HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 25The NCRND soon presented Congress with an organized and cohesive
approach to research on the broad range of neurological disabilities
and the institute–like the NCI, the NHI, and the NIMH–obtained
a separate line item budget and a 1953 Congressional appropriation
of $4.5 million.^35 The NINDB was now able to fund its intramural
program as well as its extramural research and training grants in neurol
ogy and ophthalmology.^36
Organization of the National Institute of Neurological
Diseases and Blindness
The NINDB’s operating programs in the 1950s consisted of seven prin
cipal branches: an Extramural Program Branch, a Direct Training Branch,
a Publications and Reports Branch, a Field Investigations and Pilot
Projects Branch, a Biometrics Branch, an Epidemiology Branch, and
an Intramural Research Program.
The Extramural Program Branch, headed by Gordon H. Seger, had
four major objectives. The first involved providing research grants to
non-governmental institutions that would conduct basic or clinical re
search on the brain and central nervous system that would contribute to
the understanding, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of neurologi
cal and sensory disorders.^37 The second would provide training grants
to universities and medical centers in order to begin or increase their
training programs in neurochemistry, neuropharmacology, neuroanat
omy, neurophysiology, neuropathology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology,
and sensory physiology, thereby increasing the number of qualified
personnel capable of teaching or conducting research on neurological
diseases and blindness.^38 The third would provide pre-doctoral, post
doctoral, and expert scientists who showed promise or expertise as
researchers in neurology or ophthalmology, special research fellowships
that would attract them to the field or increase their competence.^39 The
last involved traineeships or training stipends awarded directly to phy
sicians who sought advanced or special training in the diagnosis, treat
ment, and investigation of neurological and sensory disorders.^40 Although
specific budget information is not available for every year of the first