ABSTRACT
ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY is a comparatively young science. It is only thirty years since Hans Berger, a German psychiatrist, made the first recordings of the electrical activity of the human brain, although similar recordings from the brains of rabbits and monkeys were reported by Caton as long ago as 1875. Nowadays the existence of such potentials is universally acknowledged and it therefore seems all the more surprising that Berger's original publications were largely ignored. It was not until some five years later that Adrian and Matthews (1934), with the aid of more sensitive recording apparatus, obtained definite confirmation and recognition of his findings. Since that time, great advances in instrumentation have made it possible for the technique to be applied not only by physiological research workers, but by physicians and psychologists in their investigations of normal and pathological brain function.
