# Karl H. Pribram

Karl H. Pribram (February 25, 1919 – January 19, 2015) was a visionary pioneer in the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, neuropsychology, holonomic brain theory, and holographic consciousness. He was described by his peers as the “Einstein of Brain Science” and the “Magellan of the Mind” for his groundbreaking research into the interrelations of the brain, behavior and consciousness.
The Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology states that "Karl H. Pribram’s theoretical and empirical contributions to the study of brain–behavior relations have helped shape the landscape of modern brain science." Pribram is internationally known for his pioneering research into all of the following: the structure and function of the brain ("the Wetware"); his contributions to the field of neuropsychology; his contributions to the launch of the Cognitive revolution in psychology; his multiple discoveries in sensory perception, memory storage and retrieval; his definition of the boundaries and functions of the limbic system; and his development of Holonomic Brain Theory (through interactions with Hungarian physicist Dennis Gabor and theoretical physicist David Bohm).

## Major Contributions
### Cognitive Revolution in Psychology

Plans and the Structure of Behavior (1960), co-written with George Armitage Miller and Eugene Galanter, is widely credited as a seminal work in the development of the field of cognitive psychology. This work fueled the cognitive revolution, which established cognitive psychology as the dominant trend in psychology, replacing behaviorism.

### Emotional Processes and the Limbic System

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Pribram became "recognized for pioneering research defining the boundaries of the limbic system." Through more than 50 surgical experiments, Pribram's laboratory was able to establish that the limbic system, governing emotions, also interacted with the executive functions of the prefrontal cortex, governing personality, decision making, and social behavior. He discovered the "sensory specific" functions of the Association cortex, revealing that these systems organize the choices we make among sensory inputs, which supports higher order cognitive processes, such as perception, language and thought.
In 1958, Pribram coined the term "the Four F's" ("Feeding, Fighting, Fleeing and Sex") to describe the functions of the fronto-limbic system (the limbic system including the pre-frontal and association cortex). Additionally, through extensive laboratory testing with primates, Pribram and his students discovered that removal of the amygdala from these systems affected this set of behaviors, resulting in reset of hierarchical relationships within the group.

### Sensory Processes and Memory

Pribram’s work Brain and Perception: Holonomy and Structure in Figural Processing (1991) conveyed his theory, based on experimental evidence, that sensory perception, along with memory storage and retrieval, is processed through dendritic fields, in a manner similar to quantum field theory. This insight has had a significant effect on the early development of the field of Neural Networks in computer science.
Pribram describes his discovery, through extensive experiments with graduate students Mortimer Mishkin, John Robert Anderson, and Leslie Ungerleider, of the importance of the inferior temporal cortex's role in vision. Until this discovery, the temporal lobe was thought to be devoted to hearing.
In Brain and Perception, Pribram also addresses the longstanding question of whether brain functions are distributed or localized. He “emphasizes the fact that both distributed (holistic) and localized (structural) processes characterize brain function.” He further analyzes wave-type input received by our senses (touch, taste, smell, sound and sight) through lens-like receptors (e.g., the cochlea for sound waves).
Pribram provides models of his experimental data, developed with the Japanese mathematical physicists Kunio Yasue and Mari Jibu, in order to demonstrate how we receive, perceive, and retrieve information from the outside world ("navigate" our world).

### Holonomic model

Karl Pribram first explored the metaphor of information storage in the brain as a hologram in his Languages of the Brain: Experimental Paradoxes and Principles in Neuropsychology (1971). In a 1974 review of Languages, in Behavioral Science Journal, R.P McDermott and Laurence Mucciolo stated "The book's contribution to neuropsychology will be hailed, developed and disputed for years to come."
Pribram's holonomic model of brain processing is further developed in Brain and Perception: Holonomy and Structure in Figural Processing (1991), which contains the extension of his work with David Bohm, as well as numerous quantum and mathematical physicists. This theoretical research - deriving from hundreds of empirical results, derived from 40 years of laboratory experiments - demonstrates the following: that certain brain processes, such as memory, do not take place solely through the axons, synapses, or reflex-type actions but rather through a concerted, ever-changing action that operates similarly to quantum field theory. Processing also occurs in the neuron's felt-like fields of fine-fibered dendrites (branches), as well as in the dynamic electrical fields that surround these dendrites.
Hence, Karl Pribram's holonomic brain theory demonstrates that some brain processes are distributed (non-localized) in the form of interference wave patterns, and can interact on a quantum level. Pribram based his initial theory on the Fourier Transform, which enables one to analyze any repeated wave-form. After numerous conversations with Nobel Laureate Gábor Dénes [Dennis Gabor] inventor of holography, Pribram expanded his model to incorporate Gabor’s holographic model of information storage into Pribram's holonomic theory of brain processing.

