Neuropsychologia, 1965, Vol. 3, pp. 387 to 392. Pergamon Press Ltd. Printed in England

L. S. VYGOTSKY AND THE PROBLEM OF LOCALIZATION OF FUNCTIONS*

A. R. LURIA

(Received 14 April 1965)

Abstract--The investigation of the development of higher psychological functions, their changes in conditions of injuries, and their disintegration under brain damage, carried out by L. S. Vygotsky already in the twenties, laid the basis of a new discipline--Neuropsychology. His last work, published posthumously--Psychology and the Localization of Functions-- forming a summary of that report which he was not fated to read, was the just and fullest program of investigation of the functional organization of the human brain--the organ of human consciousness. This is the great scientific contribution of that distinguished-- L. S. Vygotsky.

FORTY years ago, in the mid-twenties, a young Soviet psychologist--he was only 30 years old--L. S. VYGOTSKY began his visits to a neurological hospital, in the beginning as an observer and after that as an independent investigator.

In contrast to many others--including the head of this clinic, Professor G. I. Rossolimo - -he did not come to apply already known tests for improving diagnosis of brain injuries. His task was incomparably wider: in the analysis of local brain damage he saw one of the basic ways of the analysis of the most important structure of psychological processes and a possible approach to the material substrata of complex psychic activity. "It seems to me that the problem of localization, as a general rule includes all that is connected with the study of higher psychological functions and with the study of their disintegration" he wrote after a few years in a report he completed only six weeks before his death.

L. S. VYGOTSKY arrived at the problem of localization of psychological functions with a carefully new position which from the very first was opposed to the basic ideas of the con- temporary psychology and neurology.

In the psychology of the twenties there indisputably dominated the idea that the psychic life of man was examined as a complex of functions or qualities basically common to man and animals. Sensations and perceptions, attention and memory, judgment and inference, emotions and voluntary actions were considered by the leading psychologists of the time as natural forms of operation of the nervous system, in the best case, as processes having a reflex structure, the mechanisms of which were carefully studied in the conditioned reflex activity of animals. This time was very close to that period when the dualistic viewpoint dominated in psychology and when the question as to whether psychic phenomena flow parallel to physiological ones or interact with them was a central question of psychology. Therefore the naturalistic approach to psychological phenomena, serving in equal degree as the starting point for German Gestalt psychology and American behaviorism, was not only justified but attracted the most progressive circles of psychological science.

It is natural, however, that while successfully solving a series of important problems about the mechanisms of elementary psychological process (sensations and simple forms of

* Translated by HERBERT PICK. 387

388 A.R. Ltraia

perception, involuntary attention and direct memory) the naturalist psychologists were not able to attack problems which lay at the basis of specifically human higher psychological functions. How is it possible to understand the mechanism of voluntary behavior? What do the methods of operations characteristic of voluntary attention and active memory consist of? How is it possible to approach the scientific analysis of abstract forms of thinking which permit man to penetrate the deepest laws of reality and which give him freedom? At that time only the idealistic "descriptive psychology", understood as the "science of the soul" (Geisteswissenschaftsliche Psychologie) attempted to answer these questions, rejecting the possibility of their causal scientific analysis.

The initial position of the young soviet psychologist was basically different from the above formulated views.

The higher psychological functions, the study of which was rejected by the naturalistic science, he said, not only should remain an object of causal analysis, but their study should become the basic task of scientific psychology; to preserve the natural scientific approach by means of a refusal to study these functions would mean stopping the progress of science, directing the development along false paths. Just as unacceptable, however, was the position of spiritualistic psychologists: to preserve the question of the higher forms of consciousness and will, but reject the scientific analysis of their origin would be substituting a fideistic philosophy for science.

L. S. Vygotsky saw a way out of the "historical crisis" of psychological science* in a basic re-examination of the fundamental concepts of psychology. The "higher psychological functions" ought to have their own origin, but this origin should not be sought in the depths of the soul or in the hidden properties of nervous tissue; it should be sought outside the organism of the individual person, in objectively existing social history which is independent of the individual. Uniting in society and using tools, man creates new indirect forms of relation to the external world to which he was earlier adapted and which he later masters. Forming language in the process of social history, he obtains not only new, hitherto un- known, means of intercourse, but together with this a new tool for the organization of his own specific psychological processes. Developing on the basis of social work and speech the higher psychic functions permit man to shift to a new level of organization of his own activity; applying to himself those means which were created in the process of verbal intercourse with surrounding persons, he forms those types of cognitive perceptions, voluntary attention, active memory, abstract thoughts and volative behavior which never existed in the animal world and which in no manner represents initial characteristics of the "soul".

