A Bipolar Theory of Living Processes

Macdonald makes the further and exceedingly significant suggestion that the Nissl granules in the nerve cells may be of the same “order of importance" as the granules observed by him in nerve fibers and at the severed end of the fibers. ‘Failing definite evidence upon which to make any assertion, it must at least be said that the well-known appearances accompanying ‘chromatolysis’ are extremely suggestive in character. They: would seem to be the consequences of such changes in osmotic pressure as would result from the sudden liberation of salts into solution.” 5

In so far as the conscious operations of the mind are concerned these processes of progressive orientation of facilitated paths presumably begin with the birth of the individual. On this conception it is not difficult to understand why the nerve fibers find their way so inevitably from the brain to the muscle or gland. Electricity always travels from the positive to the negative pole; from the point or part of higher to the point or part of lower potential. Just as lightning travels from the clouds to the earth, so the current would pass from the brain toward the muscle or the gland with the final laying down of the facilitated pathway, the nerve fiber.

In like manner, just as the lightning may pass from cloud to cloud, that's, from a cloud of higher to a cloud of lower potential, so pathways may be formed from brain cell or group of brain cells to brain cell or group of brain cells. We can easily imagine that if the clouds contained the needed material and if there were a continuous electric strain between a stationary cloud and the earth or between a cloud of higher and a cloud of lower potential, in due time there would be constructed a conducting path corresponding to a nerve fiber from the cloud to

the earth. Moreover, this conducting path would be specific for the quality and quantity of current that created it. So within the brain the path created by the electric current instigated by the impingement of light rays on the retina would be specific for identical light rays; the facilitated path created by the electric current initiated by the impingement of sound waves upon the nerve endings in the ear would be specific for identical sound waves.

The following facts may be cited in support of this conception of the formation of facilitated pathways in the white matter of the brain which we conceive to be the foundation of mental processes. 2. The white substance contains many neurofibrils which are apparently specialized paths. 8. As Cajal has shown, in certain parts of the brain in children from five days to a month old or in monkeys or rabbits some days old, it is possible to trace the entire length of certain of these fibers, the length of which becomes extended and their connections increasingly complicated as the age of the animal or individual increases. Аз he says: “the extension, the increase and the multiplication of appendices of the neurones is not otherwise arrested at birth but continues and nothing is more striking than the difference which exists between the newborn and the adult man from the point of view of the length and the number of the cellular ramifications of the second and the third order.” 6

4, As Cajal suggests, this hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that psychic as well as motor and sensory functions may be restored after grave lesions of the cortical centers. Again to quote Cajal: “Such а return to the normal state forces one to admit the possibility that the healthy extremity of each of the disorganized cylinder axes grows, sends out new collaterals and transverses the affected regions, finally bringing dissociated neurones into contact. If the neurones themselves are destroyed, one would suppose that the new-formed cylinder axes would search out other nerve cells and enter into connection with them, thus giving a new direction to their activity. . . . If the faculty of growth of the neurones in the adult and their power of

creating new associations explains the capacity of man for adaptation and his aptitude for changing his ideological system, the arrest of activity in the neurones of an old man or of a man whose brain is immobile as the result of lack of instruction or for other reasons can in its turn make us understand the inimitable convietions, the lack of adaptability to the moral code and even the violence of the misanthrope. One can conceive equally that amnesia, lack of association of ideas, intellectual torpor, imbecility and dementia can be produced when, as the result of these more or less morbid conditions, the articulation between the neurones becomes relaxed, that is to say, when the expansions atrophy and cease to be in contact and the mnemonie spheres become partially disorganized. Our hypothesis also accounts for the more persistent conservation of old memories, of the memories of youth, in the old man, the amnesie and the demented, for the paths of association acquired a long time ago and exercised for many years have evidently acquired a great power in addition to the fact that they were formed at a period when the plasticity of the neurones attained its highest degree. . . . Other causes than those we have enumerated must undoubtedly play a part in this mechanism although today we are ignorant in what way. We may cite among them the morphological changes in the spongioplasm and the neurofibrils; the modification of the chemical constitution of the nerve cells; the more or less abundance of the neurones with short cylinder axes; the number and the variable position of the neuroglia cells in the gray matter and indeed certain other details, the whole nature of which we do not even suspect." 7