### The Past and Future of Brain Research

Pribram’s last important publication is The Form Within: My Point of View (2013). In this scientific memoir, Pribram describes 200 years of the interrelationships among the fields of brain research, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, coupled with personal insights derived from his 75 years of active participation in these fields. Pribram shares his hands-on research, publications with colleagues over the decades, and intimate interactions with well-known figures in philosophy, psychology, physics, and neuroscience, including: Nobel Laureates Sir John Eccles, Ilya Prigogine, Dennis Gabor, Francis Crick, Hubel and Wiesel, as well as B. F. Skinner, Wolfgang Kohler, Karl Lashley, Aleksandr Romanovitch Luria, Eugene Sokolov, David Bohm and many others.
The Form Within is widely regarded as a tour de force in the history of brain research, described by the Journal of Integrative Neuroscience as, "... an amazingly clear, voluminously detailed, yet easily accessible description of [Pribram's] experiments over the past seven decades in neurocognition by man and animals."

## Teaching Career and Research

In the 1940s, Pribram became one of the first 300 board-certified neurosurgeons in the world after receiving his MD from University of Chicago. Throughout his life, Pribram would engage in 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.
During his first ten years as a practicing brain surgeon in Memphis, TN, and Jacksonville, FL, Pribram became concerned about the practice of lobotomy and became interested in discovering the function of the frontal lobes. His interest in this research led him to work with Karl Lashley at the Yerkes Primate Center, known as the “most important institute for neuropsychological research on animals in the 1940s.” It was then that Pribram began to bring human surgical techniques and methods into the field of primate research. Shortly after the end of WWII, Pribram succeeded Lashley as director of Yerkes and “added neurosurgical sophistication” which allowed the field of animal neuropsychology to expand and flourish during his time as director.
These early years would prove to be influential in his development of theories about the structure of the brain and related mental processes. Two of the earliest discoveries Pribram made while at Yerkes were of the relationship between the frontal cortex and the limbic forebrain, and the relationship between the posterior cortex and sensory specific sectors.
In 1948, Pribram was invited to join the Department of Physiology at Yale University, where he would continue his research and teach neurophysiology and physiological psychology for the next decade. While at Yale, Pribram established and directed the Psychophysiology Laboratory at the Institute of Living in Hartford, which “became a mecca for students intensely interested in the relationship between brain and behavior.” As Director of the Psychophysiology Laboratory, Pribram would conduct some of the earliest research on brain circuitry. Among his students at that time were Lawrence Weiskrantz, Walter Freeman III and Mortimer Mishkin.
During this time, Pribram also established relationships with psychologists at Harvard University and “learned a great deal from S.S. Stevens, Gary Boring, and Georg von Bekesy.” Additionally, Pribram noted that his interactions with B.F. Skinner at Harvard would later influence his own research into cognitive neuropsychology.
After his tenure at Yale, Pribram moved to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, where he continued to teach neurophysiology and physiological psychology for the next 30 years. During this time, Pribram pioneered the field of neuropsychology, leading groundbreaking research into the interrelations of the brain, behavior, and cognition.
At Stanford, a part-time secretary, Barbara Honegger, filed a complaint alleging that Pribram had "denied [her] a job rank she was entitled to" while further alleging that Pribram had "struck her in the head." Pribram was placed on temporary probation by Stanford, while Honegger received a parting out-of-court settlement from the school.
While a Professor at Stanford, with joint appointments in the departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, Pribram was honored with a Lifetime Grant from the US Office of Naval Research as well as a Lifetime Research Career Award from the National Institutes of Health.
Upon becoming emeritus at Stanford University, Pribram accepted the position of the James P. and Anna King Distinguished Professor at Radford University and, in 1989, was appointed Eminent Scholar of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Radford built the Center for Brain Research and Informational Sciences (B.R.A.I.N.S.) for Pribram to direct with the support of Alastair Harris, chair of the psychology department.
After 60 years of leading research and development in the field of brain research, Pribram was appointed Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at Georgetown University in 1998. Simultaneously, he was appointed Distinguished Professor in the Engineering and Computer Science Department at George Mason University.

