Washington University School of Medicine

William Landau, MD

Dr. Landau continues clinical practice, consultation, teaching, and research. Critical reviews of clinical neurological concepts (neuromythology) have become a consuming byproduct. He has been president of the Central Society for Neurological Research, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, the Association of University Professors of Neurology, and the American Neurological Association, and chairman of the National Committee for Research in Neurological and Communicative Disorders. He has served on the editorial boards of Neurology, AMA Archives of Neurology, and the Annals of Neurology, is an honorary member of the American Neurologic Association and the St. Louis Metropolitan Medical Society, and is listed in the Directory of Outstanding Medical Specialists (Town and Country) and the Best Doctors in America (Woodward/White).

Research activities have been largely directed toward the organization and pathophysiology of movement, with special interest in the pyramidal tract, the site of excitation in stimulation of motor cortex, the human fusimotor system and muscle stretch receptors, the mechanisms of spasticity and parkinsonism, and the Babinski reflex. Human peripheral nerve studies analyzed the pathways and mechanisms of somatic sensation, especially pain with inflammation. Other physiological studies included the first quantitative measurements of local cerebral blood flow, neurophysiological analysis of cerebral cortical responses to various afferent inputs, and the mechanism of cerebral cortical spreading depression (related to migraine). Clinical interests include the efficacy of treatment for aphasia, childhood aphasia (Landau-Kleffner syndrome), stroke disability, and the special ethical issues of neurological disease and its management.

Medical Training

Dr. Landau is a third generation St. Louisan, attended public schools, the University of Chicago, and graduated from Washington University School of Medicine cum laude in 1947. After internship at the University of Chicago Clinics, he came home for graduate training in clinical neurology and neurophysiological research, and joined the faculty in 1952. After two more years of research experience in cerebral circulation at the National Institutes of Health, he returned to the Washington University Faculty, became professor of neurology in 1963 and succeeded Dr. James O'Leary, the first head of the department of Neurology, in 1970. He served as head of neurology and neurologist-in-chief at Barnes and St. Louis Children's Hospitals until 1991.

Selected Publications

Landau, W.M., Clinical Neuromythology XIV: There you go again: The steadfast fad of fixing spasticity. Neurology 45:2295-2296, 1995.

Landau, W.M., Nelson,D.A., Clinical Neuromythology XV: Feinting Science: Neurocardiogenic syncope and collateral vasovagal confusion. Neurology 46:609-618, 1996.

Landau, W.M. and Bishop, G.H. Pain from dermal, periosteal and fascial endings and from inflammation. In: Thoughts and Findings on Pain: The Hebb-Bishop Correspondence and a Selection of Papers,
edited by Harold Merskey. Canadian Pain Society, Eighth World Congress on Pain, Vancouver, Canada, pp. 167-188, 1996.

Landau, W.M., Kleffner, F.R. Landmark Article, Syndrome of acquired aphasia with convulsive disorder in children, Neurology 51:1241 (reprinted) 1998.

Landau, W.M. Clinical Neuromythology and Other Arguments and Essays, Pertinent and Impertinent, Futura Publishing Company, Inc., Armonk, N.Y. 1998.