Horst Mittelstaedt
Horst Mittelstaedt (28 April 1923 – 18 February 2016) was a German biologist and cybernetician. Together with Erich von Holst he demonstrated the "Reafference Principle" in 1950 ("Das Reafferenzprinzip") concerning how an organism is able to separate reafferent (self-generated) sensory stimuli from exafferent (externally generated) sensory stimuli. This concept largely dealt with interactive processes between the central nervous system and its periphery. Until 1999 he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology at Seewiesen, Bavaria. His scientific focus was cybernetic analysis of behaviour.