As we have indicated before, Cajal’s observations are throughout in accordance with the bipolar conception. 5. Lugaro, as cited by Cajal has attributed the creation of interneurone connections to the chemotactic phenomena which Cajal conceives explain the growth and articulation of the neurones in embryonal life. According to Lugaro, whatever may be its source, the nerve wave is always transmitted as the result of chemical phenomena. The external stimulations for example, according to Lugaro, provoke a chemical modification in the nerve endings, this modification in its turn acting as a physico-chemical excitant on the protoplasm of other neurones so that new nerve currents are created. He conceives that thus the conscious state itself would be due to chemical changes excited in the neurones by the sensory nerve terminations—

changes, the character of which would vary according to the termination. 6. Tanzi, also cited by Cajal, conceived that the nerve cur-. rent which passes most frequently across an articulation of neurones would arouse a more active nutrition in the articulated paths and in consequence a hypertrophy such as is shown in well exercised muscles. In the сазе of the nerve paths this hypertrophy is expressed by prolongation of the cellular ramifications, a prolongation which in turn diminishes the distance which separates the articular surfaces. According to this hypothesis, the conductibility of the nerve paths would therefore be increased since the resistance to the current would be in direct relation to the interarticular distance. In consequence, exercises which tend to diminish the intervals of articulation would be capable of increasing the functional power of the neurones. Cajal’s comment upon this hypothesis is that it possesses the advantage of showing how habitual acts become easy and automatic as the result of repetition and how acts that we call conscious and voluntary as opposed to reflex acts are dependent in their physico-chemical phase on the state of resistance to the passage of the nerve waves.?

7. It would appear to be significant that the primary centers of memory are probably in the neighborhood of the centers of perception. Thus again to quote Cajal: “All the mnemonic spheres thus far known to be present in man, that is, those of articulated language, of visual images, of words and of their auditory images, are found in the proximity of the corresponding perceptive center. Moreover, the common observation of many savants has placed the visual images in the external occipital cortex, that is, in close proximity to the center of visual perception. Finally the superior temporal cortical seat of the olfactory memory borders the center of olfactory perception. As for the secondary mnemonic centers their localization 13 interior. . . . It appears to us to be very probable that they are connected with all of the primary mnemonic centers of the two hemispheres by short fibers of association and by curved or eallous fibers (corpus collosum) because of the necessity of connection between all the primary mnemonie centers throughout the whole cortex." ?

8. Ross Harrison has shown that the axons are projected in nerve cultures 19 and it is well known that the axis cylinder degenerates when it is divided beyond the nerve cell. 9. In accord with the histological observations of Cajal and of Harrison is the fact that the most elemental lines of com- Fie. 54.—Distribution of potassium in sensitive hair of Venus’s fly-trap (Menten). munication among paths of the nervous system are not established in a child for some days after birth.

10. Some years ago Dr. M. L. Menten in my laboratories, experimenting with the Venus’s fly-trap was able by the use of microchemical stains for potassium to trace the course traveled by impulses from the sensitive hair to the effector mechanism." This path consisted of a row of cells joined together end to end and having a specific concentration of potassium along its course. (Fig. 54.) These cells with their lipoid content and lipoid membranes and their specific potassium content constitute the nerve fiber and the brain of the fly-trap. She demonstrated also that in the leaf of the fly-trap the lipoid substance had the same distribution as the potassium compounds. (Fig. 55.) In experiments with nerve fibers she demonstrated that in medullated nerve fibers, upon mechanical injury, upon electrical stimulation and under anesthesia, potassium was precipitated. That is, as the lipoids disappeared under the action of the lipoid solvent anesthetics, ether and chloroform, or as the result of injury, the potassium remained. The significance of this is that when the lipoids were destroyed by injury or by anesthetics, the facilitated paths along the fatty chains could no longer exist and nerve action was no longer possible. We assume that the electrolytes had facilitated the path and that the fatty molecules transmitted the nervous impulse.

11. Professor Marinesco has shown that oxidation ceases at the very border of the white matter, oxidation occurring only in the gray matter in the cells of the brain.!? Thus lack of oxidation withim this matrix where we conceive the facilitated pathways are orientated would leave the facilitated paths passive and undisturbed. р To summarize our conception regarding the application of the bipolar theory to mental processes, we consider that the white matter of the brain contains infinite numbers of chains of Проза molecules containing potassium ions in a passive or resting position, each of the chains having been created by electric discharges from the brain cells. Conducting paths of every conceivable specificity have thus been created by infinitely varied arrangements of these infinitely small carbon or lipoid chains in the white matter of the brain and of the spinal cord. According to this conception, when these lines of specific static charge are “fired” by light waves, sound waves, contacts and so forth, they would become permanently orientated so as to offer а permanent conducting path from the nerve cells to the muscles and organs on the one hand, whereby museular and glandular actions would be produced on the receipt of the specifie stimulations, and on the other hand, between groups of brain cells

