neurophysiology: an integration 



'943 



length and repetition rate, intensity and contrast are 

 properly adjusted. Before the phonemes of speech can 

 carry meaning, the voice pitch, loudness, speed and 

 intonation have been set — not to mention body 

 posture, gestures and the like. Indeed, appropriate 

 sound filters can remove from speech either the sense 

 [the high energy portion (Zangwill)] or the mood 

 (fundamental frequency) while Leaving the other 

 (177, 271; Soskin, W., personal communication). 

 Conversely, the hypothalamus, or other diffuse 

 structures, must put emotion into speech and with 

 some selectivity in relation to content. Feeling has 

 only quality and intensity; thought has pattern. 

 Feeling is uncoded, reflex and alike across species; 

 thought is coded, learned and specific for species, 

 culture or even Individual. 



There is much reason to relate schizophrenia to .1 

 disturbed interaction of the diffuse and specific 

 systems. Beside the ability of the former to alter 

 thresholds, and so the number of available cortical 

 neurons (see later), it creates the set or program which 

 guides the specific sequences of thought and action, 

 the strategies of goal-seeking behavior [cf. Bateson 

 el ill. (18)]. Schizophrenic behavior is characterized by 

 symmetrical logic (197), with a jumbling of logical 

 and temporal elements [and perhaps b\ an over-all 

 slowing of time flow, according to Lhemon & Gold- 

 stone (172), which could relate to the reduced neuron 

 capacityj. Non-sequitors, bizarre productions, un- 

 related juxtapositions these are the earmarks "I the 

 illness, as the colored bits of thought and act jostle 

 loosely in a kaleidoscope. [Compare Elkes (65) and 

 Evarts (67).] Presumably, the ordered entry into and 

 exit from activity of properly patterned groups of 

 cortical neurons is disturbed. The particular moving 

 \\.i\es, to be considered in the final section, would 

 lose their way and move erratically in the cortex. 



Time, space and logic are closely related in neural 

 mechanisms, and they must be integrated together. 

 And a perception, in Elkes' phrase, involves micro- 

 reasoning. Certainly the eye responds to a static 

 pattern, a spatial boundary between light and dark 

 ate. is, and a dynamic pattern, .1 temporal boundary 

 between light and datk periods, with like intensifica- 

 tion in the frequency of impulses in optic fibers (242). 



Conversely, affect has mainly intensity and positive 

 or negative quality. Positive reinforcement is strongest 

 in self-stimulation experiments in the amygdala or 

 septum and hypothalamus for the rat, but in the 

 caudate for the cat (Stellar). To the extent that these 

 are 'sex' centers, here are 'drives,' like curiosity (13 | I, 

 that do not originate from disturbed internal home- 



ostasis but rather from external relations. [When the 

 hypothalamic-pituitary portal system is destroyed, 

 systemic stress still evokes ACTH and TSH release, 

 but psychic stress does not (Harris).] The relativelv 

 greater importance of external factors in drive in the 

 more evolved organisms (Stellar) fits the high im- 

 portance of "set" in human intercommunication. 



It is of considerable interest that psychologists and 

 sociologists have come to recognize, in the functioning 

 of groups, behaviors and roles comparable to emotion 

 and reason. Statements in a problem-solving session 

 by a group fall into goal-directed or socioemotional 

 categories (14). Separate individuals or personac and 

 separate communication channels either form amor- 

 phously or are crystallized in tables of organization 

 in the groups and institutions studied, the "stern 

 father 1 and the 'loving mother' or 'kind uncle' appear 

 everywhere To facilitate flow along official channels 

 there always exist the personal para-channels the 

 affable and knowledgable sergeanl gets the job dune 

 while official paper- sludge through channels 

 boards and administrators propose, executive and 

 personal secretaries dispose. And growing behavioral 

 science know ledge show * the need of both the rational 

 .iml iIh affective components in proper balance for 

 optimal functioning of the group, as for the individual. 

 An imbalance or dissociation can result in schizo- 

 phrenic-like phenomena in group .is well as in 

 individual. 



LEARNED < IR< . VXI/ V I li >S 



Nature 



1 axis vm> vi vii ration. Storing information, learning 

 from experience, involves the Laying down of material 

 patterns, of whatever sort. The particularity and 

 quantity of learning is far too great to be accounted 

 for except in terms of patterns or organization. 

 Information mav be in the form of specific items or of 

 procedural rules, and the latter, including class 

 universals, can be vastlv more economical. The genes 

 and chromosomes in a zygote cannot possibly carry 

 the full details of information necessary to build an 

 adult organism in conformity with the accumulated 

 experience of the race, yet each individual forms the 

 major neuron centers ana 1 paths and connections 

 common to the species. The arrayed enzymes con- 

 stitute a program. They determine a set of operational 

 sequences which, interacting under normal con- 

 ditions with each other and the environment, do 



