Lüder Deecke (; born 22 June 1938) in Lohe-Rickelshof,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

is a German

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n neurologist, neuroscientist, teacher and physician whose scientific discoveries have influenced brain research and the treatment and rehabilitation of neurological disorders. Full professor and head, Department of Clinical Neurology at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

Medical University of Vienna, professor emeritus since October 2006, Deecke is also head of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Functional Brain Topography and is the author of a number of books and more than 600 publications in the fields of neurology, clinical neurology, neurophysiology, clinical neurophysiology, neurosciences, brain research, movement disorders, etc. His early research with

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

in the mid-1960s led to 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), which is a measure of neural activity in the

brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a ve ...

that precedes voluntary movements. This discovery set an important standard in

research Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

and rehabilitation of motor systems, and re-introduced the word will in key word registers.

Scientific contribution

In 1964 Deecke performed as doctoral student of Hans Helmut Kornhuber, EEG-recordings in man accompanying volitional movements and actions, and they discovered a slowly increasing activation (negative deflection) in the EEG, which they called ''Bereitschaftspotential''H. H. Kornhuber, L. Deecke: ''Hirnpotentialänderungen beim Menschen vor und nach Willkürbewegungen, dargestellt mit Magnetbandspeicherung und Rückwärtsanalyse.'' In: ''Pflügers Arch.'' 281, 1964, S. 52. The term Bereitschaftspotential (BP) can be found in the ‘List of German expressions in English‘. In order to record brain activity prior to an unforeseeable event – which a voluntary movement undoubtedly is – it needs a special method: the reverse averaging, which was invented by Kornhuber and Deecke in the same year (1964). The full paper appeared in 1965H. H. Kornhuber, L. Deecke: ''Hirnpotentialänderungen bei Willkürbewegungen und passiven Bewegungen des Menschen: Bereitschaftspotential und reafferente Potentiale.'' In: ''Pflügers Arch.'' 284, 1965, S. 1–17; Englisch translation:
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(accessed October 21, 2016). and was awarded a Citation Classic.H. H. Kornhuber, L. Deecke: ''Readiness for movement - the Bereitschaftspotential story.'' In: ''Current Contents Life Sciences.'' 33 (4): 14 (1990) and ''Current Contents Clinical Medicine.'' 18 (4): 14 (1990) In 1970 and 1971 Deecke was a research fellow in Toronto, Canada, under John M. Fredrickson. He performed experiments in the vestibular system (sense of balance) with rhesus monkeys and found the thalamic relay nucleus, nucleus ventralis posterior inferior (VPI) for the vestibular projection to the cortex.L. Deecke, DWF Schwarz, JM Fredrickson: Nucleus ventroposterior inferior (VPI) as the vestibular thalamic relay in the rhesus monkey. I. Field potential investigation. Exp Brain Res 20: 88-100 (1974) In a second project, he investigated – with the rhesus monkey – normothermic perfusion as a therapeutic means with spinal cord compression, CH Tator, L. Deecke: Value of normothermic perfusion, hypothermic perfusion, and durotomy in the treatment of experimental acute spinal cord trauma. J Neurosurg 39: 52-64 (1973) and as a third project the alterations of the auditory evoked potentials under respiratory stress.Deecke L, Goode RC, Whitehead G, Johnson WH, Bryce DP: Hearing under respiratory stress: Latency changes of the human auditory evoked response during hyperventilation, hypoxia, asphyxia, and hypercapnia. Aerospace Med 44: 1106-1111 (1973) In 1978 a further Citation Classic appeared with the discovery that the

supplementary motor area The supplementary motor area (SMA) is a part of the motor cortex of primates that contributes to the control of movement. It is located on the midline surface of the hemisphere just in front of (anterior to) the primary motor cortex leg representa ...

