Hans Berger
Encyclopedia
Hans Berger was born in Neuses
near Coburg, Bavaria
, Germany
. He is best known as the first to record human electroencephalograms (EEGs or "brain waves") in 1924, for which he invented the electroencephalogram (giving the device its name), and the discoverer of the alpha wave
rhythm known as "Berger's wave".
in 1892, Berger enrolled as a mathematics student at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
with a view to becoming an astronomer. After one semester, he abandoned his studies and enlisted for a year of service in the cavalry. During a training exercise, his horse suddenly reared and he landed in the path of a horse-drawn cannon. The driver of the artillery battery halted the horses in time, leaving the young Berger shaken but with no serious injuries. His sister, at home many kilometres away, had a feeling he was in danger and insisted their father telegram him. The incident made such an impression on Berger that, years later in 1940, he wrote: “It was a case of spontaneous telepathy in which at a time of mortal danger, and as I contemplated certain death, I transmitted my thoughts, while my sister, who was particularly close to me, acted as the receiver.”
On completion of his military service, and obsessed by the idea of how his mind could have carried a signal to his sister, Berger returned to Jena to study medicine with the goal of discovering the physiological basis of “psychic energy”. His central theme became “the search for the correlation between objective activity in the brain and subjective psychic phenomena”.
After obtaining his medical degree from Jena in 1897, Berger joined the staff of Otto Ludwig Binswanger
(1852–1929) who held the Chair in psychiatry
and neurology
at the Jena clinic. Habilitated in 1901, he qualified as a senior university lecturer in 1906 and physician-in-chief in 1912, eventually succeeding Binswanger in 1919. He also collaborated with two famous scientists and physicians, Oskar Vogt
(1870–1959) and Korbinian Brodmann
(1868–1918), in their research on lateralization of brain function
. Berger married his technical assistant, Baroness Ursula von Bülow, in 1911 and later served as an army psychiatrist on the Western front during WWI. He was elected Rector of Jena University in 1927.
In 1924, Berger succeeded in recording the first human electroencephalogram (EEG). Filled with doubt, it took him five years to publish his first paper in 1929 which demonstrated the technique for "recording the electrical activity of the human brain from the surface of the head". His findings were met with incredulity and derision by the German medical and scientific establishments. Having visited the EEG laboratory at Jena in 1935, American roboticist
William Grey Walter
noted that Berger "was not regarded by his associates as in the front rank of German psychiatrists, having rather the reputation of being a crank. He seemed to me to be a modest and dignified person, full of good humour, and as unperturbed by lack of recognition as he was later by the fame it eventually brought upon him. But he had one fatal weakness: he was completely ignorant of the technical and physical basis of his method. He knew nothing about mechanics or electricity." After British electrophysiologists Edgar Douglas Adrian and B. H. C. Matthews confirmed Berger's basic observations in 1934, the importance of his discoveries in electroencephalography
(EEG) were finally recognized at an international forum in 1937. By 1938, electroencephalography had gained widespread recognition by eminent researchers in the field, leading to its practical use in diagnosis in the United States, England, and France.
In 1938, at the age of 65, Berger was made Professor Emeritus in Psychology
. According to biographers Niedermeyer and Lopes da Silva, the appointment occurred in an unceremonious manner as his relationship with the Nazi
regime was particularly strained. Numerous sources report that, given their hostile relationship, the Nazis forced Berger into retirement that same year with a complete ban of any further work on EEG. These biographical accounts were contradicted in 2005 by Ernst Klee
, the German journalist specializing in the exposure and documentation of Nazi medical crimes, who demonstrated that Berger was a member of the SS
. In 2005, Dr Susanne Zimmermann, medical historian at the University of Jena, found evidence that Berger had not been forced into retirement but had "served on the selection committee for his successor" who was sacked as a Nazi after the war. Moreover, official records at the University of Jena dating from the 1930s proved that Berger had served on the Erbgesundheitsgericht (Court for Genetic Health) that imposed sterilizations while his diaries contained anti-Semitic comments. Dr Zimmermann's findings corroborated research published in Germany in 2003 documenting Berger's invitation by the SS racial hygienist Karl Astel
to work for the EGOG (Court for Genetic Health) in 1941. Berger replied: "I am gladly willing to work again as an assessor at the Court for Genetic Health in Jena, for which I thank you."
