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Perspectives fifty years after Pavlov
@.nJ5-7908/79/0601-0097
J. Behov. The-r. & Exp. Psychiat. Vol. IO. pp. 97.100. 0 Pcrgamon Press Ltd., 1979. Printed in Great Britain.
PERSPECTIVES
FIFTY YEARS W. HORSLEY
AFTER
$02.00/o
PAVLOV
GANTT
Pavlovian Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins Medical School, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Perry Point
system, Pavlov now turned his attention to the study of the relationship of the secretion to these signals-the conditional reflexes (CRs) (which he first called “psychical reflexes”). In two decades of work with these, Pavlov built up his concepts of excitation, inhibition, induction, irradiation and concentration; and his theories of sleep, experimental neuroses and temperaments. At eighty, he entered the psychiatric clinic and began to seek analogies between laboratory findings and psychiatric concepts. Although Pavlov’s work originated from his own observations, he was influenced by Sechenov, the father of Russian physiology, who in 1863 had written Reflexes of the Brain. Sechenov postulated that all thinking and mental activity was reflex in character. This was a mechanistic scheme which Pavlov considerably amplified and modified, but which typified the deterministic, mechanistic concepts of the 19th century. Pavlov’s work and concepts were later considerably amplified, chiefly in Russia and the United States. In Russia the work was, until quite recently, in fairly strict conformity with Pavlov’s concepts, but in the United States it took new directions in the hands of the psychologists, notably John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner. One result of the developments in the United States was a division into operant conditioning and so-called classical or Pavlovian conditioning. A strict division is not justifiable, and was not recognized by Pavlov, who used
Although Pavlov received the Nobel Prize in 1904 for his work on the secretion of the intestinal tract, this work is now overshadowed by his reputation for three decades of research on the conditional reflex (CR). His success with the secretions of the digestive system was due largely to his use of the chronic fistula and the preservation of the animal in a healthy condition for months or years. The origin of the conditional reflex rests directly upon his researches on gastrointestinal secretions. The fistulae which Pavlov employed were the salivary, the gastric, the duodenal and the biliary. The Pavlov gastric pouch involves a delicate operation to ensure preservation of the vagal nerves to the isolated gastric pouch. Observing these fistulae in the unanesthetized dog, Pavlov was able to study the secretions in the daily life of the animal, in contrast to earlier physiologists who had used acute experiments with the dying animal under anesthesia. The success of Pavlov’s work was due to his keen powers of observation and his genial intuition-a quality of every great scientist. In the course of feeding the dog, Pavlov noted that a salivary and gastric secretion occurred even before the arrival of food. Investigating this, he found that the secretion began when the dog saw the food, the vessel in which it was brought, the aide who was accustomed to bringing it, or heard the sound of his footsteps. These signals were classified later as conditional stimuli. After two decades of work on the digestive
Requests for reprints should be addressed to W. Horsley Gantt, Professor of Psychiatry, Baltimore, MD 21205. Paper presented at the Third Temple Conference on Behavior Therapy, Philadelphia, 1976. 97
Johns
Hopkins
University,
98
W. HORSLEY GANTT
both types of responses. The difference is one of emphasis and purpose: Pavlovian conditioning deals mainly with autonomic responses and what goes on inside the organism; operant conditioning focuses primarily on the motor behavior of the subject, and is concerned with practical applications. Operant conditioners have little interest in intra-organismal change. My collaborators and I originated our studies from Pavlov’s concepts. My work in the past 45 years has resulted in a number of new principles, to which I apply the term Neo-Pavlovian&n. I have been concerned with quantification of the CR and the unconditional reflex (UCR), the relationships of excitation and inhibition, the development of the experimental neuroses, the analysis of the essential parts of the conditional reflex arc, the application of CR studies to the cardiovascular, renal, vestibular, sexual, respiratory and metabolic systems, and the influence of social relationships (“effect of person”). A comparison of conditioning in the various systems has resulted in the concepts of schizokinesis, conditioning, fractional autokinesis, centrokinesis, and organ-system responsibility. Prolonged longitudinal studies of animals led me to the concept of autokineses -conditioning to internal states, similar to the CRs to the external environment. The individual unit of autokinesis is what I call proflex. An analysis of the CR arc puts the emphasis of conditioning on internal elements. I have called the interaction peripherally induced stimulation and centrally instrumented reactions centrokinesis.
