Kato, Genichi

Born 1890 in Okayama Prefecture. Japanese physiologist.

Kato graduated from Kyoto University in 1916. In 1919 he became a professor at Keio University in Tokyo. He was the founder of Japanese physiology and one of the pioneers of nerve and muscle microphysiology. He developed a method for preparing and stimulating single isolated muscle and nerve fibers through which he could examine the basic laws of excitation. Kato showed that the stimulating effect of electric current and chemical agents in medullated nerve fibers is carried out through the nodes of Ranvier, contributing thereby to the discovery of saltatory impulse conduction in medullated fibers.