Impact on electroencephalography of Adolf Beck, a prominent Polish scientist and founder of the Lviv School of Physiology

Abstract

Adolf Beck (1863–1942) can be regarded as the co-founder of electroencephalography. His studies on the cerebral cortex of animals have facilitated the introduction of the electroencephalogram (EEG) as a main tool for studying the brain. The localization of senses on the cortex with evoked potentials and the description of the desynchronization of the electrical brain activity upon stimulation, are hallmarks of the research of Beck. He performed his groundbreaking studies under supervision of the famous Napoleon Cybulski at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow (Poland) between 1888 and 1895. In that last year Beck was appointed professor at the University of Lemberg (Lviv), where he founded the Department of Physiology and recruited scientists to the Lviv School of Physiology. Beck was the leading authority of the University of Lemberg in the most turbulent period of the town's history. Together with Cybulski he wrote the influential textbook ‘Human physiology’ in 1915.