[Electroencephalography and the general physiology of the nervous system]

The contributions of electro-encephalography to the general physiology of the nervous system - studies based on 50 years of experimental and clinical research on the EEG of animals and man - have established irrefutable facts underlying present-day concepts in neurophysiology. This conclusion holds true, even if allowance must be made with regard to the alpha-rhythm, reasons having been given to suppose that this phenomenon is in reality, partially or entirely, an ocular tremor phenomenon (Lippold). The fundamental principles of neuronal activity such as (1) the electrogenesis of gray matter, i.e., the electric current and membrane potential aspects of the existence and the functioning of nerve cells and neuronal aggregates, (2) the rhythmicity and periodicity of nervous activity in single cells or networks of neurones, (3) the synchronization of such nervous activity due, at the site of its source, to electric interaction between neurones belonging together and 'beating in unison', and (4) the autonomous automaticity of nerve cells and nerve centres as being the basic feature of neuronal activity, are among the prominent topics dealt with in this report. Particular attention is paid to the autonomy-concept of nervous activity, a concept ofter forgotten, neglected or discarded from physiological thinking, although life of any kind, in any type of living system, can only be understood if spontaneous existence and activity are accepted for living matter. In this respect the EEG has contributed in a large measure to save the physiology of our period from the materialism which prevailed at the beginning of the century and which threatens once more to emerge towards its end.