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Scalp responses evoked by patterned visual stimuli and by changes in luminance were recorded both from human subjects and monkeys. Three models are proposed to explain the observed stimulus-response relations: 1. (1) Luminance detection by first order summing units. 2. (2) A centre-surround antagonistic mechanism which enhances responses to spatial patterning. 3. (3) Contour detection by ordered arrays of overlapping receptive fields. Implications of the three hypotheses are discussed. Experimental evidence is presented which shows that a definite contour-specific response component can be observed in most human subjects. Spatial frequency selectivity by centre-surround antagonism seems the most plausible explanation of our results in monkey. The differences between human and monkey stimulus-response relationships are tentatively explained by the differences in cortical architecture, assuming the origin of spatial frequency selectivity in striate cortex and, in accordance with Michael and Halliday (1971) and Jeffreys (1971), a mainly extrastriate origin of the specific contour response.

Several worthwhile features are presented in this volume. 1. It gives the American neuropsychiatrist an exposure to Russian neurophysiologic thought. 2. It presents an operational schema which may be used to interpret human behavior. 3. It sets forth proposals that are somewhat new to neuropsychiatric thought regarding the function of inhibition and its origin, and the role of the stellate cell in the cortical architecture. 4. It proposes a cortical circuitry for confirmation or refutation. A major criticism is the lack of cognizance of given neurochemistry in the field of brain and behavior, and the posing of inhibition being entirely on an electrical effect, with no involvement of neurohumoral mediators. In an attempt to explain higher vertebrate behavior, one would expect recognition of the need for coordinating the physiologic with the biochemical, to achieve a present-day concept of correlative ultrastructural behavioral mechanisms. This monograph increases one's familiarity with Russian nomenclature