Horst Mittelstaedt (28 April 1923 – 18 February 2016) was a German

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

and

cybernetician Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...

. Together with

Erich von Holst Erich Walther von Holst (28 November 1908 – 26 May 1962) was a German behavioral physiologist who was a Baltic German native of Riga, Livonia and was related to historian Hermann Eduard von Holst (1841–1904). In the 1950s he founded ...

he demonstrated the " Reafference Principle" in 1950 (''Das Reafferenzprinzip'') concerning how an organism is able to separate reafferent (self-generated) sensory stimuli from exafferent (externally generated) sensory stimuli. This concept largely dealt with interactive processes between the central nervous system and its periphery. Until 1999 he worked at the

Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology The former Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology was located in Bulldern, Westphalia, Germany, moved to Seewiesen in 1957. It was one of 80 institutes in the Max Planck Society (Max Planck Gesellschaft). Background A working group was fo ...

at Seewiesen,

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

. His scientific focus was

cybernetic Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...

analysis of

behaviour Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions of Individual, individuals, organisms, systems or Artificial intelligence, artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or or ...

. Mittelstaedt died in Munich on 18 February 2016, at the age of 92.Prof. Dr. Horst Mittelstaedt

Selected publications

* ''Physiologie des Gleichgewichtssinnes bei fliegenden Libellen'', in: ''Zeitschrift für vergleichende Physiologie''. Band 32, Stürtz, Würzburg 1950, S. 422-463, , (Dissertation Universität Heidelberg, Naturwissenschaftlich-mathematische Fakultät, 27. Juli 1949, 84 pages, . * with E. v. Holst: ''Das Reafferenzprinzip.'' In: ''Naturwissenschaften.'' Band 37, Nr. 20, 1950, S. 464–476, doi:10.1007/BF00622503 * ''Einführung in die Kybernetik des Verhaltens am Beispiel der Orientierung im Raum.'' In: W. Hoppe, W. Lohmann, H. Markl, H. Ziegler (eds.): ''Biophysik.'' 2nd edition. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York 1982, . * ''The Information Processing Structure of the Subjective Vertical. A Cybernetic Bridge between its Psychophysics and its Neurobiology.'' In: H. Marko, G. Hauske, A. Struppler (eds.): ''Processing Structures for Perception and Action: Final Report of the Sonderforschungsbereich „Kybernetik“ 1969–1983.'' VCH, Weinheim, New York, Cambridge, Basel 1988, , pp. 217–263.

References

External links

*
Open Library author's profile

Neurotree entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mittelstaedt, Horst 1923 births 2016 deaths German physiologists Cyberneticists