## Influence on Other Researchers

Over fifty doctoral and fifty postdoctoral fellows were trained in the neuropsychological laboratories at Yale and Stanford under Pribram’s direction.
During Pribram's tenure at Yale, while simultaneously directing the Psychophysiology Laboratory at the Institute for Living, many young researchers were able to explore the importance of utilizing psychology combined with neurophysiology, including Lawrence Weiskrantz (Harvard) and Mortimer Mishkin (McGill).
At Stanford, Leslie Ungerleider (noted experimental psychologist and neuroscientist) was among those who made major contributions.

## Accolades

Karl Pribram was the recipient of more than seventy major international awards and honors, including a Lifetime Grant from the US Office of Naval Research, the Lifetime Research Career Award from the National Institutes of Health, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Experimental Psychology, the Award for Distinguished Career in Science from the Washington Academy of Sciences, the Neural Network Leadership Award from the International Neural Network Society, and the Outstanding Contributions Award from the American Board of Medical Psychotherapists.
He was granted an Honorary Doctorate in Psychology from the University of Montreal, Canada, and an Honorary Doctorate in Neuroscience from the University of Bremen, Germany.
Pribram was presented the inaugural Dagmar and Vaclav Havel Award (The VIZE 97 Prize) in 1999 for uniting the sciences and the humanities. The award was created to honor significant individuals whose work transcends the conventional framework of scientific understanding. Vaclav Havel, President of the Czech Republic, declared, “[Pribram] is an example to people of different fields and orientations, such as neurologists, psychologists, mathematicians, scientists and philosophers. It is a wonder to see people from all over the world united by one purpose when so often the world is divided by distrust and small disparities.”

### Selected Honors and Awards

Source:
* Lifetime Grant, US Office of Naval Research
* Lifetime Research Career Award, National Institutes of Health (1962)
* Lifetime Achievement Award, Society of Experimental Psychology
* President of the International Neuropsychological Society (1967)
* American Psychological Association
** Division of Physiological and Comparative Psychology (President, 1967-1968)
** Division of Theological and Philosophical Psychology (President, 1979-1980)
* Menfred Sakel Award, Society for Biological Psychiatry (1976)
* Realia Honor, Institute for Advanced Philosophic Research (1986)
* Outstanding Contributions Award, American Board of Medical Psychotherapists (1990)
* Honorary Ph.D. in Psychology, University of Montreal, Canada (1992)
* Neural Network Leadership Award, International Neural Network Society (1994)
* Honorary Ph.D. in Neuroscience, University of Bremen, Germany (1996)
* The Noetic Medal of Consciousness & Brain Research (1998)
* First recipient of the Dagmar and Vaclav Havel Award: The VIZE 97 Prize (1999)
* Culver Man of the Year, Culver Military Academy (2000)
* Award for Distinguished Career in Science, Washington Academy of Sciences (2010)

## In Popular Culture
### The Holographic Universe

Michael Talbot opened the acknowledgements section of his work with the note, "David Bohm, Ph.D., and Karl Pribram, Ph.D., who were generous with both their time and their ideas, and without whose work this book would not have been written."

### The Aquarian Conspiracy

Marilyn Ferguson summarized and interpreted Karl Pribram's holonomic model of brain processing in her popular book, The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980). In the book she also describes how Pribram's son, John Pribram, Ph.D, introduced him to the work of David Bohm, leading to the further development of Pribram's holonomic brain theory. Additionally, Ferguson produced the Brain/Mind Bulletin, a science newsletter dedicated to sharing cutting-edge research from prominent scientists and theorists including Pribram, Bohm, and Prigogine.

