Walter Pitts

25.5k total citations · 3 hit papers
14 papers, 3.1k citations indexed

About

Walter Pitts is a scholar working on Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Molecular Biology and Cognitive Neuroscience. According to data from OpenAlex, Walter Pitts has authored 14 papers receiving a total of 3.1k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 7 papers in Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, 5 papers in Molecular Biology and 3 papers in Cognitive Neuroscience. Recurrent topics in Walter Pitts's work include Photoreceptor and optogenetics research (5 papers), Retinal Development and Disorders (4 papers) and Neuroscience and Neural Engineering (4 papers). Walter Pitts is often cited by papers focused on Photoreceptor and optogenetics research (5 papers), Retinal Development and Disorders (4 papers) and Neuroscience and Neural Engineering (4 papers). Walter Pitts collaborates with scholars based in United States, Chile and Bulgaria. Walter Pitts's co-authors include Warren S. McCulloch, Jerome Y. Lettvin, Humberto R. Maturana, R. C. Gesteland, Bradford Howland, Patrick D. Wall, William F. Pickard, J. del Castillo, Raymond L. Edwards and Robert C. Gesteland and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science and The Journal of Physiology.

In The Last Decade

Walter Pitts

14 papers receiving 2.7k citations

Hit Papers

What the Frog's Eye Tells the Frog's Brain 1959 2026 1981 2003 1959 1960 1990 250 500 750 1000
What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

  1. What the Frog's Eye Tells the Frog's Brain
    1959 1.1k citations Jerome Y. Lettvin, Humberto R. Maturana et al. Proceedings of the IRE profile →
  2. Anatomy and Physiology of Vision in the Frog (Rana pipiens)
    1960 611 citations Humberto R. Maturana, Jerome Y. Lettvin et al. The Journal of General Physiology profile →
  3. A logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity
    1990 591 citations Warren S. McCulloch, Walter Pitts Bulletin of Mathematical Biology profile →

Peers

Walter Pitts
Warren S. McCulloch United States
Jerome Y. Lettvin United States
Joseph A. Gally United States
Thomas M. McKenna United States
Uwe Windhorst Germany
Rob R. de Ruyter van Steveninck United States
Lin Chen China
Klaus Obermayer Germany
David Willshaw United Kingdom
William H. Calvin United States
Warren S. McCulloch United States
Walter Pitts
Citations per year, relative to Walter Pitts Walter Pitts (= 1×) peers Warren S. McCulloch

Countries citing papers authored by Walter Pitts

Since Specialization
Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Walter Pitts's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Walter Pitts with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Walter Pitts more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Walter Pitts

Since Specialization
Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Walter Pitts. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Walter Pitts. The network helps show where Walter Pitts may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Walter Pitts

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Walter Pitts. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Walter Pitts based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with Walter Pitts. Walter Pitts is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

14 of 14 papers shown
1.
Pitts, Walter, et al.. (2012). Two Remarks on the Visual System of the Frog. The MIT Press eBooks. 60-77. 757–776. 8 indexed citations
2.
McCulloch, Warren S. & Walter Pitts. (1990). A logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology. 52(1-2). 99–115. 591 indexed citations breakdown →
3.
Gesteland, R. C., Jerome Y. Lettvin, & Walter Pitts. (1965). Chemical transmission in the nose of the frog.. The Journal of Physiology. 181(3). 525–559. 141 indexed citations
4.
Lettvin, Jerome Y., William F. Pickard, Warren S. McCulloch, & Walter Pitts. (1964). A Theory of Passive Ion Flux through Axon Membranes. Nature. 202(4939). 1338–1339. 116 indexed citations
5.
Pitts, Walter, et al.. (1962). USE OF ELECTROCHEMILUMINESCENCE FOR VISUALIZING FIELDS OF FLOW. 3 indexed citations
6.
Maturana, Humberto R., Jerome Y. Lettvin, Warren S. McCulloch, & Walter Pitts. (1960). Anatomy and Physiology of Vision in the Frog (Rana pipiens). The Journal of General Physiology. 43(6). 129–175. 611 indexed citations breakdown →
7.
Lettvin, Jerome Y., Humberto R. Maturana, Warren S. McCulloch, & Walter Pitts. (1959). What the Frog's Eye Tells the Frog's Brain. Proceedings of the IRE. 47(11). 1940–1951. 1145 indexed citations breakdown →
8.
Maturana, Humberto R., Jerome Y. Lettvin, Warren S. McCulloch, & Walter Pitts. (1959). Evidence That Cut Optic Nerve Fibers in a Frog Regenerate to Their Proper Places in the Tectum. Science. 130(3390). 1709–1710. 74 indexed citations
9.
Gesteland, R. C., Bradford Howland, Jerome Y. Lettvin, & Walter Pitts. (1959). Comments on Microelectrodes. Proceedings of the IRE. 47(11). 1856–1862. 252 indexed citations
10.
Castillo, J. del, Jerome Y. Lettvin, Warren S. McCulloch, & Walter Pitts. (1957). Membrane Currents in Clamped Vertebrate Nerve. Nature. 180(4597). 1290–1291. 9 indexed citations
11.
Wall, Patrick D., et al.. (1955). Effects of Strychnine with Special Reference to Spinal Afferent Fibres*. Epilepsia. C4(1). 29–40. 21 indexed citations
12.
Lettvin, Jerome Y., et al.. (1955). REFLEX INHIBITION BY DORSAL ROOT INTERACTION. Journal of Neurophysiology. 18(1). 1–17. 117 indexed citations
13.
Pitts, Walter, et al.. (1953). On microelectrodes for plotting currents in nervous tissue.. PubMed. 122(Suppl). 24–5P. 2 indexed citations
14.
Edwards, Raymond L. & Walter Pitts. (1952). Dog Locates Winter Nests of Mammals. Journal of Mammalogy. 33(2). 243–244. 1 indexed citations

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

Explore authors with similar magnitude of impact

Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Warren S. McCulloch Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Jerome Y. Lettvin Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Joseph A. Gally Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Thomas M. McKenna Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Uwe Windhorst Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Rob R. de Ruyter van Steveninck Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Lin Chen Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Klaus Obermayer Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by David Willshaw Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by William H. Calvin
Rankless by CCL
2026