Lashley, Karl Spencer

Born June 7, 1890, in Davis, W. Va.; died Aug. 7, 1958, in Poitiers, France. American psychologist and physiologist; a representative of modern neuropsychology.

Lashley was a professor at the University of Minnesota from 1920 to 1926 and at Harvard University from 1935 to 1955. His research was centered on the connection between brain functions and the organization of behavior. Lashley experimentally disproved the notion of cerebral localization, according to which even the most complex brain functions are rigidly bound to specific anatomical substrates. He proposed, rather, that the brain’s higher sections are versatile and that its structures are capable of performing many different functions. Lashley’s works served as the point of departure in the elaboration of today’s notions of the human cerebral organization of the higher mental functions.