Hans Helmut Kornhuber (24 February 1928 – 30 October 2009) was a German

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

and neurophysiologist.

Biography

Hans Helmut Kornhuber was born as the second of three children of Dr. med. Gertrud and Dr. Arnold Kornhuber. He grew up at a small place Methgen near Königsberg. Eight years old he was admitted to the Friedrich Kollegium in Königsberg. Schooltime ended with preliminary maturity in summer 1944. He was interested in chemistry and got into contact with the chemical institute of the University of Königsberg. With the capitulation of Königsberg on 9 April Kornhuber became a soviet prisoner of war for four and a half years. In September 1949 he was discharged and joined his family in

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schl ...

. In October 1949 he passed a second examination for maturity and started to Munich to study chemistry. In spring 1950 he changed from chemistry to medicine because the experience of captivity led him to think what's important in life. From 1949 on Kornhuber studied medicine at the universities of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The or ...

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

Basle , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS), ...

and Heidelberg. In 1955 he was promoted to doctor of medicine in Heidelberg. In 1955 he married Ursula Heesch, they had five children. He absolved his clinical education at the Neurological University Hospital at the University of Freiburg, where he was habilitated in 1963. He spent one and a half research years at the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...

, Baltimore. In 1967 he was appointed the chair of Neurology at the newly founded

University of Ulm Ulm University (german: Universität Ulm) is a public university in Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1967 and focuses on natural sciences, medicine, engineering sciences, mathematics, economics and computer sci ...

and there built the Neurological Hospital of the University of Ulm (until 1984 situated in Dietenbronn). In 1996 Kornhuber has been professor emeritus. One of his sons is the

Psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

and Psychotherapeut Johannes Kornhuber. Kornhuber saw the achievement of a scientific break through in 1965 with the discovery of the

Bereitschaftspotential In neurology, the Bereitschaftspotential or BP ( German for "readiness potential"), also called the pre-motor potential or readiness potential (RP), is a measure of activity in the motor cortex and supplementary motor area of the brain leading up t ...

(or readiness potential), together with his doctoral student

Lüder Deecke Lüder Deecke (; born 22 June 1938) in Lohe-Rickelshof, Germany is a German Austrian neurologist, neuroscientist, teacher and physician whose scientific discoveries have influenced brain research and the treatment and rehabilitation of neurolog ...

Scientific contribution

In 1965 Kornhuber (together with Lüder Deecke) discovered the

, a brain potential in the

EEG Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The biosignals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neocortex ...

which precedes all our willed movements and actions. The publication, even though originally in German, became a ''citation classic''.H. H. Kornhuber, L. Deecke: ''Readiness for movement - the Bereitschaftspotential story.'' In: ''Current Contents Life Sciences.'' 33 (4): 14 (1990) und ''Current Contents Clinical Medicine.'' 18 (4): 14 (1990)
PDF
/ref> He spent early interest in

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

and brain function. He worked on the

sensory systems The sensory nervous system is a part of the nervous system responsible for processing sensory information. A sensory system consists of sensory neurons (including the sensory receptor cells), neural pathways, and parts of the brain involved ...

/perception, conducting many experiments at Baltimore with Vernon Benjamin Mountcastle and his team on skin receptors, and also measuring the channel capacity of

sensory system The sensory nervous system is a part of the nervous system responsible for processing sensory information. A sensory system consists of sensory neurons (including the sensory receptor cells), neural pathways, and parts of the brain involved i ...

s (and

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

). He conducted his own research into new therapies with particular emphasis on

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This ...

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop funct ...

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affec ...

movement disorder Movement disorder refers to any clinical syndrome with either an excess of movement or a paucity of voluntary and involuntary movements, unrelated to weakness or spasticity. Movement disorders are synonymous with basal ganglia or extrapyramidal d ...

s, etc. He also made contributions for psychiatry, e.g. the

glutamate Glutamic acid (symbol Glu or E; the ionic form is known as glutamate) is an α-amino acid that is used by almost all living beings in the biosynthesis of proteins. It is a non-essential nutrient for humans, meaning that the human body can syn ...

theory. He contributed to

Otorhinolaryngology Otorhinolaryngology ( , abbreviated ORL and also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat (ENT)) is a surgical subspeciality within medicine that deals with the surgical a ...

(hand book articles such as ''Physiology and Clinic of the Vestibular System''). Kornhuber also discovered the eye muscle field in the

cerebellum The cerebellum (Latin for "little brain") is a major feature of the hindbrain of all vertebrates. Although usually smaller than the cerebrum, in some animals such as the mormyrid fishes it may be as large as or even larger. In humans, the cerebe ...