After a long period of clinical depression, and suffering from a severe skin infection, Berger committed suicide by hanging on June 1, 1941 in the southern wing of the clinic.
, Berger studied brain circulation
, psychophysiology
and brain temperature
. However his main contribution to medicine and neurology was the systematic study of the electrical activity of human brain and the development of electroencephalography
(EEG), following the pioneering work done by Richard Caton
(1842–1926) in England
with animals. In 1924, Berger made the first EEG recording in man and called it Elektroenkephalogram.
Using the EEG he was also the first to describe the different waves or rhythms which were present in the normal and abnormal brain, such as the alpha wave
rhythm (7.812–13.28 Hz), also known as "Berger's wave"; and its suppression (substitution by the faster beta wave
s) when the subject opens the eyes (the so-called alpha blockade). He also studied and described for the first time the nature of EEG alterations in brain diseases such as epilepsy
.
His method involved inserting silver
wires under the patients scalp
, one at the front of the head and one at the back. Later he used silver foil electrodes attached to the head by a rubber bandage. As a recording device he first used the Lippmann
's capillary electrometer, but results were disappointing. He then switched to the string galvanometer
and later to a double-coil Siemens
recording galvanometer, which allowed him to record electrical voltage
s as small as one ten thousandth of a volt. The resulting output, up to three seconds in duration, was then photographed by an assistant.
Print
Primary sources
Secondary sources
Neuses
Neuses may refer to:*Neuses , a part of Ansbach*Erlangen-Neuses, a part of Erlangen*Neuses bei Coburg*Neuses , a part of town Wendelstein, Bavaria...
near Coburg, Bavaria
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...
, Germany
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
. He is best known as the first to record human electroencephalograms (EEGs or "brain waves") in 1924, for which he invented the electroencephalogram (giving the device its name), and the discoverer of the alpha wave
Alpha wave
Alpha waves are neural oscillations in the frequency range of 8–12 Hz arising from synchronous and coherent electrical activity of thalamic pacemaker cells in humans...
rhythm known as "Berger's wave".
Biography
After attending Casimirianum, where he gained his abiturAbitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
in 1892, Berger enrolled as a mathematics student at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
Friedrich Schiller University of Jena , is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany....
with a view to becoming an astronomer. After one semester, he abandoned his studies and enlisted for a year of service in the cavalry. During a training exercise, his horse suddenly reared and he landed in the path of a horse-drawn cannon. The driver of the artillery battery halted the horses in time, leaving the young Berger shaken but with no serious injuries. His sister, at home many kilometres away, had a feeling he was in danger and insisted their father telegram him. The incident made such an impression on Berger that, years later in 1940, he wrote: “It was a case of spontaneous telepathy in which at a time of mortal danger, and as I contemplated certain death, I transmitted my thoughts, while my sister, who was particularly close to me, acted as the receiver.”
On completion of his military service, and obsessed by the idea of how his mind could have carried a signal to his sister, Berger returned to Jena to study medicine with the goal of discovering the physiological basis of “psychic energy”. His central theme became “the search for the correlation between objective activity in the brain and subjective psychic phenomena”.
After obtaining his medical degree from Jena in 1897, Berger joined the staff of Otto Ludwig Binswanger
Otto Binswanger
Otto Ludwig Binswanger was a Swiss psychiatrist and neurologist who came from a famous family of physicians; his father was founder of the Kreuzlingen Sanatorium, and he was uncle to Ludwig Binswanger who was a major figure in the existential psychology movement...
(1852–1929) who held the Chair in psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
and neurology
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
at the Jena clinic. Habilitated in 1901, he qualified as a senior university lecturer in 1906 and physician-in-chief in 1912, eventually succeeding Binswanger in 1919. He also collaborated with two famous scientists and physicians, Oskar Vogt
Oskar Vogt
Oskar Vogt was a German physician and neurologist. He was born in Husum - Schleswig-Holstein...
(1870–1959) and Korbinian Brodmann
Korbinian Brodmann
Korbinian Brodmann was a German neurologist who became famous for his definition of the cerebral cortex into 52 distinct regions from their cytoarchitectonic characteristics.-Life:...
