Constantin from Economo

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Marble bust for Constantin von Economo at the University of Vienna

Constantin Alexander Freiherr Economo von San Serff (born August 21, 1876 in Brăila / Romania ; † October 21, 1931 in Vienna ) was an Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist of Greek descent. He is best known for his discovery of encephalitis lethargica and his atlas of the cytoarchitectonics of the human brain.

Life

origin

Constantin's parents came from well-to-do families in Greece. On his father's side he came from a family of large landowners from Thessaly and on his mother's side he is the descendant of a Greek industrialist from Macedonia who lived in Budapest . Constantin von Economo was a member of the non-unified Greek parish in Vienna.

Youth and education

Constantin Freiherr Economo von San Serff was born in Brăila , Romania . The family moved to Trieste in 1877 , which was then part of Austria-Hungary . Constantin von Economo spent his childhood and youth in Trieste. He was a good student, attended the German grammar school in Trieste and could speak different languages ​​fluently. His family was ennobled in 1906, whereby Economo achieved the title of " baron ".

At the request of his father, von Economo began studying technology at the Polytechnic University in Vienna in 1893, but switched to medicine after two years. His first scientific publication was published in 1899 and was named For the Development of the Avian Pituitary . From 1900 to 1903 he worked as an assistant at Sigmund Exner . In 1901 he was awarded his doctorate.

Scientific career

Von Economo sat in on Carl Wilhelm Hermann Nothnagel at the Clinic for Internal Medicine from 1903 to 1904. He then went on a two-year trip through Europe and worked for various scientists. He studied neurology, histology and psychiatry in Paris (under Alexis Joffroy , Valentin Magnan and Pierre Marie ). In Nancy, he was by Hippolyte Bernheim in the hypnosis introduced in Strasbourg, he received insights into methods microscopic working on nervous system (under Albrecht Bethe ), in Munich, he wrote his contribution to the normal anatomy of the ganglion cell (under Emil Kraepelin and Alois Alzheimer ). He worked in the psychiatry in Berlin under Theodor Draw , in the neurological outpatient clinic under Hermann Oppenheim and was finally introduced to experimental animal research in Trieste by Carl Isidor Cori. After these two years, von Economo returned to Vienna and worked as an assistant in the Clinic for Psychiatry and Nervous Diseases (headed by Julius Wagner-Jauregg ) at the General Hospital in Vienna. He received his habilitation in 1913. At the age of 43, von Economo married Princess Karoline von Schönburg-Hartenstein. In 1921 he became a professor of psychiatry and neurology. The Department of Psychiatry and Nervous Diseases was where von Economo was able to conduct research for the rest of his life. However, it was not until May 1931 that he became head of the newly opened department for brain research. Von Economo was only able to use this facility for a short time; he died five months after it opened.

Aeronautics

Constantin von Economo (1908)

Von Economo was not only an outstanding scientist, but also a passionate pilot. In 1907 he developed an interest in aeronautics and balloon flying and in 1912 became the first Austrian with an international pilot's certificate. From 1910 to 1926 he was President of the Austrian Aero Club and Chairman of the Aviation Authority of the Austrian Ministry of Traffic and Transport. During the First World War he served first in the automobile corps on the Russian front, then in 1916 as a pilot on the South Tyrolean front. In the same year, however, he returned to Vienna at the request of his parents, where he treated patients with head injuries as a military doctor. Here he also experienced his first patients with lethargic encephalitis .

death

In 1931 von Economo died of complications from a heart attack, as reported by "Die neue Zeitung". In his honor, a bust was erected in the arcade courtyard of the University of Vienna in 1966 and an Austrian postage stamp was issued in 1976.

In 1932 the Economogasse in Vienna- Favoriten (10th district) was named after him.

research

Von Economo has published a total of around 150 articles and books. In his previous studies he dealt with the neuroanatomy and physiology of the mesencephalon , the pons and the central tracts of the trigeminal nerve and wrote articles on e.g. B. posthemiplegic chorea , pons tumors and the swallowing and chewing reflex.

Lethargic encephalitis

This disease, in which an acute inflammation of the cerebral cortex (cerebral cortex) can be diagnosed, occurred as an epidemic worldwide between 1915 and 1924 and mainly affected Europe and North America. This encephalitis has not occurred since 1940 . Von Economo detailed the symptoms, pathology, and histology of the disease that was soon to be called "Economo's disease". Among other things, damage to the substantia nigra was found. Three types of the disease can be distinguished. The somnolent-ophthalmoplegic (drowsy-eye muscle paralyzing) type manifested itself in addiction to sleep , which often led to coma and ultimately death, paralysis of the cranial nerves , extremities and eye muscles, and an expressionless face. The hyperkinetic form manifested itself in restlessness, motor disorders such as twitching and involuntary movements, anxiety states as well as insomnia or reversal of the sleep rhythm. Finally, the amyostatic-akinetic form often had a chronic course that was similar to Parkinson's disease and was therefore also called post-cephalitic Parkinsonism. Symptoms here were muscle weakness, stiff movements and insomnia or a reversal of the sleep rhythm. Von Economo published his findings, among other things, in an article from 1917: "The encephalitis lethargica", and in the monograph "The encephalitis lethargica, its secondary diseases and their treatment" in 1929. This disease also inspired him to deal with the topic of sleep employ. He suspected a sleep center in the brain with one waking and one sleeping center.

