Elio García-Austt (1919–2005) was a Uruguayan neuroscientist.

Early life in Montevideo

García-Austt's father was a professor of

Psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

at the

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

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, and was a member of the

Parliament of Uruguay The General Assembly of Uruguay () is the bicameral legislature of the government of Uruguay, and consists of two chambers: the Chamber of Senators and the Chamber of Representatives. General Assembly has 130 voting members: 99 representative ...

. García-Austt graduated with honors as "Doctor en Medicina y Cirugía" (M.D.) at the

University of the Republic The University of the Republic (, sometimes ''UdelaR'') is a public research university in Montevideo, Uruguay. It is the country's oldest and largest university, as well as one of the largest public universities in South America in terms of en ...

in 1948, and obtained a gold medal with a doctoral thesis on "Repercussion of some metabolic alterations on the bioelectric potentials." Before his graduation, he had started his career as a neuroscientist, developing clinical

electroencephalography Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The biosignal, bio signals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in ...

at the ''Instituto de Endocrinología'' using the first recording instrument available in Uruguay by 1942. After graduating, he continued his job as clinical neurophysiologist and published his first papers on

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of Non-communicable disease, non-communicable Neurological disorder, neurological disorders characterized by a tendency for recurrent, unprovoked Seizure, seizures. A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activit ...

. His clinical career continued with the foundation and direction of five clinical electroencephalography laboratories at Montevideo's public hospitals. García-Austt's interest in basic scientific research on neurophysiology arose at the Department of Physiology of the Medical School of Montevideo under Dr. Corneille Heymans during García-Austt's extended stay in Montevideo in the

postwar period A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, w ...

. He claimed that his relationship with Heymans was fundamental for the start of his career as a

neurobiologist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, neural circuits, and glia, and their behavioral, biological, and psychological roles in health and disease. ...

. In 1951, he worked in the Neurophysiology Laboratory of the Pontifical Catholic University at

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital city, capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's Chilean Central Valley, central valley and is the center ...

under the direction of noted neurobiologist Prof. Joaquin Luco. Back in Montevideo, he started the "Laboratorio de Neurofisiología" in collaboration with Drs. E. Migliaro and J.P. Segundo. This laboratory was under the joint jurisdiction of the Biophysics and Physiology Departments. In the Neurophysiology Laboratory, a set of neurobiological researchers was trained. Those researchers continued his work in different laboratories in Uruguay and other countries. At this school, García-Austt set up a course of the nervous system which included faculty from the

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations ...

histology Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology that studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissue (biology), tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at large ...

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

, and pharmacology departments. In 1959, García-Austt created the Neurophysiology Laboratory at the "Instituto de Neurología y Neurocirugía" of the School of Medicine. He worked until 1973, when he moved to Spain. The laboratory's research included: #

Evoked potential An evoked potential or evoked response is an electrical potential in a specific pattern recorded from a specific part of the nervous system, especially the brain, of a human or other animals following presentation of a stimulus such as a light fl ...

s in humans and their relationship with

attention Attention or focus, is the concentration of awareness on some phenomenon to the exclusion of other stimuli. It is the selective concentration on discrete information, either subjectively or objectively. William James (1890) wrote that "Atte ...

and

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 syste ...

. # Regulating mechanisms of sensory, auditive,

visual The visual system is the physiological basis of visual perception (the ability to detect and process light). The system detects, transduces and interprets information concerning light within the visible range to construct an image and buil ...

, and somesthetic inputs. # Recording

electrical stimulation Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is a technique that uses low-energy electrical pulses to artificially generate body movements in individuals who have been paralyzed due to injury to the central nervous system. More specifically, FES ca ...

during

brain surgery Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty that focuses on the surgical treatment or rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, s ...

in humans. # Oxygen pressure variation during

sleep Sleep is a state of reduced mental and physical activity in which consciousness is altered and certain Sensory nervous system, sensory activity is inhibited. During sleep, there is a marked decrease in muscle activity and interactions with th ...

. # Physiology and physiopathology of the

intracranial pressure Intracranial pressure (ICP) is the pressure exerted by fluids such as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) inside the skull and on the brain tissue. ICP is measured in millimeters of mercury ( mmHg) and at rest, is normally 7–15 mmHg for a supine adu ...

. This research created a procedure for the diagnosis of normotensive hydrocephalus. During this period, his research work was largely financed by foreign grants.

Madrid

In 1973, he was invited by Jose M. Rodriguez Delgado to work in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Spain, collaborating in the development of neurobiology at the "Hospital 'Ramón y Cajal' of Social Security". He accepted it, due to both the better facilities and the unbearable socio-political climate in Uruguay. At that hospital he founded the

Experimental Neurology ''Experimental Neurology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal that focuses on research in neuroscience concerning mechanisms underlying neurological disorders. The journal focuses on neural development, neuroregeneration, neuroplasticity, a ...

Service of the Research Department. For 15 years, he worked on the generating mechanisms of brain rhythms. He collaborated with the Neurochirurgica Unit, led by Dr. Obrador-Alcalde, connecting his research to the clinical area of the hospital. As professor in the Department of Physiology of the School of Medicine of the Universidad Autónoma in Madrid, he taught

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

in close collaboration with Professors Rodriguez Delgado and Reinoso Suarez.

Garcia-Austt and the Spanish Neurosciences Society

In 1980, 1981, and 1983, García-Austt organized preliminary scientific meetings, named the I, II, and III Spanish Neurobiologists Meetings, in collaboration with Reinoso Suarez, Salvador Lluch, and Isabel de Andres, leading to the creation of the Spanish Neurosciences Society in 1985. Garcia-Austt was the first president.

Return to Montevideo

In 1988, García-Austt returned to

to lead the 'Proyecto de Neurociencia,' a neuroscience initiative funded by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. This grant, the EU's first scientific funding initiative in

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

, supported the development of five neuroscience research projects across multiple Uruguayan laboratories. García-Austt’s work played an essential role in fostering collaboration and creating opportunities for scientists who had worked abroad to return to Uruguay. During this time, he continued to maintain an office at the Hospital 'Ramón y Cajal' in

. In

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, García-Austt organized national and international

courses, laying the groundwork for what would later become the "Escuela de Neurociencia" in

Hispanic America Hispanic America ( or ), historically known as Spanish America () or Castile (historical region), Castilian America (), is the Spanish-speaking countries and territories of the Americas. In all of these countries, Spanish language, Spanish is th ...

. In 1991, he was appointed Professor of Neuroscience of the School of Sciences of the University of Uruguay, a position which he held until his retirement in 1999. He married twice and had five sons. He died in Montevideo on 12th August 2005.

Positions

*Associate Professor of Physiology, Facultad de Medicina de Montevideo, 1959–1974 *Chief of "Servicio de Neurología Experimental", at Departamento de Investigación, Centro Especial “Ramón y Cajal”, Madrid, 1977–1989 *Professor ad honorem, School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 1974 *"Professor Especial", School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 1975–1988 *"Professor Emérito", School of Medicine, Uruguay, 1986 *"Professor Honorífico", Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, 1990 *Professor of Neurosciences, Facultad de Ciencias, Uruguay, 1991–1999 *Director of the Instituto de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Uruguay, 1991–1994 *"Professor Emérito", Facultad de Ciencias, Uruguay, 1998 *"Doctor Honoris Causa", Universidad, Uruguay, 2000

Early life in Montevideo

Madrid

Garcia-Austt and the Spanish Neurosciences Society

Return to Montevideo

Positions

References

Further reading