New Britain herald., 1928-02-24
REFLEX ACTIONS
 SEEN IN MOVIES
J. $. Scientists View Russian
 Studies

New York. Feb. %. @-Ameri-
 can scientists are sooa to zee mo
 tion picture films taken in the lab
 0ratories of Dr. P. Paylov. and
 Dr. N. l. KraSnogorski. eminent Russian physiologists. whose experi- ments with reflex actions in animals and children have given physiology some new theories.
 The pictures, now in New York, Will be exhibited to medical socie- ties and university faculties. They show the experiments by which the scientists sought to demon- strate that the brain is only . storehouse for reflexes, either in- born or acquired, and that the complex actions of the cerebral hemispheres are largely more ap- parent than real. Dr. Pavlov and lis many colleagues have worked chtsfly with dogs. monkeys and sman children. and the film records the results obtained with each group of subjects.
 Modern physiology has estab- lished that reflexes of animals and of man can be divided into two main groupA inherited and ac- quired. Examples of the first are the familiar knee-jerk. the act of stepping and tho maintenance of equilibrium. Tho second division includes the automatic actions that can be induced in man and beast in association with the inborn sre- flexes.
 For example. Dr. Pavlov's dog salivates when given food. thereby exhibiting an inherited reaction. But when bell h rung as the plate of meat is placed before it the animal quickly associates the sound with the food, and after q few repetitions of the act its mouth waters when it hears the note, even though 1t neither sees nor smells food.
 Similarly an animal can discrim- mate between the number of met ronome beats that may accompany feeding. and faster or slower beat never accompanied by food. If monkey is fed whenever a red disk is placed over his dish, but is never fed when . blue disk ap- pears, he will come to the bars of the cage at the sight of the red cir cle, whereas he will not leave his perch at the appearance of the blue.
 Ono of Dr. Krasnogorski's sub jects was \ small boy. While lying on couch the lad was fed cookie crumbs by an automatic device, and simultaneously the imitation of a rubber bulb by the concealed scientist caused blunt metal rods to press against the back of the child's hand. When the experi- ment had been repeated several times. the supply of crumbs was cut off. but the painless pressure on the hand was continued. The child, associating food with the ac- tion. opened his mouth to receive the expected morsels. However, he learned much quicker than did a dog or monkey that the pressure on the skin WAS not to be accom- panied by food and soon lost the reflex.
 The picture also shows the be- havior of the newborn infant and tho changes in It's behavior during the first weeks after birth. Be- havior of monkeys and children is compared, and the play activities of youngsters is depicted. The studies of behavior show, scientists say. the importance that condi- toned reflexes may have in the practical problems of child train ing.
 The physiological explanation of such reflexes is that the stimula- tien of . receptor organ during the occurrence of an inborn reflex es- tablishee . new pathway to the