### SyberVision

Steve DeVore, the founder of SyberVision, worked as a research assistant to Pribram at Stanford, where he would investigate the function of mirror neurons. Together they published The Neuropsychology of Achievement which proposed the concept of creating an "image of achievement" to attain one's goals.

### Feldenkrais Foundation

While at Stanford, Pribram was introduced to Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais, the founder of the Feldenkrais Method. Pribram would later visit Feldenkrais' training program in California where they engaged in a series of conversations focused on the holographic and dynamic qualities of brain functioning.

## Selected Works

In his lifetime, Karl Pribram published over 700 scientific publications including books and monographs, as well as data and theory papers. A complete bibliography of Pribram's publications can be found on his website.

### Selected Books and Monographs

HAMBURG, D. A., PRIBRAM, K. H. & STUNKARD, A. J. (Eds.) (1970) Perception and Its Disorders. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.
HYDÉN, H., LORENZ, K., MAGOUN, H.W., PENFIELD, W., PRIBRAM, K.H. (Eds) (1969) On the Biology of Learning. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc.
KING, JOSEPH S. & PRIBRAM, K.H., (Eds.) (1995) Scale in Conscious Experience: Is the Brain Too Important to be Left to Specialists to Study?, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. ISBN 0-8058-2178-3.
MILLER, G. A., GALANTER, E. & PRIBRAM, K. H. (1960) Plans and the Structure of Behavior. New York: Henry Holt, 1960. (Russian trans; also in Japanese, German, Spanish, Italian.) ISBN 0-03-010075-5.
ISAACSON, R. L. & PRIBRAM, K. H. (Eds.) (1975) The Hippocampus, Volumes I and II. New York: Plenum. ISBN 0306375354.
ISAACSON, R. L. & PRIBRAM, K. H. (Eds.) (1986) The Hippocampus, Volumes III and IV. New York: Plenum.
PRIBRAM, K. H., & BROADBENT, D. (Eds.) (1970) Biology of Memory. New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-564350-0.
PRIBRAM, K. H. & GILL, M. M. (1976) Freud’s `Project’ Re-Assessed: Preface to Contemporary Cognitive Theory and Neuropsychology. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-02569-2.
PRIBRAM, K.H. & KING, J.S. (Eds.) (1996) Learning as Self-Organization. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. ISBN 0-8058-2586-X.
PRIBRAM, K. H. & LURIA, A. R. (Eds.) (1973) Psychophysiology of the Frontal Lobes. New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-564340-3.
PRIBRAM, K.H. & RAMÍREZ, J.M. (1980) Cerebro, Mente y Holograma. Madrid: Alhambra.
PRIBRAM, K. H. (Ed.) (1969) Brain and Behavior, Volumes I-IV. London: Penguin, Ltd. ISBN 0140805214.
PRIBRAM, K. H. (1971) What Makes Man Human. (39th James Arthur Lecture on the Evolution of the Human Brain, 1970). New York: American Museum of Natural History.
PRIBRAM, K. H. (1971) Languages of the Brain: Experimental Paradoxes and Principles in Neuropsychology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall; Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole, 1977; New York: Brandon House, 1982. (Translations in Russian, Japanese, Italian, Spanish)
PRIBRAM, K. H. (Ed.) (1974) Central Processing of Sensory Input. The Neurosciences: Third Study Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
PRIBRAM, K. H. (1991) Brain and Perception: Holonomy and Structure in Figural Processing. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. ISBN 9780898599954.
PRIBRAM, K.H. (Ed.) (1993) Rethinking Neural Networks: Quantum Fields and Biological Data. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. ISBN 0-8058-1466-3.
PRIBRAM, K.H. (Ed.) (1994) Origins: Brain & Self Organization. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. ISBN 9781138876521.
PRIBRAM, K.H. (1995) Cerebro Y Conciencia. Madrid, Spain: Diaz de Santos.
PRIBRAM, K.H. (Ed.) (1998) Brain and Values: Is a Biological Science of Values Possible. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-3154-1.
PRIBRAM, K.H. (2013) The Form Within. Prospecta Press. ISBN 978-1935212805.