Karl Spencer Lashley (Lashley Karl Spenser)

(1890-1958), born June 7, 1890 at Davis (pc. West Virginia), studied at the University of West Virginia and the University of Pittsburgh, and in 1914 his Ph.D. degree in zoology at Johns Hopkins University. Beginning his career as an employee of the University Hospital and St.. Elizabeth in Washington, worked at the University of Minnesota (1917-1924), Research Foundation study of the behavior of Chicago (1926-1929) and the University of Chicago (1929-1935). In 1935 accepted an invitation from Harvard University, where he worked until 1955. In 1942, Lashley was replaced by Robert Yerkes as director of the Laboratory of Biology of primates in Orange Park (pc. Florida), which worked Donald Hebb, Roger Sperry, and Karl Pribram.
The results of experimental work Lashley were published in 1929 in his book The mechanisms of the brain and intelligence (Brain Mechanisms and Intelligence). While the cortex was seen as consisting of separate but interrelated areas, each with its specific function. It was believed that mental processes, such as the emergence of conditioned reflexes associated with certain localized structures. Lashley put forward two concepts that have received wide recognition. In his experiments with the destruction of certain areas of the cerebral cortex of the experimental animal of its function had assumed another area. The concept of equipotential (equivalence), describes the ability of the preserved part of the cortex to compensate for the loss. The concept of the impact of mass describes one of the consequences of the destruction of the cerebral cortex: the quality of the job is reduced in proportion to the volume of destruction and not necessarily depend on the localization of damage. None of these concepts are incompatible with the basic approach Lashley, . according to which different areas of the brain responsible for performing various functions, but the localization, . according to his observations, . less influence with more complex mental processes,
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Lashley died in Paris on August 7, 1958.