteries in response to mechanical irritation. [...]

The following conclusions may be drawn from electrophysiological study of the efferent pathways of the supplementary and precentral motor areas: 1) Stimulation of the motor cortex by single, short duration square pulses evokes in the cord responses consisting of a stable "direct" early component of fixed latency and of an "indirect" late one, variable in amplitude form and latency. 2) Both components are electrically positive at the recording electrode tip against a diffuse reference. [...]

This work is a biochemical study of human brain tumours involving a comparison of various metabolic activities of one tumour type with another and with normal brain. It was hoped that, besides obtaining information about brain tumours, some idea might be obtained of the contribution of non-neuronal elements to the total metabolism of brain.

Epileptiform EEG discharges consisting of alternate waves and spikes at a frequency of 3 seconds and occurring synchronously in both cerebral hemispheres are classically associated with the clinical condition of petit mal. No focal pathological lesion has as yet been demonstrated to account for this form of human epilepsy. Some clinical and EEG observations as well as the animal experiments by Jasper and Droogleever-Fortuyn (1947), Ingvar (1955), and Perot (1961) suggest that this type of epileptic discharge may originate in a mesencephalo-diencephalic system with diffuse bilateral projection pathways often referred to as the "centrencephalic system" (Penfïeld, 1950; Penfield and Jasper, 1954).

Although, as will be subsequently pointed out, philosophical speculation on cerebral physiological problems long preceded the work on the finer anatomy of the cerebral cortex, the latter study, in turn, has preceded the more refined physiological investigations with which it has been associated during science's dizzy dash of the past six decades. It will be shown that a fairly well defined concept of cellular formation had already been evolved by 1870 when the centuries-old gestation period of neuro-physiology ended. Because of this real precedence, the cytoarchitectonic study in its narrow sense will be the first to be presented. Associated with this will be a glimpse at the embryology of the cortical layers, introduced to round out the survey. The valuable work of past investigators in myelo-architectonics has not been treated because it lacks the potentialities found in cytoarchitectonic studies. The phylogenetic aspect, though interesting, seems too far afield for a work of the magnitude of this presentation.

The belief that it is necessary to fill every dural defect with some type of membrane has been the basis of much of the experimental work on dural deficiency as well as the surgical treatment of dural defects. On the other hand, there is the opinion, based on clinical experience and some experimental studies, that the dura takes good care of its own defects.