Mind, Brain, Body, and Behavior

LABORATORY AND BRANCH RESEARCH REVIEWS 97

Electroencephalography

Branch, NINDB

To complement Baldwin’s interest in seizure disorders, Shy recruited
Cosimo-Ajmone Marsan from the MNI. Ajmone-Marsan arrived in
January 1954 to became the Chief of the Electroencephalography
(EEG) Branch within Shy’s clinical research program.^1 Under Ajmone­
Marsan’s leadership, this branch was engaged in routine diagnostic
service, research, and training in electroencephalography.

Cosimo Ajmone-Marsan, M.D.

Courtesy of the National Library

of Medicine

During the 1950s, the EEG Branch was responsible for all of the

electroencephalographic examinations at the NIH Clinical Center.

This meant that by 1960 the EEG Branch was conducting over 1800

examinations a year, 68 percent within the NINDB, 20 percent within

the NCI, and the remaining 12 percent distributed among the other

four institutes, the NIMH, the NHI, the NIAMD, and the National

Microbiological Institute.^2 To aid in this task, the branch would accept