Activity Versus Reactivity in Psychology and Neurophysiology

Abstract

The traditional reflex approach in neurophysiology is incompatible with modern psychology's concern with goal-directed activity. We try to show that a ne~roph~siological approach based on the theory of functional systems may help to solve this problem. According to functional systems theory, all the elements of the organism are organized in systems that are neither sensory nor motor, but functional; the elements of these systems are defined in terms of how they enable the achievement of useful results of behavior. To make our case for this functional systems approach, experimental data are reviewed to illustrate the significance of the behavioral context in determining the activity of both central and peripheral neurons. One key indicator of the functionally specific organization of neural elements is the role of efferent influences in the coordination of the central and peripheral neural processes, and this is discussed at some length here. We offer the present approach as a basis for a new integration of neurophysiology and psy- chology (systemic psychophysiology), an integration which aims not at correla- tions of psychological with neural phenomena, but at their methodologically consistent unification through an understanding of the organization of different levels of the organism-environment system.