Quantifying cerebral blood flow: regional regulation with global implications.

In 1948, Seymour S. Kety and Carl F. Schmidt published back-to-back papers in the JCI that are widely acknowledged as landmarks. Upon publication, the studies resolved a century-old debate, irrefutably demonstrating that cerebral blood flow is regionally regulated. The reported findings turned out to be so powerful in their implications that they provided the inspirational spark that illuminated a brand-new field: functional brain imaging. Thus these papers are landmarks of the rarest kind, not only ending a controversy, but also giving birth to one of the most exciting fields within modern day neuroscience.