The Mental and the Physical Origins of Behavior: E. D. Adrian. Int. J. Psa., XXVII, 1946, pp. 1–6.

This is the first of the Ernest Jones memorial lectures. E. D. Adrian is a physiologist who has worked with the psychoanalytic movement since 1914. In this paper he puts forth a theoretical description of general cerebral activity in neurophysiological terms. He states that 'the essential difference between the nervous organization of the cerebrum and that of the simple reflex pathways seems to be expressed by [the] tendency to cell discharge [in the cerebrum] which maintains itself indefinitely in a vast mass of cell groups'. With the basic characteristic of this continuous and 'more or less stable pattern of electrical eddies' as a starting point, Adrian visualizes an afferent impulse stirring the somnolent 'ripples' into increased activity over ever greater cell groups until 'eventually it will attain the necessary intensity to be associated with the emergence into consciousness of the idea which corresponds to its particular configuration, or to some parts of it. The motor activity which follows will be determined by the nature of the pattern and all the conflicting claims to action which must also be satisfied … as the achievement is approached the sensory signals to the brain will dissipate tension by providing a pattern which is in some way the inverse of the first. The two patterns will cancel and the field will be left clear for others to form.'