GILMAN 223proprioceptors and other important influences from descending
pathways, including those arising in the cerebellum, the corticospinal
pathway and extrapyramidal systems.^4
The research environment was rich, with wonderful and interesting
people in the adjacent laboratories whom I came to know to some ex
tent. Karl Frank, chief of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology’s Sec
tion on Spinal Cord Physiology, and Phillip Nelson were carrying out
microelectrode studies of anterior horn cells. Those two investigators,
plus Sir John Eccles in Canberra, Australia, were doing seminal work on
motor neuron function with intracellular recordings. Walter Freygang,
Jr. (Laboratory of Neurophysiology), Wade H. Marshall (chief of the
Laboratory of Neurophysiology), and Edward V. Evarts (chief of the
Laboratory of Clinical Science Section on Physiology) were nearby.
At that time, Evarts was studying evoked potentials in the auditory
system with microelectric techniques. He would later go on to classical
studies of the functions of single corticospinal neurons in the cerebral
cortex of the awake behaving animal. Ichiji Tasaki headed the Section
on Special Senses (within the Laboratory of Neurophysiology) down
the hall. Eric Kandel and William Alden Spencer were also there,
working in Marshall’s Laboratory of Neurophysiology. Kandel and I
have remained friends since meeting at the NIH, and I participated
in recruiting him to Columbia University when I was on its faculty
some years back. Roscoe O. Brady headed the Section on Lipid Chem
istry near me and we have remained friends throughout the years.
Paul MacLean (chief of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology’s Section
on Limbic Integration and Behavior), William F. Windle (chief of the
Laboratory of Neuroanatomical Sciences), and Lloyd Guth (within the
Laboratory of Neuroanatomical Sciences) were also in the vicinity.^5 Grant
L. Rasmussen (chief of the Laboratory of Neuroanatomical Sciences’s
Section on Functional Neuroanatomy) and Richard Gacek were work
ing on the auditory system. Gacek later became an otolaryngologist.
I also came to know several scientists in related fields, including
Mortimer Mishkin (in the Laboratory of Psychology’s Section on Animal
Behavior), Allan F. Mirsky (in the Laboratory of Psychology’s Section on
Animal Behavior), Felix Strumwasser (in the Laboratory of Neurophy