very difficult to extinguish, sometimes
lasting for several years after the salivary and the motor components have been extinguished. This difference generated the concept of schizokinesis. In 1978, I observed schizokinesis between the cardiac CR and the respiratory CR. Schizokinesis is considered to represent a dysharmony in the living organism-adaptation at one level and maladaptation on another level. Perhaps it is a cause of pathology and a precursor and predictor of nervous breakdown as shown by Khananashvili in Russia (1977).
We tried to develop a diuretic CR, but were unable to do so for any of the components of renal function-volume, osmolality, electrolytes-in contrast to what had been reported by Bykov and some American researchers. This difference between the responses of the kidney and those of the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and motor systems led me to the formulation of the principle of organ-system responsibility, meaning that the conditioning process is in general an adaptive teleological function, and in organs where conditioning would be against homeostasis, no conditioning is possible. The study of the cardiac conditional reflex led to revision of the concept of inhibition. There can be complete inhibition in some systems, e.g., salivary, motor, but not in the cardiovascular. Inhibition is a partial process when it serves adaptation. From a prolonged study of experimental neuroses, pointers to a prophylactic psychiatry have emerged. A detailed study of the CRs in dogs provided a basis for predicting which animals are susceptible to nervous breakdown. SOME NEO-PAVLOVIAN CONCEPTS We are encouraged to think that the early detection of this susceptibility can lead to The concurrent measurement of the heart prevention. By using successively more difficult rate and the salivary food reflex, revealed involving conflicts between parallels between the salivary CR and the discriminations, excitatory and inhibitory processes, we can cardiac CR. Increase in heart rate and blood of the individual to pressure to the signal was in proportion to the measure the susceptibility nervous breakdown. unconditioned stimulus (amount of food), From a prolonged study of several dogs over which also determines the amount of salivation. But there was an important difference: the their lifespan, from 14 to 18 years, we were able cardiac conditional reflex forms first, but is to see the development of new symptoms based
PERSPECTIVES
FIFTY YEARS AFTER
on what had happened before in the life of the dog, though there was no repetition of the experiences. This was evidence of a development entirely within the nervous system without stimulation from the external environment. It was this that suggested the concept of autokinesis (see above). From this we hypothesized that new connections are continually being formed entirely within the nervous system, perhaps on the pattern of the CR to the external environment. As one looks in perspective at a lifetime of work in a certain field, one is able to see not only its successes but its limitations. The science that we have developed is built entirely on the data brought to us by the external sensory systems, chiefly by the visual. These systems are extremely sensitive, in the case of the eye down to the level of several photons (quanta). In the olfactory system in those animals where it is most highly developed, the sensitivity is to one or two molecules, in the ear to the motion of one or more molecules. These quantities are close to the lowest physical units, below which level nothing can be detected by any physical instrument according to the theory. Thus the organism is equipped with the most delicate instruments known to detect changes in the external environment. However, each new system is limited in the range of its detection of the external environmental changes-the eye to one or more octaves, the ear to 11 or 12 octaves. Equipped with these delicate instruments for bringing information from the external environment we have built up an extremely delicate and responsible science of the external universe. But the situation is entirely different when we come to study the internal universe. Most of what goes on inside us is ordinarily below the level of consciousness, and for most of the internal events there is no representation on the conscious level. The chief phenomenon that impinges on consciousness from the internal environment is a pathological one, namely, pain. There is no appropriate nervous
system for environment.
