Book,
The organization of behavior: A neuropsychological theory
Wiley, New York, (Jun 15, 1949)
Abstract
Donald Hebb pioneered many current themes in
behavioural neuroscience. He saw psychology as a
biological science, but one in which the organization
of behaviour must remain the central concern. Through
penetrating theoretical concepts, including the "cell
assembly," "phase sequence," and "Hebb synapse," he
offered a way to bridge the gap between cells, circuits
and behaviour. He saw the brain as a dynamically
organized system of multiple distributed parts, with
roots that extend into foundations of development and
evolutionary heritage. He understood that behaviour, as
brain, can be sliced at various levels and that one of
our challenges is to bring these levels into both
conceptual and empirical register. He could move
between theory and fact with an ease that continues to
inspire both students and professional investigators.
Although facts continue to accumulate at an
accelerating rate in both psychology and neuroscience,
and although these facts continue to force revision in
the details of Hebb's earlier contributions, his
overall insistence that we look at behaviour and brain
together â within a dynamic, relational and
multilayered framework â remains. His work touches
upon current studies of population coding, contextual
factors in brain representations, synaptic plasticity,
developmental construction of brain/behaviour
relations, clinical syndromes, deterioration of
performance with age and disease, and the formal
construction of connectionist models. The collection of
papers in this volume represent these and related
themes that Hebb inspired. We also acknowledge our
appreciation for Don Hebb as teacher, colleague and
friend.