(SMA) is active prior to voluntary actions and also prior to the activation of the primary motor cortex (M1, Brodmann-Area4).L. Deecke, H. H. Kornhuber: "An electrical sign of participation of the mesial “supplementary” motor cortex in human voluntary finger movements." In: ''Brain Res.'' 159, 1978, S. 473–476, (Citation Classic). This publication established the scientific knowledge that the early component of the Bereitschaftspotential (BP1 or BPearly) is generated by the activity of the SMA. BP1 is bilaterally symmetrical, because always – i.e. also with unilateral actions – the SMAs of both hemispheres are active, further substantiated by subsequent research.Deecke L, Lang W (1996) Generation of movement-related potentials and fields in the supplementary sensorimotor area and the primary motor area. Advances in Neurology, Vol. 70: Supplementary Sensorimotor Area, HO Lüders (Ed) pp 127-146 The second component of the Bereitschaftspotential (BP2 oder BPlate) is generated by the primary motor cortex M1, and BP2 is asymmetrical with unilateral movements, namely dominant over the contralateral hemisphere. In Ulm, Deecke had projects with the DFG (German Research Foundation), and a productive team with research on the vestibular system and the motor system emerged including vestibular and neck interaction.Mergner T, Deecke L, Becker W (1981) Patterns of vestibular and neck responses and their interaction: A comparison between cat cortical neurons and human psychophysics. Ann NY Acad Sci 374: 361–372Deecke L (1996) Planning, preparation, execution, and imagery of volitional action, (Introduction/Editorial) in: Deecke L, Lang W, Berthoz A (Eds) Mental representations of motor acts (Special Issue) Cogn Brain Res 3 (2): 59-64 In 1982 during Deecke's visiting professorship on invitation of Hal Weinberg in Vancouver, the Magnetoencephalographic-(MEG-) analogue of the Bereitschaftspotential, the Bereitschaftsmagnetfeld (Bereitschaftsfield, BF) was first recorded.L. Deecke, H. Weinberg, P. Brickett: ''Magnetic fields of the human brain accompanying voluntary movement. Bereitschaftsmagnetfeld.'' In: ''Exp Brain Res.'' 48, 1982, S. 144–148. From 1985 on in Vienna, Deecke has built his own MEG, the first generation with a five-channel MEG-System, and from 1995 on with the MEG Centre Vienna an MEG-whole head system with 143 channels (CTF Vancouver, Canada) has been established. Deecke and his team were successful to prove the participation of the SMA not only with the early Bereitschaftspotential but also with the Bereitschaftsmagnetfeld (Bereitschaftsfield in the MEG, solving the cancellation problem of the two SMAs opposing each other.W. Lang, D. Cheyne, R. Kristeva, R. Beisteiner, G. Lindinger, L. Deecke: Three-dimensional localization of SMA activity preceding voluntary movement. A study of electric and magnetic fields in a patient with infarction of the right supplementary motor area. Exp Brain Res 87: 688-695 (1991)M. Erdler, R. Beisteiner, D. Mayer, T. Kaindl, V. Edward, C. Windischberger, G. Lindinger, L. Deecke: Supplementary motor area activation preceding voluntary movement is detectable with a whole scalp magnetoencephalography system. NeuroImage 11: 697-707 (2000) In 1984 visual tracking movements were investigated.M. Lang, W. Lang, B. Heise, L. Deecke, H. H. Kornhuber: ''Brain potentials related to voluntary hand tracking, motivation and attention.'' In: ''Hum Neurobiol.'' 3, 1984, S. 235–240.Deecke L, Heise B, Kornhuber HH, Lang M, Lang W (1984) Brain potentials associated with voluntary manual tracking: Bereitschaftspotential, conditioned pre-motion positivity, directed attention potential, and relaxation potential. Anticipatory activity of the limbic and frontal cortex. In: Karrer R, Cohen J, Tueting P (Eds): Brain and information: Event-related potentials. Ann NY Acad Sci, Vol 425: 450-464 Evidence was found that the frontal cortex (SMA, prefrontal cortex) gives the starting command of the movement or action and supervises it, but the SMA does not execute the action. The frontal brain (including the SMA) is ‘delegating' this to the ‘expert systems for tracking in the brain‘, namely to the visual cortex and to the M1. In 2002 the term ''Bereitschafts-BOLD response'' was coined by Ross Cunnington et al. in event-related fMRI studies at the Department of Clinical Neurology and the Department of Radiodiagnostics Medical University of Vienna.R. Cunnington, C. Windischberger, L. Deecke, E. Moser: The use of single event fMRI and fuzzy clustering analysis to examine haemodynamic response time courses in supplementary motor and primary motor cortical areas. Biomed Technik 44 (Suppl 2): 116-119 (1999)R. Cunnington, C. Windischberger, L. Deecke, E. Moser: The preparation and execution of self-initiated and externally-triggered movement: A study of event-related fMRI. NeuroImage 15: 373-385 (2002)R. Cunnington, C. Windischberger, L. Deecke, E. Moser: The preparation and readiness for voluntary movement: a high-field event-related fMRI study of the Bereitschafts-BOLD response. NeuroImage 20: 404–412 (2003) Thus, according to Deecke und Kornhuber 5 6the early component of the BP (BP1 or BPearly) is generated by the following areas: the SMA proper, the pre-SMA and the cingulate motor area, CMA. This is now called anterior mid-cingulate cortex, aMCC. The second component (BP2 or BP late) is generated by the motor cortex (M1). Contrary to earlier views, the intentional activity according to Kornhuber and Deecke does not travel directly from the SMA to motor cortex M1 but is running via the cortico-basalganglio-thalamo-cortical loop in short motor loop. The motor loop has been discovered in patients with

