Early one morning a long time ago in a sleepy country town far, far away, a young man in the German army was tossed from his horse during a routine training exercise. He landed hard on the road directly in the path of an oncoming horse-drawn cannon. Panic-stricken, the aspiring young doctor realized he was about to be crushed. Miraculously, the driver of the artillery battery was able to stop the horses just before crushing the terror-stricken young soldier.
That evening, the young man received a telegram from his father at home. This struck him as odd since never before had he received a telegram from his father. It turned out that his sister had been overwhelmed with concern for him that day, and had urged her father to send the telegram. It occurred to the young man that the panic he felt earlier in the day had somehow been perceived by his sister. Many years later he wrote, “This is a case of spontaneous telepathy in which at a time of mortal danger, and as I contemplated certain death, I transmitted my thought, while my sister, who was particularly close to me, acted as the receiver.”
The young man’s name was Hans Berger and the work that he went on to carry out in his life after that profound experience would establish the foundations of neuroscience as we know it today.
In 1897, after his brief, initial time in the army, Berger earned his doctorate in Psychiatry at the University of Jena in Germany, and was appointed to the university Psychiatric clinic. In the period that would follow, in the years up to 1910, he conducted work on the spinal cord, cranial blood flow, and brain temperature changes, as well as attempting to record the electrical brain activity of the cerebral cortex of a dog. In 1911 he married Baroness Ursula Von Bulow, his technical assistant, with whom he had carried out experiments on the galvanic brain reflex.
Berger returned to the German army thereafter, serving on the Western Front in the First World War. Upon the war’s conclusion, he returned to the University of Jena where he was appointed professor of Psychiatry and director of the clinic. He continued with his research, which now encompassed Neurology, but it wasn’t until 1924 that Berger found the time to fully commit to searching for the cortical currents of the human brain that led to his most important discovery.
It was in that year that the Berger first observed small oscillations using a string galvanometer attached to the head of a patient. After several more years of painstaking research he was satisfied that he had eliminated all possibility that the oscillations recorded by his galvanometer were of “extra-cerebral artifact.” In 1929 he published his first paper, ‘On the electroencephalogram in man,’ in the Archiv for Psychiatic und Nervasnkrankheiten. He is credited that year with developing the electroencephalograph.
The electroencephalograph is a device that monitors and records electrical activity of the brain in the form of a graphic representation of brain waves. Electrical voltage on the surface of the brain is transduced from the scalp through a series of about 20 evenly spaced electrodes pasted to the scalp. The currents are amplified about a million times through differential input amplifiers to drive the pens for the paper record.
EEG waves (“Berger Rhythms” as they were once called) are distinguished by their frequency, which is measured in cycles per second, called Hertz (Hz), and amplitude (the height of the wave of the EEG record). They are classified into four rhythms (identified by Greek letters), each associated with a different state of consciousness. Alpha waves (8-12 Hz) are fast brainwaves with low amplitude generally associated with a normal relaxed state. Beta waves (13-30 Hz) are very fast but not high in amplitude and are associated with mental activity or intense concentration. Theta waves (3.5-7 Hz) are irregular in frequency and low in amplitude and are typically produced during light sleep or daydreaming. Delta waves (below 3.5 Hz) are the slowest and highest in amplitude and typically present during deep sleep.
The EEG is useful in detecting the abnormal brain waves associated with epilepsy, identifying certain sleep disorders and identifying structural abnormalities such as lesions or tumors. It is also used in assessing the comatose state and in confirming “brain death,” indicated by a flat EEG reading. Advances in computer technology led to the discovery of evoked potential, a specific electroencephalographic response to stimuli useful in the diagnosis and study of some schizophrenic disorders. Brain electrical activity mapping (BEAM) is another advanced method that has been developed to monitor and analyze the brain’s topographical EEG activity and is useful in the research of language and learning dysfunctions, psychiatric disorders, aging changes and dementia, and studies of child development. Neurological disorders often missed by brain scans are frequently detected with this procedure as well.
Although Hans Berger could never successfully explain his sister’s psychic experience, the discoveries that he made in his career were a major breakthrough for medical science in the Twentieth century. Not only did his work result in the development of the EEG, but also revealed the basic mechanisms of brain functioning used in medical imaging technologies such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
It is interesting to note that Berger’s maternal grandfather was eminent German poet Friedrich Ruckert (1788-1866), best known for his translations of the Oriental masters and whose most famous work is Die Weishiet des Brahmins, “The Wisdom of the Brahmans”. Berger was fascinated by the mind-body relationship and saw the electric activity of the brain as a means of clarifying that relationship. In addition to his breakthroughs in neuroscience, in his career he also carried out experiments on over 200 subjects in the attempt to demonstrate telepathic ability in a hypnotized state. Despite his meticulous and groundbreaking work in developing the human electroencephalograph, he never lost sight of his original inspiration.
Tragically, Hans Berger never lived to see his work given recognition. In his lifetime, his work was never taken seriously by his peers. Around the world his recordings were believed to be the result of “electrical or mechanical artifact.” He was considered amateur even by his own colleagues. In 1938, at age 65, he retired to Thuringia and developed a severe depression. In 1941, suffering from a painful skin disease, he took his own life.
Works Cited
Campbell, Robert Jean, M.D., Campbell’s Psychiatric Dictionary 8th Edition. Oxford University Press, 2009.
Davis, Stephen F. and Palladino, Joseph J, Psychology Sixth Edition. Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2010.
Gregory Richard L. (editor), Oxford Companion of the Mind, Second Edition. Oxford University Press, 2004.
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology 9th Edition, 2002.
Radin, Dean, Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality. Pocket Books, New York, NY, 2006.