(1868–1918), in their research on lateralization of brain function
Lateralization of brain function
A longitudinal fissure separates the human brain into two distinct cerebral hemispheres, connected by the corpus callosum. The sides resemble each other and each hemisphere's structure is generally mirrored by the other side. Yet despite the strong anatomical similarities, the functions of each...
. Berger married his technical assistant, Baroness Ursula von Bülow, in 1911 and later served as an army psychiatrist on the Western front during WWI. He was elected Rector of Jena University in 1927.
In 1924, Berger succeeded in recording the first human electroencephalogram (EEG). Filled with doubt, it took him five years to publish his first paper in 1929 which demonstrated the technique for "recording the electrical activity of the human brain from the surface of the head". His findings were met with incredulity and derision by the German medical and scientific establishments. Having visited the EEG laboratory at Jena in 1935, American roboticist
Roboticist
A roboticist designs, builds, programs, and experiments with robots. Since robotics is a highly interdisciplinary field, roboticists often have backgrounds in a number of disciplines including computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer engineering...
William Grey Walter
William Grey Walter
W. Grey Walter was a neurophysiologist and robotician.-Overview:Walter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1910. His ancestry was German/British on his father's side, and American/British on his mother's side. He was brought to England in 1915, and educated at Westminster School and afterwards...
noted that Berger "was not regarded by his associates as in the front rank of German psychiatrists, having rather the reputation of being a crank. He seemed to me to be a modest and dignified person, full of good humour, and as unperturbed by lack of recognition as he was later by the fame it eventually brought upon him. But he had one fatal weakness: he was completely ignorant of the technical and physical basis of his method. He knew nothing about mechanics or electricity." After British electrophysiologists Edgar Douglas Adrian and B. H. C. Matthews confirmed Berger's basic observations in 1934, the importance of his discoveries in electroencephalography
Electroencephalography
Electroencephalography is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp. EEG measures voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain...
(EEG) were finally recognized at an international forum in 1937. By 1938, electroencephalography had gained widespread recognition by eminent researchers in the field, leading to its practical use in diagnosis in the United States, England, and France.
In 1938, at the age of 65, Berger was made Professor Emeritus in Psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
. According to biographers Niedermeyer and Lopes da Silva, the appointment occurred in an unceremonious manner as his relationship with the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
regime was particularly strained. Numerous sources report that, given their hostile relationship, the Nazis forced Berger into retirement that same year with a complete ban of any further work on EEG. These biographical accounts were contradicted in 2005 by Ernst Klee
Ernst Klee
Ernst Klee is a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he is best known for his exposure and documentation of the medical crimes of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, much of which is concerned with the Action T4 forced euthanasia program.-Life and work:Klee was first trained as...
, the German journalist specializing in the exposure and documentation of Nazi medical crimes, who demonstrated that Berger was a member of the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
. In 2005, Dr Susanne Zimmermann, medical historian at the University of Jena, found evidence that Berger had not been forced into retirement but had "served on the selection committee for his successor" who was sacked as a Nazi after the war. Moreover, official records at the University of Jena dating from the 1930s proved that Berger had served on the Erbgesundheitsgericht (Court for Genetic Health) that imposed sterilizations while his diaries contained anti-Semitic comments. Dr Zimmermann's findings corroborated research published in Germany in 2003 documenting Berger's invitation by the SS racial hygienist Karl Astel
Karl Astel
Karl Astel was a Nazi racial scientist and involved in the Nazi Eugenics program.He was born on 26 February 1898 in Schweinfurt. After finishing the Gymnasium he fought in World War I in 1917 and 1918. Astel took part at the Kapp Putsch and also the Beer Hall Putsch, as a member of the Freikorps...
to work for the EGOG (Court for Genetic Health) in 1941. Berger replied: "I am gladly willing to work again as an assessor at the Court for Genetic Health in Jena, for which I thank you."
After a long period of clinical depression, and suffering from a severe skin infection, Berger committed suicide by hanging on June 1, 1941 in the southern wing of the clinic.
Research
Among his many research interests in neurologyNeurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
, Berger studied brain circulation
Circulatory system
The circulatory system is an organ system that passes nutrients , gases, hormones, blood cells, etc...
