LABORATORY AND BRANCH RESEARCH REVIEWS 143Surgical Neurology Branch, NINDB
The Surgical Neurology Branch’s major emphasis was on the study of
epilepsy and the convulsive process. A multidisciplinary team involving
medical and surgical neurologists, clinical psychologists, clinical neuro
physiologists, neuropathologists, and neurochemists approached this
study in two ways. One focused on brain physiology and pathology and
its relation to epilepsy, specifically looking at the function of the tem
poral lobe, the etiology of temporal lobe epilepsy, autonomic changes
in temporal lobe seizures, and the language and psychological abnormali
ties that resulted from such seizures.^1 The other focused on the surgical
treatment of epileptogenic lesions, in particular, the anatomical effects
of temporal lobectomy.^2
Maitland Baldwin, M.D.
Courtesy of the National Library
of Medicine
Neurosurgeon Maitland Baldwin, former student of Wilder Penfield
at the MNI, was hired by NINDB institute director Pearce Bailey to
head this branch. His Section of the Chief (the Neurosurgical Disorders
Service), in addition to the above topics, also studied: 1) neoplasias with
in the central nervous system and their effect upon visual, autonomic,