The approach to the psychological life of man from these positions involved a basic reconstruction of all the underlying divisions of psychological science. Perception and memory, imagination and thinking, emotional experience, and volative activity ceased to be examined as natural functions of nervous tissue or as simple "qualities" of psychic life. It became apparent that they have a more complex structure, that this complex structure has its own social-historical origin and it acquired new, specifically human, functional pro- perties. Speech activity ceased to be evaluated as a partial process not having a direct relation to perception and attention, memory and thinking. There occurred a real possibi- lity of scientifically explaining those processes of abstract thinking and voluntary actions, which for centuries had remained unexplained. Those phenomena that were studied earlier

* For analysis of this crisis he conducted a special investigation, which unfortunately was left un- published.

L. S. VYGOTSKY AND THE PROBLEM OF LOCALIZATION OF FUNCTIONS 389

as isolated "functions" or even as inreductible "properties" appeared now as more complex functional systems, formed in history and changing in the process of ontogenetic develop- ment. Forming his behavior in association with adults, reconstructing it on the basis of using objects and speech, mastering knowledge, the child not only acquires new forms of relations to the external world, but even develops new means of regulation of his own behavior; he forms new functional systems permitting him to master new forms of per- ception and memory, new forms of thinking, new means of organization of voluntary acts.

It is easy to see what sort of a revolution the ideas of L. S. Vygotsky introduced into the centuries-old psychological concepts. The stable and unchanging "psychic functions" were now conceived as complex, dynamic functional systems, changing in the process of development; psychology having gone beyond the first narrow naturalistic borders became a science of the social formation ofnaturalphenomena.

One, and I dare say, a most essential problem remained open, however. I f the ideas of L. S. Vygotsky, for many decades determining the development of Soviet psychology, essentially changed our views of the nature and structure of psychological processes how should their material substrate be conceptualized ? What concepts of the operation of the brain are necessary for founding our views on a natural basis of psychic activity ?

The problem of localization of psychological functions in the cortex--and this was how the question of the neural basis of psychic activity was formulated--survived in the twenties a profound crisis, in many ways reflecting the crisis of psychological science. On the one side in neurology there still were preserved those naive ideas about the localization of complex psychic functions in limited parts of the cortex. This idea of "localization" was suggested by the great discoveries of the 1870s. Having arisen from simplified ideas about psychological "functions" which dominated in the contemporary psychology, the neurolo- gists made the suggestion that along with cortical centers of sensation and movement there might be found analogous centers of more complex psychic processes. And after the work of Lissauer, Henchen, and Kleist the idea of the presence in the cortex of "centers of ideas", "calculating centers", "conceptual centers" ceased to seem so strange.

It is natural, however, that the position of "strict localization" also met substantial doubt. Understanding the whole complexity of higher psychic processes of man, and dis- counting that well known clinical fact, that the destruction of these processes may occur as a result of very differently localized destruction, many neurologists proposed the hypo- thesis, that the complex forms of psychic processes are a result of activity of the entire brain as a whole. Some of these authors (Monakov and Grfinbaum) subjected to the noticeable influence of the Wiirzburg school of psychology, refrained from all attempts to approach more closely those apparati of the brain which were connected with the higher forms of psychic activity. Others--attracted by the ideas of Gestalt psychology (K. Goldstein)-- attempted to create the idea of the stream of excitation, spread out equally through the whole cortex, and to see in those unlocalized "structural" processes the basis of the com- plex forms of the psychic activity of man. Recognizing the narrow localization of ele- mentary physiological processes in limited regions of the cortex, they practically refused to analyse concretely those cortical zones which took part in the realization of complex forms of man's psychic activity. "Returning to the vicious circle of structural psychology" wrote L. S. Vygotsky, "the study of localization of the specifically human functions wavered between the poles of extreme materialism and extreme spiritualism".*

* L. S. Vygotsky, Development of Higher Psychic Functions. Publishing House of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, Moscow, 1960, p. 386.

390 A.R. LURIA

Those ideas about higher psychological functions, social in their origin, systemic in their structure, dynamic in their development, from which L. S. Vygotsky started, naturally could not be fitted into the scheme described above and needed new basically reconstructed approaches to their brain localization.

