NEUROPHYSIOLOGY : AN INTEGRATION 



[ 923 



BEING BEHAVING BECOMING 



9 



SOCIETY 

 COMMUNITY 



GROUP 



INDIVIDUAL 



ORGAN 



CELL 



MOLECULE 



fig. i. The architecture of knowledge in biology. Levels of 

 organization arc represented on the ordinate axis, attributes 

 of these levels on the abscissa axis. See the text for further 

 explanation. 



insouciance of the neurophysiologist — who obtains 

 beautifully constant action spikes from a nerve isolated 

 for hours — in the face of the anguished cries of the 

 cytologist who sees the progressive distortion of the 

 visible nerve structures during this same time. Simi- 

 larly, as shown by Tobias (280), a nerve fiber almost 

 digested by proteolytic enzymes may still conduct 

 well, while one less altered visibly with lipolvtic ones 

 may be completely blocked. 



The table has prosed useful, further, in understand- 

 ing and in projecting experiments to recognize certain 

 common factors (as well as the obvious differences) 

 between the levels in a given column. Thus one 

 aspect of behaving is the response to an abnormal 

 input, a stress of some kind. Two general types are 

 clear (11 5): a quantitative abnormality, as in input- 

 overload (excessive quantitative demands on percep- 

 tion and performance) or input-underload [senson 

 deprivation, studied by Miller (2ti)]; and a qualita- 

 tive shift [slighdy differently-patterned antimetabolites 

 which block cell enzymes, or slightlv distorted 

 perceptual patterns which confuse meaning in lan- 

 guage or other symbols, as pointed out by Gerard, 

 Jackson & Miller (unpublished observations)]. 



vidual behavior patterns, reflex responses and nerve 

 impulses are physiological or functional units, and so 

 of interest to the neurophysiologist. I !<• is concerned 

 with thresholds and spike magnitudes, with facilitation 

 and inhibition, with summation and fixation, with 

 synchrony and reverberation, more than with nerve 

 fibers and cells. Just so the enzyme chemist is occupied 

 with catalytic action and rate of change more than 

 with molecular structure, and the ethologist deals 

 with animal behaviors rather than animal bodies. 

 Of course, structure underlies all function, and .1 

 change in kind or number or position of constituent 

 units — right down to the component molecules and 

 atoms — must carry any change in functional state 

 Nevertheless, the immediate correlation of an experi- 

 mental variable may be only with a functional 

 alteration. 



We know that anesthetics knock out consciousness 

 we do not yet know the chemical or anatomical (or 

 even neurophysiological) intermediate steps. We 

 know that psychoactive drugs alter mood, but do not 

 yet know how or where they act. It is the hope of most 

 workers that specific chemical agents, b\ attacking 

 some system related functionally rather than structur- 

 ally, will help the functional dissection of behavior. 

 The point is perhaps best illustrated by the legitimate 



M.MKRiAl 1 racks Behavior is ccrlainlv dependent 

 upon structure and structure, upon behavior, but this 

 does not lead to a meaningless potpourri. Behavior at 

 .1 given level depends on structure at the subordinate 

 level; and this, in turn, is the product of such an 

 intense or repeated past behavior at the next lower 

 level as to have left behind irreversible rather than 

 reversible change. When the table of figure 1 is rolled 

 into a cylinder, a 'causal' spiral is seen ascending the 

 levels as it moves front becoming to being to behaving. 



For the nervous system, those molecular actions 

 that led irreversibly to macromoleeules and related 

 cell constituents produced the ultrastructures of 

 cells the membranes and particulates which control 

 the basic phv sicochemical behaviors of neurons. 

 Neurons sprout processes and form junctions in 

 terms of their own experiences (hiring functional 

 development, leading to the visible structures of guv 

 nuclei and fiber paths, and through them to integrated 

 individual behavior. Individual experiences, impres- 

 sing structure on the nervous system and the person- 

 ality, give new structural intricacies to groups and 

 organizations which in turn determine their collective 

 behaviors as supraindividuals or epiorganisms. 



It is impressive that all levels of living systems 

 from the duplicating molecules of heredity, through 

 the developing brain, to the evolving species or the 



