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5-Min Science: The Tragic History of Human Brainwaves

Updated: 3 days ago

In the annals of neuroscience, few discoveries have had more profound implications for understanding human consciousness and brain function than the detection of brainwaves. Yet the true history of this momentous finding is far more complex and darker than most people realize, involving multiple pioneers whose lives were dramatically shaped by the turbulent events of the 19th and 20th centuries. This post summarizes Douglas Fields' (2024) Scientific American opinion article, "The Forgotten History of the Discovery of Human Brainwaves."

The First Breakthrough: Richard Caton's Forgotten Legacy

The story begins not in Germany in 1924, as commonly believed, but in London in 1875. Richard Caton, a physician working with remarkably primitive equipment, made the first recording of electrical activity in the brain. Using a string galvanometer - a device featuring a small mirror suspended between magnets - Caton detected oscillating electrical currents in the brains of rabbits and monkeys. The measurements were so basic that they were recorded not in volts but in millimeters of light beam deflection from the mirror. Despite these limitations, Caton correctly identified the fundamental properties of brainwaves and their relationship to brain function.

When Caton presented his findings at the British Medical Association meeting in Edinburgh, he documented what we now know to be a revolutionary discovery. However, in an era when the brain remained largely an enigma and the world still ran on steam power, his insights were simply too advanced for his contemporaries to fully appreciate. In a poignant diary entry, he noted that while his paper was "well received," it was "not understood by most of the audience." Ironically, as the article's author discovered, Caton later presented his findings at Georgetown University, just 30 miles from where modern researchers would eventually seek to uncover his lost legacy.

Hans Berger and the Discovery of Human Brainwaves

Nearly fifty years after Caton's work, German psychiatrist Hans Berger conducted what would become the officially recognized first recording of human brainwaves. Working in a mental hospital in Jena in 1924, Berger approached the study of brainwaves from a unique, if questionable, perspective. Initially motivated by a belief in telepathy, he later developed theories about "psychic energy" that led him to conduct controversial experiments, including the disturbing practice of inserting rectal thermometers into patients' brains during surgery to measure temperature changes during cognitive tasks.

The Nazi Era and Historical Revision

Recent historical findings have dramatically altered our understanding of Berger's role in history. For years, the narrative held that Berger committed suicide in 1941 due to Nazi persecution. However, documents uncovered after the Berlin Wall's fall tell a very different story. Rather than being a victim of the Nazi regime, Berger was actually a supporter who participated in its atrocities. He served on courts that ordered forced sterilizations and left behind notebooks containing antisemitic comments alongside his scientific observations. His suicide, it turns out, was prompted by depression rather than persecution, mirroring the fate of many Nazi perpetrators as the full weight of their actions became apparent.

Adolf Beck: Tragedy in Eastern Europe

The story takes another tragic turn with Adolf Beck, whose pioneering work on animal brain activity in Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine) was repeatedly disrupted by war and invasion. Beck's research, focused on understanding the electrical communication between neurons, showed great promise until it was halted by a Russian invasion in 1914. After being imprisoned in Kiev (now Kyiv), he was eventually freed through the intervention of famous Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov. However, the rise of Nazi Germany would ultimately lead to his tragic end. In 1942, facing deportation to a concentration camp as both a Jew and an intellectual, Beck chose to end his life with cyanide rather than face the horrors of the Nazi death camps.

Legacy and Modern Implications

This complex history of human brainwave research serves as a powerful reminder of how scientific progress is inexplicably intertwined with broader historical and social movements. The fact that Caton's groundbreaking work went unrecognized for half a century potentially delayed significant advances in brain science and medicine. Moreover, the contrasting fates of Berger and Beck - one a perpetrator who participated in Nazi atrocities, the other a victim who died escaping them - illustrates how science can never truly be separated from the moral choices of its practitioners.

The story resonates particularly strongly today, as conflicts continue to impact scientific progress and human rights. The article notes that the sites of historical events in this story, such as Lviv, continue to be affected by warfare, demonstrating how the past echoes into the present. This history serves as both a testament to human ingenuity and a warning about how scientific advancement can be either elevated or corrupted by the moral choices of those who pursue it.