Robert Bárány and the controversy surrounding his discovery of the caloric reaction.
It was not until the latter half of the 19th century that the vestibular part of the inner ear was recognized to have a function separate from hearing. Robert Bárány was one of the first clinicians to assess vestibular function systematically in patients. He developed standard caloric, rotational, and pointing tests and was the first to describe benign paroxysmal positional nystagmus. Bárány began his career working in the otology clinic of Adam Politzer at the University of Vienna. He received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1916 for his work on the mechanism of the caloric reaction. However, in the aftermath of the First World War and the controversy surrounding his selection for the Nobel Prize, Bárány left Vienna for Uppsala, Sweden, where he spent the last 20 years of his life in relative isolation.
Baloh
Robert W
RW
Department of Neurology, Division of Head and Neck Surgery, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1769, USA. rwbaloh@ucla.edu
D001317:Austria; D002150:Caloric Tests / Q000266:history* / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D009482:Neurophysiology / Q000266:history; D009613:Nobel Prize; D009760:Nystagmus, Physiologic / Q000502:physiology