Vernon Benjamin Mountcastle (July 15, 1918 – January 11, 2015) was an American neurophysiologist and

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of Neuroscience at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

. He discovered and characterized the columnar organization of the

cerebral cortex The cerebral cortex, also known as the cerebral mantle, is the outer layer of neural tissue of the cerebrum of the brain in humans and other mammals. The cerebral cortex mostly consists of the six-layered neocortex, with just 10% consisting of ...

in the 1950s. This discovery was a turning point in investigations of the cerebral cortex, as nearly all cortical studies of sensory function after Mountcastle's 1957 paper, on the

somatosensory cortex In physiology, the somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch (haptic perception), as well as temperature (thermoception), body position (proprioception), and pain. It is ...

, used columnar organization as their basis.Mountcaslte: the Brain Voyager
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Early life and education

Vernon Benjamin Mountcastle was born on July 15, 1918, in

Shelbyville, Kentucky Shelbyville is a list of Kentucky cities, home rule-class city in and the county seat of Shelby County, Kentucky, Shelby County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 14,045 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. History Early hist ...

as the third of five children into a family of "farmers, industrial entrepreneurs, or builders of railroads". In 1921 his family moved to

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is lo ...

where he went to elementary and junior high school and was "an enthusiastic

Boy Scout A Scout (in some countries a Boy Scout, Girl Scout, or Pathfinder) is a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split ...

". Because his mother, a former teacher, had taught him to read and write when he was 4 years old, he immediately moved ahead two grades when entering the public school system and graduated high school at the age of 16. He entered

Roanoke College Roanoke College is a private liberal arts college in Salem, Virginia. It has approximately 2,000 students who represent approximately 40 states and 30 countries. The college offers 35 majors, 57 minors and concentrations, and pre-professional pr ...

Salem, Virginia Salem is an independent city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,346. It is the county seat of Roanoke County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combin ...

in 1935, in the midst of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, where he majored in chemistry and finished in 3 years. While at Roanoke, he played tennis and was a member of the

Sigma Chi Fraternity Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more tha ...

. In 1938 he started

medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, M ...

where his teachers included

William Mansfield Clark William Mansfield Clark (17 August 1884 – 19 January 1964) was an American chemist and professor at the Johns Hopkins University. He studied oxidation-reduction reactions and was a pioneer of medical biochemistry. Clark was born in Tivoli, New ...

, Philip Bard, Adolf Meyer,

Arnold Rice Rich Arnold Rice Rich (March 28, 1893 – April 17, 1968) was an American pathology, pathologist. Career Born March 28, 1893, in Birmingham, Alabama, Rich attended the University of Virginia, majoring in biology, and then the Johns Hopkins Medica ...

Maxwell Wintrobe Maxwell Myer Wintrobe (October 27, 1901 – December 9, 1986) was an Austrian-born American physician who was a 20th-century authority in the medical field of hematology. His 1942 textbook on hematology, ''Clinical Hematology'', was the first d ...

, and

Warfield Longcope Warfield Theobald Longcope (29 March 187725 April 1953) was an American pathologist. He served as physician-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and president of the American Association of Immunologists, Association of American Physicians, and ...

. During his studies, Mountcastle planned to become a surgeon and never performed any experiments until after he returned from

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. He joined the

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for medical students in January 1942, which allowed him to finish medical school and internship and was eventually ordered to report to the Naval Operating Base in

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

in June 1943. Throughout the fall of 1943 and most of 1944 he was stationed in Africa and Europe and served on four LSTs during the

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and

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

invasions. As he had received insufficient points for discharge from the Navy by the end of the war, he had to serve for one more year, which he spent at the Norfolk Naval Hospital as well as briefly serving on the USS ''Cadmus''. He received his discharge from the Navy just before the ''Cadmus'' left for extended ocean duty.

Research and career

Mountcastle's interest in

cognition Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

, specifically

perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system ...

