The Origin and Nature of the Emotions; Miscellaneous PapersCrile, George Washington
Science
The Origin and Nature of the Emotions; Miscellaneous Papers
Crile, George Washington
Emotions; Psychophysiology
If the full history of the species and of the individual
could be known in every detail, then every detail of that
individual's conduct in health and disease could be predicted.
Reaction to environment is the basis of conduct, of moral standards,
of manners and conventions, of work and play, of love and hate,
of protection and murder, of governing and being governed, in fact,
of all the reactions between human beings--of the entire web of life.
To quote Sherrington once more: "Environment drives the brain,
the brain drives the various organs of the body."
By what means are these adaptations made? What is the mechanism through
which adequate responses are made to the stimuli received by the ceptors?
We postulate that in the brain there are innumerable patterns
each the mechanism for the performance of a single kind of action,
and that the brain-cells supply the energy--electric or otherwise--
by which the act is performed; that the energy stored in the brain-cells
is in some unknown manner released by the force which activates
the brain pattern; and that through an unknown property of these brain
patterns each stimulus causes such a change that the next stimulus
of the same kind passes with greater facility.
Each separate motor action presumably has its own mechanism--
brain pattern--which is activated by but one ceptor and by
that ceptor only when physical force of a certain intensity
and rate of motion is applied. This is true both of the visible
contacts affecting the nociceptors and of the invisible contacts
by those intangible forces which affect the distance ceptors.
For example, each variation in speed of the light-producing
waves of ether causes a specific reaction in the brain.
For one speed of ether waves the reaction is the perception
of the color blue; for another, yellow; for another, violet.
Changes in the speed of air waves meet with specific response
in the brain patterns tuned to receive impressions through the
aural nerves, and so we distinguish differences in sound pitch.
If we can realize the infinite delicacy of the mechanisms adapted
to these infinitesimal variations in the speed and intensity of
invisible and intangible stimuli, it will not be difficult to conceive
the variations of brain patterns which render possible the specific
responses to the coarser contacts of visible environment.
Each brain pattern is adapted for but one type of motion,
and so the specific stimuli of the innumerable ceptors play
each upon its own brain pattern only. In addition, each brain
pattern can react to stimuli applied only within certain limits.
Too bright a light blinds; too loud a sound deafens. No mechanism
is adapted for waves of light above or below a certain rate of speed,
although this range varies in different individuals and in different
species according to the training of the individual and the need
of the species.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account