Johann Schwartzkopff (zoologist)

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Johann Schwartzkopff (born September 29, 1918 in Neubrandenburg , † March 22, 1995 in Mössingen near Tübingen ) was a German zoologist and sensory physiologist . He was a pioneer in electrophysiology and research into the hearing and sensory perception of birds in general .

Life

His father was a pastor and senior consistorial councilor. He received his doctorate in 1948 in Göttingen on the vibration sense of birds and completed his habilitation in 1954 at the University of Göttingen ( achievements of the isolated heart of the Roman snail ). He then went to Hansjochem Autrum in Munich and became an adjunct professor in Munich in 1961. In 1963 he became associate professor for zoology at the University of Tübingen . In 1964 he became a full professor at the Ruhr University in Bochum , where he became prorector.

Schwartzkopff dealt with the sensory perception of animals (especially birds), especially the senses of vibration and hearing. In 1949 he developed a method to remove the cochlea from birds and found, for example, that particularly melodic chants of the bullfinch became shrill while other vocalizations were unaffected. He also succeeded in recording electrical signals from the cochlea of ​​birds and obtaining information about the temporal neural coding of auditory signals. In some cases this happened during a research stay with Robert Galambos (Walter Reed Army Institute of Research) in the USA and using his equipment.

He was a member of the Leopoldina . 1979/80 he was President of the German Zoological Society .

Fonts

  • About the influence of the direction of movement of the basilar membrane on the development of the cochlea potentials of Strix varia (Barton) and Melopsittacus undulatus (Shaw), Journal for Comparative Physiology, Volume 41, 1958, pp. 35-48
  • The influence of the pulse train frequency on the components of the cochlea potential of birds, Verh. Deutsche Zoolog. Ges., Bonn, 1960, pp. 416-424
  • Comparative Physiology of Hearing, Advances in Zoology, Volume 12, 1960, pp. 206-264
  • Comparative physiology of hearing and vocalizations, progress of zoology, Volume 15, 1962, pp. 213–336
  • with P. Winter: On the anatomy of the avian cochlea under natural conditions, Biologisches Zentralblatt, Volume 79, 1960, pp. 607-625

literature

  • Dietrich Burkhardt: Obituary . In: Negotiations of the German Zoological Society. Annual meeting . tape 88 : From June 5 to 10, 1995 in Kaiserslautern. Fischer, 1995, ISBN 3-437-30795-9 , ISSN  2194-2153 , pp. 233-234 .

References and comments

  1. ↑ life data according to Leo BW ; After A. Paululat, G. Purschke: Dictionary of Zoology. Springer, 2011, article Johann Schwartzkopff, on the other hand born in Güstrow
  2. ↑ Tim Birkhead, Jo Wimpenny, Bob Montgomerie: Ten Thousand Birds. Ornithology since Darwin . Princeton University Press, Princeton 2014, ISBN 978-0-691-15197-7 , pp. 454 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Schwartzkopff, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist and sensory physiologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Neubrandenburg
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 1995
Place of death Mössingen