Oskar Vogt

Professor Vogt investigating histological sections from Lenin's brain. Oskar Vogt (6 April 1870 in Husum – 30 July 1959 in Freiburg im Breisgau) was a German physician and neurologist. He and his wife Cécile Vogt-Mugnier are known for their extensive cytoarchetectonic studies on the brain. This institute served as the basis for the 1914 formation of the Kaiser Institut für Hirnforschung (Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research), of which Oskar was a director. There, he had students from many countries who went on to prominent careers including Jerzy Rose (mentor of Michael Merzenich), Valentino Braitenberg (mentor of Christof Koch), Korbinian Brodmann, Rafael Lorente de Nó and Harald Brockhaus. This institute gave rise to the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in 1945.

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 the origins of "genius" or traits in the brain.

Family Vogt married the French neurologist Cécile Mugnier. They met in Paris in 1897 This later became The Journal für Hirnforschung.

Lenin's brain

Vogt had a longstanding interest in localizing functions in the brain.

In 1924, Vogt was one of the neurologists asked to consult on Lenin’s illness and was given his brain for histological study after Lenin's death. He found that 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 cells 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. Vogt got one 20 micrometer slice out of the 30,953 slices of the brain, and took it home to Berlin for research purposes. Therefore, contrary to claims of two Belgian neurologists, L. Van Bogaert and A. Dewulf, the Soviets did not have to carry out a military operation specifically to retrieve the brain before the Americans obtained it. It was, for a time, put on display in the Lenin Mausoleum. The brain is still in the Institute in Moscow.

Contributions

Korbinian Brodmann, Cécile Vogt-Mugnier, Oskar Vogt, Max Borcherdt, and Max Lewandowsky. The contributions of the Vogts had lasting impact on the field of neuroscience , spanning discoveries across several brain regions, and had a considerable influence on international neurological sciences.

Cortex An interest in the correlation between anatomy and psychology drew the Vogts to study the cortex. The Vogts imposed the distinction between iso- and allocortex. Based on their cytoarchitectonic studies, they promoted a six-layer pattern, rather than the five-layer pattern of Meynert or the seven of Cajal.

Thalamus Vogt made several presentations of his view of the thalamus in Paris. Oskar and Cécile further referred to the work of Constantin von Monakow in a series on the anatomy of mammals. A paper published together 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 Oskar's death. It is not known whether the master accepted the excessive partition and unnecessary complication of this work; it 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 ganglia system. Their main interest was on the striatum, which they named following a proposal by Foix and Nicolesco in 1941. This includes the caudate nucleus, the putamen, and the fundus.

Entomology Oskar Vogt was also an entomologist. He was particularly interested in bumblebees and in the study of variation; he introduced the term ‘’. His collections (ca. 400,000 specimens, including ca. 300,000 bumblebees) have been deposited in the Zoological Museum in Amsterdam .

Eponym The Vogt-Vogt syndrome is an extrapyramidal disturbance with double sided athetosis occurring in early childhood.

Gallery

Awards 1950 — National Award GRD