Ewald Hering

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Ewald Hering (1835-1918)
Color circle based on Ewald Hering's opposite color theory, which he called the “natural system of color sensations”

Karl Ewald Konstantin Hering (born August 5, 1834 in Alt-Gersdorf / Saxony in Lusatia , † January 26, 1918 in Leipzig ) was a German physiologist , brain and perception researcher .

biography

Hering studied medicine at the University of Leipzig from 1853 to 1858 under Ernst Heinrich Weber , Gustav Theodor Fechner , Otto Funke and Julius Victor Carus . During his studies he became a member of the Leipzig University Choir of St. Pauli (now the German Choir ). From 1860 to 1865 he worked in Leipzig as an outpatient clinic assistant. During this time he completed his habilitation in physiology in 1862 .

In 1865 he was appointed professor of physiology and medical physics at the medical-surgical Joseph Academy in Vienna, successor to the physiologist Carl Ludwig .

After Helmholtz, Ewald Hering is considered to be one of the most important perception researchers of the 19th century. He wrote works on the "sense of space" ( depth perception ) and color perception . He published his doctrine of the sense of light in Vienna as a monograph in 1874 and in book form in 1878. He thus turned against an exclusively physical understanding of color perception. The opposite color theory goes back to Hering . B. the Natural Color System is based. Unlike Hermann von Helmholtz , who advocated a three-color theory (primary colors red, green, blue), Hering, with the counter-color theory, represented a four-color theory (counter-colors red / green and yellow / blue). Both theories claim equally validity today; the three-color theory explains the mechanisms on the level of the photoreceptors of the retina, the four-color theory on the level of the downstream (color-antagonistic) ganglion cells of the retina.

As the successor to Jan Evangelista Purkyně , Hering held the chair of physiology at Charles University in Prague from 1870 to 1895. He was a member of the Prague university choir "Barden" (now in Munich). In 1882 he became the first rector of the German University of Prague after the university was divided. In 1895 he returned to Leipzig as a professor of physiology. Since 1896 he was a full member of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences . In 1904 he was elected a foreign member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . In 1905 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg .

His son Heinrich Ewald Hering took up the same profession as his father and also gained importance in it. His uncle was the physician Constantin Hering , his grandfather the composer Carl Gottlieb Hering , and many other relatives made a name for themselves as writers, musicians and composers.

Vernier acuity

Ewald Hering's model of how a line offset in a Nonius arrangement could be coded in a receptor mosaic. The receptors marked with c send a different position code (in the horizontal direction) than those marked with a and b .

Hering also wrote a pioneering explanatory approach to understanding vernier acuity ( see also Minimum discriminibile ; English: Vernier acuity or hyperacuity ), i.e. H. a visual resolution for suitable visual tasks that is almost an order of magnitude higher than normal visual acuity. In his 1899 treatise "About the limits of visual acuity" he pointed out - on the basis of data from Alfred Wilhelm Volkmann (1863) and reports from Ernst Anton Wülfing (1892) - that the distances resolved on the retina were much smaller than are the smallest PR gaps . Using an illustration of a vernier visual task, with two slightly offset edges in front of a schematic receptor mosaic, he argued that, with the help of an integration mechanism , the position information can be encoded with far greater accuracy than would be possible with a single photoreceptor cell - one Declaration that is still upheld in principle today.

Works

  • The doctrine of binocular vision. Leipzig 1868.
  • On the doctrine of the relationship between body and soul: I. Communication: About Fechner's psychophysical law. In: Meeting reports / Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Mathematical and Natural Science Class / Department III, Anatomy and Physiology of Humans and Animals and Theoretical Medicine, 72, pp. 310–348, 1875
  • Basics of a theory of the temperature sense. In: Meeting reports / Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Classe, Division III, Anatomy and Physiology of Humans and Animals and Theoretical Medicine, 75, pp. 101–135, 1877
  • To the doctrine of the light sense. Six communications to the Kaiserl. Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Second, unchanged impression. Gerold, Vienna 1878 ( digitized and full text in the German text archive )
  • Beyond the limits of visual acuity. Reports on the negotiations of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences in Leipzig / Mathematical-Physical Class; Natural Science Part, 51, 16–24, 1899.

literature

  • Holger Münzel: Max von Frey. Life and work with special consideration of his sensory-physiological research. Würzburg 1992 (= Würzburg medical historical research. Volume 53), p. 188 f. ( Ewald Hering ).

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner E. Gerabek: Hering, Karl Ewald Konstantin. 2005, p. 572.
  2. ↑ Complete directory of the Paulines from summer 1822 to summer 1938, Leipzig 1938, page 26
  3. ^ Karl Sablik: Hering, Vintschgau and the problem of the succession of Purkinje. In: Sudhoff's archive. Volume 73, 1989, pp. 78-87.
  4. ^ Members of the SAW: Ewald Hering. Saxon Academy of Sciences, accessed October 26, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 111.
  6. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Karl Ewald Konstantin Hering. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed August 17, 2015 (Russian).
  7. ^ A b c Hans Strasburger, Jörg Huber, David Rose: Ewald Hering (1899) On the Limits of Visual Acuity: A Translation and Commentary. With a Supplement on Alfred Volkmann (1863) Physiological Investigations in the Field of Optics . In: i-Perception . 9, No. 3, 2018, pp. 1–14.
  8. ↑ Gerald Westheimer: Visual acuity and Hyperacuity . In: Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science . 14, 1975, pp. 570-572.
  9. ↑ "In 1892 Wülfing showed that it is possible to recognize differences in position to which a viewing angle of 12-10" or even less corresponds. (Hering 1899, p. 17)
  10. ↑ Gerald Westheimer: Hering Hermeneutics: Supplement to Translation and Commentary of Hering (1899) by Strasburger et al. . In: i-Perception . 9, No. 6, 2018, pp. 1–5. doi : 10.1177 / 2041669518815921 .
  11. ↑ H. Jiang, N. Cottaris, J. Golden, D. Brainard, JE Farrell, BA Wandell: Simulating retinal encoding: Factors influencing Vernier acuity . In: Human Vision and Electronic Imaging . 2017, 2017, pp. 177–181. bioRxiv : 2017/02/17/109405 ( preprint full text).
  12. ↑ M. Rucci, R. Lovin, M. Poletti, F. Santini: Miniature eye movements enhance fine spatial detail . In: Nature . 447, 2007, pp. 851-854.
personal data
SURNAME Hering, Ewald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hering, Karl Ewald Konstantin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physiologist and brain researcher
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1834
PLACE OF BIRTH Altgersdorf
DATE OF DEATH January 26, 1918
Place of death Leipzig