PAVLOV
recording
99
data
from
the internal
A study of the internal universe is, of course, possible by using the science that we have developed for the study of the external universe. But this science is foreign to the nature of the changes occurring in the internal universe. Although the thing that is most important for each one of us is his own subjective nature, science itself must be objective. We must have in science the basis for our dream which depends on objectively recorded facts. The difficulty of studying the internal universe by scientific methods is further complicated by the following considerations: some mental processes may be either (1) below quantum level and therefore not recordable by any physical instrument, or (2) such processes may not require energy. Supporting the first view is the sensitivity of the visual system to near quantum threshold. This view should not be too strange for the physicist to accept because we know of several physical phenomena that require no energy. Thus no energy is necessary to transmit light and heat waves from the sun to the earth-energy is absorbed only when these waves are transformed into molecular motion or other forms of energy. Also, there is no energy required to keep the planets in motion or to keep electrons spinning around the nucleus, or to sustain molecular motion. CONCLUSION The duty before us now is to preserve the objectivity of science in the approach to a new concept, and at the same time to provide the theoretical framework for taking a step beyond the usual frontiers which have limited investigation in this field. REFERENCES
Gantt W. H. (1957a) What the laboratory can teach us about nervous breakdown. In Medicine in a Changing Society, pp. 72-1 IO. Inter. Univ. Press, New York. Gantt W. H. (1957b) Normal and abnormal adaptationshomeostasis, schizokinesis, and autokinesis. In Diseases of the Nervous System (Monogr. Suppl.) (July), XVIII(7).
100
W. HORSLEY
Gantt W. H. (1974) Autokinesis, schizokinesis, organresponsibility: Concepts and definitions, system Puv/oviun J. Biol. Sci. 9(4), 187-191. Gantt W. H. (1976a) Neo-Pavlovianism. In Behavior ControlandModification of PhysiologicalActivity (Ed. by Mostofsky D.) pp. 249-267. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Gantt W. H. (1976b) Neo-Pavlovianism and clinical psychiatry, Psycho/. Med. (Britain) 6, 185-187.
CANTT Gantt W. H. (1977) Autokinesis and proflex, Pavlovian J. Biol. Sci. 12(3), 125-129. Khananashvili M. M. (1977) Experimental Pathology qf the Higher Nervous Activity. Meditsina, USSR. Pavlov 1. P. (1928) Lectures on Condi/ional Reflexes (Ed. and Trans. by Gantt W. H.), International Publishers, New York.
J. Behov. The-r. & Exp. Psychiat. Vol. IO. pp. 97.100. 0 Pcrgamon Press Ltd., 1979. Printed in Great Britain.
PERSPECTIVES
FIFTY YEARS W. HORSLEY
AFTER
$02.00/o
PAVLOV
GANTT
Pavlovian Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins Medical School, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Perry Point
system, Pavlov now turned his attention to the study of the relationship of the secretion to these signals-the conditional reflexes (CRs) (which he first called “psychical reflexes”). In two decades of work with these, Pavlov built up his concepts of excitation, inhibition, induction, irradiation and concentration; and his theories of sleep, experimental neuroses and temperaments. At eighty, he entered the psychiatric clinic and began to seek analogies between laboratory findings and psychiatric concepts. Although Pavlov’s work originated from his own observations, he was influenced by Sechenov, the father of Russian physiology, who in 1863 had written Reflexes of the Brain. Sechenov postulated that all thinking and mental activity was reflex in character. This was a mechanistic scheme which Pavlov considerably amplified and modified, but which typified the deterministic, mechanistic concepts of the 19th century. Pavlov’s work and concepts were later considerably amplified, chiefly in Russia and the United States. In Russia the work was, until quite recently, in fairly strict conformity with Pavlov’s concepts, but in the United States it took new directions in the hands of the psychologists, notably John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner. One result of the developments in the United States was a division into operant conditioning and so-called classical or Pavlovian conditioning. A strict division is not justifiable, and was not recognized by Pavlov, who used
