Gasser, Herbert Spencer (1888-1963), an American physiologist, carried out research that helped identify the functions of different fibers in the same nerve. In 1922, Gasser was working with fellow-American Joseph Erlanger when they succeeded in amplifying the electronic impulse passing through a single nerve fiber. This achievement enabled them to analyze the impulse on a cathode-ray oscilloscope (an instrument for displaying varying electric voltage or current). In 1932, the two scientists discovered that different fibers conduct impulses at different speeds depending on their thickness. Gasser and Erlanger also found that different fibers required a different level of stimulus to form an impulse. This research showed that different kinds of nerve fibers transmit different kinds of impulses, such as pain, pressure, or heat. In 1944, Gasser and Erlanger shared the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine. See also Erlanger, Joseph .
Gasser was born in Platteville, Wisconsin. In 1910, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin. After taking an M.A. at the same university, he entered the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland, for his clinical studies and, in 1915, received his M.D. He studied pharmacology for a year at Wisconsin and then went to teach at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1921, he became professor of pharmacology. Ten years later he became professor of physiology at Cornell University. From 1935 to 1953, he worked as director of the Rockefeller Institute.
