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Opening remarks
OPENING
REMARKS
R a l p h W. GERARD, M.D., PH.D. Department o[ Physiology, Univerdty o[ Chicago I should like to take my prerogative as Chairman, to introduce the symposium along the lines of Dr. Jasper's presidential address last night. W e were complaining to each other before that meeting, that the questions which had agitated the workers in this field in the pioneer days of long, long ago (all of fifteen years !) did not seem to be much in the forefront these days ~ not because they had been solved but because they had become neglected. T h e r e has been a trend, it seems to me, to look at records of the electrical activity of the brain, which constitute the main stock in trade of electroencephalographers, in the manner of the classical structural anatomists. W e find ourselves examining these wiggles, which constitute some sort of an entity structurally -- they are long or short, frequent or slow, sharp or round ~ rather than seeing them dynamically and functionally and remembering that they are but an index of processes and functions. I think the history of thought about convulsive or epileptic problems has shown the same trend, only fortunately in reverse: originally, the problems were mainly those of localization ~ where does the phenomenon start ? In recent years, more dynamic questions are being asked - - what is happening ? H o w does it come about ? W h a t are the mechanisms ? If we think of the problems of the nervous system as the physiologist and neuro-
[21
anatomist are doing more and more today, as problems of how, rather than of where things happen, recognizing fully that the "where" is a necessary but not a sufficient condition of understanding, then that most dramatic manifestation of neural action, the tremendous over-activity seen in convulsive discharges, shduld serve to focus the organizational, the chemical, the electrical, and the physiological approaches to neural problems. T h e present and future hopes for handling convulsions are similarly the hopes for understanding neural action. This symposium was planned for today along such lines of thought, not by myself alone, as Dr. Jasper indicated last night but by several others, one of the most useful being Jasper himself. T h e speakers have t:ot had a chance to talk to each other. Some have not been able to give discussants manuscripts and each is perhaps not entirely sure of his role in the total picture; but I have such confidence in the men as individuals as to anticipate a thoroughly coordinated program. If there is time at the close of the formal presentation, and I very much hope there will be, we will solicit free discussion from the floor. Dr. W i l d e r Penfield, as speaker, and Dr. Herbert Jasper as discussant, both of Montreal, will open the symposium by considering " T h e Functional and Electrical Responses of the Brain to Epileptic Discharge".
REMARKS
R a l p h W. GERARD, M.D., PH.D. Department o[ Physiology, Univerdty o[ Chicago I should like to take my prerogative as Chairman, to introduce the symposium along the lines of Dr. Jasper's presidential address last night. W e were complaining to each other before that meeting, that the questions which had agitated the workers in this field in the pioneer days of long, long ago (all of fifteen years !) did not seem to be much in the forefront these days ~ not because they had been solved but because they had become neglected. T h e r e has been a trend, it seems to me, to look at records of the electrical activity of the brain, which constitute the main stock in trade of electroencephalographers, in the manner of the classical structural anatomists. W e find ourselves examining these wiggles, which constitute some sort of an entity structurally -- they are long or short, frequent or slow, sharp or round ~ rather than seeing them dynamically and functionally and remembering that they are but an index of processes and functions. I think the history of thought about convulsive or epileptic problems has shown the same trend, only fortunately in reverse: originally, the problems were mainly those of localization ~ where does the phenomenon start ? In recent years, more dynamic questions are being asked - - what is happening ? H o w does it come about ? W h a t are the mechanisms ? If we think of the problems of the nervous system as the physiologist and neuro-
[21
anatomist are doing more and more today, as problems of how, rather than of where things happen, recognizing fully that the "where" is a necessary but not a sufficient condition of understanding, then that most dramatic manifestation of neural action, the tremendous over-activity seen in convulsive discharges, shduld serve to focus the organizational, the chemical, the electrical, and the physiological approaches to neural problems. T h e present and future hopes for handling convulsions are similarly the hopes for understanding neural action. This symposium was planned for today along such lines of thought, not by myself alone, as Dr. Jasper indicated last night but by several others, one of the most useful being Jasper himself. T h e speakers have t:ot had a chance to talk to each other. Some have not been able to give discussants manuscripts and each is perhaps not entirely sure of his role in the total picture; but I have such confidence in the men as individuals as to anticipate a thoroughly coordinated program. If there is time at the close of the formal presentation, and I very much hope there will be, we will solicit free discussion from the floor. Dr. W i l d e r Penfield, as speaker, and Dr. Herbert Jasper as discussant, both of Montreal, will open the symposium by considering " T h e Functional and Electrical Responses of the Brain to Epileptic Discharge".