Curt Paul RichterBorn 20 Feb 1894; died 21 Dec 1988 at age 94.American psychobiologist who discovered the body's biorhythms and identified the part of the brain that controls daily cycles of sleeping, waking and other activities. He first wrote about this biological clock in a 1927 paper in which he described how internal cycles control an animal's drinking, eating, running, and sexual behaviour. He also studied the great extent to which animal biological processes can be modifed by learned behaviour. Richter connected the discovery of fire by ancient peoples to significant modifications in habits, communication, learning and even resulted in changes in brain structure. He related behaviour and the biochemistry of sleep, stress, and the onset of disease. Altogether Richter wrote over 250 research papers.« |
