Oskar Vogt
Encyclopedia
Oskar Vogt was a German
physician
and neurologist
. He was born in Husum - Schleswig-Holstein
. Vogt studied medicine at Kiel
and Jena
, obtaining his doctorate from Jena in 1894.
Vogt was married to the French
neurologist Cécile Vogt-Mugnier
, whom he met in Paris
while he was there working with Joseph Jules Dejerine
and his wife, Augusta Marie Dejerine-Klumke (who collaborated with him). The Vogt couple also collaborated for a long period of time, usually with Cécile as the primary author
.
Oskar founded an Institut für Hirnforschung
(Institute for Brain research) in Berlin, Germany. There, he had students from many countries who went on to prominent careers including Korbinian Brodmann
and Brockhaus
.
As a clinician, Vogt used hypnotism
(Stuckrade-Barre and Danek 2004) until 1903 and wrote papers on the topic. In particular, Vogt had an intense interest for localizing psychology
.
Vogt has been misrepresented as having accepted the Nazis. It is true that he was the personal practitioner of the Krupp family (cannon maufacturer in the Ruhr Area
, Essen
). Fritz Krupp
supported him financially particularly when the Vogts, driven away by the Nazis (1937), had to move to Neustadt (Black Forest)
and founded a new institute. In fact, Vogt was a socialist, involved with the factions led by Mme Fessard who knew him personally, and with the guesdist element of the French socialist party (Jules Guesde
was at the far left wing of this party). He had never been a Communist, although he did interact with the Soviets on a number of occasions. They sent him several researchers, including N. V. Timofeev-Resovskij (whom Solzhenitsyn
met in the Gulag
). He helped to establish the brain institute in Moscow
.
The Vogts had two daughters, both accomplished scientists in their own rights. Marthe Vogt (1903–2003) was a neuropharmacologist who became a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Professor at Cambridge. Marguerite Vogt
(1913–2007) started as a developmental geneticist working in Drosophila
, then moved to the US in 1950. She developed methods to culture poliovirus
with Renato Dulbecco
. She was a faculty member at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
where she worked on viral transformation and cellular immortalization of cancer cells.
which made many of the most important contributions between the two World Wars. This later became The Journal für Hirnforschung.
for histological study after Lenin’s death. Lenin's brain showed a great number of "giant cells", which Vogt saw as a sign of superior mental function. "The giant cells" were cortical pyramidal cell
s of unusual size. There were also particularities in layer 3.
In 1925 Vogt accepted an invitation to Moscow where he was assigned the establishment of an institute for brain research under the auspices of the health ministry in Moscow
. In 1945 Lenin's brain was still in the Institute of Berlin. According to claims of two Belgians
, L. Van Bogaert and A. Dewulf, the Soviets carried out a military operation specifically to retrieve the brain before the Americans
obtained it, and succeeded in doing so. It was, for a time, put on display in the Lenin Mausoleum. The brain is now at Moscow's Institute.
.
and psychology
. There were previous works by Campbel, but the Vogts and their coworkers were really the founders of corticology (the study of the cortex). The Vogts imposed the distinction between iso- and allocortex
. They also imposed rather rigidly the six-layer pattern (there were 5 for Meynert and 7 for Cajal) in affirming that this was the normal pattern. They were responsible for a number of cytoarchitectonic studies. One of their last students, Sanides, developed their notion of gradation
.
in Paris. Oskar and Cécile further referred to the work of Constantin von Monakow in a series on the anatomy of mammals. This was not a seminal work.
The main contribution of the Vogts was La myelocytoarchitecture du thalamus du cercopithèque from Cécile alone (1909). The great contribution of Cécile has been that the partition of the lateral region (lateral mass
) should rely on the territories (the spaces occupied) of the main afferent
s. She distinguished from back to front the lemnical radiation and a particular nucleus
, in front of it the cerebellar (prelemniscal) radiation with another nucleus and more anteriorly the "lenticular" radiation. This system still describes the subdivision of the thalamus (Percheron, 1977, Percheron et al. 1996). Her paper was followed by Die cytoarchitechtonik des Zwishenhirns de Cercothipiteken from Friedmann (1911) traducing in cytoarchitectonic terms, her partition.
