Abstract Details

Title Early Electroencephalography: The Forgotten Discoveries of Wall Street Mogul, Alfred L. Loomis

Topic History of Neurology

Presentation(s) P1 - Poster Session 1 (8:00 AM-9:00 AM)

Poster/Presentation
Number 1-011

Objective

To highlight both the influential scientific discoveries of Alfred Loomis and exhibit his invention of one of the world’s first electroencephalograms and sleep labs.

Background After graduating Harvard Law School in 1912 and leading a very successful career as a Wall Street investor, Alfred Lee Loomis left his business career first to serve as an Army scientist in World War One, and later permanently as a civilian scientist. Loomis would go on to build one of the first electroencephalograms and publish some of the most influential research on the neurophysiology of sleep with many of the world’s most instrumental neuroscientists.

Design/Methods Historical literature review

Results After the First World War where he served as lieutenant colonel in charge of experimentation and development, Alfred Loomis returned home to Tuxedo Park, New York, and back to his job on Wall Street through the great depression. Continuing his passion for scientific discovery and creation, he began converting his luxury home into a world-class scientific laboratory which became internationally well-known as “Tower House”. Fascinated by the early work of German scientist Hans Berger on the detection of electrical brain activity, Loomis converted one of his home laboratories into a “sleep room” with the aim to be the first American to further the science and technology of electroencephalography. After designing and building his own electroencephalogram he was not only able to reproduce the waves detected by Berger, but also characterize and differentiate specific electrographic features of the sleep state. After publishing his findings from 1935 to 1937, his discovery and classification of these sleep structures and sleep states would lay the foundation for the field of sleep science.

Conclusions

Wall Street investor Alfred Loomis helped to pioneer the field of electroencephalography and sleep science. Much of his early discovery, invention, and terminology is regularly used today.

Authors/Disclosures
James Dolbow, DO PRESENTER	Dr. Dolbow has received publishing royalties from a publication relating to health care.
Shlok Sarin, MD	Dr. Sarin has nothing to disclose.
Neel Fotedar, MD (University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center)	Dr. Fotedar has received research support from NINDS.
Michael W. Devereaux, MD, FAAN (Univ Hospitals of Cleveland)	Dr. Devereaux has received personal compensation for serving as an employee of DigiTrace part of Sleepmed. Dr. Devereaux has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as an Expert Witness for Kevin Trangle and Associates.

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