Johann August Unzer

[1] Johann August Unzer was born on April 27, 1727, in Halle an der Saale, to a family of medical practitioners.

[1] While still attending university, he defended Stahl's views on animism by publishing one of his first works called "Thoughts on the Influence of the Soul on its Body".

[4] In 1749, he went on to complete his dissertation entitled "De Nexu Metaphysices cum Medicina generatim"[1] and continued to work into the next year.

After he graduated and completed his dissertational work, he went on to practice medicine in Hamburg, Germany while still developing his theories.

[1] In the following years, he published several books and articles ranging from zoology, "The Principles of Physiology", and afferent and efferent reflexes.

[3] At its most basic level, afferent reflexes are those that move inward from something external, making its way to the central nervous system.

[3] After the first person was beheaded by Joseph Ignace Guillotin’s contraption named after him, there was a curiosity about whether there was any form of consciousness after the head was severed from the body, and whether or not it was painless.

He said that if a signal had nowhere to go (i.e. once it reached the place where the head was severed), it may travel back through an efferent pathway, causing the motion that the person would have performed if he or she were whole.