A paper published in common in 1941 (Thalamus studien I to III), devoted to the human thalamus, represented an important step in partitioning and naming thalamic parts. The anatomy of the thalamus from Hassler (one of their students) was published in 1959, the year of the death of Oskar. It is not known weither the master accepted the excessive partition and unnecessary complication of this work that was an atlas dedicated to stereotacticans. The paper of 1941 was much simpler.
system. Their main interest was on the striatum
, that after Foix and Nicolesco they proposed (1941) to name so. This was including the caudate nucleus
, the putamen
and the fundus
. One of their students (Brockaus) made an abusive cytoarchitectonic parcellation.
Their study of human pathological cases led them to discover particular striatal diseases and to the fact that the central region (centre médian-parafasicular) was degenerating after striatal region, i.e. that there was a strong centralo-striatal connection.
The Vogt-Vogt syndrome, an extrapyramidal disturbance with double sided athetosis
occurring in early childhood, is named after the couple.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and neurologist
Neurologist
A neurologist is a physician who specializes in neurology, and is trained to investigate, or diagnose and treat neurological disorders.Neurology is the medical specialty related to the human nervous system. The nervous system encompasses the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. A specialist...
. He was born in Husum - Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
. Vogt studied medicine at Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
and Jena
Jena
Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...
, obtaining his doctorate from Jena in 1894.
Vogt was married to the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
neurologist Cécile Vogt-Mugnier
Cécile Vogt-Mugnier
Cecile Vogt-Mugnier was a French neurologist from Haute-Savoie.-Family:She obtained her medical doctorate in Paris and was the student of Pierre Marie. There she met her future husband, Oskar Vogt, when he came to Paris to work with Joseph Jules Déjérine...
, whom he met in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
while he was there working with Joseph Jules Dejerine
Joseph Jules Dejerine
Joseph Jules Dejerine , was a French neurologist.Joseph Jules Dejerine was born to French parents in Geneva, Switzerland, where his father was a carriage proprietor. During the Franco-Prussian War Dejerine worked as a volunteer in a Geneva Hospital and in the spring of 1871 decided to pursue his...
and his wife, Augusta Marie Dejerine-Klumke (who collaborated with him). The Vogt couple also collaborated for a long period of time, usually with Cécile as the primary author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
.
Oskar founded an Institut für Hirnforschung
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science was a German scientific institution established in 1911. It was implicated in Nazi science, and after the Second World War was wound up and its functions replaced by the Max Planck Society...
(Institute for Brain research) in Berlin, Germany. There, he had students from many countries who went on to prominent careers including Korbinian Brodmann
Korbinian Brodmann
Korbinian Brodmann was a German neurologist who became famous for his definition of the cerebral cortex into 52 distinct regions from their cytoarchitectonic characteristics.-Life:...
and Brockhaus
Brockhaus
Brockhaus may refer to:* Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus , German encyclopedia publisher and editor** Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, German-language encyclopedia**Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, Russian-language encyclopedia...
.
As a clinician, Vogt used hypnotism
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
(Stuckrade-Barre and Danek 2004) until 1903 and wrote papers on the topic. In particular, Vogt had an intense interest for localizing psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
.
Vogt has been misrepresented as having accepted the Nazis. It is true that he was the personal practitioner of the Krupp family (cannon maufacturer in the Ruhr Area
Ruhr Area
The Ruhr, by German-speaking geographers and historians more accurately called Ruhr district or Ruhr region , is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With 4435 km² and a population of some 5.2 million , it is the largest urban agglomeration in Germany...
, Essen
Essen
- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...
). Fritz Krupp
Friedrich Alfred Krupp
Friedrich Alfred Krupp was a German steel manufacturer of the company Krupp.- Biography :Krupp was born in Essen, Germany. His father was Alfred Krupp. In 1887, Friedrich took over the leadership of his father's company. He married Margarethe Krupp...
supported him financially particularly when the Vogts, driven away by the Nazis (1937), had to move to Neustadt (Black Forest)
Titisee-Neustadt
Titisee-Neustadt is a municipality in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is made up of the six communities of Neustadt, Langenordnach, Rudenberg, Titisee, Schwärzenbach and Waldau.The town of Neustadt is a spa known for its Kneipp hydrotherapeutic...
and founded a new institute. In fact, Vogt was a socialist, involved with the factions led by Mme Fessard who knew him personally, and with the guesdist element of the French socialist party (Jules Guesde
Jules Guesde
Jules Basile Guesde was a French socialist journalist and politician.Guesde was the inspiration for a famous quotation by Karl Marx. Shortly before Marx died in 1883, he wrote a letter to Guesde and Paul Lafargue, both of whom already claimed to represent "Marxist" principles...
was at the far left wing of this party). He had never been a Communist, although he did interact with the Soviets on a number of occasions. They sent him several researchers, including N. V. Timofeev-Resovskij (whom Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was aRussian and Soviet novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his often-suppressed writings, he helped to raise global awareness of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly in The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of...
met in the Gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
). He helped to establish the brain institute in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
.
