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Biographical Memoirs Volume 88 (2006) / Chapter Skim
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Walle J. H. Nauta
Pages 284-303

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From page 285...
... J O N E S W ALLE NAUTA WAS ONE of the leading neuroanatomists of his generation and a key figure in neuroscience history as a consequence of his development of a revolutionary technique for tracing connections in the nervous system. It was a technique that dominated the field of neuroanatomy at a time when it was forming one of the seminal influences in the rise of neuroscience as an integrated discipline.
From page 286...
... On completing his clinical studies in 1942, he was about to return to an instructorship in anatomy when Leiden University was closed by the occupying authorities on account of its being a hotbed of subversion. He therefore received his qualifying medical degree from the State University of Utrecht and began to work in the Pharmacology Department there.
From page 287...
... H . N A U T A 287 of him that he and his family at the end of the war protected the local German administrator -- who had turned a blind eye to the Nautas' harboring of a Jewish girl for most of the war -- until his bona fides could be established and safe passage back to Germany secured.
From page 288...
... The direct investigation of neural connections in the hypothalamus, in which most fiber tracts are not myelinated, had always been hampered by the lack of a practical experimental method for revealing unmyelinated fibers belonging to particular functional systems. At the hands of earlier neuroanatomists such as Cajal, the study of normal fibers impregnated by the Golgi technique had yielded some basic information on local connectivity; but the sheer tangle of fibers in their fine meshworks in the hypothalamus made imperative a more selective technique for labeling fibers that began or ended among identified neuronal groups, some of them -- such as the hippocampus -- far removed from the hypothalamus.
From page 289...
... A modification -- that of Paul Glees -- described in 1946, could reveal the endings of those fiber systems in which the terminal boutons on degenerating axons enlarged and assumed a ring-like configuration as the result of what was later revealed as a neurofilamentous hyperplasia. However this technique did not suppress staining of that obscuring mass of normal fibers, and was plagued with false positives.
From page 290...
... Ryan, a U.S. Air Force major, later the European project manager for a General Electric Company defense contract, and a skilled photographer; and by Paul A
From page 291...
... Among those who were there during Nauta's time were John Boren, Joseph Brady, Boyd Campbell, Sven Ebbesson, Ford Ebner, Michael Fuortes, Robert Galambos, William Hodos, David Hubel, Harvey Karten, JacSue Kehoe, John Mason, William Mehler, James Petras, George Moushegian, Enrique RamónMoliner, Felix Strumwasser, and Eliot Valenstein. Many of these worked in Nauta's laboratory; others formed part of a very successful section of neurophysiology.
From page 292...
... Some were published as solo authored papers, others with his associates at Walter Reed, of whom there were many, although not all became coauthors. Later studies on the connections of the habenula, substantia nigra, and basal ganglia, mainly carried out with students, reflected a concentration on the motor sys
From page 293...
... He was a recipient of the Karl Spencer Lashley Award of the American Philosophical Society, the Henry Gray Award of the American Association of Anatomists, the Ralph W Gerard Award of the Society for Neuroscience, and the Bristol Myers Award for neuroscience research.
From page 294...
... He taught neuroanatomy throughout his time at MIT, and his lectures were extremely popular among graduate students and others. Among those who benefited from his support and tutelage were many of today's neuroscientists, including Robert Beckstead, Valerie Domesick, Patricia Goldman-Rakic, Ann Graybiel, Elizabeth Grove, Susan Haber, Lennart Heimer, Miles Herkenham, Harvey Karten, Christiana Leonard, Gene Merrill, and Gerald Schneider, to name but a few.
From page 295...
... The name Nauta is said to be derived from nauta hollandis, or Dutch sailor, a reminder of a medieval past when Dutch seamen raided the Baltic forests for timber for shipbuilding. Sailing was always a passion with Walle Nauta.
From page 296...
... 1967. Two methods for selective silver impregnation of degenerating axons and their synaptic endings in the central nervous system.
From page 297...
... Subcortical mechanisms in emotional behavior: Affective changes following septal forebrain lesions in the albino rat.
From page 298...
... Subcortical mechanisms in emotional behavior: The duration of affective changes following septal and habenular lesions in the albino rat.
From page 299...
... H . N A U T A 299 1961 Fibre degeneration following lesions of the amygdaloid complex in the monkey.
From page 300...
... A cerebello olivary pathway in the cat: An experimental study using autorad iographic tracing techniques. Brain Res.
From page 301...
... Columnar distribution of cortico-cortical fi bers in the frontal association, limbic, and motor cortex of the developing rhesus monkey. Brain Res.
From page 302...
... Light microscopic evidence of striatal input to interpallidal regions of cholinergic cell group Ch4 in the rat: A study employing the anterograde tracer Phaseolus vulgaris leukoagglutinin (PHA-L)


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