Reinhard Werth

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Reinhard Werth (born July 15, 1947 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) is a German neuropsychologist . He is Professor of Medical Psychology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and a neuropsychologist at the Institute for Social Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the University of Munich and works primarily in the areas of dyslexia and consciousness .

Services

awareness

Definition and scientific comprehensibility

In 1982 Werth showed that the vague terms "conscious", "unconscious" and "consciousness" can be scientifically grasped with the help of formal logic and how conscious and unconscious visual performance in brain-damaged patients can be quantitatively measured.

To this end, he defines “consciously” as being accessible from a first-person perspective . Defined in this way, the property "conscious" can be introduced into experiments as a measured variable : the extent to which a test person can consciously perceive a certain sensory stimulus (e.g. a sound that is played through headphones) can be read off from it how high statistical significance it can indicate whether it is currently being played without it being e.g. B. can see when the experimenter presses the button that triggers the tone.

Werth defines the “consciousness” of a person as the totality of all sensations, thoughts and emotions that he is aware of in a certain period of time , about which he can report from the first-person perspective. In this definition, the term “consciousness” does not designate an independent phenomenon that also exists as “pure consciousness” in addition to sensations etc., but simply describes the set of conscious phenomena .

Seeing and hearing after brain damage

By systematically stimulating areas of the visual field that had become blind after brain damage, Werth and Moehrenschlager (1999) and Werth and Seelos (2005) succeeded in restoring lost visual functions in children. Werth was the first to show that the brain in children has such a plasticity that after the loss of a cerebral hemisphere or after the loss of both occipital lobes , the function of which was considered essential for vision, a normal field of vision can nevertheless develop in childhood (Werth 2006a ). In subsequent studies, Werth showed that after the loss of both cerebral hemispheres in childhood, the brain stem can still convey elementary visual functions in the center of the visual field (foveal and perifoveal area) and elementary hearing performance (Werth 2007a).

Dyslexia

Werth showed that what is called dyslexia can have different causes, so that it is not a single disorder in its own right. Werth developed methods with which the causes of reading disorders can be determined in every child or adult (Werth et al. 2003–2009). From this he developed a compensatory therapy aimed at the respective causes. Two independent studies have shown that with the help of this therapy the number of reading errors can be reduced by almost two thirds in a single session (Werth 2006b, 2007b; Klische 2007).

Fonts

  • Consciousness - psychological, neurobiological and epistemological aspects. Jumper; Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo 1983, ISBN 3-540-12442-X
  • Neglect after brain damage - unilateral reduction in attention and spatial representation. Jumper; Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo 1988, ISBN 3-540-18600-X
  • Brain worlds. CH Beck; Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-44076-2
  • Dyslexia and other reading disorders. CH Beck; Munich 2001. 3rd extended edition, CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3406459627 .
  • Daniel Dennett , Reinhard Werth: Consciousness - how it arises and passes. Galila Verlag, 2008 (audio book), ISBN 978-3902533142
  • The nature of consciousness - How perception and free will arise in the brain. CH Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3406605949

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinhard Werth. CH Beck Verlag, accessed on November 26, 2010 .
  2. ↑ Vita. Reinhard Werth, accessed November 25, 2010 .
  3. ^ Research. Reinhard Werth, accessed November 25, 2010 .
  4. ↑ Werth 1983
  5. ↑ Werth 2010 p. 79 ff.
  6. ↑ Werth 2010 p. 85 ff.
  7. ↑ Werth R, Moehrenschlager M: The development of visual functions in cerebrally blind children during a systematic visual field workout. Restor Neurol Neurosci 15 (1999) 229-241. PMID 12671235
  8. ↑ Werth 2010 p. 90
  9. ↑ Werth 2010 p. 91
  10. ↑ Werth 2001

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Werth, Reinhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German neuropsychologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiburg in Breisgau