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Lecture: "Capturing Movement Disorders, from Drawing to Digital Image" by Geneviève Aubert (UCLA Programs in Medical Classics, 11 April 2006)


  • Date:   Wed, 29 Mar 2006 18:36:17 -0800
  • To:  sthc-l@lists.ucla.edu
  • From:   Russell A. Johnson   < rjohnson AT library.ucla.edu >
  • Subject:   Lecture: "Capturing Movement Disorders, from Drawing to Digital Image" by Geneviève Aubert (UCLA Programs in Medical Classics, 11 April 2006)
  • Message-ID:   fa71f5f2173dd.173ddfa71f5f2@library.ucla.edu

Please consider posting the following lecture announcement to 
interested students, faculty, staff, and other colleagues. 
A PDF version prints on legal size paper as a 
convenient flier:
http://www.library.ucla.edu/biomed/his/medclass-april2006.pdf

thanks,

Russell Johnson
UCLA Biomedical Library; and Neuroscience History Archives
rjohnson@library.ucla.edu

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Tuesday, 11 April 2006, 6:00 p.m.
UCLA Faculty Center

"Capturing Movement Disorders, from Drawing to Digital Image"
Geneviève Aubert, MD, PhD
Professor of Neurology, Université Catholique de Louvain, 
Belgium

Introduction by Jan-Christopher Horak, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor of Critical Studies/Moving Image Archives 
Studies, UCLA; Curator, Hollywood Entertainment Museum; and 
Editor, The Moving Image

Movement disorders are neurological diseases characterized 
by distinctive static postures and deformities as well 
as a gamut of involuntary movements. For neurologists, 
reliance on visual observation remains an essential 
diagnostic step. It is not surprising, then, that medical 
communications concerning these neurological disorders 
have depended particularly on artistic, photographic, 
and cinematographic documents.

The starting point of Dr. Aubert’s research was the 
discovery of the original nitrate films made by Arthur 
Van Gehuchten (1861-1914), professor of anatomy and 
neurology at the Catholic University of Louvain. Van 
Gehuchten was an avant-garde teacher, eager to adopt 
new visual aids. In 1905, he began to film neurological 
patients. He made extensive use of this technique to 
demonstrate clinical signs, illustrate neurological 
diseases, and document functional evolution following 
surgery. The unique collection of moving pictures he 
built for teaching purposes has miraculously survived, 
and serves as an important archive of neurological 
diseases and their manifestations prior to the advent 
of modern therapies. The original nitrate films (more 
than two hours long) have been restored by the Royal 
Belgian Film Archive, where they are the oldest Belgian 
films.

Besides Van Gehuchten’s exceptional set of films, a 
few other iconographic documents in the field of 
neurological disorders will be highlighted. Drawings, 
sculptures, photographs and films illustrating chorea, 
dystonia, Parkinson Disease and parkinsonism—one of the 
most dramatic sequelae of encephalitis lethargica—will be 
discussed, along with key figures in these achievements 
including Charcot and Richer, Kleist, Van Bogaert, and Sacks.


This program will begin at 6:00 pm in the UCLA Faculty Center, followed 
by wine & soft drinks, an exhibit of rare books, and conversation.

There is no charge for the lecture, exhibit, and reception.

An optional dinner with the speakers, at $22.00 per person, will take 
place in the Faculty Center about 7:30 pm. An ADVANCE RESERVATION is 
required for dinner; please bring a check made out to "UC Regents" to 
the lecture. To make a reservation or get more information, call the 
History & Special Collections Division of the Louise Darling 
Biomedical Library at (310) 825-6940. Dinner seating is limited, so 
please make dinner reservations by March 30th.


An abridged form of a classic text related to the evening's lecture 
will be distributed to those persons who request it in advance. To 
request this related text (please note: the LECTURE itself is NOT 
recorded or transcribed) or for more information, send Russell Johnson 
[rjohnson@library.ucla.edu] an e-mail, including your name and address, 
with the words "Medical Classics: April 2006 Reading" in the subject 
line; or call the History & Special Collections Division at 
(310) 825-6940.



# # #

Save the date for the next Medical Classics Programs:

May 23
Stanley Finger, Ph.D.
"Benjamin Franklin and Medical Electricity"

The Winter-Spring "History of Medicine and the Neurosciences" 
series of Medical Classics is co-sponsored by the 
UCLA Neuroscience History Archives
http://www.neurosciencearchives.org

# # #

UCLA Programs in Medical Classics is a series of free presentations 
designed to enhance an appreciation of the links among famous 
medical writings, clinical practice, basic research, and humanistic 
scholarship. Six times a year these meetings bring together a 
convivial group of individuals of scholarly tastes--both from the 
community and from UCLA faculty, students, and staff--for a 
lecture and an opportunity to discuss and examine texts and topics 
that embody the history of advances in medicine, as well as the 
relations of medicine to broader cultural settings.
http://www.library.ucla.edu/biomed/his/medicalclassics.html


Printable PDF version of this announcement:
http://www.library.ucla.edu/biomed/his/medclass-april2006.pdf

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