On the structure and synaptic organization of the first optic ganglion in the fly

Are we learning what actually goes on when the brain recognizes and controls?

Drawing upon recent advances in neuroscience for examples, the thesis is defended that, in contrast to a Kuhnian view of proress by overturning whole sciences, progress amounting to revolution in our understanding of nervous systems is happening by the accumulation of many discrete discoveries, and that this process may be expected to continue for a long time. Twelve propositions are put forward illustrative of ideas developed during and influenced by C. L. Prosser's career, all in the segment of neuroscience concerned with subsystem organization. They range from the generally accepted to the frankly polemical and the merely heuristic. (1) Ongoing background activity has different forms. (2) Codes, both spike and graded, are several. (3) Integrative variables in neuron function are several. (4) Identifiable cells may be widespread. (5) Neuronal circuits for behavior are known. (6) Redundancy is usually overlap. (7) Reliability can be high. (8) Recognition neurons may be common and complex. (9) Command neurons may be common and complex. (10) Pattern is often central in origin. (11) Hierarchies and switches may be common. (12) Subsystem function is an intellectual challenge. Each of these is briefly elaborated and its logical relation to the others suggested. The role of discrete discovery is thus illustrated--in the generation of new conceptual frameworks that gradually become interrelated and cumulatively change profoundly our picture of what's going on in the brain.