CHAPTER XII 



ACTION PATTERNS ; CONSCIOUSNESS AND SLEEP 



Action Patterns 



WE know that the brain contains the mechanism 

 that drives the body; we know that environment 

 drives the brain and that environmental forces reach 

 the brain through the mediation of the sense organs. 

 But what is the mechanism within the brain by means 

 of which a given stimulus causes different effects in 

 different brains? Why will one man run away and 

 another attack on receipt of identical stimuli ? 



We postulate that the adaptive reactions of the 

 organism are executed by mechanisms, each of which, 

 like a wireless station, awaits the arrival of the specific 

 impulse which is to awaken it to specific response. 

 Between the ceptor organs of the eye, the ear, the nose, 

 the sensory nerve endings in the skin and the nerves 

 governing muscles and glands there intervenes an 

 intricate network of action patterns. As over the 

 same copper wire may be transmitted the voice, a 

 telegraph message, a dynamic charge of electricity 

 for firing a mine, lighting a concert hall or driving 

 an engine, so over the same nerve or group of nerves 

 may be transmitted impulses destined for the pro- 

 duction of terror, of sudden flight or of the reactions 

 of eating or drinking. Thus during consciousness the 



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