A survey of the physiology of cerebration
Abstract
BY TERRE HAUTE, IND. S frequently stated, the study of consciousness resolves itself into a study of experience. This subject was first approached from the subjective side, and many essential facts were worked out in this way long before anything definite was known of the microscopic anatomy or the physiology of the different parts of the nervous system. In recent times numerous investigators have established a myriad of important facts in the latter fields, and clinico-pathology has contributed much to our knowledge of the subject. It seems true beyond contradiction that a real understanding of the physiology of cerebration will require the correlation of the essential findings of investigators in psychology, neurology, physiology and clinico-pathology. That is what this paper attempts in a limited way. Our purpose requires a consideration of some of the most elementary facts of nervous physiology and psychology. Owing to the ease of control of stimuli and measurement of response obtained, the study of nerve-muscle preparations long occupied a pre-eminent place in nervous physiology. As these studies have given the most unequivocal results, activity of the central nervous system has been largely interpreted by activity as revealed in peripheral nerves. In recent times, however,