Brain Mechanisms, Progress in Brain Research, vol 1.

This is a full report of a very successful international symposium which brought together a diversified group of neurophysiologists who work upon a variety of topics that include: spinal mechanisms (Eccles, Granit, Brookhart, and Hagbarth); the nonspecific or reticular system (Adey, Anokhin, Dell, Jasper, Magoun, and Narikashvili); tha'amic and cortical potentials (the Fessards, Jung, and Buser); averaging techniques (Brazier); retinal discharge (Arduini); voluntary movements in higher vertebrates (Beritashvili); transcranial study of cortical potentials evoked by photic stimulation (Gastaut); responses in human subjects during conditioning (Grey-Walter). In addition there was a session on sleep mechanisms chaired by Brookhart in which Rossi, Jouvet, Lissak, and Pompeniano participated. This forms an invaluable source of recent material concerning experimental analysis of sleep mechanisms. One concluding session dealt with a general discussion of inhibition including both the older postsynaptic and the currently discussed presynaptic inhibition. Conceptualizations of particular value to the writer were those of