.Lüder Deecke. Hans Helmut Kornhuber: Neurologist—Engaged Clinician—Neurophysiologist—Scientist and Humanist (Review). doi:10.1016/j.npbr.2013.05.001. Neurology, Psychiatry and Brain Research. Vol. 19, Iss. 3, August 2013, Pages 121–125

Awards and recognition

In 1967 Kornhuber received the Hans-Berger-Award of the German EEG society (DGKN) for his discovery of the cerebral foundations of will and purposeful actions (willingness to act).Deutsche Gesellschaft für Klinische Neurophysiologie
''Preise und Preisträger''
The Bárány Society honored him with the Hallpike-Nylén-Award for his pioneering research on the vestibular system. He was awarded honorary membership by foreign oto-neurological societies. Universities awarded him as honorary professor and honorary doctor (University of Brussels). The Belgian neurophysiological society awarded Kornhuber an honorary membership. The Federal Republic of Germany honoured him for his efforts concerning the rehabilitation of patients with the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellec ...

, and the German Society of Psychiatry honoured him for his research in the field of

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

by awarding him the Kurt-Schneider prize.

Publications (selected)

Scientific articles * with Richard Jung: ''Neurophysiologie und Psychophysik des visuellen Systems.'' Springer, Heidelberg 1961. * with

: ''Hirnpotentialänderungen bei Willkürbewegungen und passiven Bewegungen des Menschen: Bereitschaftspotential und reafferente Potentiale.'' In: Pflüger's Archiv für die gesamte Physiologie des Menschen und der Tiere.'' Bd. 284 (1965), H. 1, S. 1–17, doi:10.1007/BF00412364
PDF
* ''Geist und Freiheit als biologische Probleme.'' In: Roger Alfred Stamm, Hans Zeier (Hrsg.): ''Die Psychologie des 20. Jahrhunderts.'' Band 6: ''

Lorenz Lorenz is an originally German name derived from the Roman surname Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum". Given name People with the given name Lorenz include: * Prince Lorenz of Belgium (born 1955), member of the Belgian royal family by hi ...

und die Folgen.'' Kindler, Zürich 1978, S. 1122–1130. * ''Attention, readiness for action and the stages of voluntary decision.'' In: ''Experimental Brain Research.'' Supplement 9 (1984), S. 420–429. * ''Von der Freiheit.'' In: Manfred Lindauer, Alfred Schöpf (Hrsg.): ''Wie erkennt der Mensch die Welt? Grundlagen des Erkennens, Fühlens und Handelns. Geistes- und Naturwissenschaftler im Dialog.'' Klett, Stuttgart 1984. * with Lüder Deecke: ''Readiness for movement: The Bereitschaftspotential-Story.'' In: ''Current Contents Life Sciences.'' Bd. 33, H. 4 (22. Januar 1990), S. 14
online
PDF; 250 kB). * ''Gehirn, Wille, Freiheit.'' In: ''Revue de métaphysique et de morale.'' Bd. 97 (1992), H. 2, S. 203–223
JSTOR
. * ''Alkohol: Auch der „normale“ Konsum schadet.'' Urban & Vogel, München 2001. * ''Zur Willensfreiheit: On Free Will.'' In: ''Fortschritte der Neurologie – Psychiatrie.'' Bd. 74 (2006), H. 8, S. 427–430, doi:10.1055/s-2006-944233 (positioning against Gerhard Roth and

Wolf Singer Wolf Joachim Singer (born 9 March 1943) is a German neurophysiologist. Life and career Singer was born in Munich and studied medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU Munich) from 1965 onwards (as a scholarship holder of th ...

). * with Lüder Deecke: ''Wille und Gehirn.'' Edition Sirius im Aisthesis-Verlag, Bielefeld/Locarno 2007; 2nd, ed. 2009. Books * with Deecke, L (2003) ''Human freedom, reasoned will, and the brain: The Bereitschaftspotential story''. In: M Jahanshahi, M Hallett(Eds) The Bereitschaftspotential, movement-related cortical potentials. Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers New York, pp 283–320 * with Deecke, L (2009) ''Wille und Gehirn.'' 2nd. rev. ed. Edition Sirius im Aisthesis-Verlag, Bielefeld/ Basel 2009, .

References

External links

Experiments Into Readiness for Action: 50th Anniversary of the Bereitschaftspotential (Lüder Deecke)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kornhuber, Hans Helmut 1928 births German consciousness researchers and theorists German cognitive neuroscientists Alzheimer's disease researchers German medical researchers 2009 deaths Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany