Etudes de psychologie physiologique et pathologique

ABSTRACT TWO-THIRDS of Prof. Gley's book are devoted to a historical and critical review of our knowledge of the physiological changes that accompany intellectual activity. The writer

gives a lucid account of his own contributions to the subject in chapters upon the relation of mental work to the cardiac, respiratory, vascular, excretory, and thermogenic mechanisms. He

concludes that mental work is accompanied by increased rate of heart-beat (at least in the early stages of activity), by arterial constriction and increased peripheral resistance in the

extra-cerebral circulation, and by active dilatation of the arterioles of the brain. No mention is made of the experiments and views of British physiologists in regard to the much-debated

presence of a vaso-motor mechanism in the brain. The author bases his affirmative conclusion merely on a study of the changes in form of the carotid pulse-curve during intellectual rest and

activity. He is also inclined to believe that during intellectual activity the temperature of the brain rises slightly. Yet the evidence in favour of this view seems very far from adequate,

for it has never been shown that the amount of carbonic acid evolved is increased during the activity of nervous tissue, and we are powerless to decide whether the slight rise of cerebral

temperature may not be due to other causes, _e.g._ to the increased blood supply to the brain, to diminution in loss of heat from the skin arising from the already mentioned peripheral

vascular constriction. To cerebral metabolism the author also attributes the increase of calcium salts in the urine during intellectual activity. This increase is said to be accompanied by

more abundant excretion of urine and of magnesium salts and phosphoric acid. Etudes de Psychologie physiologique et pathologique. By E. Gley. Pp. viii + 335. (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1903.)

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ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE M., C. _Etudes de Psychologie physiologique et pathologique_ . _Nature_ 69, 244–245 (1904). https://doi.org/10.1038/069244a0 Download citation * Issue Date: 14

January 1904 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/069244a0 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link

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