ABSTRACT
This chapter presents data that fill out a theoretical frame that was proposed by K. S. Lashley as a possible resolution of the localization/nonlocalization puzzle. A fundamental observation concerning the structure and function of the nervous system is the fact that the relationship between locations that characterize peripheral receptors and effectors is reflected in the organization of the input to and output from the brain cortex. The peripheral relationship may become distorted through convergence in the pathways to synaptic way stations that are intercalated between periphery and cortex and by divergence from those way stations, but enough of the relationship is maintained to be recognizable as a mapping of periphery onto cortex. The interaction between vertical (that is periphery to cortex) axonal transmission pathways and the interlaced horizontal dendritic networks has been worked out in several sensory systems by extracellular recordings made from the separate neurons composing the axonal transmission pathways.
