#nimhgov

[historyatnih]

In 1914, Dr. Walter L. Treadway conducted the first survey on mental health for the Hygienic Laboratory, precursor agency of #NIH. He studied the role of public and private agencies in ministering to social needs. In 1929, he became the founding chief of the Division of Mental Hygiene, a forerunner of the National Institute of Mental Health, in the Public Health Service (PHS). Treadway found that drug addiction and mental disorders are not limited to one class of people, and advocated for a medical, rather than law enforcement, approach to addiction. He helped to get PHS narcotics hospitals established in Lexington, Kentucky and Fort Worth, Texas in the mid-1930s.

[historyatnih]

How do we recognize each other?  And how do we know how another person is feeling by the look on their face?  Dr. Leslie Ungerleider spoke about her research into how the brain processes visual information to identify faces as well as to read facial expressions of emotion at her 2016 Anita B. Roberts Lecture. Several different areas of the brain work together to perform these functions, including a section that tracks movements of the eyes, gaze, lips, and facial expressions. Her work unravels the mystery of a basic cognitive function, and gives us insight into why people with brain injuries or conditions such as autism have trouble recognizing people or their facial expressions of emotions. 

Dr. Ungerleider received her B.A. degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton and her Ph.D. degree from New York University. She did postdoctoral training at Stanford University, and moved to NIMH in 1975, joining the Laboratory of Neuropsychology.  In 1995, Dr. Ungerleider became chief of the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition at @NIMHgov. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the  National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2001, she was the recipient of the Women in Neuroscience Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2009 she received the William James Fellow Award for her mentorship of younger scientists as well as her scientific work.    Watch her lecture https://bit.ly/2H7CcY3

[historyatnih]

“I tried to convince the other people that computers were not just a passing fancy, they were going to be here to stay.”  Dr. Richard Coppola, Director, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), MEG Core Facility

Coppola found his calling to study the brain before the field of neuroscience was established and before computers were in general use.  In college at MIT, he studied electrical engineering with the hopes of using it to map the brain someday.  When he came to NIH in 1970, Coppola introduced computers to his NIMH laboratory, drastically reducing the time needed to do experiments. Now, as director of the NIMH MEG (Magnetoencephalography) Core Facility, he provides NIH researchers a non-invasive method to study brain function. Read his oral history at  http://bit.ly/2k4v0x5

[mariebenz]

Short Term PReP Can Help Protect Men from HIV During Vacation

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: James Egan, Ph.D., M.P.H. Assistant Professor Behavioral and Community Health Sciences Pitt Public Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: When taken as a daily pill, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by about 99%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, adhering to a daily medication regimen doesn’t work for everyone for reasons that include cost and individual concerns about the biological consequences of long-term medication. Previous studies have shown that there are certain periods when some men who have sex with men may be more vulnerable to contracting HIV, including when traveling, on vacation, moving to a new city or after a break-up. Our team set out to explore whether these men might be more receptive to adhering to PrEP treatment during these times. We followed 48 adult men from Pittsburgh or Boston who have sex with men in a pilot program to test the daily use of PrEP for 30 days that included an out-of-town vacation, with the men starting the medication seven days before the trip and continuing for at least seven days after vacation. The men were also given a brief session introducing them to the use of PrEP and discussion adherence. MedicalResearch.com: Read the full article

[historyatnih]

How do our brains know that we are seeing something that is moving as opposed to seeing something that is still but that our gaze is moving over? For example, how do our brains know the difference between our eyes moving to follow a car racing around a track and our eyes moving to search a row of parked cars for our car? By following and recording the eye movements of monkeys, Dr. Robert Wurtz @NatEyeInstitute found that single neurons in our brains are responsible for motion selectivity and orientation selectivity. He published two landmark papers 50 years ago this month, which are the forerunners of today’s research into how the brain processes vision, when he was @nimhgov (he joined NEI in 1979). His apparatus in is our museum collection. Read his autobiography https://bit.ly/2hLuG5F  

[historyatnih]

"Dad says that anyone who can't use a slide rule is a cultural illiterate and should not be allowed to vote. Mine is a beauty—a K&K 2020-inch Log-log Duplex Decitrig," says a character in Robert A. Heinlein's novel Have Space Suit Will Travel (1958).  This particular Keuffel & Esser 20-inch Log-log Duplex Decitrig N4081-5 slide rule dates from the same year as the novel and belonged to Dr. Louis Sokoloff.  Perhaps the book inspired him to buy it?  He was chief of the NIMH Laboratory of Cerebral Metabolism when he developed the method to map the brain for which he won the 1981 Albert Lasker Award in Clinical Medical Research.  His method, the Lasker Foundation said, “facilitated the diagnosis, understanding and possible future treatment of such disorders of the brain as schizophrenia, epilepsy, brain changes due to drug addiction and senile dementia.”

Read more https://bit.ly/2RU6dkW

[historyatnih]

Hmmm…when and where was this photo of Dr. Ichiji Tasaki (left) taken?  There’s a plethora of possibilities.  The photo of Tasaki hard at work with an unknown colleague comes to us courtesy of his son, Keiji Tasaki, and daughter-in-law, Ann Rossilli.  While working in his native Japan, Tasaki demonstrated that a myelin sheath insulates nerve cells and speeds the conduction of nerve impulses.  Keiji and Ann believe Tasaki is in his 30s in this photo (c. 1940). We’re still trying to find out what it is he’s working on though

Tasaki came to #NIH in 1953 and worked at NINDS, NIMH, and NICHD until his death at 98. Learn more  https://bit.ly/2LvTLVb

[historyatnih]

Do these look like rabbit ears to you?  The long tubes on this Zeiss microscope provide two separate optical paths with slightly different angles for viewing a specimen, which is interpreted in our brains as stereovision.  Hence the name Stereoscopic Microscope 1.  Sometimes these microscopes are called dissecting microscopes because they allow the user an upright view to manipulate tissue, but they are also used in electronics, mineralogy, entomology, and zoology.  This particular Zeiss SM1, from about 1960, was used by Dr. Audrey Stone, who worked at NIH for 53 years (1959-2012) at two institutes, NIMH and NICHD.  She studied the basic structure of heparin, a naturally occurring anticoagulant which prevents the clotting of blood, as well as how heparin could be used in potential AIDS and malaria vaccines.