Otfrid Foerster

[2] He is also known as the first to describe the dermatomes (an area of skin that is supplied by a single pair of dorsal nerve roots), and he helped map the motor cortex of the cerebrum.

Foerster's student years occurred in a time when neurology was starting to develop independently from internal medicine and psychiatry under the influence of, among others, Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), Wilhelm Heinrich Erb, William Richard Gowers (1845-1912) and particularly Karl Wernicke, who became well known by his direction toward functional localization approaches.

[5] This was due to : his past connections to Lenin; the fact that his wife was partly Jewish;[6] and the 1932's Rockefeller Foundation grant,[2] urged by Foerster’s American friends, who funded the modern laboratory building of the Institute of Neurology.

One of his early students coming from that part of the world was Wilder Penfield (1891-1976), who continued Foerster's work on the analysis of the cerebral cortex's command of movement and the study of epilepsy.

From 1925 to 1935 Foerster brought all available analytic methods into his research, such as electrophysiology, which measures or induces electrical voltage among tissues, such as the brain.

Described by his biographers as a giant of neurosurgery, a man of towering intelligence, kindness and charm, he commanded several languages fluently and was a prolific lecturer and writer, having published more than 300 papers and several books.

His name has been honoured by the German Society of Neurosurgery by the Otfrid-Foerster-Medaille und -Gedächtnisvorlesung (Otfrid Foerster Medal and Memorial Lecture), created on August 26, 1953.