Harris Lauren Julius, Almerigi Jason B
Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
Brain Cogn. 2009 Jun;70(1):92-115. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2009.01.008. Epub 2009 Mar 14.
Roberts Bartholow's 1874 experiment on Mary Rafferty is widely cited as the first demonstration, by direct application of stimulating electrodes, of the motor excitability of the human cerebral cortex. The many accounts of the experiment, however, leave certain questions and details unexamined or unresolved, especially about Bartholow's goals, the nature and quality of the evidence, and the experiment's role in the history of theory and research on localisation of function. In this article, we try to fill these gaps and to tell the full story. We describe Bartholow's career up to 1874, review the theoretical and empirical background for the experiment, and present Bartholow's own account of the experiment as well as those of his supporters and critics. We then present our own analysis, assess the experiment's influence on contemporaneous scientific opinion about cortical excitability, and trace its citation record into our own time. We also review and assess ethical criticisms of Bartholow and their effects on his career, and we close by discussing the role we think the experiment deserves to play in the history of theory and research on cortical excitability.
1874年，罗伯茨·巴塞洛对玛丽·拉弗蒂进行的实验被广泛认为是首次通过直接应用刺激电极来证明人类大脑皮层运动兴奋性的实验。然而，关于该实验的诸多描述留下了一些未被审视或未解决的问题及细节，尤其是关于巴塞洛的目标、证据的性质和质量，以及该实验在功能定位理论和研究历史中的作用。在本文中，我们试图填补这些空白并讲述完整的故事。我们描述了巴塞洛到1874年的职业生涯，回顾了该实验的理论和实证背景，呈现了巴塞洛自己对该实验的描述以及他的支持者和批评者的描述。然后我们给出自己的分析，评估该实验对当时关于皮层兴奋性的科学观点的影响，并追溯其在我们这个时代的被引用记录。我们还回顾并评估了对巴塞洛的伦理批评及其对他职业生涯的影响，最后我们讨论了我们认为该实验在皮层兴奋性理论和研究历史中应扮演的角色。
