About the contributor

• Detlef Bieger
• Winfried Neuhuber

Detlef Bieger

Detlef Bieger received undergraduate and graduate training in medicine and pharmacology at Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany. His interest in the neural control of swallowing arose out of postgraduate work with O. Hornykiewicz at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto and for over three decades remained a central theme of his research carried out at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, where he now holds an Emeritus appointment. In addition to the neuropharmacological characterization of deglutitive motor pattern generation and neuroanatomical analysis of the relevant brainstem circuitry, other research work in his laboratory is directed at the regulation of smooth muscle contractility in the upper alimentary tract and the vascular system.

Winfried Neuhuber

Winfried Neuhuber obtained his M.D. from Vienna University Medical Faculty. Besides clinical training in general medicine, he started research into the anatomy of gastrointestinal innervation in Vienna (Austria) and Zürich (Switzerland) using tract tracing, later combined with immunocytochemistry. His basic research, performed in collaboration with Hans Rudolf Berthoud, resulted in characterization of intraganglionic laminar endings as the main vagal afferent structures in the gastrointestinal tract. He discovered recto-spinal neurons which he further characterized together with Gian-Luca Ferri. Since 1992, Winfried has been full Professor of Anatomy at University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Medical Faculty (Germany), where he discovered, together with Jürgen Wörl, enteric co-innervation of striated muscle in the esophagus. His laboratory is currently pursuing studies on the development and functional anatomy of motor and sensory innervation of the esophagus.