Duke University
Medical Center
Intercom
VOL. 25, NO. 40
OCT. 6, 1978
DURHAM, N.C.
Award honors renowned neuroscientists
Two internationally recognized
research scientists have received the 1978
Wakeman Award for Research in the
Neurosciences.
They are Dr. Viktor Hamburger of
Washington University in St. Louis and
Dr. 'Paul A. Weiss of Rockefeller
University in New York, who also served
on the faculty at the University of
Chicago for more than 20 years.
They share equally a $10,000
honorarium.
Hamburger received his award and a
bronze plaque at a black-tie awards
dinner Wednesday night in the Searle
Center for Continuing Education in the
Health Sciences at the Seeley G. Mudd
Building. Because of illness, Weiss was
unable to attend.
Duke administers the Wakeman Award
which also sponsored a scientific session,
"Frontiers in Neurobiology," yesterday in
the Searle Center.
Focus attention on research
The purpose of the Wakeman Award is
to focus attention on research worldwide
that is contributing to a better
understanding of nerve function, injury
and regeneration, particularly as it applies
to paraplegia and quadraplegia, paralysis
of the limbs.
Awarded every other year since 1972,
the Wakeman Award was established in
memory of and is financed by the estate of
the late William T. Wakeman, a West
Palm Beach, Fla., paraplegic.
Hamburger is the second Washington
University researcher to receive a
Wakeman. The other was Dr. Rita Levi-
Montalcini, with whom Hamburger
collaborated on studies of the
development of the sensory ganglia,
masses of nerve cell bodies that
contribute to the function of sensation.
Levi-Montalcini shared the award in
1974 with Dr. Stanley Cohen of
Vanderbilt University.
Spinal cord and genetics
Hamburger is perhaps best known for
his long series of contributions to the
development of the spinal cord, but over
the years he also has contributed
significantly to developmental genetics,
to the initial discovery of nerve growth
factor and to studies of nervous system
interaction.
In the late 1960s, he turned his
attention to developmental behavior. His
work established that in both bird and
mammal the earliest behavioral
responses are not induced by an outside
stimulus but, instead, are internally
programmed, and that the nerve
mechanisms which control these
responses are formed at a very early stage
of development.
(Continued on page 4)
DR. HAMBURGER
DR. WEISS
Here's something worth reading now... or later
By David Williamson
Now that the new school year is under
way, millions of college and high school
students across the nation dutifully settle
down each evening to hours of productive
study.
Millions of others don't.
Instead, this latter group will turn on
"Charlie's Angels," talk on the telephone,
stare out the window, drink beer with
friends or perform any of the countless
other little activities that constitute the
fine art of procrastination.
Great common denominator
And when final grades come out, most
of them will be sorry.
The putting off until tomorrow of what
should have been done today "is one of
the great common denominators of
students everywhere," says Dr. Harold
Ziesat, a clinical psychologist at Duke.
Ziesat, who has treated several
hundred young people for the problem, is
the author of one of the first studies of
how behavioral self-control techniques
can be used to control procrastination of
studying.
Lack of stimulus control
In an interview, he described some of
the conditions that foster procrastination
and offered some suggestions for parents
and students on how to prevent it.
i
i
"One factor that contributes to
procrastination is what psychologists call
a lack of stimulus control," he said. "This
refers to the phenomenon whereby a lot
of our behavior is determined by objects
or events in the environment that cue us
to do certain things.
'Tor example, if 1 walk past a favorite
Italian restaurant, I might become
interested in eating even though I have a
full stomach. In that case, the stimulus of
smelling the Italian food would cue me to
think about eating again."
Likewise, Ziesat said, some students'
rooms are so filled with distractions —
television sets, guitars, comic books, etc.
— that the student faces a constant
bombardment of stimuli that call away his
attention.
Don't get up
Time and place also can serve as cues,
the psychologist said. For example, if a
person is used to eating lunch at his desk
at noon each day, it eventually becomes
very difficult to concentrate on mental
tasks there during that time.
"What we recommend is that students
set aside the same block of time each day
to study in a distraction-free location," he
said. "The important thing is that the
student get into the habit of doing
nothing but working at that particular
desk which can be in his room or the
library or somewhere else.
"If he's a real procrastinator, he may
just sit there for the first few sessions and
(ConHnued on page 3)
LOOKINC SOUTH—A construction worker
atop the southwest corner of what will be the
ancillary section of Duke Hospital North, has a
"top level" view of the medical center. A corner
of the Bell Building is visible just over his
shoulder and the Seeley G. Mudd Building is to
the right. In the left background is the Edwin
A. Morris Clinical Cancer Research Building,
with the Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) tracks
running underneath. One of the PRT cars was
delivered this week, and photos will be carried
in next week's Intercom. IPIwlo hu Parker Herring!