The fact that not one of the high psychological functions could be understood as a simple "feature" of psychic life, prevented from the very beginning the thoughts that higher psychological processes are represented in the cortex just like the simple physiological "functions"; however those concrete conceptions about their complex differentiated form of psychological functions eliminated the idea that the brain lies as an undifferentiated whole as their basis. The conception at which L. S. Vygotsky arrived caused him to think that "localization of higher psychological functions cannot be understood as anything other than chronogenetic, that it is as the result of psychological development", that relations which are characteristic for separate parts of the brain, accomplishing the higher psycho- logical functions, are formed in the process of development and that the "human brain possesses new localization principles in comparison with the animal brain".T However, the elucidation of this position required an incomparably more complete and more concrete analysis of the functional organization of the psychic processes of man, without which any attempt to solve the problem of their localization would be left impossible.

Already in his early investigations+ +, L. S. Vygotsky paid attention to the fact that the mental development of the child doesn't carry the character of a simple maturation of inborn traits, that it occurs in the process of dealing with external objects and intercourse with adults. The child masters the tools which have been accumulated in the history of man and arrives at the use of external means of signs for the organization of his own specific behavior. If reactions of an animal are evoked by stimuli which arise in the external or internal environment, the actions of the child very soon begin to be guided by those signals which he himself creates and to which he is subjected. The direction of the attention of a child by his own verbal signals or the organization of his activity with the help of the regulating role of his external and after that internal speech may be examples of such mediated organization of his psychic processes. Only gradually is this open activity, depending on external means, diminished, does it aquire an abbreviated character, and is it transformed into those processes which may appear as simple and further indivisible "psychological functions", but which are actually the product of a complex historical development.

It is natural that such a mediated "instrumental" character of behavior, specific for man and not taking place in animals necessitates the proposition of a new principle of localization of higher psychic processes differing from those forms of brain organization of behavior which take place in animals. Namely this required L. S. Vygotsky to speak of that role played by "extra-cerebral connection"* in the localization of functions connected with specifically human areas of the brain, these extra-cerebral connections, built up in the activity of man, in the use of instruments and external signs, and so important in the forma- tion of higher psychological functions. The praxis of man is impossible to imagine without his manipulating objects, and verbal thought, without language and its external means- phonemes, letters, logical-grammatical relations, created in the process of social history.

t L. S. Vygotsky, Development of Higher Psychic Functions. Publishing House of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, Moscow, 1960, p. 387.

+ L. S. Vygotsky, Selected Psychological Investigations. Publishing House of the Academy of Peda- gogical Sciences, Moscow, 1956 and "Development of Psychological Fnnctions", Moscow, 1960. (Russian).

* L, S. Vygotsky. Development of Higher Psychological Functions, p. 391.

L. S. VYGOTSKY AND THE PROBLEM OF LOCAL IZAT ION OF FUNCTIONS 391

Social history ties those knots which form definite cortical zones in new relations with each other, and if the use of language with its phonematic codes evokes new functional relations between the temporal (auditory) and kinesthetic (sensorimotor) areas of the cortex, then this is a product of historical development, depending on "extra-cerebral ties" and new "functional organs" formed in the cortex.t

The fact, that in the process of historical development in man there arise new functions, doesn't signify, however, that each of them depends on a new group of nerve cells and that these new "centers" of higher psychic function are similar to those which were sought by the neurologists in the last third of the 19th century. The fact that history ties new func- tional knots in the cortex indicates that the development of new "functional organs" occurs by means of the formation of new functional systems, which never took place in animals, the creation of which is a new means of unlimited development of the brain. The human cortex becomes thanks to this principle the organ of civilization, containing in itself unlimited possibilities and not demanding creation of new morphological apparatus every time a demand is created in history for a new function.

The study of the system of localization of higher psychological functions in the cortex takes, by such means, overcomes the ideas of narrow localization and the conceptualization of the brain as a unitary whole. Every specific function ceases to be thought of us a product of some kind of center, on the other hand the function of the brain as a whole ceases to be conceived of as the work of a homogeneous mass of nervous tissue. In the place of both these conceptions there is the position of a system ofh~hly differentiated zones of the cortex working together, accomplishing new tasks by means of new "inter-areal" relations.

