ACTION PATTERNS 303 



whose function is that of receiving specific action 

 currents effector ceptors. 



Furthermore, we may assume that these receptor 

 mechanisms are endowed with the quality of being 

 permanently modified by each impulse that passes 

 over them, as a result of which the subsequent passage 

 of an identical impulse is facilitated. 



Our assumption is that the number and architecture 

 of action patterns have been determined by natural 

 selection ; that no pattern exists but has selection 

 value ; and that all these patterns freely communicate 

 with each other, and thus, indirectly, with all the cells 

 of the brain. We suppose that in the brain there are 

 millions of naked microscopic "wires," communicating 

 with millions of microscopic "batteries" -the brain- 

 cells. Thus among the brain-cells there is the freest 

 possible intercommunication, and thus they communi- 

 cate on the one hand with the sense organs through 

 the peripheral nerve paths, and on the other hand 

 through the specific receptors effector ceptors - 

 with the muscles of the body. 



At first sight this hypothesis would seem to indicate 

 chaos within the brain and confusion without. But 

 how such an apparently chaotic arrangement could 

 fabricate with precision the functions of the brain 

 becomes evident when we recall that one of the first 

 suggestions in our hypothesis was that all the multi- 

 tude of action patterns were not fabricated at once, 

 but that first one and then another action pattern 

 was developed to meet the needs of the evolving 

 organism, each new adaptation establishing its own 

 path of least resistance so that now, although each 



