Karl Pribram

Karl H. Pribram (born February 19, 1919 in Vienna, Austria) was trained as a neurosurgeon. A long time professor at Stanford University, he did pioneering work on the elucidation of the cerebral cortex. To the general public, he is better known for the holonomic model of the functioning of the brain. The holonomic model theorizes that memory/information is stored not in cells, but rather in interference patterns. Pribram was drawn to this conclusion by two facts: there are response functions in the visual cortex that correspond to Gabor functions, which are related to hologram image functions, and that one can make drastic lesions in animal brains which reduce - but do not extinguish - memories (training), as demonstrated by Karl Lashley. Pribram utilizes Fourier analysis, based on the Fourier Theorem, which is a form of calculus that transforms a complex pattern into its component sine waves. The Stanford scientist believes the brain operates according to the same quantum mathematical principles as a hologram. David Bohm, a quantum physicist who has collaborated with Pribram, has suggested these wave forms may compose hologram-like organizations. That is a very different way of looking at the universe - from a lens defined world view - a view which is quite different from the more conventional biological psychiatry approach. Technological advances associated with brain wave patterns, such as brain imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), have emerged and become more prominent in recent years. These advances, foreshadowed by the insights of Pribram and Bohm, offer the potential for improving diagnostic objectivity and the efficacy of psychiatric interventions. Researchers have made significant advances with TMS brain implants, which focus magnetic pulses on specific brain regions, thereby altering the neurological wave patterns that Pribram describes. TMS has proved a valuable tool in the treatment of epilepsy and shows promise for efforts to suppress certain thought processes. It is now widely recognized that the electrical activity of neural membranes (which result from the activity of ion channel transfers) is a significant variable affecting cognition, meaning that the conventional biological psychiatry model of brain function will be seriously challenged, or supplanted entirely, by a more advanced model. Pribram believes that if psychology is to understand the conditions that produce the world of appearances, it must look to the thinking of physicists like Bohm.
   
His other contributions include a quantum approach to neurophilosophy.

Books

External Links

Pribram, Karl Pribram, Karl

 

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