Donald Benjamin Lindsley (December 23, 1907 – June 19, 2003) was an American physiological psychologist most known as a pioneer in the field of brain function study. Considered by his colleagues to have been worthy of winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology for discovering the reticular activating system along with Horace Winchell (Tid) Magoun and Giuseppe Moruzzi, Lindsley was instrumental in demonstrating the use of electroencephalography (EEG) in the study of brain function.Chalupa, L.M. (2005). Obituaries: Donald B. Lindsley. American Psychologist, (60)2, 193-194
Early life and education On December 23, 1907, Lindsley was born in Brownhelm Township, Ohio, which was primarily a farming community at the time. He was the youngest of four sons, though one of his siblings did not survive infancy. Lindsley's father, Benjamin, worked as a parts manager for the Cleveland Stone Company. Throughout his high school years, Lindsley excelled as an athlete, earning medals and titles in track, baseball, and basketball.Johnson, R., Wilson, C.L., & Edgerton, V.R. Senate.universityofcalifornia.edu. Retrieved October 31, 2013, from http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/inmemoriam/DonaldB.Lindsley.htm He lived a simple, small-town country life, spending his summers fishing and hunting, and his winters pursuing these outdoor activities. Additionally, he played the trumpet, which helped finance his passage on a cruise ship to Europe. Initially, he did not harbor aspirations of attending college, as no one in his family had pursued higher education before, and the financial burden seemed insurmountable.bri.ucla.edu. Retrieved October 20, 2013, from However through the encouragement of one of his teachers, he pursued a higher education deciding he would work his way through college. His commitment to the field of psychology began at Wittenberg College in 1925.Weinberger, N.M. (2009). A Biographical Memoir: Donald Benjamin Lindsley 1907-2003. "National Academy of Sciences Washington, D.C."
Lindsley attended Wittenberg College (now University) in 1925-1929. He received his PhD in psychology from the University of Iowa under a scholarship and studied under Lee Edward Travis. It was at the University of Iowa that he met his wife, Ellen Ford. She was a theater arts major and the daughter of Arthur Ford, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Iowa. They later married in 1933 and were married for sixty-two years. It was at the University of Iowa that Lindsley mastered the use of lab equipment and physiology, publishing six papers on human and rat muscle activity.Chalupa, L.M., & Anchel, H. Visual input to the pulvinar via lateral geniculate, superior colliculus and visual cortex in the cat. Exp. Neurol. 36:449-262.
Activation theory and Ascending reticular system In 1945, Lindsley undertook basic neurophysiological research with Horace Winchell Mangoun at the Northwestern Medical School in downtown Chicago. The 19th century prevailing theory of sleep and waking stated that brain organization and behavior was based on a sensory-motor schema. The waking state was thought to be supported by sensory input while sleep was conceived as the product of sensory withdrawal. This theory was reasonable and unchallenged at the time as there was no knowledge of another major type of system in the brain beyond sensory and motor systems.Johnson, R., Wilson, C.L., & Edgerton, V.R. Senate.universityofcalifornia.edu. Retrieved October 31, 2013, from http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/inmemoriam/DonaldB.Lindsley.htm
In 1949, Mangoun and visiting scientist, Giuseppe Moruzzi from the University of Pisa, challenged this theory when they accidentally discovered a new type of brain system while experimenting with spinal reflexes on an anesthetized cat. This brain system's existence had not yet been suspected. This research was argued by proponents until Lindsley led a team to perform the experiments that established the validity to this new system, the ascending reticular activating system and came up with Activation theory. It postulated that there is an arousal continuum on which significantly lower emotion at one extreme and intense emotion at the other can be located through EEG from the reticular substance and thus concluded an organism is in a continuous state of emotional flux related to the state and environment they habituate.Weinberger, N.M. (2009). A Biographical Memoir: Donald Benjamin Lindsley 1907-2003. "National Academy of Sciences Washington, D.C."
Awards
Scholarship to University of Iowa National Research Council Fellowship 1933–1935 at Harvard Medical School First EEG publication 1936Johnson, R., Wilson, C.L., & Edgerton, V.R. Senate.universityofcalifornia.edu. Retrieved October 31, 2013, from http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/inmemoriam/DonaldB.Lindsley.htm First in utero recordings of the EEG and EKG, as early as the fifth month, 1938 Election to the Society for Experimental Psychologists, 1942 Presidential Certificate of Merit for WWII effort, 1948 National Academy of Sciences, 1952 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, A.P.A., 1959 Professorship at Northwestern University Sleep waking theory published in 1949- validity of Ascending Reticular Activating System Co-founded Brain Research Institute at UCLA, 1961Weinberger, N.M. (2009). A Biographical Memoir: Donald Benjamin Lindsley 1907-2003. "National Academy of Sciences Washington, D.C." Election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1965 Ralph Gerard Prize for distinguished contributions to Neuroscience, Society for Neuroscience, 1988 Obituary of Lee Edward Travis, 1989 Handbook of Experimental Psychology, Chapter on Emotion, 1951 Honorary degrees from Brown University, Trinity College, Loyola University, Johannes Gutenberg University 50 students received their doctorates under Lindsley and 70 post-doctorates Weinberger, N.M. (2009). A Biographical Memoir: Donald Benjamin Lindsley 1907-2003. "National Academy of Sciences Washington, D.C."
Contributions Lindsley was one of the first in his field to utilize electroencephalography (EEG) to record brain activity. He developed a means for measuring human sensory processing and rapid electrical changes in the brain. He contributed to understanding wakefulness and arousal in relation to brainstem activating systems. He developed an interdisciplinary approach to researching the psychological variables associated with the reticular activating systemHuang, C.C. Polysensory responses and sensory interaction in pulvinar and related postero-lateral thalamic nuclei in cat. Electroen. Clin. Neuro. 34:265-270. He even developed a film, Psychologists Here, There, and Everywhere, a moving-picture record of hundreds of scientists in action at the annual professional meetings of the American Psychological Association from 1946 to 1957.Gould, J.E., & Chalupa, L.M. Modifications of pulvinar and geniculo-cortical evoked potentials during visual discrimination learning in monkeys. Electroen. "Clin. Neuro. 36:639-649
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