Hans Helmut Kornhuber

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Hans Helmut Kornhuber

Hans Helmut Kornhuber (born February 24, 1928 in Königsberg ; † October 30, 2009 ) was a German neurologist and neurophysiologist .

Life

Hans Helmut Kornhuber was born as the second of three children to Gertrud and Arnold Kornhuber. He grew up in Metgethen near Königsberg. At the age of eight he was admitted to the Friedrichs-Kollegium grammar school in Königsberg. The school days ended with the Abitur in the summer of 1944. He was interested in chemistry and came into contact with the Chemical Institute of the Albertus University in Königsberg . With the surrender of Königsberg on April 9, 1945, Kornhuber was taken prisoner by the Soviets. He was released in September 1949 and returned to his family, who had settled in Schleswig-Holstein . In October 1949 he made a second Abitur and then began to study chemistry at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . In the spring of 1950 he switched to medicine. The reason was his experiences during the imprisonment. He then studied at the Universities of Göttingen , Freiburg , Basel and Heidelberg . In 1955 he received his doctorate in Heidelberg . He received his clinical training at the Neurological University Clinic of the University of Freiburg, headed by Richard Jung , where he completed his habilitation in 1963 . He also completed a year and a half research stay at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Soon after his return to Freiburg, Kornhuber was appointed to the chair of neurology at the newly founded University of Ulm in 1969 , where he set up the university's neurological clinic, which he headed until his retirement in 1996.

Kornhuber was married; he had five sons with his first wife Ursula. His son Johannes Kornhuber is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist ; He heads the Psychiatric and Psychotherapeutic Clinic at the University Hospital Erlangen , Malte Kornhuber is a neurologist, Chief Neurologist at Helios Klinik Sangerhausen, Anselm Kornhuber is a neurologist in Ulm.

Scientific contribution

Kornhuber did his doctorate with Kurt Schneider , Heidelberg, on the triggering of cyclothymic depression by emotional shocks. At Richard Jung in Freiburg, he worked clinically and experimentally in the field of electronystagmography , eye motor skills and optical perception and completed his habilitation with an examination of the interaction of vestibular , visual and somatic signals in neurons of the cerebral cortex . Kornhuber recognized early on the possible contribution of cybernetic perspectives to the understanding of physiological processes. So he described the discharge patterns of sensory fibers of the probe system examined together with Vernon B. Mountcastle in the years 1965-1966 with methods of communication technology (" channel capacity ") and later applied this method to human perception. Cybernetic aspects can also be found in his contributions to handbooks and textbooks on the physiology and clinic of the central vestibular system, eye motor skills and central nervous functions of motor skills in general. For his services in the field of vestibular research, he was awarded the Bárány Medal by the Bárány Society .

In 1965, together with doctoral student Lüder Deecke , Kornhuber succeeded in discovering what is known as the motor readiness potential in English , a brain potential in the EEG that precedes all our intended actions. The release became a Citation Classic in 1989 . Kornhuber used modern epidemiological methods very early on to clarify the causes of hypertension , the main risk factor for stroke . He made prevention the topic of our time, called for preventive medicine in every medical subject and coined the term preventive neurology . Kornhuber developed, among other things, methods of decentralized treatment and rehabilitation for the families of patients with neurological diseases. He and his team also designed a baby protector against sudden infant death syndrome . In search of a better treatment for schizophrenia , which he understood to be somatic, he explored the role of glutamate . This led to the administration of glutamate antagonists in therapy e.g. B. dementia . To promote the therapy of myopathies , he founded a multidisciplinary center and also his own center for the treatment of epilepsy . Here it was possible to selectively remove the most epileptogenic brain structures, the amygdala and hippocampus , without side effects. This led to Kornhubert's realization that the amygdala is no longer as important in humans as it is in animals, since it is overbuilt by the frontal lobe.

Even during his activity as director of the neurological clinic, Kornhuber continued to focus on basic research in the areas of sensory physiology, the vestibular system, oculomotor functions and brain potentials, which he promoted through a specially created research facility. He was able to prove that saccadic eye movements are not purely ballistic, but are protected against interference by an "internal", non-visual control.

Kornhuber was committed to improving upbringing and education. He founded and directed the Studium generale at the University of Ulm. He also founded the first school for speech therapists in Germany.

Awards

In 1967 Kornhuber received the Hans Berger Prize from the German Society for Clinical Neurophysiology (DGKN) and subsequently numerous other national and international honors and awards.

