June 7, 1890Davis, West Virginia
Died
August 7, 1958
Nationality
United States
Fields
psychology, Alma mater, Johns Hopkins University
Known for
learning and memory
Karl Spencer Lashley (1890–1958), born in Davis, West Virginia, was an American psychologist and behaviorist well-remembered for his influential contributions to the study of learning and memory. His failure to find a single biological locus of memory (or "engram", as he called it) suggested to him that memories were not localized to one part of the brain, but were widely distributed throughout the cortex.
While working toward his Ph.D. in genetics at Johns Hopkins University, Karl Lashley became associated with the influential psychologist John B. Watson. During three years of postdoctoral work on vertebrate behavior (1914-17), he began formulating the research program that was to occupy the remainder of his life.
In 1920 he became an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, where his prolific research on brain function gained him a professorship in 1924. He was later a professor at the University of Chicago (1929-35) and Harvard University (1935-55) and also served as director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology, Orange Park, Florida from 1942 to 1955.
His work included research on brain mechanisms related to sense receptors and on the cortical basis of motor activities. His major work was done on the measurement of behavior before and after specific, carefully quantified, induced cortical damage in rats. He trained rats to perform specific tasks (seeking a food reward), then lesioned varying portions of the rat cortex, either before or after the animals received the training depending upon the experiment. The amount of cortical tissue removed had specific effects on acquisition and retention of knowledge, but the location of the removed cortex had no effect on the rats' performance in the maze. This led Lashley to conclude that memories are not localized but widely distributed across the cortex.Today we know that distribution of engrams does in fact exist, however, the distribution is not equal across all cortical areas, as Lashley assumed. His study of the V1 (primary visual cortex) led him to believe that it was a site of learning and memory storage (i.e an engram) in the brain. He reached this erroneous conclusion due to imperfect lesioning methods.
By 1950, Lashley had distilled his research into two theories. The principle of "mass action" stated that the cerebral cortex acts as one—as a whole—in many types of learning. The principle of "equipotentiality" stated that if certain parts of the brain are damaged, other parts of the brain may take on the role of the damaged portion.
While working toward his Ph.D. in genetics at Johns Hopkins University, Karl Lashley became associated with the influential psychologist John B. Watson. During three years of postdoctoral work on vertebrate behavior (1914-17), he began formulating the research program that was to occupy the remainder of his life.
In 1920 he became an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, where his prolific research on brain function gained him a professorship in 1924. He was later a professor at the University of Chicago (1929-35) and Harvard University (1935-55) and also served as director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology, Orange Park, Florida from 1942 to 1955.
His work included research on brain mechanisms related to sense receptors and on the cortical basis of motor activities. His major work was done on the measurement of behavior before and after specific, carefully quantified, induced cortical damage in rats. He trained rats to perform specific tasks (seeking a food reward), then lesioned varying portions of the rat cortex, either before or after the animals received the training depending upon the experiment. The amount of cortical tissue removed had specific effects on acquisition and retention of knowledge, but the location of the removed cortex had no effect on the rats' performance in the maze. This led Lashley to conclude that memories are not localized but widely distributed across the cortex.Today we know that distribution of engrams does in fact exist, however, the distribution is not equal across all cortical areas, as Lashley assumed. His study of the V1 (primary visual cortex) led him to believe that it was a site of learning and memory storage (i.e an engram) in the brain. He reached this erroneous conclusion due to imperfect lesioning methods.
By 1950, Lashley had distilled his research into two theories. The principle of "mass action" stated that the cerebral cortex acts as one—as a whole—in many types of learning. The principle of "equipotentiality" stated that if certain parts of the brain are damaged, other parts of the brain may take on the role of the damaged portion.
1929 "Brain mechanisms and intelligence."
1930 "Basic neural mechanisms in behavior." Psychological Review
1932 "Studies in the dynamics of behavior." University of Chicago Press.
1935 "The mechanism of vision", Part 12: Nervous structures concerned in the acquisition and retention of habits based on reactions to light. Comparative Psychology Monographs 11: 43–79.
1950 "In search of the engram." Society of Experimental Biology Symposium 4: 454–482.
1951 "The problem of serial order in behavior." Cerebral Mechanisms in Behavior
(Cited from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Wolcott_Sperry)
