Moshe Abeles (2001) Founders of Neuropsychology - who is Ignored?. Psycoloquy: 12(026) Lashley Hebb (20)
Volume: 12 (next, prev) Issue: 026 (next, prev) Article: 20 (next prev first) Alternate versions: ASCII Summary
PSYCOLOQUY (ISSN 1055-0143) is sponsored by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Psycoloquy 12(026): Founders of Neuropsychology - who is Ignored?
FOUNDERS OF NEUROPSYCHOLOGY - WHO IS IGNORED?
Book Review of Orbach on Lashley-Hebb
Moshe Abeles
Dept. of Physiology, and The Interdisciplinary Center for Neural
Computations
The Hebrew University
Jerusalem, Israel.
Abeles@vms.huji.ac.il
Abstract
The book has two parts. Part I deals with the personal
relations between Lashley and Hebb, with Lashley's refusal to take
part in Hebb's book, with issues of priority on ideas like
reverberations, cell assemblies and modifiable synapses. This part
of the book attempts to explain why is it that so much credit is
given to Hebb and too little to Lashley. Part II is a collection of
papers of Lashley some of which were not published anywhere else.
Part I will be most important for those interested in history and
sociology of science and of Neuropsychology in particular. Part II
is a treasure for anybody interested in mechanisms for higher brain
functions.
Keywords
Neuropsychology, history of science, cell assembly,
reverberation, modifiable synapses.
1. Lashley was certainly the founding father of modern neuropsychology.
I always found his studies on localization (or rather the absence of
localization) of memory and mechanisms of acquired behavior
breathtaking. Yet most of the credit for founding the field are given
to his student Hebb. The concept of "cell-assembly" and "Hebb's
rule" for synaptic plasticity are the most prominent examples. Why is
this so? The first part of the book analyzes the history of their
ideas and personal relationship in an attempt to explain this
situation. It contains new evidence that sheds light on the relations
between the two (Hebb invited Lashley to co-author his famous book
"The organization of behavior: a neuropsychological study" but Lashley
refused) and issues on priority of ideas (was Lashley the first to
realize the importance of Lorente de No's idea on reverberations in
neural circuits?) I admit that I find these historiosophic questions
less exciting then the actual scientific work of the two. In
particular I am still fascinated by Lashley's boldness and direct
approach: - If the memory engram is located in a particular region of
the brain - let us remove brain pieces until we find a place that
erases memory. - If information is processed via long cortico-cortical
connections - let us sever these by multiple cuts and find the
deficit. - If the "mass action" of brain is generated by ephaptic
electric fields - let us lay gold foils over the cortex and disrupt
these fields.
2. To this very day, I find reading Lashley's work exciting and thought
provoking much more than most current publications. Two thirds of
Orbach's book are devoted to a collection of Lashley's works, including
some hitherto unpublished finds. This is a real treasure!
REFERENCES
Orbach, Jack (1998) The Neuropsychological Theories of Lashley and
Hebb. MD: University Press of America.
Orbach, J. (1999) Precis of: The Neuropsychological Theories of Lashley
and Hebb. PSYCOLOQUY 10(029)
ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/Psycoloquy/1999.volume.10/
psyc.99.10.029.lashley-hebb.1.orbach
http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/psyc-bin/newpsy?10.029
Volume: 12 (next, prev) Issue: 026 (next, prev) Article: 20 (next prev first) Alternate versions: ASCII Summary