Frank R G
Fed Proc. 1986 Nov;45(12):2665-72.
Neurophysiological techniques, far from being mere manual or instrumental procedures, are intimately bound up with the concepts and social processes of experimental physiology. This proposition is argued by examining the prepublication history of four important technical innovations in 20th-century neurophysiology, and their associated innovators: the vacuum-tube amplifier (Lucas, Williams, and Forbes, 1912-1922); the cathode-ray oscillograph (Gasser, Newcomer, and Erlanger, 1919-1923); single-fiber recording (Adrian, Zotterman, Forbes, Davis, and Gasser, 1912-1926); and the intracellular microelectrode (Graham, Gerard, Ling, Hodgkin, and Nastuk, 1940-1950). From these episodes I conclude that: each technique has its own set of conceptual presuppositions, limitations, and biases--in a word, techniques are idea-laden; techniques have an inertia of use that is overcome often only in unusual circumstances of crisis or opportunity; techniques, in their origin, evaluation, demonstration, and diffusion, are embedded in a network of social contacts among researchers; and 4) techniques evolve with favorite biological materials that, by fitting the apparatus and the questions asked, also impose limits on the concepts educed from that preparation.
神经生理学技术远非仅仅是手工或仪器操作程序，而是与实验生理学的概念和社会过程紧密相连。通过审视20世纪神经生理学四项重要技术创新及其相关创新者的出版前历史来论证这一观点，这四项创新分别是：真空管放大器（卢卡斯、威廉姆斯和福布斯，1912 - 1922年）；阴极射线示波器（加塞、纽科默和厄兰格，1919 - 1923年）；单纤维记录（艾德里安、佐特曼、福布斯、戴维斯和加塞，1912 - 1926年）；以及细胞内微电极（格雷厄姆、杰勒德、凌宁、霍奇金和纳斯塔克，1940 - 1950年）。从这些事例中我得出以下结论：每种技术都有其自身的一套概念预设、局限性和偏差——简而言之，技术是充满观念的；技术具有使用惯性，通常只有在危机或机遇等特殊情况下才会被克服；技术在其起源、评估、演示和传播过程中，都嵌入在研究人员之间的社会联系网络中；并且4）技术随着喜爱的生物材料而发展，这些生物材料通过适配仪器和所提出的问题，也对从该制备中得出的概念施加了限制。
