José Manuel Rodriguez Delgado

Born Aug. 8, 1915, in Ronda, Spain. American neurophysiologist. Member of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Delgado completed his medical education in Madrid in 1940, where he taught physiology at a medical school from 1940 to 1946. Since 1950 he has been teaching in the United States, at Yale University, becoming a professor of physiology and psychiatry there in 1955. He improved the method of studying nerve centers using implanted electrodes. Extensively using this method for electrical and radio stimulation of the brain in animals (cats, monkeys) as well as in patients, Delgado discovered several centers that are directly linked to emotions, drives, and sensations of suffering or of well-being and pleasure. Delgado used electrical and radio stimulation of the brain to influence the behavior of patients and to treat epilepsy, schizophrenia, and other types of mental illness.