230 C. JUDSON HERRICK 



structural connections of these centers inter se. And the pattern 

 of these connections is tolerably uniform for all members of 

 any animal race or species. This implies that it is hereditary 

 and innate. This is the underlying basis of instinct. 



The connections between the cortical centers, on the other 

 hand, are much less definitely laid down in the hereditary pat- 

 tern. The details of the definitive association pattern of any 

 individual are to a greater degree fixed by his particular experi- 

 ence. This is the basis of docility and the individually modifi- 

 able or intelligent types of behavior. The typical cortical activ- 

 ities, even when physiologically considered, are far removed in- 

 deed from those of the brain stem. 



It should be emphasized, however, that the differences beT 

 tween the cortex and the lower centers of the brain stem, so far 

 as these can be deduced from a study of structure and from 

 physiological experiment, are relative and not absolute. In- 

 deed the general pattern of the regional localization of the 

 cortex itself is innate and in adult life the cortex has acquired 

 many more characteristics similar to those of the brain stem, 

 with its own systems of acquired automatisms and habitually 

 fixed types of response. The larger association centers retain 

 their plasticity longest, but ultimately these also cease to exhibit 

 new types of coordination and this marks the onset of senility. 



The cerebral cortex, then, is not to be likened to the seat 

 of an absolute monarch who receives his messages from out- 

 lying parts of his empire in the form of simple sensations and 

 executes his will directly upon his subjects, the bodily organs ; 

 but rather to an upper house of parliament with limited powers 

 of initiating legislation de novo, but with remarkably extensive 

 capacity for the revision and amplification or veto of such bills 

 as are sent up to it from the lower house and with a very effi- 

 cient direct control over the entire administrative machinery of 

 the government. 



Dewey's stimulating analysis 2 of the reflex arc concept, or 

 as he prefers to say, the organic circuit concept, implies that the 

 synthesis of the elements of a complex chain reflex into an 

 organic unity is the essential prerequisite of that apperceptive 



2 The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology. Psych. Rev., vol. 3, p. 357, 1893. See 

 also Dewey's later statement in Jour Philos., Psych, and Sci. Methods, vol. 9, 

 Nov., 1912, pp. 664-668, especially the footnote on p. 667. 



