The period from 1949 to 1975 established viral neuropathology as a central paradigm in neuroscience, foregrounding demyelination, neuroinvasion, and viral persistence as core mechanisms of central nervous system disease. Researchers employed animal models, brain tissue culture, and human brain isolates to trace how viruses invade neural tissue, spread through axons, and trigger demyelinating pathology, thereby unifying virology and neuropathology in a nascent neurovirology framework. This era fostered methodological synthesis across disciplines and set the stage for later explorations into viral latency, CNS infection, and neuroimmunology.