Charles Scott Sherrington quotes

The brain is a mystery; it has been and still will be. How does the brain produce thoughts? That is the central question and we have still no answer to it. (Charles Scott Sherrington)
That a strong stimulus to such an afferent nerve, exciting most or all of its fibres, should in regard to a given muscle develop inhibition and excitation concurrently is not surprising. View quote
Charles Scott Sherrington
Further study of central nervous action, however, finds central inhibition too extensive and ubiquitous to make it likely that it is confined solely to the taxis of antagonistic muscles. View quote
Charles Scott Sherrington
It is difficult to get a hearing from busy men for even a great new truth. View quote
Charles Scott Sherrington
Existence of an excited state is not a prerequisite for the production of inhibition; inhibition can exist apart from excitation no less than, when called forth against an excitation already in progress, it can suppress or moderate it. View quote
Charles Scott Sherrington
In some units it may suppress the motor discharge altogether, in some it may merely slow the motor discharge thus lessening the wave frequency of the contraction and so the tension. View quote
Charles Scott Sherrington
The brain is waking and with it the mind is returning. It is as if the Milky Way entered upon some cosmic dance. Swiftly the head mass becomes an enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern, always a meaningful pattern though never an abiding one; a shifting harmony of subpatterns. View quote
Charles Scott Sherrington