[3] Behaviorism at the time would also say that learned responses were series of specific connections in the cerebral cortex.
Lashley argued that one would then be able to locate these connections in part of the brain and he systematically looked for where learning was localized.
While working on his PhD in genetics, Lashley began a number of tests on brain tissue and the idea of localization.
[1] Lashley wanted to focus mainly on behaviors that could be observed and an easy way to do that was to study white rats in a controlled setting.
Franz made multiple lesions in specific parts of the brains and after they healed, put them through the maze to see if they had deficits in finding the food.
There has also been experimental work done on higher apes and also studies done on humans who have suffered brain damage in various ways.
[4] In neuropsychology, equipotentiality is a neurological principle that describes a cortical mechanism, first identified by Jean Pierre Flourens and later revisited by Karl Lashley in the 1950s.
After performing ablation experiments on birds, and seeing that they could still fly, peck, mate, sleep, and perform a range of other regular behaviors, Flourens concluded that every area of the brain was capable of doing what every other area of the brain could, but only for higher-level functions which he called "perception".
[5] Second, researchers began to copy his studies and also started to investigate what parts of the brain work together.
Lashley was also a pioneer in challenging the way we think about human and animal behavior in terms of our biology.
[1] Lashley found with further experimentation that behavior is not just a reaction to a stimulus but a large and complicated series of connections made in the brain.