Thomas A. Ban 
 
Neuropsychopharmacology in Historical Perspective  
Education in the Field in the Post-Neuropsychopharmacology Era 

 
Louis Sokoloff Autobiography – Regional mapping and imaging of the nervous system  
 
(Educational Series 2. Bulletin 13. Autobiographies 1) 

 

Preamble 

In the mid-1940s Seymour Kety (1915-2000) developed, in collaboration with Carl Frederic Schmidt (1893 – 1988),[Campo] the first method for measuring (overall) cerebral blood flow[Campo] (CBF) and metabolism in man (Kety and Schmidt 1948). The Kety-Schmidt nitrous oxide[Campo] method was sensitive in schizophrenia to the effects of barbiturates[Campo], semi-narcosis, insulin coma[Campo] and electroshock (Kety et al. 1948)[Campo][Campo].  

In the mid-1950s Kety, with his collaborators, including Louis Sokoloff (1921 -2015), also developed the first method for studying regional cerebral blood flow[Campo] (rCBF) and metabolism with the use of trifluoriodomethane (TFDM) (Landau et al. 1955; Sokoloff 1959, 1961).  

In the late 1970s Sokoloff[Campo] replaced oxygen consumption[Campo] with glucose utilization[Campo] and developed an autoradiographic[Campo] method with deoxyglucose[Campo] for measuring rCBF[Campo] and metabolism in man (Sokoloff et al. 1977). Subsequently, by replacing deoxyglucose (DG)[Campo] with fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)[Campo], Sokoloff rendered the method suitable for use with a scanner and opened the path for the introduction of positron emission tomography (PET) (Reivich et al. 1977; Phelps et al. 1979).[Campo]  

Louis Sokoloff’s autobiography was first published with the title, “Per aspera ad astra. The road to metabolic mapping and imaging of local and functional activity in the nervous system” in Reflections in Twentieth-Century Psychopharmacology, The History of Psychopharmacology and the CINP, Volume 4 (Ban, Healy and Shorter 2004). The information in Sokoloff’s autobiography is covered also, in part, in Thomas A. Ban’s interview of Sokoloff in Volume 2, “Neurophysiology, An Oral History of Neuropsychopharmacology The First Fifty Years Peer Interviews” (Ban 2011; Fink 2011).  

 

References: 

Ban TA. Preface. In: Ban TA, editor. An Oral History of Neuropsychopharmacology The First Fifty Years Peer Interviews. Volume Two (Fink M, editor. Neurophysiology). Budapest: Animula; 2011, pp.9-22. 

 

Fink M, editor. Neurophysiology. In: Ban TA, editor. An Oral History of Neuropsychopharmacology The First Fifty Years Peer Interviews. Volume Two). Budapest: Animula; 2011, pp. 9-22. 

 

Kety SS, Schmidt C. The nitrous oxide method for quantitative determination of cerebral blood flow in man: theory, procedure and normal values. J Clin Invest 1948; 27: 475–83. 

 

Kety SS, Woodford RB, Harmel MH, Freyhan F, Appel K, Schmidt C. Cerebral blood flow and metabolism in schizophrenia. The effects of barbiturates, semi-narcosis, insulin coma and electroshock. Am J Psychiatry 1948; 104: 765 – 70. 

 

Landau WM, Freygang WH, Rowland LP, Sokoloff L, Kety SS. The local circulation of the living brain: values in the unanesthetized cat. Trans Amer Neurol Assoc 1955; 80: 125–9. 

 

Phelps MF, Huang SC, Hoffman EJ, Selin C, Sokoloff L, Kuhl DE. Tomographic measurement of local cerebral glucose metabolic rate in human with [18F] 2-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose: validation of method. Ann Neuol 1979; 6: 371–88.  

 

Reivich M, Kuhl D, Wolf A, Greenberg J, Phelps M, et al, Measurement of local cerebral glucose metabolism in man with 18 F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose. Acta Neurol Scand 1977; 56 (Suppl. 64). 

 

Sokoloff L. The action of drugs on cerebral circulation. Pharmacol Rev 1959; 11:1-85.   

 

Sokoloff LL. Local cerebral circulation at rest and during altered cerebral activity induced by anesthesia and visual stimulation. In: Ketu SS, Elkes J, eds.  The Regional Chemistry, Physiology and Pharmacology of the Nervous System. Oxford: Pergamon Press; 1961, p. 107-17.  

 

Sokoloff L. Per aspera ad astra. The road to metabolic mapping and imaging of local functional activity in the nervous system. In: Ban TA, Healy D, Shorter E, editors. Reflections on Twentieth-Century Psychopharmacology. Budapest: Animula; 2004. p. 277–89. 

 

Sokoloff L, Reivich M, Kennedy C, Des Rosiers MH et al. The [14C] deoxyglucose method for the measurement of local cerebral glucose utilization. Theory, procedure, and normal values in the conscious and anesthetized albino rat.  J Neurochem 1977; 2: 897–916.  

 

April 12, 2018 

 

Louis Sokoloff Autobiography – Regional mapping and imaging of the nervous system  

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