Cytoarchitectural studies

The cell structure of the cerebral cortex according to Ecomo

After the first attempts to subdivide the human cerebral cortex from a cytoarchitectural point of view, as Theodor Meynert , Wladimir Betz , Alfred W. Campbell, Grafton Elliot Smith and Korbinian Brodmann did, Economo began his own project in 1912 and was carried out from 1919 supported by Georg N. Koskinas.

Her monumental work "The cytoarchitectonics of the adult cortex" was published in 1925. The work was published in two volumes; A text book of over 800 pages and a picture atlas with 112 large-format microphotographic plates of the cortex cerebri. The textbook contains detailed descriptions of their studies and an introduction to the history of cytoarchitectural research. With their atlas, Economo and Koskinas hoped to prepare a basis for future brain research and the localization of brain functions, since they assumed that cytoarchitectural differences reflect functional differences. The atlas was reissued in 2008.

Economo and Koskinas divided the cerebral cortex into seven lobes with the following subdivisions:

  • Frontal lobe ( F ) ( frontal lobe ): 35 areas
    • Regio praerolandica: 10 areas
    • Frontal region: 9 areas
    • Orbitomedial region: 16 areas
  • Superior limbic lobe ( L ): 13 areas
    • Regio limbica superior anterior: 5 areas
    • Regio limbica superior posterior: 3 areas
    • Subregio retrosplenialis: 5 areas
  • Lobus insulae ( I ) ( island lobes ): 6 areas
  • Parietal lobe ( P ) ( parietal lobe ): 18 areas
    • Postcentral region: 6 areas
    • Superior parietal region: 4 areas
    • Inferior parietal region: 5 areas
    • Basal parietal region: 3 areas
  • Occipital lobe ( O ) ( occipital lobe ): 7 areas
  • Temporal lobe ( T ) ( temporal lobe ): 14 areas
    • Supratemporal region: 5 areas
    • Temporalis propria region: 2 areas
    • Regio fusiformis: 3 areas
    • Temporopolar region: 4 areas
  • Inferior limbic lobe / hippocampal lobe ( H ): 14 areas

From Economo-Neurone

The term "Von Economo neuron" refers to large, bipolar neurons that Economo identified for the first time. They are located in the fifth layer of the anterior cingulate and fronto-insular cortex. It is about four times the size of a simple pyramidal cell and, in contrast to it, has only a single dendrite at the base . It is only found in areas of the brain concerned with cognition (in humans and some highly developed mammals)

Progressive cerebration

Von Economo used the term "progressive cerebration" to describe the intellectual evolution over generations, the increase in brain mass and the acquisition of new "organs of thought" due to differentiation in cortical areas. In this context, Economo was interested in “elite brains”. He hoped to find microstructural characteristics in which these brains differ from the average brain.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Pilleri :  Economo von San Serff, Constantin Alexander Freiherr. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 306 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j K. Economo: Constantin Freiherr von Economo. Mayer & Co., Vienna 1932.
  3. ↑ Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Economo, Constantin von. 2005, p. 334.
  4. ↑ a b E. G. Jones: Cortical maps and modern phrenology. In: Brain. 131, 2008, pp. 2227-2233.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i L. C. Triarhou: The signaling contributions of Constantin von Economo to basic clinical and evolutionary neuroscience. In: Brain Research Bulletin. 69, 2006, pp. 223-243.
  6. ^ Professor Economo †. In:  Die Neue Zeitung , October 22, 1931, p. 3 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nzg
  7. ↑ L. Van Bogaert, J. Théodoridès: Constantin von Economo. The Man and the Scientist. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1979.
  8. ^ A b L. F. Haas: Neurological stamp. Constantin from Economo. In: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry . 73, 2002, p. 81.
  9. ↑ C. Economo: Encephalitis lethargica. In: Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift. 30, 1917, pp. 581-585.
  10. ↑ a b c d A. H. Reid et al .: Experimenting on the Past: The Enigma of von Economo's Encephalitis Lethargica. In: Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology . 60, (7), 2001, pp. 663-670.
  11. ^ JM Pearce: Baron Constantin von Economo and encephalitis lethargica. In: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. 60, Feb 1996, p. 167.
  12. ↑ C. Economo, GN Koskinas: The cytoarchitectonics of the cerebral cortex of adult humans. Springer Verlag, Vienna 1925.
  13. ↑ G. Elliot Smith: The cytoarchitectonics of the cerebral cortex of the adult human. In: Journal of Anatomy . 61 (2), 1927, pp. 264-266.
  14. ^ Karger AG: Atlas of Cytoarchitectonics of the Adult Human Cerebral Cortex . As of February 23, 2009.
  15. ↑ LC Triarhou: The Economo Koskinas Atlas Revisited: Cytoarchitectonics and functional context. In: Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery . 85, 2007, pp. 195-203.
  16. ↑ Michael Gazzaniga: The I Illusion: How Consciousness and Free Will arise. Hanser, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-446-43011-2 , chap. 1, p. 50.

literature

Web links

Commons : Constantin von Economo  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Economo, Constantin von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Economo von San Serff, Constantin Alexander Freiherr (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian psychiatrist, neurologist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Brăila
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 1931
Place of death Vienna