Róbert Bárány

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Róbert Bárány
Robert Barany.jpg
Robert Bárány
Born (1876-04-22)22 April 1876
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died 8 April 1936(1936-04-08) (aged 59)
Uppsala, Sweden
Nationality Austro-Hungarian
Fields Medicine
Institutions Uppsala University
Alma mater Vienna University
Notable awards Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1914)

Róbert Bárány (22 April 1876 – 8 April 1936) was an Austro-Hungarian otologist.[1][2] For his work on the physiology and pathology of the vestibular apparatus of the ear he received the 1914 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[3]


Bárány was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. He was the eldest of six children, to the former Maria Hock, the daughter of a scientist, and Ignáz Bárány, born 1842 in Pápa, a Hungarian Jew who was a bank official and estate manager.[4]

He attended medical school at Vienna University, graduating in 1900. As a doctor in Vienna, Bárány was syringing fluid into the inner ear of a patient to relieve the patient's dizzy spells. The patient experienced vertigo and nystagmus (involuntary eye movement) when Bárány injected fluid that was too cold. In response, Bárány warmed the fluid for the patient and the patient experienced nystagmus in the opposite direction. Bárány theorized that the endolymph was sinking when it was cool and rising when it was warm, and thus the direction of flow of the endolymph was providing the proprioceptive signal to the vestibular organ. He followed up on this observation with a series of experiments on what he called the caloric reaction. The research resulting from his observations made surgical treatment of vestibular organ diseases possible. Bárány also investigated other aspects of equilibrium control, including the function of the cerebellum.

He served with the Austrian army during World War I as a civilian surgeon and was captured by the Russian Army. When his Nobel Prize was awarded in 1914, Bárány was in a Russian prisoner of war camp. In response to his receiving the prize, Sigmund Freud wrote in 1915: "The granting of the Nobel Prize to Bárány, whom I refused to take as a pupil some years ago because he seemed to be too abnormal, has aroused sad thoughts about how helpless an individual is about gaining the respect of the crowd."[5] Bárány was released from the prisoner of war camp in 1916 following diplomatic negotiations with Russia conducted by Prince Carl of Sweden and the Red Cross. He was then able to attend the Nobel Prize awards ceremony in 1916, where he was awarded his prize. From 1917 until his death he was professor at Uppsala University Faculty of Medicine.

He died shortly before his sixtieth birthday at Uppsala.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Robert Bárány. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved June 06, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/52622/Robert-Barany
  2. ^ Fred Ashley White (15 April 2009). Physical Signs in Medicine and Surgery: An Atlas of Rare, Lost and Forgotten Physical Signs. Museum Press Books. pp. 37–. ISBN 978-1-4415-0828-7. 
  3. ^ Eastern Europe: an introduction to the people, lands, and culture Volume 1 - Page 394 Richard C. Frucht - 2005 " Hungarian or Hungarian-Born Winners of the Nobel Prize The physicist Fülöp Lénárd was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1905 for his work on cathode rays. Róbert Bárány received the 1914 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine "
  4. ^ Visual Education Corporation (January 1987). Nobel prize winners: an H.W. Wilson biographical dictionary. H.W. Wilson. ISBN 978-0-8242-0756-4. 
  5. ^ Ernest Jones (Ed.) (1961). "23: The War Years". The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud. Basic Books. p. 347. 


  • Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1901-1921. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company. 1967. 

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