1. History of Neurology david h. hubel md & torsten wiesel md
( ) (1924-present)
April 10th, 2017
Neurology resident morning report

2. David H. Hubel (1926-2013) B Ontario, Canada
McGill Med school & Neurology residency
1959-Hopkins Neurology Fellowship
Korean War-drafted into Army-Walter Reed Army Institution of Research  (WRAIR)
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
to P&L for the game

3. Torsten Wiesel MD 1924-present
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
President of RU
Still at RU

4. David Hubel MD & Torsten Wiesel MD Discoveries
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)

5. David Hubel MD & Torsten Wiesel MD Discoveries.
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

6. David Hubel MD & Torsten Wiesel MD Discoveries
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

7. 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 (shared with Roger Sperry MD)

8. New York Times: Sept. 24, 2013 Obit for Dr. Hubel The Discovery!!!!

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15. David Hubel MD & Torsten Wiesel MD  Brain and Visual Perception: The Story of a 25-Year Collaboration.
2004