Grobstein P
Department of Biology, Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania 19010.
Experientia. 1988 Dec 1;44(11-12):960-71. doi: 10.1007/BF01939890.
A broad review of the phenomena of morphogenesis and of brain function, and of the history of research in these two areas, suggests that there are quite striking similarities between the two sets of biological phenomena. Among other things, both reflect the interaction of internally complex components at several levels of organization, display variance as an essential characteristic, and incorporate information from the environment. It is argued that reductionist approaches are inadequate to deal with fundamental problems of either morphogenesis or brain function, and alternative foundations for research strategy and tactics are discussed. Attention is also given to the question of why morphogenesis and brain function are so similar, and it is suggested that this may reflect the existence of rules of information acquisition, transmission, and storage to which both are subject. Variance, it is argued, is an essential component of information acquisition processes, and hence of biological integrity, at all levels of organization.
对形态发生现象、脑功能以及这两个领域的研究历史进行广泛回顾后发现，这两组生物学现象之间存在相当显著的相似性。除其他方面外，两者都反映了组织的多个层次上内部复杂成分的相互作用，将变异作为一个基本特征展现出来，并纳入来自环境的信息。有人认为，还原论方法不足以处理形态发生或脑功能的基本问题，并讨论了研究战略和策略的替代基础。还关注了形态发生和脑功能为何如此相似的问题，并提出这可能反映了两者都遵循的信息获取、传递和存储规则的存在。有人认为，变异是信息获取过程的一个基本组成部分，因此也是所有组织层次上生物完整性的基本组成部分。
