Abstract
The present data represent one phase of a long-term investigation of the brain stem reticular core and its relation to certain ego functions in which the investigator and his wife have been involved for some years [1–5]. The immediate goal of this study has been an examination of those structural-functional substrates which might underlie psychophysiological development in the newborn. More specifically, and of greater pertinence to the neuropsychiatrist, we have sought developmental clues to mechanisms subserving awareness and the selection of certain sensory data from much more extensive presentations. Although answers to the second problem are not yet obvious, it appears that the form and degree of maturity of the brain significantly determine its ability to respond to, or ignore, certain modes of stimuli. Additionally, with maturation may come loss of ability to react to certain types of stimuli, a suggestion which has been advanced in a different context and on purely clinical grounds by some psychoanalysts [6].
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