A Synapse-State Theory of Mental Life

Abstract

Introduction: `The problem of understanding behavior is the problem of understanding the total action of the nervous system, and vice versa. ... The central problem with which we must find a way to deal can be put in two different ways. Psychologically, it is the problem of thought: some sort of process that is not fully controlled by environmental stimulation and yet cooperates closely with that stimulation. From another point of view, physiologically, the problem is that of the transmission of excitation from sensory to motor cortex. ... In the chapters that follow this introduction I have tried to lay a foundation for such a theory. ... In outline, the conceptual structure is as follows: Any frequently repeated, particular stimulation will lead to the slow development of a "cell-assembly," a diffuse structure comprising cells in the cortex and diencephalon (and also, perhaps, in the basal ganglia of the cerebrum), capable of acting briefly as a closed system, delivering facilitatio