, psychophysiology
Psychophysiology
Psychophysiology is the branch of psychology that is concerned with the physiological bases of psychological processes. While psychophysiology was a general broad field of research in the 1960s and 1970s, it has now become quite specialized, and has branched into subspecializations...
and brain temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
. However his main contribution to medicine and neurology was the systematic study of the electrical activity of human brain and the development of electroencephalography
Electroencephalography
Electroencephalography is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp. EEG measures voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain...
(EEG), following the pioneering work done by Richard Caton
Richard Caton
Richard Caton , of Liverpool, England, was a scientist who was crucial in discovering the electrical nature of the brain and laid the groundwork for Hans Berger to discover Alpha wave activity in the human brain....
(1842–1926) in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
with animals. In 1924, Berger made the first EEG recording in man and called it Elektroenkephalogram.
Alpha wave
Alpha waves are neural oscillations in the frequency range of 8–12 Hz arising from synchronous and coherent electrical activity of thalamic pacemaker cells in humans...
rhythm (7.812–13.28 Hz), also known as "Berger's wave"; and its suppression (substitution by the faster beta wave
Beta wave
Beta wave, or beta rhythm, is the term used to designate the frequency range of human brain activity between 12 and 30 Hz . Beta waves are split into three sections: High Beta Waves ; Beta Waves ; and Low Beta Waves...
s) when the subject opens the eyes (the so-called alpha blockade). He also studied and described for the first time the nature of EEG alterations in brain diseases such as epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
.
His method involved inserting silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
wires under the patients scalp
Scalp
The scalp is the anatomical area bordered by the face anteriorly and the neck to the sides and posteriorly.-Layers:It is usually described as having five layers, which can conveniently be remembered as a mnemonic:...
, one at the front of the head and one at the back. Later he used silver foil electrodes attached to the head by a rubber bandage. As a recording device he first used the Lippmann
Gabriel Lippmann
Jonas Ferdinand Gabriel Lippmann was a Franco-Luxembourgish physicist and inventor, and Nobel laureate in physics for his method of reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of interference....
's capillary electrometer, but results were disappointing. He then switched to the string galvanometer
Galvanometer
A galvanometer is a type of ammeter: an instrument for detecting and measuring electric current. It is an analog electromechanical transducer that produces a rotary deflection of some type of pointer in response to electric current flowing through its coil in a magnetic field. .Galvanometers were...
and later to a double-coil Siemens
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
recording galvanometer, which allowed him to record electrical voltage
Voltage
Voltage, otherwise known as electrical potential difference or electric tension is the difference in electric potential between two points — or the difference in electric potential energy per unit charge between two points...
s as small as one ten thousandth of a volt. The resulting output, up to three seconds in duration, was then photographed by an assistant.
Hans-Berger-Preis
Hans-Berger-Preis is awarded triennially by the :de:Deutsche Gesellschaft für Klinische Neurophysiologie (German Society of Clinical Neurophysiology) for long-standing, extensive academic work in theoretical or clinical neurophysiology.- Berger, Hans (1940). Psyche. Jena: Gustav Fischer.
- —. Über das Elektroenkephalogramm des Menschen. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 1929, 87: 527-570.
Secondary sources
- Fields, R. Douglas (2009). The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978 0 7432 9141 5
- Klee, Ernst (2005). Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag. ISBN 3-596-16048-0
- Hoßfeld Uwe, John Jürgen, Lemuth Oliver, Stutz Rüdiger (2003). "Kämpferische Wissenschaft" - Studien zur Universität Jena im Nationalsozialismus. , Köln: Böhlau Verlag Gmbh. ISBN 3-412-04102-5.
- Niedermeyer, Ernst and Lopes da Silva, Fernando (2005). Electroencephalography: Basic Principles, Clinical Applications, and Related Fields. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (5th Edition). ISBN 0-781-75126-8
- Radin, Dean (2006). Entangled Minds. New York: Paraview Pocket Books. ISBN 1-4165-1677-8
- Walter, W. Grey (1953). The Living Brain. New York: Norton
External links
- Hans Berger bio at Encyclopedia.com
- Hans Berger at Who Named It.com