Medical School Research Team Studies Embryo Radiation Effects

Experiments with rats, malformed by exposure to intense radiation during embryonic development, have made possible great strides towards finding a possible future cure for cerebral palsy, it was learned yesterday. Samuel P. Hicks, Associate Clinical Professor of Pathology, conducts the experiments at the Medical School, and in ten years has gained much new knowledge of the development of the mammalian nervous system.

The discoveries have three important results. First, since researchers now feel that all cases of cerebral palsy (malfunctioning of the human nervous system), are the result of harmful influences during the growth of the embryo, no cure can be effected till the normal process of growth is fully understood. Hicks' experiments have added greatly to this understanding.

Brain Functions Determined

Secondly, J. L. Falk, Research Fellow in Psychology, is using Hicks' malformed rats in experiments to determine the functions of several parts of the brain. Falk has accumulated much evidence that proves that the cerebral cortex discriminates between the size and shape of different objects.

Finally, Hicks has found that the effects of radiation on the offspring can be predicted with "reasonable accuracy," a discovery valuable in the event of atomic or hydrogen bomb attacks on this country.

Before the group started its work, there was little positive knowledge of mammalian embryology. Unlike the bird or reptile, the mammal young develop inside the mother, and as a result testing becomes extremely difficult.

After exposing a pregnant rat to 200 Roentgens, over 200 times the amount of radiation in a normal X-ray, the mother bears offspring with malformed nervous systems. Researchers study the consecutive stages of the "new" rats' development, by performing Caesarean operations on mother rats at intervals of several days.