FRITSCH, GUSTAV THEODOR
German Anatomist and Anthropologist
Born: Cottbus, Saxony, March 5, 1838
Died. Berlin, June 12, 1927
Highest Degree: M.D., University of Berlin, 1862
Positions: 1876-1921, University of Berlin, since 1899, honorary professor

Fritsch's contribution to psychology was the set of famous experiments, performed with E. Hitzig* (Über die elektrische Erregbarkeit des Grosshirns, 1870), that established the electrical excitability of brain tissue. The dogma held by most authorities was that the brain was insensitive and inexcitable. Applying electric current, rather than mechanical or chemical stimulation, to various portions of the brain of the dog, Fritsch and Hitzig established not only that motor responses could be elicited in this way but that muscular contractions were controlled by certain areas of the brain only, as well as the exact location of some of the more specific motor centers.

From: Biographical Dictionary of Psychology, by Leonard Zusne; Greenwood Press, 1984