Norman Geschwind

Norman Geschwind (1926–1984) was born in New York City on 8 January, 1926, where his parents, Hannah and Morris, had arrived from Polish Galicia 20 years before [4]. When Norman was four, his father died of pneumonia. Despite difficulties, Hannah sent Norman and his brother Irving to the Hebrew Institute of Borough Park, where he never mastered Hebrew [2]. His later years at the Boy’s High School in Brooklyn were instead recognized as the most profound educational experience of his life [2]. He loved literature and Latin, was attracted by mathematics and nicknamed the ‘head’ [4]. Geschwind had the credits to enroll in Columbia College and City College, but his Latin teacher convinced him to enter Harvard University on a Pulitzer Scholarship [2]. During his first two years in Boston, Geschwind’s interests turned towards medicine, but his application to Harvard Medical School was turned down. In 1944 he was drafted, and after serving for 2 years he returned to Harvard University, where he completed his Bachelor of Arts Degree, magna cum laude [10]. Geschwind then began to study anthropology and psychology, partly through amazement by the ability of soldiers in battle to forget their own safety and attack when they were asked to [4]. His interest in psychology soon resulted in a fascination with psychiatry, and he applied again, this time successfully, to Harvard Medical School. Previously, he believed that anatomy and physiology were irrelevant to the study of human behaviour, but now he had changed his mind, thanks to the neuroanatomical classes of Marcus Singer, who introduced him to aphasia and epilepsy research. He switched from psychiatry to neurology and began investigating higher brain functions. After graduation in 1951 he continued his studies as an intern at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital, as a young physician at London’s National Hospital at Queen Square on a Moseley Travelling Fellowship (from 1952 to 1953), and subsequently as a United States Public Health Service fellow until 1955 [5]. He devoted himself to the pathophysiology of neurological disease, such as periodic paralysis and the application of procainamide in myotonia [5], influenced by Sir Charles Symonds’s teachings about the need to ‘localize’ S. Sandrone (&) Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and Institute of Experimental Neurology (INSpe), San Gabriele Building-DIBIT2 A4B4, Via Olgettina 58, 20132 Milan, Italy e-mail: [email protected]