Wikipedia.com, Friedrich Ruckert, last modified February 2012.*
*This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911) Ruckert, Johann Michael Friedrich. Encyclopedia Britannica 11th Edition. Cambridge Universtiy Press.
That evening, the young man received a telegram from his father at home. This struck him as odd since never before had he received a telegram from his father. It turned out that his sister had been overwhelmed with concern for him that day, and had urged her father to send the telegram. It occurred to the young man that the panic he felt earlier in the day had somehow been perceived by his sister. Many years later he wrote, “This is a case of spontaneous telepathy in which at a time of mortal danger, and as I contemplated certain death, I transmitted my thought, while my sister, who was particularly close to me, acted as the receiver.”
The young man’s name was Hans Berger and the work that he went on to carry out in his life after that profound experience would establish the foundations of neuroscience as we know it today.
In 1897, after his brief, initial time in the army, Berger earned his doctorate in Psychiatry at the University of Jena in Germany, and was appointed to the university Psychiatric clinic. In the period that would follow, in the years up to 1910, he conducted work on the spinal cord, cranial blood flow, and brain temperature changes, as well as attempting to record the electrical brain activity of the cerebral cortex of a dog. In 1911 he married Baroness Ursula Von Bulow, his technical assistant, with whom he had carried out experiments on the galvanic brain reflex.
Berger returned to the German army thereafter, serving on the Western Front in the First World War. Upon the war’s conclusion, he returned to the University of Jena where he was appointed professor of Psychiatry and director of the clinic. He continued with his research, which now encompassed Neurology, but it wasn’t until 1924 that Berger found the time to fully commit to searching for the cortical currents of the human brain that led to his most important discovery.
It was in that year that the Berger first observed small oscillations using a string galvanometer attached to the head of a patient. After several more years of painstaking research he was satisfied that he had eliminated all possibility that the oscillations recorded by his galvanometer were of “extra-cerebral artifact.” In 1929 he published his first paper, ‘On the electroencephalogram in man,’ in the Archiv for Psychiatic und Nervasnkrankheiten. He is credited that year with developing the electroencephalograph.
The electroencephalograph is a device that monitors and records electrical activity of the brain in the form of a graphic representation of brain waves. Electrical voltage on the surface of the brain is transduced from the scalp through a series of about 20 evenly spaced electrodes pasted to the scalp. The currents are amplified about a million times through differential input amplifiers to drive the pens for the paper record.
EEG waves (“Berger Rhythms” as they were once called) are distinguished by their frequency, which is measured in cycles per second, called Hertz (Hz), and amplitude (the height of the wave of the EEG record). They are classified into four rhythms (identified by Greek letters), each associated with a different state of consciousness. Alpha waves (8-12 Hz) are fast brainwaves with low amplitude generally associated with a normal relaxed state. Beta waves (13-30 Hz) are very fast but not high in amplitude and are associated with mental activity or intense concentration. Theta waves (3.5-7 Hz) are irregular in frequency and low in amplitude and are typically produced during light sleep or daydreaming. Delta waves (below 3.5 Hz) are the slowest and highest in amplitude and typically present during deep sleep.
The EEG is useful in detecting the abnormal brain waves associated with epilepsy, identifying certain sleep disorders and identifying structural abnormalities such as lesions or tumors. It is also used in assessing the comatose state and in confirming “brain death,” indicated by a flat EEG reading. Advances in computer technology led to the discovery of evoked potential, a specific electroencephalographic response to stimuli useful in the diagnosis and study of some schizophrenic disorders. Brain electrical activity mapping (BEAM) is another advanced method that has been developed to monitor and analyze the brain’s topographical EEG activity and is useful in the research of language and learning dysfunctions, psychiatric disorders, aging changes and dementia, and studies of child development. Neurological disorders often missed by brain scans are frequently detected with this procedure as well.
Although Hans Berger could never successfully explain his sister’s psychic experience, the discoveries that he made in his career were a major breakthrough for medical science in the Twentieth century. Not only did his work result in the development of the EEG, but also revealed the basic mechanisms of brain functioning used in medical imaging technologies such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
It is interesting to note that Berger’s maternal grandfather was eminent German poet Friedrich Ruckert (1788-1866), best known for his translations of the Oriental masters and whose most famous work is Die Weishiet des Brahmins, “The Wisdom of the Brahmans”. Berger was fascinated by the mind-body relationship and saw the electric activity of the brain as a means of clarifying that relationship. In addition to his breakthroughs in neuroscience, in his career he also carried out experiments on over 200 subjects in the attempt to demonstrate telepathic ability in a hypnotized state. Despite his meticulous and groundbreaking work in developing the human electroencephalograph, he never lost sight of his original inspiration.
Tragically, Hans Berger never lived to see his work given recognition. In his lifetime, his work was never taken seriously by his peers. Around the world his recordings were believed to be the result of “electrical or mechanical artifact.” He was considered amateur even by his own colleagues. In 1938, at age 65, he retired to Thuringia and developed a severe depression. In 1941, suffering from a painful skin disease, he took his own life.
Works Cited
Campbell, Robert Jean, M.D., Campbell’s Psychiatric Dictionary 8th Edition. Oxford University Press, 2009.
Davis, Stephen F. and Palladino, Joseph J, Psychology Sixth Edition. Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2010.
Gregory Richard L. (editor), Oxford Companion of the Mind, Second Edition. Oxford University Press, 2004.
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology 9th Edition, 2002.
Radin, Dean, Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality. Pocket Books, New York, NY, 2006.
Wikipedia.com, Friedrich Ruckert, last modified February 2012.*
*This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911) Ruckert, Johann Michael Friedrich. Encyclopedia Britannica 11th Edition. Cambridge Universtiy Press.