The Vogts had two daughters, both accomplished scientists in their own rights. Marthe Vogt (1903–2003) was a neuropharmacologist who became a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Professor at Cambridge. Marguerite Vogt
Marguerite Vogt
Marguerite Vogt, MD was a cancer biologist and virologist. She was most noted for her research on polio and cancer at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.-Early life:...
(1913–2007) started as a developmental geneticist working in Drosophila
Drosophila
Drosophila is a genus of small flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "fruit flies" or more appropriately pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species to linger around overripe or rotting fruit...
, then moved to the US in 1950. She developed methods to culture poliovirus
Poliovirus
Poliovirus, the causative agent of poliomyelitis, is a human enterovirus and member of the family of Picornaviridae.Poliovirus is composed of an RNA genome and a protein capsid. The genome is a single-stranded positive-sense RNA genome that is about 7500 nucleotides long. The viral particle is...
with Renato Dulbecco
Renato Dulbecco
Renato Dulbecco is an Italian virologist who won a 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on reverse transcriptase. In 1973 he was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University together with Theodore Puck and Harry Eagle. Dulbecco was the recipient of the Selman A...
. She was a faculty member at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a premier independent, non-profit, scientific research institute located in La Jolla, California. It was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine; among the founding consultants were Jacob Bronowski and Francis Crick. Building...
where she worked on viral transformation and cellular immortalization of cancer cells.
Institutes and journals
Vogt was the editor of the prominent Journal für Neurologie and Psychologie published in German, French and EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
which made many of the most important contributions between the two World Wars. This later became The Journal für Hirnforschung.
Lenin's brain
In 1924, Vogt was one of the neurologists asked to consult on Lenin’s illness and was given his brainBrain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
for histological study after Lenin’s death. Lenin's brain showed a great number of "giant cells", which Vogt saw as a sign of superior mental function. "The giant cells" were cortical pyramidal cell
Pyramidal cell
Pyramidal neurons are a type of neuron found in areas of the brain including cerebral cortex, the hippocampus, and in the amygdala. Pyramidal neurons are the primary excitation units of the mammalian prefrontal cortex and the corticospinal tract. Pyramidal neurons were first discovered and...
s of unusual size. There were also particularities in layer 3.
In 1925 Vogt accepted an invitation to Moscow where he was assigned the establishment of an institute for brain research under the auspices of the health ministry in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. In 1945 Lenin's brain was still in the Institute of Berlin. According to claims of two Belgians
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, L. Van Bogaert and A. Dewulf, the Soviets carried out a military operation specifically to retrieve the brain before the Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
obtained it, and succeeded in doing so. It was, for a time, put on display in the Lenin Mausoleum. The brain is now at Moscow's Institute.
Contribution
The contributions of the Vogts are of the first order as their work applies to several parts of the brain and had a considerable influence on international neurological sciencesNeurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
.
Cortex
This was apparently the main concern of Oskar who tried to find a correlation between anatomyAnatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
and psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
. There were previous works by Campbel, but the Vogts and their coworkers were really the founders of corticology (the study of the cortex). The Vogts imposed the distinction between iso- and allocortex
Allocortex
The allocortex is a part of the cerebral cortex characterized by fewer cell layers than the neocortex The allocortex (also known as heterogenetic cortex) is a part of the cerebral cortex characterized by fewer cell layers than the neocortex The allocortex (also known as heterogenetic cortex) is a...
. They also imposed rather rigidly the six-layer pattern (there were 5 for Meynert and 7 for Cajal) in affirming that this was the normal pattern. They were responsible for a number of cytoarchitectonic studies. One of their last students, Sanides, developed their notion of gradation
Gradation
Gradation may refer to:* Gradation * Gradation in color, a gradual change between hues, tones, or shades* Consonant gradation* Ordering by some type of grade* Calibration markings* Apophony, in linguistics* Gradation, of an algebra over a ring...
