Main description:

I received my first introduction to the brain sciences in 1936 and 1937, for me the second and third years of the 7-year medical school curriculum at the University of Leiden. During those years my interest in the subject was aroused in particular by the brilliant lectures of the physiologist G. C. Rademaker - a prominent former member of the Rudolf Magnus school - and the neurohistologist S. T. Bok, noted especially for his histometric studies of the cerebral cortex. Fascinated as I was by everything I learned about the brain from these outstanding teachers, toward the end of their courses I began to notice conspicuous gaps that separated neurophysiology from neuroanatomy. In fact, I could (or thought I could) detect a reasonable concordance between the two sciences only in case of some sensory and somatic-motor systems. For most other functions anatomical substrates seemed either poorly defined or, as in the case of the central viscero-endocrine system, hardly recognized at all. With all the arrogance of which a 20-year old student is capable I concluded that what the brain sciences needed was a new and more complete anatomy that emphasized in particular the continuity of, and convergences or interconnections between individual conduction systems. And I wistfully mused that perhaps at some time in the future I could make such an endeavour part of my own career.

Contents:

I. Degeneration Techniques.- 1. Silver Impregnation of Degenerating Axon Terminals in the Central Nervous System: (1) Technic. (2) Chemical Notes (1951).- 2. Selective Silver Impregnation of Degenerating Axons in the Central Nervous System (1952).- 3. Silver Impregnation of Degenerating Axons in the Central Nervous System: A Modified Technic (1954).- 4. A Critical Review of Studies on Axonal and Terminal Degeneration (1955).- 5. Some Early Travails of Tracing Axonal Pathways in the Brain (1993).- II. Brain and Behavior.- 6. Hypothalamic Regulation of Sleep in Rats. An Experimental Study (1946).- 7. Subcortical Mechanisms in Emotional Behavior: Affective Changes Following Septal Forebrain Lesions in the Albino Rat (1953).- 8. The Central Visceromotor System: A General Survey (1972).- III. General Organization of the Central Nervous System.- 9. Hippocampal Projections and Related Neural Pathways to the Mid-brain in the Cat (1958).- 10. A Comparison of the Distribution of the Fornix System in the Rat, Guinea Pig, Cat, and Monkey (1959).- 11. Ascending Axon Degeneration Following Anterolateral Cordotomy. An Experimental Study in the Monkey (1960).- 12. Fibre Degeneration Following Lesions of the Amygdaloid Complex in the Monkey (1961).- 13. Neural Associations of the Amygdaloid Complex in the Monkey (1962).- 14. The Isodendritic Core of the Brain Stem (1966).- 15. The Hypothalamic Distribution of the Stria Terminalis in the Rat (1969).- 16. Afferent Connections of the Habenular Nuclei in the Rat. A Horseradish Peroxidase Study, with a Note on the Fiber-of-Passage Problem (1977).- 17. Efferent Connections of the Habenular Nuclei in the Rat (1979).- 18. Ramifications of the Limbic System (1981).- 19. Cytoarchitecture, Fiber Connections, and Some Histochemical Aspects of the Interpenduncular Nucleus in the Rat (1986).- IV. Basal Ganglia.- 20. Projections of the Lentiform Nucleus in the Monkey (1966).- 21. Efferent Connections and Nigral Afferents of the Nucleus Accumbens Septi in the Rat (1978).- 22. Efferent Connections of the Substantia Nigra and Ventral Tegmental Area in the Rat (1979).- 23. Ramifications of the Globus Pallidus in the Rat as Indicated by Patterns of Immunohistochemistry (1983).- V. Crossroads of Limbic and Striatal Circuitry.- 24. The Amygdalostriatal Projection in the Rat - An Anatomical Study by Anterograde and Retrograde Tracing Methods (1982).- VI. Cerebral Cortex.- 25. A Note on the Termination of Commissural Fibers in the Neocortex (1967).- 26. A General Profile of the Vertebrate Brain, with Sidelights on the Ancestry of Cerebral Cortex (1970).- 27. The Problem of the Frontal Lobe: A Reinterpretation (1971).- 28. Columnar Distribution of Cortico-Cortical Fibers in the Frontal Association, Limbic, and Motor Cortex of the Developing Rhesus Monkey (1977a).- 29. An Intricately Patterned Prefronto-Caudate Projection in the Rhesus Monkey (1977b).- 30. Reciprocal Links of the Corpus Striatum with the Cerebral Cortex and Limbic System: A Common Substrate for Movement and Thought? (1989).- Permissions.