956 CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM 



In a dog that had been trained to secrete saliva at the sound of a par- 

 ticular metronome beat, inhibition occurred one day because, just as 

 the dog was being presented with the food, the laboratory servant made 

 a noise outside of the building which diverted the animal's attention. 

 The conditioned reflex may also be interfered with by internal inhibi- 

 tion, which is illustrated by experiments in which, after a dog has been 

 trained to respond to a given conditional reflex, several occasions follow 

 when food is not given to the animal after the particular sensation to which 

 it has been trained to respond. The condition for example, a sound loses 

 its effect. This is internal inhibition, but it is a temporary condition 

 since the reflex returns of itself after a period of rest. 



These experiments illustrate what is meant by the formation of tem- 

 porary associations occurring in conditioned reflexes, but in order that 

 there may be a fine discrimination between those stimuli which shall 

 and those which shall not serve to call forth the conditioned reflex, an- 

 other mechanism becomes involved that of analysis. This is performed 

 by a sense organ the function of which is to separate and distinguish 

 the complicated phenomena of the outer world. For example, it has 

 been proved that small differences in the pitch of a musical note may 

 determine whether or not a conditioned reflex will be excited or in- 

 hibited, as in the case of one animal that was trained to respond by 

 the secretion of saliva to a tuning fork vibrating at 100 per second. It 

 was found that no secretion was produced by a tuning fork vibrating 

 at 104 or at 96. Much work has also been done with the skin receptors. 

 Thus, when a given spot of skin is stimulated every time that food is 

 presented, this becomes an active spot for the conditioned reflex. At 

 the same time another spot may be stimulated so as to be associated by 

 the animal with the nonpresentatioii of food; it is a conditioned reflex 

 for no food, and is associated with the absence of salivary secretion. 



By comparing the responses from active and inactive spots when both 

 are stimulated either simultaneously or at close intervals, much can 

 be learned concerning the delicacy of appreciation for external stimuli 

 and the influence of the inhibitory on the excitatory process. Bayliss 

 cites the following experiment. Along a series of spots on the skin 

 of the leg five devices are arranged for producing equal mechanical 

 stimulations of the skin. The four uppermost of these .are made active 

 spots for the salivary reflex, and the lowest one inactive that is, when- 

 ever it is stimulated no food is presented. Let us suppose that upon 

 administering mechanical stimuli of equal intensity to each of the four 

 active spots, a certain amount of saliva is produced in a certain time; if 

 now the inactive spot is stimulated and then thirty seconds later one 

 of the uppermost spots, there will be no secretion. The previous stimu- 