.
Thalamus
Oskar made several presentations of his view of the thalamusThalamus
The thalamus is a midline paired symmetrical structure within the brains of vertebrates, including humans. It is situated between the cerebral cortex and midbrain, both in terms of location and neurological connections...
in Paris. Oskar and Cécile further referred to the work of Constantin von Monakow in a series on the anatomy of mammals. This was not a seminal work.
The main contribution of the Vogts was La myelocytoarchitecture du thalamus du cercopithèque from Cécile alone (1909). The great contribution of Cécile has been that the partition of the lateral region (lateral mass
Lateral mass
Lateral mass can refer to:* Labyrinth of ethmoid* Lateral mass of atlas...
) should rely on the territories (the spaces occupied) of the main afferent
Afferent
Afferent is an anatomical term with the following meanings:*Conveying towards a center, for example the afferent arterioles conveying blood towards the Bowman's capsule in the Kidney. Opposite to Efferent.*Something that so conducts, see Afferent nerve fiber...
s. She distinguished from back to front the lemnical radiation and a particular nucleus
Nucleus (neuroanatomy)
In neuroanatomy, a nucleus is a brain structure consisting of a relatively compact cluster of neurons. It is one of the two most common forms of nerve cell organization, the other being layered structures such as the cerebral cortex or cerebellar cortex. In anatomical sections, a nucleus shows up...
, in front of it the cerebellar (prelemniscal) radiation with another nucleus and more anteriorly the "lenticular" radiation. This system still describes the subdivision of the thalamus (Percheron, 1977, Percheron et al. 1996). Her paper was followed by Die cytoarchitechtonik des Zwishenhirns de Cercothipiteken from Friedmann (1911) traducing in cytoarchitectonic terms, her partition.
A paper published in common in 1941 (Thalamus studien I to III), devoted to the human thalamus, represented an important step in partitioning and naming thalamic parts. The anatomy of the thalamus from Hassler (one of their students) was published in 1959, the year of the death of Oskar. It is not known weither the master accepted the excessive partition and unnecessary complication of this work that was an atlas dedicated to stereotacticans. The paper of 1941 was much simpler.
Basal ganglia
The Vogts greatly contributed to the analysis of what is known today as the basal gangliaBasal ganglia
The basal ganglia are a group of nuclei of varied origin in the brains of vertebrates that act as a cohesive functional unit. They are situated at the base of the forebrain and are strongly connected with the cerebral cortex, thalamus and other brain areas...
system. Their main interest was on the striatum
Striatum
The striatum, also known as the neostriatum or striate nucleus, is a subcortical part of the forebrain. It is the major input station of the basal ganglia system. The striatum, in turn, gets input from the cerebral cortex...
, that after Foix and Nicolesco they proposed (1941) to name so. This was including the caudate nucleus
Caudate nucleus
The caudate nucleus is a nucleus located within the basal ganglia of the brains of many animal species. The caudate nucleus is an important part of the brain's learning and memory system.-Anatomy:...
, the putamen
Putamen
The putamen is a round structure located at the base of the forebrain . The putamen and caudate nucleus together form the dorsal striatum. It is also one of the structures that comprises the basal ganglia. Through various pathways, the putamen is connected to the substantia nigra and globus pallidus...
and the fundus
Fundus
Fundus is an anatomical term referring to the portion of an organ opposite from its opening. Examples include:* Fundus * Fundus of gallbladder* Fundus * Fundus...
. One of their students (Brockaus) made an abusive cytoarchitectonic parcellation.
Their study of human pathological cases led them to discover particular striatal diseases and to the fact that the central region (centre médian-parafasicular) was degenerating after striatal region, i.e. that there was a strong centralo-striatal connection.
The Vogt-Vogt syndrome, an extrapyramidal disturbance with double sided athetosis
Athetosis
Athetosis is a symptom characterized by involuntary convoluted, writhing movements of the fingers, arms, legs, and neck. Movements typical of athetosis are sometimes called athetoid movements. Lesions to the brain are most often the direct cause of the symptoms, particularly to thecorpus striatum...
occurring in early childhood, is named after the couple.