Jerome Lettvin

Jerome Ysroael Lettvin
Jerome Lettvin in Building 20 at MIT in 1952
Born	(1920-02-23)February 23, 1920 Chicago, Illinois, USA
Died	April 23, 2011(2011-04-23) (aged 91) Hingham, Massachusetts, USA
Nationality	American
Fields	Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Electrical Engineering, Communications Physiology, Mythopoetry
Institutions	Rutgers (1988–2011) MIT (1951–2011) Stazione Zoologica Manteno State Hospital (1948–1951) University of Rochester (1947)
Alma mater	University of Illinois (B.S., M.D. 1943)
Notable students	Norman Geschwind
Known for	"What the Frog's Eye Tells the Frog's Brain" Leary-Lettvin debate
Influences	Norbert Wiener Warren McCulloch Walter Pitts Derek Denny-Brown Santiago Ramón y Cajal Charles Scott Sherrington John Zachary Young
Spouse	Maggie (1947–)

Jerome Ysroael Lettvin (February 23, 1920 – April 23, 2011), often known as Jerry Lettvin, was an American cognitive scientist, and Professor of Electrical and Bioengineering and Communications Physiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is best known as the lead author of the paper, "What the Frog's Eye Tells the Frog's Brain" (1959), one of the most cited papers in the Science Citation Index. He wrote it along with Humberto Maturana, Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts, and in the paper they gave special thanks and mention to Oliver Selfridge at MIT. Lettvin carried out neurophysiological studies in the spinal cord, made the first demonstration of "feature detectors" in the visual system, and studied information processing in the terminal branches of single axons. Around 1969, he originated the term "grandmother cell" to illustrate the logical inconsistency of the concept.

Lettvin was also the author of many published articles on subjects varying from neurology and physiology to philosophy and politics. Among his many activities at MIT, he served as one of the first directors of the Concourse Program, and, along with his wife Maggie, was a houseparent of the Bexley dorm.

Lettvin was born February 23, 1920 in Chicago, the eldest of four children (including the pianist Theodore Lettvin) of Solomon and Fanny Lettvin. After training as a neurologist and psychiatrist at the University of Illinois (BS, MD 1943), he practiced medicine during the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, he continued practicing neurology and researching nervous systems, partly at Boston City Hospital, and then at MIT with Walter Pitts and Warren McCulloch under Norbert Wiener.