Adolf Beck: A Forgotten Yet Prominent Pioneer in Electroencephalography

Abstract

Adolf Beck (1863-1942), affiliated to the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (Poland). worked under supervision of the famous Napoleon Cybulski at the Department of Physiology. Beck performed innovative studies in recording the electrical activity on the cerebral cortex of animals. He studied in detail the features and hallmarks of the electrical brain activity of animals. Therefore Beck can be regarded as a main although forgotten pioneer of electroencephalography and his work has greatly facilitated the development of electroencephalography, as a main tool for studying the brain. Much later Beck’s achievements provided the stepping stone for German Hans Berger working in a clinic in Jena (Germany), to replicate Beck’s recordings in humans. In 1928 Berger claimed that he was able to register the electroencephalographic activity of an intact human skull. He promoted Beck’s animal methodology to a non-invasive brain registration method for humans. Furthermore, it appeared that the electroencephalography had clinical perspectives. Adolf Beck and Hans Berger were the two greatest pioneers of electroencephalography: Beck described the principles of the registration methodology and analysed the main registration-features, while Berger noticed that the method could be used in humans having medical and clinical perspectives. Beck is the main pioneer of the principles of electroencephalography, whereas Berger, given the medical implications is commonly seen as the important inventor of the electroencephalogram. After his scientific work in Kraków, Beck was appointed professor in physiology at the nearby Jan Kazimierz University in Lemberg. Beck was a great teacher in physiology, but besides lecturing he performed many experiments in several topics of physiology, but studied in particular with his old professor Cybulski and new colleague Gustav Bikeles, the location of sensory cortical areas with electroencephalography. Soon Beck became Dean and served later the University as a Rector. In 1916 when the Russian army occupied Lemberg, Beck was imprisoned as a prominent citizen in Kyiv, but back in Lemberg he started again his work at the university. The year 1919 was a great year for Poland, because it obtained independency and Lemberg got back its Polisn name Lwów. In the second World War life became dangerous for the Jewish Beck. Lwów was occupied by the Nazis but Beck decided to stay in his city. When it became too dangerous, He was brought to a hiding place, where he was betrayed. When the Nazis arrested him, his son Henryk succeeded to hand his father a capsule with cyanide. This gave him the opportunity to commit suicide before the Nazis could send him to the gas chamber. Beck’s life ended on August 7, 1942. A remarkable similarity can be seen between the two main pioneers of electroencephalography: Adolf Beck and Hans Berger. Initially, their work was not taken seriously, but later they became celebrities. Beck misssed the Nobel Price though he was nominated three times, while Berger could not travel to Stockholm to receive the Price. For unknown reasons, Berger was forced by the Nazis even to give up his professor’s chair in 1938. This was a hard blow for Berger and he fell in a serious depression. Due to the actions of the Nazi’s Berger committing suicide on June 1, 1941, while a year later the Jewish Beck took his life.