Although Pavlov received the Nobel Prize in 1904 for his work on the secretion of the intestinal tract, this work is now overshadowed by his reputation for three decades of research on the conditional reflex (CR). His success with the secretions of the digestive system was due largely to his use of the chronic fistula and the preservation of the animal in a healthy condition for months or years. The origin of the conditional reflex rests directly upon his researches on gastrointestinal secretions. The fistulae which Pavlov employed were the salivary, the gastric, the duodenal and the biliary. The Pavlov gastric pouch involves a delicate operation to ensure preservation of the vagal nerves to the isolated gastric pouch. Observing these fistulae in the unanesthetized dog, Pavlov was able to study the secretions in the daily life of the animal, in contrast to earlier physiologists who had used acute experiments with the dying animal under anesthesia. The success of Pavlov’s work was due to his keen powers of observation and his genial intuition-a quality of every great scientist. In the course of feeding the dog, Pavlov noted that a salivary and gastric secretion occurred even before the arrival of food. Investigating this, he found that the secretion began when the dog saw the food, the vessel in which it was brought, the aide who was accustomed to bringing it, or heard the sound of his footsteps. These signals were classified later as conditional stimuli. After two decades of work on the digestive
Requests for reprints should be addressed to W. Horsley Gantt, Professor of Psychiatry, Baltimore, MD 21205. Paper presented at the Third Temple Conference on Behavior Therapy, Philadelphia, 1976. 97
Johns
Hopkins
University,
98
W. HORSLEY GANTT
both types of responses. The difference is one of emphasis and purpose: Pavlovian conditioning deals mainly with autonomic responses and what goes on inside the organism; operant conditioning focuses primarily on the motor behavior of the subject, and is concerned with practical applications. Operant conditioners have little interest in intra-organismal change. My collaborators and I originated our studies from Pavlov’s concepts. My work in the past 45 years has resulted in a number of new principles, to which I apply the term Neo-Pavlovian&n. I have been concerned with quantification of the CR and the unconditional reflex (UCR), the relationships of excitation and inhibition, the development of the experimental neuroses, the analysis of the essential parts of the conditional reflex arc, the application of CR studies to the cardiovascular, renal, vestibular, sexual, respiratory and metabolic systems, and the influence of social relationships (“effect of person”). A comparison of conditioning in the various systems has resulted in the concepts of schizokinesis, conditioning, fractional autokinesis, centrokinesis, and organ-system responsibility. Prolonged longitudinal studies of animals led me to the concept of autokineses -conditioning to internal states, similar to the CRs to the external environment. The individual unit of autokinesis is what I call proflex. An analysis of the CR arc puts the emphasis of conditioning on internal elements. I have called the interaction peripherally induced stimulation and centrally instrumented reactions centrokinesis.
very difficult to extinguish, sometimes
lasting for several years after the salivary and the motor components have been extinguished. This difference generated the concept of schizokinesis. In 1978, I observed schizokinesis between the cardiac CR and the respiratory CR. Schizokinesis is considered to represent a dysharmony in the living organism-adaptation at one level and maladaptation on another level. Perhaps it is a cause of pathology and a precursor and predictor of nervous breakdown as shown by Khananashvili in Russia (1977).
We tried to develop a diuretic CR, but were unable to do so for any of the components of renal function-volume, osmolality, electrolytes-in contrast to what had been reported by Bykov and some American researchers. This difference between the responses of the kidney and those of the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and motor systems led me to the formulation of the principle of organ-system responsibility, meaning that the conditioning process is in general an adaptive teleological function, and in organs where conditioning would be against homeostasis, no conditioning is possible. The study of the cardiac conditional reflex led to revision of the concept of inhibition. There can be complete inhibition in some systems, e.g., salivary, motor, but not in the cardiovascular. Inhibition is a partial process when it serves adaptation. From a prolonged study of experimental neuroses, pointers to a prophylactic psychiatry have emerged. A detailed study of the CRs in dogs provided a basis for predicting which animals are susceptible to nervous breakdown. SOME NEO-PAVLOVIAN CONCEPTS We are encouraged to think that the early detection of this susceptibility can lead to The concurrent measurement of the heart prevention. By using successively more difficult rate and the salivary food reflex, revealed involving conflicts between parallels between the salivary CR and the discriminations, excitatory and inhibitory processes, we can cardiac CR. Increase in heart rate and blood of the individual to pressure to the signal was in proportion to the measure the susceptibility nervous breakdown. unconditioned stimulus (amount of food), From a prolonged study of several dogs over which also determines the amount of salivation. But there was an important difference: the their lifespan, from 14 to 18 years, we were able cardiac conditional reflex forms first, but is to see the development of new symptoms based