so that ideas, thought, and memories would be produced also on the receipt of the specific exciting stimulations. This conception would explain the “organization” of the nervous system by activity, by training. According to this conception, memory, as we have indicated, would be seated in the facilitated portion of the lipoid molecules, some orientated into a complete “palisade” arrangement, some partly orientated, producing respectively strong and faint memories. (Cf. Mathews 13 and Troland.!^) This conception would give a foundation for the lack of definite organization or arrangement of the white matrix аз it appears under the microscope. It would explain the symmetric concentration of electrolyte along the connecting lines as shown in Dr. Menten’s researches; it would explain the training of memory; it would explain the reason for the existence of the millions of nerve cells in the brain and cord, as only through the existence of millions of brain cells could the infinite memories, infinite responses, be made possible.

As to the nature of the specificity of the charge or action pattern passing over the conducting paths, changes in the frequency of vibration of electric charges and discharges have such well known values that it might well be an important factor in producing this specificity. Thus it is known that the conductivity of any medium at a frequency of 1000 cycles is very different from its conductivity at a frequency of 1,000,000 cycles. A high frequency current would readily pass over a path that a current of low frequency could not pass on account of polarization effects. Polarization causes increased resistance. Therefore one would suppose that one action pattern or line of force or specific conduction path could not be activated by one frequency and strength of current and readily also by another frequency and another strength of current. That is, the special senses would originate charges, the force and frequency cf which are infinitely varied and for each charge certain conducting paths would be specifically attuned.

The electric currents, each passing over its specific path, would reach certain cells, the charges of which would in turn be “fired,” the current therefrom in turn passing over facilitated paths and causing a specific response in a muscle or gland. Or it might pass over a specifie path to other brain cells, producing a memory of a previous like activation. Thus an action or a memory or a thought may be produced by the physical energy of sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch or pain which in turn “fires” certain brain cells that in turn “fire” certain muscle cells or certain other brain cells, producing new ideas or awakening memories. And in turn these thought waves or new ideas or memories may also send a charge over facilitated pathways firing the same muscles, stimulating the same glands as those stimulated when the electric current which originally produced the facilitated pathway made its original impression.

From a superficial point of view this last type of action would be regarded as an act of will. Such terms as the “will,” “judgment,” “reflection,” are but convenient terms for expressing what would appear in reality to be an intricate specific action of a cell or group of cells upon a cell or group of cells. Education and training, according to this conception, would be the effects of many mild or fewer stronger charges passing over constantly changing facilitated pathways.

In accordance with this conception, punishment, discipline, training, monomanias, broadmindedness, vocations—all the several qualities of “mind” would mean the sum of the potential in the brain cells plus the original quantity and quality of current brought to the brain cells by an external or an internal stimulus, plus the facilitated pathways, plus the millions of possible lines of force or specifie conducting paths; а sum which may be conveniently expressed by the one term—“action patterns.”

This conception then would explain the “organization” of the nervous system by activity and by training. It would explain why there are millions of nerve cells in the brain and the cord ; it would explain the decussation of the nerves whereby the facilitation is doubled and both sides of the organism can be activated by a single impulse. As Cajal says: “They (callous fibers) are not designed purely and simply to connect territories of the same name and of the same function in the two hemispheres. They have a more extensive rdle. They serve to establish a multiple and complex association, thanks to which every excitation born in the sensorial

spheres of one side is capable of exciting various centers on the opposite side.” 15 This conception would explain the lasting effect of deep impressions and the slight effect of lesser stimuli. It couples not only the nucleus and the cytoplasm of the cells into batteries but it couples the brain cells with the muscles and glands into batteries. It identifies the nerve cells as the positive—the muscles and glands as the negative elements of the battery. It supplies specific functions to the white matter of the brain and gives a reason for the communication between the brain and the muscles and organs on the one hand and between various brain cells on the other.

In accordance with this conception the difference between thought and muscular action would be that one is a reverberation of the stimuli in the brain and that in the other the charge runs down the nerve pathways to the muscles, the electric energy which keeps the cireuits active in each case being furnished by the brain cells. According to this conception when a given vibration enters the brain cells attuned to that vibration a given “thought” is produced or memory evoked just as when an electric wave reaches certain other groups, a gland or a muscle is activated.

Ву this conception memory and thought find their place in the universal bipolar pattern. If there is not such a continuity as we have deseribed between the seat of an external stimulus and memory of that stimulus or the course of thought which it instigates, then one must suppose that some external force or agency intervenes between the receipt of the external stimulus and the resultant memory, thought or muscular action. In motor plants such аз Venus's fly-trap the contact of an insect is the external stimulus which sets in motion forees which result in the elosing of the leaf trap. The sequence in this ease is obvious and no one would venture to suggest the intervention of a supernatural agency. Many unicellular organisms respond to the stimuli of light, heat, chemieal agents, translating stimuli thus received to action without the mediation of any supernatural agency and without a nervous system.