Fonts (selection)

Handbook and textbook contributions

  • Physiology and clinic of the central vestibular system (gaze and support motor skills). In: J. Berendes, R. Link, F. Zöllner (Ed.): Ear, Nose and Throat Medicine. Volume III, part 3, Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart 1966, pp. 2150-2351.
  • Sense of touch and position. In: OH Gauer, K. Kramer, R. Jung (Hrsg.): Physiologie des Menschen. Volume 11: Somatic Sensitivity. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Munich / Berlin / Vienna 1972, pp. 51–112.
  • With JM Fredrickson and DWF Schwarz: Cortical Projections of the Vestibular Nerve. In: HH Kornhuber (Ed.): Handbook of Sensory Physiology. Vol VI, part 1, Springer Verlag, Berlin 1974, pp. 565-582.
  • Nystagmus and Related Phenomena in Man: An Outline of Otoneurology. In: HH Kornhuber (Ed.): Handbook of Sensory Physiology. Vol VI, part 2, Springer Verlag, Berlin 1974, pp. 193-232.
  • The Vestibular System and the General Motor System. In: HH Kornhuber (Ed.): Handbook of Sensory Physiology. Vol VI, part 2, Springer Verlag, Berlin 1974, pp. 581-620.
  • Eye motor skills. In: OH Gauer, K. Kramer, R. Jung (Hrsg.): Physiologie des Menschen. Volume 13: Seeing. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Munich / Berlin / Vienna 1978, pp. 357-426.

items

  • With Richard Jung : Neurophysiology and Psychophysics of the Visual System. Springer, Heidelberg 1961.
  • With Lüder Deecke : Changes in brain potential with voluntary movements and passive movements of people: readiness potential and reafferent potentials. In: Pflüger's archive for the entire physiology of humans and animals . Volume 284, H. 1, 1965, pp. 1-17. doi: 10.1007 / BF00412364 , (PDF)
  • Mind and Freedom as Biological Problems. In: Roger Alfred Stamm, Hans Zeier (Ed.): The Psychology of the 20th Century. Volume 6: Lorenz and the consequences. Kindler, Zurich 1978, pp. 1122–1130.
  • Attention, readiness for action and the stages of voluntary decision. In: Experimental brain research. Supplement 9, 1984, pp. 420-429.
  • From freedom. In: Manfred Lindauer, Alfred Schöpf (Hrsg.): How do humans know the world? Basics of knowing, feeling and acting. Humanities and natural scientists in dialogue. Klett, Stuttgart 1984.
  • With Lüder Deecke: Readiness for movement: The readiness potential story. In: Current Contents Life Sciences. Volume 33, H. 4, January 22, 1990, p. 14. ( online ; PDF; 250 kB)
  • Brain, will, freedom. In: Revue de métaphysique et de morale. Volume 97, H. 2, 1992, pp. 203-223. ( JSTOR )
  • Alcohol: “normal” consumption is also harmful. Urban & Vogel, Munich 2001.
  • On free will: On Free Will. In: Advances in Neurology - Psychiatry. Volume 74, H. 8, 2006, pp. 427-430. doi: 10.1055 / s-2006-944233 (statement against Gerhard Roth and Wolf Singer ).
  • With Lüder Deecke: Will and Brain. Edition Sirius published by Aisthesis-Verlag, Bielefeld / Locarno 2007. (2nd, revised edition. 2009)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ About the triggering of cyclothymic depression by emotional shocks. Heidelberg 1955.
  2. ↑ Optical-vestibular and somatic vestibular integration of neurons of the cerebral cortex: A contribution to the multimodal coordination of the sensory afferents. Freiburg i. Br. 1963.
  3. ↑ HH Kornhuber, L. Deecke: Changes in brain potential in humans before and after voluntary movements, shown with magnetic tape storage and backward analysis. In: Pflügers Arch. 281, 1964, p. 52.
  4. ↑ see the work by Marjan Jahanshahi and Mark Hallett (eds.), Published on the occasion of Kornhuber's 75th birthday: The readiness potential: movement-related cortical potentials. Kluwer, New York 2003, ISBN 0-306-47407-7 .
  5. ^ HH Kornhuber, L. Deecke: Readiness for movement - the readiness potential story. In: Current Contents Life Sciences. 33 (4), 1990, p. 14 and Current Contents Clinical Medicine. 18 (4), 1990, p. 14. (PDF)
  6. ^ Lüder ceiling: We mourn Hans Helmut Kornhuber (1928–2009). Obituary. In: Family Dynamics. 36th volume, issue 2/2010, p. 184.
  7. ^ German Society for Clinical Neurophysiology: Prizes and Prize Winners . Retrieved February 23, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Kornhuber, Hans Helmut
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kornhuber, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German neurologist and brain researcher
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Königsberg (Prussia)
DATE OF DEATH October 30, 2009