HITZIG, EDUARD
German Psychiatrist
Born: Berlin, February 6, 1838
Died: St. Blasien, Baden, August 21, 1907
Highest Degree: M.D., University of Berlin, 1862
Positions: 1875-79, University of Zurich; 1879-1903, University of Halle

Hitzig is known for the famous experiment, performed with Gustav Fritsch, that established the electrical excitability of the brain tissue in 1870. The prevailing doctrine had been that the brain tissue was insensitive and unexcitable. Hitzig first observed that the electrical stimulation of a patient's cortex produced eye movements. He confirmed his observations in a rabbit and then proceeded to study the phenomenon systematically, using dogs. Applying electric current to the dog's brain, Fritsch and Hitzig also established that muscular contractions were controlled by certain areas of the brain only, as well as the location of some of the more specific motor centers.

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