In a higher animal which has been deprived of its brain, a stimulus is transmitted up the nerves to the spinal cord with the resultant reflex action from the ganglia of the cord, as a result of which the muscles are activated. If in such a brainless animal, a group of cells were added that would first stimulate each other before the ganglia of the cells whose discharge produces the action is effected, this intervening group of nerve cells would be in effect a brain and this is just what we conceive the brain to be—a group of intervening cells adapted to receive and translate into final action finer impulses with a more exquisite distinction than the ganglia of the spinal cord or the receptive organs of brainless organisms can achieve.

In accordance with this conception therefore, we believe that starting from infancy, parents, companions, the natural forces of the environment, teachers—all the infinite elements of the experience of life are creating in the brain matrix with its infinite capacity, an infinite number of action patterns which make up the changing personality of the individual—a personality which changes with every stimulus until final equilibrium or death ends the life of the individual.

THE PROCESSES OF REPRODUCTION AND то THE TRANSMIS- SION ок ACQUIRED CHARACTERISTICS—HEREDITY Ir the bipolar theory is to stand it must not only show a general plan of evolution from the original unicellular organism to the complex, multicellular organisms of the higher animals and man, but it must explain the mechanism of cell division upon which depends not only the evolution from unicellular to multicellular organisms but also the development of each multicellular organism from the single cell—the sperm, the ovum. It must account also for the variations and identities which constitute the physical characteristics of each individual; that is, it must explain how the physical characteristics of parents are transmitted to the offspring.

While we must, of course, acknowledge our inability to supply solutions for these problems, nevertheless the following suggestions are offered as indicating the possible róle of electric energy in processes of reproduction. It should be considered first of all that no living organism is static either in size or in function. According to our conception, life itself is due to a state of unbalance between the positive and negative elements in the protoplasm. The primary result of this state of unbalance within a cell, whether that cell be a separate organism—a protozoan, or a constituent part of a multicellular organism, is the initiation of processes of growth. According to our conception, life itself is due to the positive and negative electrical elements of protoplasm.

We may assume that since the nucleus is the kinetie center of activity, it would increase in size and eleetrie potential at a higher rate than does the cytoplasm. Since the nuclear contents have an identical sign of charge, there would be a tendency for the nuclear contents to repel each other and divide into two centers of activity each possessing a like sign of charge. Since the kinetic forces of the nucleus are greater than those of the cytoplasm, these repellent forces within the nucleus would finally be sufficiently strong to cause a complete division of the nuclear substance. Once this division has been accomplished a reverse situation would hold and the forces within the small "daughter" cells would then be greater than the intranuclear forces with the result that a similar process would take place in the cell as a whole; one portion of the cell with its small nucleus repelling the other side of the cell with its small nucleus until the repulsion of the like signs of charge in the cytoplasm would cause a complete division into two cells.

In the unicellular organism this repulsion between lke signs of charge would be sufficient to cause a complete disruption of the cells. We may imagine that at some time the repulsion between these intracellular forces was not sufficient to cause a complete separation of the cells so that the cells remained in contact but divided, thus causing a bicellular organism. And even before this took place one can understand how the forces within the cytoplasm were not sufficient to cause a disruption into two cells after the nuclei had divided, so that a binuclear organism would be formed.

Once the process of division into two cells had been started, this electrical law, that forces of like electric charge repel each other, would continue to operate by successive cell divisions. That electrical forces are concerned in the processes of cell division is no new conception. The close resemblance of the mitotic figures and of the amphiasters to magnetic lines of force has long been appreciated. This resemblance is so striking that it has been imitated by Lillie and others by means of magnetic models. It has been objected to this conception that “attempts to influence the mitotic field by causing cells to divide in the magnetic or electrical field . . . have failed." This would not appear to be a valid objection because we may consider that in common with what we conceive to be the laws governing the phenomena of life, these phenomena are produced only in response to specific electric forces just as the receptive mechanism of a radio apparatus responds only to specifie wave lengths. It is not strange, therefore, that the application of

electrical and magnetic influences might fail to cause a cell to respond in the same manner as it responds to forces to which it has been attuned in the process of its own development or that of its ancestors. Many other objections to the conception that the processes of cell division are electrical processes have been advanced. ‘The elaborate appearance of the mitotic figures under the microscope have suggested equally elaborate conceptions as to the combinations of processes which are involved; and these intricate conceptions have given rise to equally elaborate descriptive terms.