The Basis of Motor Control

by Ragnar Granit

Hardcover

First published November 1, 1970

About the author

Ragnar Arthur Granit ForMemRS (October 30, 1900 – March 12, 1991) was a Finnish/Swedish scientist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1967 along with Haldan Keffer Hartline and George Wald "for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye".

Granit graduated in 1927 from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Helsinki, Finland. When Finland became the target of a massive Soviet attack in 1940 during the Winter War (1939–1940), Granit sought refuge – and peaceful surroundings for his studies and research work – in the neighbouring capital of Sweden, Stockholm, at the age of 40.

In the next year, 1941, Granit also received Swedish citizenship, which made it possible for him to go on with his work and live without having to worry about the war, which lasted until 1945 in Finland. Granit remained a patriotic Finn throughout his life. After the Finnish-Russian Wars, Granit kept homes both in Finland and Sweden.

Granit was professor of neurophysiology at the Karolinska Institutet from 1946 to his retirement in 1967.

Granit said that his Nobel prize "belongs fifty-fifty to Finland and Sweden".

Reviews

[Konstantin Ivanovitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a highly technical description of the function of the lower central nervous system (spinal chord and brain stem). At the moment this material is not taught to graduate students of neuroscience, and I suspect few graduate students and even post-graduate researchers of the nervous system are familiar with the contributions of people like Ragnar Granit. I suspect that this book will someday find a renewed interest, since an understanding of the intricate details of the neural circuitry mediating the coordination of joints and movement will be necessary to understand the function of higher brain systems. It will certainly be a key resource for those in the future that will be creating true models of the nervous system. The lack of appreciation for the difficulty of such a task and the now forgotten contributions and gains made by such workers in the past mean that such books will continue sitting in the stacks of research institutions. Wait patiently Dr. Granit, for your day will come.

The material is presented in a dense manner and it is not easy reading. Study of this material requires much effort and interest. It is likely to be read in pieces over the course of a career in systems neuroscience. I suggest this become an addition to your personal library if you are invested in studying motor control.