Hering–Breuer reflex

Hering, Karl Ewald Konstantin (1834–1918), German physiologist and psychologist. Hering is known for his great influence on contemporary sense physiology and the evolution of modern psychology, especially Gestalt psychology. His early research was on binocular vision. From 1861 to 1864 he published a five-part study on visual space perception. In 1868 with Josef Breuer he discovered the reflex reaction that originates in the lungs and is mediated by the fibers of the vagus nerve and that is now known as the Hering-Breuer reflex. In a series of papers published between 1872 and 1875 he presented his theory of color vision. From that time onward, he devoted most of his career to studying color phenomena.

Breuer, Josef (1842–1925), Austrian physician and physiologist. A major forerunner of psychoanalysis, Breuer is famous for relieving the patient “Anna O.” of her hysteria by inducing her to recall, while under hypnosis, traumatic experiences of her early life. He reached the critical insight that neurotic symptoms derive from unconscious processes and that the symptoms can disappear when the processes are made conscious. Sigmund Freud was an early colleague of Breuer, and in 1895 the two men wrote a book on hysteria in which Breuer's method of psychotherapy was described. In 1868 with Karl Hering he described the Hering-Breuer reflex.