The Orienting Reaction: Key to Brain Re-presentational Mechanisms

Abstract

During the late 1950’s Eugene Sokolov demonstrated that the habituation of the orienting reaction (OR) could not be explained on the basis of a fatiguing or simple decrementing adaptation of neurons. The visceroautonomic components of the OR are important and perhaps essential to the occurrence of habituation. The OR therefore indicates that dishabituation has taken place. The immediate response of the organism is phasic, as indicated by a galvanic skin response and perhaps a brief cardiac acceleration. Activation is signaled by a heart rate deceleration and indicates, according to the work of J. I. Lacey and B. C. Lacey, that the organism is actively engaged in central processing operations. Sokolov’s demonstration that a neuronal model, a re-presentation of experience, is constructed by repetitious input must be the starting point of any analysis of the relationship between brain re-presentational mechanisms and the OR.