These ideas proposed by L. S. Vygotsky, lay at the basis of the study of systemic or dynamic localization of function, which now--thirty years after the death of the author-- have been strongly consolidated in contemporary science.*

There is, however, still one side of L. S. Vygotsky's study of the systemic localization of psychological processes. It has been left up to now as the prevision of a genius and its fulfilment in a series of concrete investigations is still a task for the future. The matter concerns the dynamic change of the correlation of brain "centres" in the process of develop- ment and disintegration, opening new perspectives for a factual study of "chronogenetic localization" of function in the cortex. In neurology the problem has never been framed to the effect that the very same functions may, at different stages of development, be accom- plished by different parts of the cortex and that the interrelations of the separate cortical zones at various stages of development may not be equal. The careful study of the paths of development of higher psychic functions in ontogenesis led L. S. Vygotsky to such a position--completely new for neurology.

Investigating the early stages of ontogenesis, L. S. Vygotsky indicated that in the first stages the formation of higher psychological functions depends on the presence of more elementary processes, serving as a foundation. Complex concepts can not be developed, if there are not sufficient stable sensory percepts and ideas; voluntary memory can not be built up if at its base doesn't lie stable processes of direct memory. However, in the later stages of mental development the relation of elementary and complex mental processes is changed. The higher psychological functions, built up on the basis of elementary psycho- logical processes, begin to influence their basis, and even the most simple forms of mental

t Cf. A. N. Leont6v. Problems of Mental Development. Publishing house of the Academy of Peda- gogical Sciences, Moscow, 1959.

* Cf. A. R. Luria, Higher Cortical Functions in Man. N.Y. Basic Books, 1965.

392 A.R. LURIA

activity are reconstructed under the influence of higher forms of psychic activity; it is sufficient to recall the role played by the categorical names of colors in their perception, in order to see the depth of this process.

These data led L. S. Vygotsky to assume that the relation of separate cortical zones is changed in the process of development, and if in the beginning the formation of "higher" centers depends on the maturity of the "lower", then in the complicating of behavior the "higher" centers organize the work of the lower and subject them to their own influence. This reverse correlation of parts of the cortex at various stages of development leads, in the mind of L. S. Vygotsky to the fact that destruction of one and the same area of the cortex may result at different stages in sharply differing syndromes. I f in the early stages of mental development destruction of specific zones of the cortex leads to underdevelopment of higher parts constructed on their basis, then destruction of these same zones at a mature age evokes a failure of lower systems depending on them. These suggestions make com- prehensible the fact that destruction of gnostic zones of the cortex in early chi ldhood lead to general psychic underdevelopment, while at the same time in an adult it evokes phenomena of agnosia, which have a partial character and may be within known limits compensated for by the remaining higher systems of the cortex.

The suggestions about a change of inter-areal relations in successive stages of onto- genesis opens new perspectives for the study of localization of psychological functions, and it can be assured that the following generation of investigators can evaluate according to its merit this genial insight.

R6sum~-Les recherches telles qu'elles ont 6t6 entreprises par L. S. VYGOTSKY dans les annees 1920, sur le d6veloppement des fonctions psychologiques sup6rieures, sur leurs modifications et sur leurs d6sint6grations lors des atteintes c6r6brales constituent la base d'une nouvelle discipline: la neuropsychologie.

Le dernier travail publi6 apr6s sa mort "Psychologie et localisation des fonctions" con- stituant un r6sum6 du rapport qu'il n'6tait pas destin6 ~ pr6senter lui-m6me, representait le programme le plus complet et le plus juste des investigations sur rorganisation fonctionnel|e du cerveau humain, c'est /t dire, l'organe de la conscience humaine. C'est la grande con- tribution scientifique de cet 6minent chercheur, le Professeur L. S. VYGOTSKY.

Zusammenfassung--Vom Jahre 1926 durchforschte L. S. VYGOTSKY das Gebjet des Aufbaues h6herer seelischer Funktionen, ihre Veriinderungen durch Traumen und der lokalen Lasionen des Gehirns. Mit seinem Werk hat er einen Grundstein fiir die neue Forschungsrichtung-- Neuropsychologie--gelegt. Seine letzte posthum publizierte Arbeit war "Psychologie und Lokalisation von psychischen Funktionen" betitelt. Ihre Kurzzusammenfassung war zugleich das Resum6 eines Referates, das ihm nicht mehr zu halten vergiSnnt war. In ihm findet sich das gr~Ssstangelegteste und detailliertests Forschungsprogramm for die Aufkliirung der funktion- ellen Gliederung des Menschenkirnes, der k~Srperlichen Grundlage menschlicher Geistigkeit.