, led him to guide his laboratory to studies that linked perception and neural responses in the 1960s. Although there were several notable works from his laboratory, the highest profile early paper appeared in 1968, a study explaining the neural basis of Flutter and

vibration Vibration is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. The word comes from Latin ''vibrationem'' ("shaking, brandishing"). The oscillations may be periodic function, periodic, such as the motion of a pendulum ...

by the action of peripheral

mechanoreceptor A mechanoreceptor, also called mechanoceptor, is a sensory receptor that responds to mechanical pressure or distortion. Mechanoreceptors are innervated by sensory neurons that convert mechanical pressure into electrical signals that, in animals, ...

s. In 1978 Mountcastle proposed that all parts of the

neocortex The neocortex, also called the neopallium, isocortex, or the six-layered cortex, is a set of layers of the mammalian cerebral cortex involved in higher-order brain functions such as sensory perception, cognition, generation of motor commands, sp ...

operate through a common principle, with the

cortical column A cortical column is a group of neurons forming a cylindrical structure through the cerebral cortex of the brain perpendicular to the cortical surface. The structure was first identified by Mountcastle in 1957. He later identified cortical minicolu ...

being the unit of computation. Mountcastle's devotion to studies of single unit

neural coding Neural coding (or Neural representation) is a neuroscience field concerned with characterising the hypothetical relationship between the stimulus and the individual or ensemble neuronal responses and the relationship among the electrical activity o ...

evolved through his leadership in the Bard Laboratories of Neurophysiology at the

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...

, which for many years, was the only institute in the world devoted to this sub-field. Its work is continued today in the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute. Mountcastle died in Baltimore at the age of 96 in January 2015.

Awards and honours

Mountcastle was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 1965 and

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 1966. He became a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1976. In 1978, he was awarded the

Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry is an annual prize awarded by Columbia University to a researcher or group of researchers who have made an outstanding contribution in basic research in the fields of biology or biochemist ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

together with

David Hubel David Hunter Hubel (February 27, 1926 – September 22, 2013) was a Canadian American neurophysiologist noted for his studies of the structure and function of the visual cortex. He was co-recipient with Torsten Wiesel of the 1981 Nobel Priz ...

and

Torsten Wiesel Torsten Nils Wiesel (born 3 June 1924) is a Swedish neurophysiologist. With David H. Hubel, he received the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system; the prize was s ...

, both of whom received the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...

in 1981. In 1980, he was awarded the Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience. In 1981, Mountcastle became a founding member of the

World Cultural Council The World Cultural Council is an international organization whose goals are to promote cultural values, goodwill and philanthropy among individuals. The organization founded in 1981 and based in Mexico, has held a yearly award ceremony since 198 ...

. In 1983, he was awarded the

Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for a fundamental discovery that opens up a new area of biomedical science. The award frequently precedes a Nobel Prize in Medicine; almost 5 ...

. In 1984, Mountcastle received the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...

. He also received the United States

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...

in 1986. In 1998, Mountcastle was awarded the

NAS Award in the Neurosciences The NAS Award in the Neurosciences is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "in recognition of extraordinary contributions to progress in the fields of neuroscience, including neurochemistry, neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, developm ...

from the

in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech said Mountcastle's "discovery of columns in the somatosensory cortex was surely the single most important contribution to the understanding of cerebral cortex since

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Jeff Hawkins Jeffrey Hawkins is a co-founder of the companies Palm Computing, where he co-created the Palm (PDA), PalmPilot, and Handspring (company), Handspring, where he was one of the creators of the Palm Treo, Treo.Jeff Hawkins, ''On Intelligence'', p.28 ...

in his book ''

On Intelligence ''On Intelligence: How a New Understanding of the Brain will Lead to the Creation of Truly Intelligent Machines'' is a 2004 book by Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee. The book explains Hawkins' memory-prediction framework theory of the brain an ...

'' describes Mountcastle's 1978 article, ''An organizing principle...'', as "the

rosetta stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle te ...

of neuroscience".''

'', 2004,

, page 52

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mountcastle, Vernon American neuroscientists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the French Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the Royal Society National Medal of Science laureates 1918 births 2015 deaths Johns Hopkins University faculty Roanoke College alumni Australia Prize recipients Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research Founding members of the World Cultural Council 20th-century American physicians Members of the National Academy of Medicine Members of the American Philosophical Society