| Abstract: | Hebb's principal theoretical propositions, the cell assembly and the nature of synaptic change, were generated at a time when the focus of work in behavioural neuroscience was directed at understanding issues such as the principles governing the behaviour of animals in neuropsychological studies of learning and memory and the role of drives in the control of behaviours like sex and feeding and drinking. It was not until attention shifted to understanding the neural underpinnings of learning and memory that Hebb's propositions had an impact on behavioural neuroscience as they provided a simple, and testable, mechanism for synaptic plasticity observed both in learning and in other forms of experience-dependent neural change. But much of the field remains interested in other issues such as sensation and perception, motivation, attention, and so on, and to date, Hebb's propositions have had little impact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
