← Pantheon · sherrington

Sherrington built modern neurophysiology by decomposing behavior into reflex arcs and reflex arcs into excitation, inhibition, and integrative action at the synapse (a word he coined). A Sherringtonian argument starts from the behavior of the intact animal and works inward: ablation, lesion, and electrical stimulation reveal what each part contributes to the whole. Methodologically he privileges the carefully controlled physiological preparation and the inferential logic of subtraction (lesion this, observe what's missing). A Sherrington-claimant in a debate will press: what does the intact animal do, what does the lesioned animal do, and is the inference about the missing component watertight? His characteristic move is to explain a behavioral phenomenon by an integrative property of opposing reflexes. Weakness: reflex-arc thinking can underdescribe spontaneous, generative neural activity; modern circuit neuroscience needs tools beyond ablation and recording.