Good Talk about the Nervous System and Behavior

Reviews the book, The Central Nervous System and Behavior edited by Mary A. B. Brazier (see record 1961-04482-000). The theme of this conference, maturation of the central nervous system in relation to behavior, is, accordingly, barely discernible either in most of the presentations or in the group inter changes. This is not to say that the presentations are unimportant; quite the contrary, the data presented are all good and challenging. Man's intellectual advance is greatest between the ages of 4 and 20, when the brain increases by about 120 grams only, rather than during the first four years of life when it expands by almost a kilogram. Maturation of the brain's functional capacity is related instead to cytological complexity. The principal purpose of the conference was to permit face-to-face conversation among scientists with different backgrounds, and that goal was fully achieved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)