The papers appearing in this volume were presented at a Symposium on Self-Organizing Systems, which was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and held at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, on 14 November 1963. The Symposium was organized with the aim of providing a critical forum for the presentation and discussion of contemporary significant research efforts, with the emphasis on relatively uncommon approaches and methods in an early state of development. This aim and nature dictated that the Symposium be in effect a Working Group, with numerically limited invitational participation.
The papers which were presented and discussed did in fact serve to introduce several relatively unknown approaches; some of the speakers were promising young scientists, others had become known for contributions in different fields and were as yet unrecognized for their recent work in self-organization. In addition, the papers as a collection provided a particularly broad, cross-disciplinary spectrum of investigations which possessed intrinsic value as a portrayal of the bases upon which this new discipline rests. Accordingly, it became obvious in retrospect that the information presented and discussed at the Symposium was of considerable interest—and should thus receive commensurate dissemination—to a much broader group of scientists and engineers than those who were able to participate directly in the meeting itself. This volume is the result of that observation; as an edited collection of the papers presented at the Symposium, it forms the Proceedings thereof. If it provides a useful reference for present and future investigators, as well as documenting the source of several new approaches, it will have fulfilled its intended purpose well.
A Symposium which takes the nature of a Working Group depends for its utility especially upon effective commentary and critical analysis, and we commend all the participants for their contributions in this regard. It is appropriate, further, to acknowledge the contributions to the success of the Symposium made by the following: The California Institute of Technology for volunteering to act as host and for numerous supporting services; Professor Gilbert D. McCann, Director of the Willis Booth Computing Center at the California Institute of Technology, and the members of the technical and secretarial staffs of the Computing Center, who assumed the responsibility of acting as the immediate representatives of the Institute; the members of the Program Committee, who organized and led the separate sessions—Harold Hamilton of General Precision, Joseph Hawkins of Ford Motor Company, Robert Stewart of Space-General, Peter Kleyn of Northrop, and Professor McCann; members of the Technical Information Division of the Naval Research Laboratory, who published these Proceedings; and especially the authors of the papers, which comprised the heart of the Symposium and subsequently formed this volume. To all of these the sponsors wish to express their very sincere appreciation.
James Emmett Garvey
Office of Naval Research Branch Office
Pasadena, California
Margo A. Sass
Office of Naval Research
Washington, D.C.
The Ionic Hypothesis and Neuron Models
E. R. Lewis
Librascope Group, General Precision, Inc.
Research and Systems Center
Glendale, California
The measurements of Hodgkin and Huxley were aimed at revealing the mechanism of generation and propagation of the all-or-none spike. Their results led to the Modern Ionic Hypothesis. Since the publication of their papers in 1952, advanced techniques with microelectrodes have led to the discovery of many modes of subthreshold activity not only in the axon but also in the somata and dendrites of neurons. This activity includes synaptic potentials, local response potentials, and pacemaker potentials.
We considered the question, “Can this activity also be explained in terms of the Hodgkin-Huxley Model?” To seek an answer, we have constructed an electronic analog based on the ionic hypothesis and designed around the data of Hodgkin and Huxley. Synaptic inputs were simulated by simple first-order or second-order networks connected directly to simulated conductances (potassium or sodium). The analog has, with slight parameter adjustments, produced all modes of threshold and subthreshold activity.