Erich von Holst

Who was Erich von Holst?

Erich Walther von Holst, was a German behavioral physiologist who was a native of Riga, Livonia and was related to historian Hermann Eduard von Holst. In the 1950s he founded the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology at Seewiesen, Bavaria.

Holst is remembered for his work with zoologist Konrad Lorenz concerning the processes of endogenous generation of stimuli and of central coordination as a basis of behavioral physiology. This idea refuted the existing "reflex theory" which stated that this behavior was based on a chain of reflexes.

Holst postulated that the basic central nervous configuration consisted of a "cell" permanently producing endogenous stimulation, but prevented from activating its effector by another "cell" that also produced endogenous stimulation which contained an inhibition effect. This inhibiting "second cell" was influenced by the receptor, and stopped its inhibitory functionality precisely at the biologically right moment. In this fashion normal physiological stability was achieved.

From his studies of fish that use rhythmic, synchronized fin motions while maintaining an immobile body, he developed two fundamental principles to describe the coordinative properties of "neural oscillators":