RF Annual Report - 1935 - The Rockefeller Foundation

THE NATURAL SCIENCES 153
film study; (3) nerve biochemistry; and (4) relation
between electrical properties and metabolism
in the nerve. It is held that an important
approach to the problem of nervous activity is
to be found in a thorough study of the molecular
architecture and of the change of this architecture
with activity. On Page 173 there is presented
a picture of the oscillograph used in the
analysis of nerve structure.
University of Michigan
Physiology
The sum of $25,000 has been appropriated to
the University of Michigan for research under
the direction of Dr. Robert Gesell during the
five-year period July 1, 1935, to June 30, 1940.
Professor Gesell's group at Michigan is interested
in the physiology of respiration and more
particularly in the nervous control of respiration.
This project is therefore partly neurophysiological
in character. The university has purchased
an oscillograph apparatus at a cost of $2,400 for
the study of action potentials of the central and
peripheral nerve structures in their relation to
respiration. Using delicate
electrical devices.
Professor Gesell has been experimenting upon
the nature of the discharge of nerve cells within
the central nervous system and has been determining,
at least within close limits, the actual
location of the origin of these electrical activities.
© 2003 The Rockefeller Foundation