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

(PD).It could be shown, that deep brain stimulation improves frontal cortex function in PD patients.Gerschlager W, Alesch F, Cunnington R, Deecke L, Dirnberger G, Endl W, Lindinger G, Lang W (1999) Bilateral subthalamic nucleus stimulation improves frontal cortex function in Parkinson's disease. An electrophysiological study of the contingent negative variation. Brain 122: 2365-2373 This means that the formation of the will has already taken place in the frontal lobe and the preparation and planning of the action has been transferred initially to the unconscious routine processes of the

basal ganglia The basal ganglia (BG), or basal nuclei, are a group of subcortical nuclei, of varied origin, in the brains of vertebrates. In humans, and some primates, there are some differences, mainly in the division of the globus pallidus into an exter ...

, which do the groundwork for the motor cortex, M1.H. H. Kornhuber, L. Deecke: ''Wille und Gehirn.'' 2. überarb. Auflage. Edition Sirius/ Aisthesis-Verlag, Bielefeld/ Basel 2009, .H. H. Kornhuber, L. Deecke: ''The will and its brain – an appraisal of reasoned

free will Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to ac ...

.'' University Press of America, Lanham MD, USA 2012, . M1 finally generates the volley for the pyramidal tract, which then enters consciousness. During the early BP, BP1, the action planning is not yet conscious, but during BP2 it is. From this observation Benjamin Libet,B. Libet, C. A. Gleason, E. W. Wright, D. K. Pearl: ''Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness potential): The unconscious initiation of a freely voluntary act.'' In: ''Brain.'' 106, 1983, S. 623–642. postulated that we do not have free will (BP1) but with the control of the action (BP2) we do have free will. However, Kornhuber and Deecke,Kornhuber HH, Deecke L, Lang W, Lang M, Kornhuber A (1989) Will, volitional action, attention and cerebral potentials in man: Bereitschaftspotential, performance-related potentials, directed attention potential, EEG spectrum changes. Chapter 6 in: Hershberger WA (Ed) Volitional action. Amsterdam, Elsevier (North Holland), pp 107-168Deecke L, Kornhuber HH (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 have shown that consciousness is not a sine qua non for free will. There are conscious and unconscious agendas in the brain, and both are important. The unconscious agendas far outweigh the conscious agendas, consciousness being only the ‘tip of an iceberg’. Therefore, free will is involved with both, the initiation of the action and for the control of the action. The views of Kornhuber and Deecke upon the SMA and CMA were confirmed in the meantime by Ross Cunnington and his team: The limbic system is always involved in the early planning for action – the matching with the inner needs, the emotional basic state, and our respective mood – has been postulated by Kornhuber and Deecke for quite some time and has been confirmed recently by the Cunnington group.V. T. Nguyen, M. Breakspear, R. Cunnington: ''Reciprocal interactions of the SMA and cingulate cortex sustain pre-movement activity for voluntary actions.'' In: ''J Neurosci.'' 34, 2014, S. 16397–16407. Kornhuber and Deecke have shown that freedom is given, a freedom in degrees of freedom, that humans can regulate up by their own efforts and learning in order to improve their free will, which is not a granted state but a dynamic process.

