Читать книгу Psychology: an elementary text-book - Hermann Ebbinghaus - Страница 12

We have already touched on the question as to the relation between the nervous system and consciousness. It is evident that no single point of the nervous system can be regarded as the long-searched-for seat of the soul, since no single point is structurally or functionally distinguished from all others. But it does not follow that mental functions are localized in different parts of the brain according to the popular conception of judgment, memory, will, and so on, each depending on a special part of the brain. There is no more truth in the similar assertions of phrenology. Localization of function in this sense is impossible. Judgment is not a mental function which can be separated from memory and attention. No more separable from each other are such functions as religious sentiment, filial love, self-consciousness. The sensational, ideational, and affective elements of these functions are to a considerable extent the same.

Localization of mental functions really means this:—Since there is a division of labor among the sensory and motor organs of the body, and since each of these organs is most directly connected with certain areas of the cortex and much less directly with the other areas, it is to be expected that certain states of consciousness will occur only when certain areas of the cortex are functioning. It is but natural that the province of the cortex most directly connected with the eyes serves vision, including both visual perception and visual imagination; that the province of the cortex most directly connected with the ears serves audition. Who would expect anything else? In the same sense, the sensations of touch, of taste, and so on, are localized in the brain. The same rule holds good for movements. When our limbs move in consequence of some thought concerning them, the areas of the cortex which are most closely connected with them must function, while other areas may remain inactive. Activity of our vocal organs, in the service of our mind, can occur only by the influence of that province of the cortex which is most directly connected with the muscles of the vocal organs. But how varied are the thoughts which may bring about action of the vocal organs! On the other hand, how diversified may be the movements by which a mother may react upon the crying of her child! In either case it may be right to say that our mind is localized in the brain as a whole—not, of course, equally in every infinitesimal particle, but distributed through the brain in a manner comparable to the distribution of the roots and branches of a tree.

QUESTIONS

27. To what kind of things are the neurons comparable?

28. How many neurons does the nervous system contain?

29. What kinds of branches does a neuron possess?

30. What are white matter and gray matter?

31. How does the velocity of a nervous process compare with other velocities in nature?

32. What is the general function of the nervous system?

33. Can you draw a diagram illustrating the architecture of a simple and of a more complex nervous system?

34. How can simpler nervous functions enter into a combination without completely losing their individuality?

35. What is meant by subcortical?

36. What is meant by afferent and efferent neurons?

37. How large is the surface of the brain?

38. What is meant by sensory and motor areas of the cortex?

39. Where is the seat of the soul?