Hugo Karl Liepmann (April 9, 1863 – May 6, 1925) was a German

neurologist Neurology (from , "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 nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

and

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, into a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family. Initially, he studied both

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at the Universities of

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

and

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, obtaining his doctorate in 1885. His interests later turned to medicine, and after completion of studies, worked as an assistant to

Carl Wernicke Carl (or Karl) Wernicke (; ; 15 May 1848 – 15 June 1905) was a German physician, anatomist, psychiatrist and neuropathologist. He is known for his influential research into the pathological effects of specific forms of encephalopathy and also ...

in the psychiatric clinic at Breslau. In 1906 he became head physician at Dalldorf ( Berlin-Wittenau), followed by an assignment as director of the ''Städtische Irrenanstalt zu Lichtenberg'' (Herzberge) in 1914. Liepmann is remembered for his pioneer work involving

cerebral Cerebral may refer to: * Of or relating to the brain * Cerebrum, the largest and uppermost part of the brain * Cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the cerebrum * Retroflex consonant, also referred to as a cerebral consonant, a type of consonant so ...

localization of function. From

anatomical Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

studies, he postulated that planned or commanded actions were controlled in the

parietal lobe The parietal lobe is one of the four Lobes of the brain, major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The parietal lobe is positioned above the temporal lobe and behind the frontal lobe and central sulcus. The parietal lobe integra ...

of the brain's dominant hemisphere, and not in the

frontal lobe The frontal lobe is the largest of the four major lobes of the brain in mammals, and is located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere (in front of the parietal lobe and the temporal lobe). It is parted from the parietal lobe by a Sulcus (neur ...

. He conducted extensive research of a disorder he called

apraxia Apraxia is a motor disorder caused by damage to the brain (specifically the posterior parietal cortex or corpus callosum), which causes difficulty with motor planning to perform tasks or movements. The nature of the damage determines the di ...

, a term that he introduced in 1900. Apraxia is described as the inability to coordinate voluntary muscular movements that is symptomatic of some

central nervous system The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain, spinal cord and retina. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity o ...

disorders and injuries and not due to muscle weakness. Liepmann believed that damage in the parietal lobe prevented activation of learned sequences of actions that are necessary to produce desired results on command. As a result of his studies, he divided apraxia into three types: * ideational: object blindness, where the patient is incapable of making appropriate use of familiar objects upon command. * ideomotor: the inability to follow verbal commands or mimic an action, such as saluting or waving goodbye. * kinetic: clumsiness in performing a precision act that is not due to

paralysis Paralysis (: paralyses; also known as plegia) is a loss of Motor skill, motor function in one or more Skeletal muscle, muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory d ...

, muscle weakness, or sensory loss.

Published works

* ''Das Krankheitsbild der Apraxie ("motorischen Asymbolie") : auf Grund eines Falles von einseitiger Apraxie'', 1900 – The pathology of apraxia ("motor asymbolia") pursuant to a case of unilateral apraxia. * ''Über Ideenflucht. Begriffsbestimmung und psychologische Analyse'', 1904 – On flight of ideas : Definition and psychological analysis. * ''Ueber Störungen des Handelns bei Gehirnkranken'', 1905 – On disorders of action involving brain health. * ''Drei Aufsätze aus dem Apraxiegebiet : neu Durchgesehen und mit Zusätzen versehen'', 1908 – Three essays on the apraxia region. * "Translations from Liepmann's essays on apraxia", 1980.OCLC Classify
published works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liepmann, Hugo 19th-century German Jews German neurologists 1863 births 1925 deaths German psychiatrists Physicians of the Charité