Karl H. Pribram

Karl H. Pribram (born February 25, 1919 in Vienna, Austria) is a professor at Georgetown University and George Mason University, and an emeritus professor of psychology and psychiatry at Stanford University and Radford University. Board-certified as a neurosurgeon, Pribram did pioneering work on the definition of the limbic system, the relationship of the frontal cortex to the limbic system, the sensory-specific "association" cortex of the parietal and temporal lobes, and the classical motor cortex of the human brain. To the general public, Pribham is best known for his development of the holonomic brain model of cognitive function and his contribution to ongoing neurological research into memory, emotion, motivation and consciousness. American author Katherine Neville is his significant other.

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Holonomic model

Main article: Holonomic brain theory

Pribram's holonomic model, developed in collaboration with quantum physicist David Bohm, theorizes that memory/information is stored not in cells, but rather in wave interference patterns. Pribram was drawn to this conclusion by two facts:

• There are visual cortex response functions that correspond to Gabor functions, which in turn are related to hologram image functions.
• Drastic lesions can be made in animal brains which reduce, but do not extinguish memories (training), as demonstrated by Karl Lashley in the 1920s.

To formulate his model, Pribram utilized Fourier analysis, based on the Fourier Theorem, a variation of calculus that transforms complex patterns into component sine waves. Some believe that Pribram's theory also explains how the human brain can store so many memories in the engram in such limited space. Pribram believes the brain operates according to the same mathematical principles as a hologram. Bohm has suggested these wave forms may compose hologram-like organizations.

Technological advances associated with brain wave patterns, such as neuroimaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), have provided understanding that was foreshadowed by the insights of Pribram and Bohm. TMS offers 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 perhaps altering the neurological wave patterns that Pribram describes.

Other contributions

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Pribram's work and neurobehavioral experiments established the composition of the limbic system. Over the next decades, much was learned about the function of the limbic system, the executive functions of the anterior prefrontal cortex, and the role of the basal ganglia in organizing our emotions and motivations. Pribram also discovered the sensory specific systems of the association cortex, and showed that these systems operate to organize the choices we make among sensory stimuli, not the sensing of the stimuli themselves.

Bibliography

Books

• Miller, George; Galanter, Eugene, & Pribram, Karl (1960). Plans and the structure of behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 0030100755. 

• Pribram, Karl H. (1969). Brain and behaviour. Hammondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0140805214. 

• Pribram, Karl (1971). Languages of the brain; experimental paradoxes and principles in neuropsychology. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0135227305. 

• Pribram, Karl; Gill, Morton M. (1976). Freud's "Project" re-assessed: preface to contemporary cognitive theory and neuropsychology. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0465025692. 

• Pribram, Karl (1991). Brain and perception: holonomy and structure in figural processing. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0898599954. 

• Globus, Gordon G.; Pribram, Karl H., & Vitiello, Giuseppe (2004-09-30). Brain And Being: At The Boundary Between Science, Philosophy, Language, And Arts (Advances in Consciousness Research, 58). John Benjamins Publishing Co.. ISBN 158811550X. 

Edited by Pribram

• Pribram, Karl (ed.) (1969). On the biology of learning. New York: Harcourt Brace & World. ISBN 0155675206. 

• Pribram, Karl, & Broadbent, Donald (eds.) (1970). Biology of memory. New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0125643500. 

• Pribram, K. H., & Luria, A. R. (eds.) (1973). Psychophysiology of the frontal lobes. New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0125643403. 

• Pribram, Karl, & Isaacson, Robert L. (eds.) (1975). The Hippocampus. New York: Plenum Press. ISBN 0306375354. 

• Pribram, Karl (ed.) (1993). Rethinking neural networks: quantum fields and biological data. Hillsdale, N. J.: Erlbaum. ISBN 0805814663. 

• Pribram, Karl (ed.) (1994). Origins: brain and self organization. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. ISBN 0805817867. 

• King, Joseph, & Pribram, Karl (eds.) (1995). Scale in conscious experience: Is the brain too important to be left to the specialists to study?. Mahwah, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0805821783. 

• Pribram, Karl, &K ing, Joseph (eds.) (1996). Learning as self-organization. Mahwah, N. J.: L. Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 080582586X. 

• Pribram, Karl (ed.) (1998). Brain and values: is a biological science of values possible. Mahwah, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0805831541. 

Articles

• Pribram, Karl (2004). Brain and Mathematics. Pari Center for New Learning. Retrieved on 2007-10-25.

• Like Bohm, Karl Pribram sees the holographic nature of reality. The Ground of Faith (October 2003). Retrieved on 2007-10-25.

• Mishlove, Jeffrey (1998). The Holographic Brain with Karl Pribram, Ph.D.. TWM.co.nz. Retrieved on 2007-10-25.