PERSPECTIVES
FIFTY YEARS AFTER
on what had happened before in the life of the dog, though there was no repetition of the experiences. This was evidence of a development entirely within the nervous system without stimulation from the external environment. It was this that suggested the concept of autokinesis (see above). From this we hypothesized that new connections are continually being formed entirely within the nervous system, perhaps on the pattern of the CR to the external environment. As one looks in perspective at a lifetime of work in a certain field, one is able to see not only its successes but its limitations. The science that we have developed is built entirely on the data brought to us by the external sensory systems, chiefly by the visual. These systems are extremely sensitive, in the case of the eye down to the level of several photons (quanta). In the olfactory system in those animals where it is most highly developed, the sensitivity is to one or two molecules, in the ear to the motion of one or more molecules. These quantities are close to the lowest physical units, below which level nothing can be detected by any physical instrument according to the theory. Thus the organism is equipped with the most delicate instruments known to detect changes in the external environment. However, each new system is limited in the range of its detection of the external environmental changes-the eye to one or more octaves, the ear to 11 or 12 octaves. Equipped with these delicate instruments for bringing information from the external environment we have built up an extremely delicate and responsible science of the external universe. But the situation is entirely different when we come to study the internal universe. Most of what goes on inside us is ordinarily below the level of consciousness, and for most of the internal events there is no representation on the conscious level. The chief phenomenon that impinges on consciousness from the internal environment is a pathological one, namely, pain. There is no appropriate nervous
system for environment.
PAVLOV
recording
99
data
from
the internal
A study of the internal universe is, of course, possible by using the science that we have developed for the study of the external universe. But this science is foreign to the nature of the changes occurring in the internal universe. Although the thing that is most important for each one of us is his own subjective nature, science itself must be objective. We must have in science the basis for our dream which depends on objectively recorded facts. The difficulty of studying the internal universe by scientific methods is further complicated by the following considerations: some mental processes may be either (1) below quantum level and therefore not recordable by any physical instrument, or (2) such processes may not require energy. Supporting the first view is the sensitivity of the visual system to near quantum threshold. This view should not be too strange for the physicist to accept because we know of several physical phenomena that require no energy. Thus no energy is necessary to transmit light and heat waves from the sun to the earth-energy is absorbed only when these waves are transformed into molecular motion or other forms of energy. Also, there is no energy required to keep the planets in motion or to keep electrons spinning around the nucleus, or to sustain molecular motion. CONCLUSION The duty before us now is to preserve the objectivity of science in the approach to a new concept, and at the same time to provide the theoretical framework for taking a step beyond the usual frontiers which have limited investigation in this field. REFERENCES
Gantt W. H. (1957a) What the laboratory can teach us about nervous breakdown. In Medicine in a Changing Society, pp. 72-1 IO. Inter. Univ. Press, New York. Gantt W. H. (1957b) Normal and abnormal adaptationshomeostasis, schizokinesis, and autokinesis. In Diseases of the Nervous System (Monogr. Suppl.) (July), XVIII(7).
100
W. HORSLEY
Gantt W. H. (1974) Autokinesis, schizokinesis, organresponsibility: Concepts and definitions, system Puv/oviun J. Biol. Sci. 9(4), 187-191. Gantt W. H. (1976a) Neo-Pavlovianism. In Behavior ControlandModification of PhysiologicalActivity (Ed. by Mostofsky D.) pp. 249-267. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Gantt W. H. (1976b) Neo-Pavlovianism and clinical psychiatry, Psycho/. Med. (Britain) 6, 185-187.
CANTT Gantt W. H. (1977) Autokinesis and proflex, Pavlovian J. Biol. Sci. 12(3), 125-129. Khananashvili M. M. (1977) Experimental Pathology qf the Higher Nervous Activity. Meditsina, USSR. Pavlov 1. P. (1928) Lectures on Condi/ional Reflexes (Ed. and Trans. by Gantt W. H.), International Publishers, New York.