Awards and recognitions

* 2015 Fellow der European Academy of Neurology (FEAN) *2009 Prix Théophile Gluge, of the Royal Belgian Academy of Sciences, Brussels, Belgium *2009 Adjunct Professor,

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located ...

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*2003 Dr. honoris causa,

*2000 Hans Berger Award of the German Society for Clinical Neurophysiology *1997 Hoechst Award *1990 Citation Classic,

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(Kornhuber & Deecke, Pflügers Arch. 284: 1-17, 1965 regarding the

*1991

Distinguished Visiting Professor Professors in the United States commonly occupy any of several positions of teaching and research within a college or university. In the U.S., the word "professor" informally refers collectively to the academic ranks of assistant professor, asso ...

, Department of Neurology ( Arnold Starr) at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

, Irvine,

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, United States. *1989 Dr. Herbert Reisner Award *1982

, Brain Behaviour Laboratory (Hal Weinberg), Simon Fraser University, Vancouver Canada *1971 Scientific Award of the City of

Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...

Publications

Books * with Kornhuber HH (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 * Mergner T, Ebner A, Deecke L: Akustisch evozierte Potentiale (AEP) in Klinik und Praxis. Springer, Wien, New York 58 pp. (1989) * Deecke L, Zeiler K: Wie vermeide ich den Schlaganfall? Beeinflußbare Risikofaktoren. Wien, Facultas Verlag, 89 pp (1990) * with K. Zeiler und E. Auff (ed.): ''Klinische Neurologie''. Facultas Universitätsverlag, Wien 2006, . * with Jürgen Kriz: ''Sinnorientiertes Wollen und Handeln zwischen Hirnphysiologie und kultureller Gestaltungsleistung.'' Picus, Wien 2007, . * with

: ''Wille und Gehirn.'' 2nd. rev. ed. Edition Sirius im Aisthesis-Verlag, Bielefeld/ Basel 2009, . * ''Was ist Geist aus der Sicht der Hirnforschung?'' In: Kurt Appel, H. P. Weber, Rudolf Langthaler, Sigrid Müller (eds.): ''Naturalisierung des Geistes?'' Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2008, . * ''Freies Wollen und Handeln aus dem Urgrund der Seele.'' In: M. F. Peschl (ed.): ''Die Rolle der Seele in der Kognitions- und Neurowissenschaft. Auf der Suche nach dem Substrat der Seele.'' Königshausen & Neumann Würzburg 2005, , S. 63–108. * ''Ist Geist neurophysiologisch fassbar?'' In: M. F. Peschl, A. Batthyany (eds.): ''Geist als Ursache? Mentale Verursachung im interdisziplinären Diskurs''. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2008, , S. 121–161. * ''Die Gedanken sind frei – der Wille ist frei. Willensfestigung als psychotherapeutisches Behandlungselement.'' In: O. Wiesmeyr, A. Batthyany (ed.): ''Sinn und Person''. Beitr. z. Logotherapie und Existenzanalyse von Viktor E. Frankl. (= Beltz-Taschenbuch 179). Beltz Verlag, Weinheim/ Basel 2006, , S. 331–372. * with Eccles, John, Mountcastle, Vernon B. (Eds.). From Neuron to Action. An Appraisal of Fundamental and Clinical Research. Springer 1990.

References

External links

Lüder Deecke Homepage
*
Lüder Deecke über "Freiheit, Wille und Gehirn" - Festvortrag 17.03.2015 (YouTube)

Deecke I Was lässt mich hoffen? (YouTube)

Deecke II Was lässt mich hoffen? (YouTube)

In: ''uni ulm intern.'' Nr. 260 (April 2003), S. 26–29
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Unter Zwang läuft alles schlechter. Vortrag über das Thema „Freiheit und Kreativität“ am 7. 5. 2010

Willensfreiheit DRI Forschung 2015

SPIEGEL Online August 1016 {{DEFAULTSORT:Deecke, Luder 1938 births German consciousness researchers and theorists German cognitive neuroscientists Alzheimer's disease researchers Austrian neuroscientists German medical researchers Living people People from Dithmarschen Academic staff of the University of Vienna

Scientific contribution

Awards and recognitions

Publications

See also

References

External links