Hebb reframed memory circuits as plastic synapses rather than fixed reflex paths

Evidence

Such a plasticity, consisting in the fashioning of interconnections and in the modulation of synaptic efficacy, was first brought to light by the Canadian neurologist Donald Holding Hebb. At the end of the 1930s, various experimental observations led him to abandon the concept of a rigid localization of memory circuits along the lines of the model of reflex circuits described by Pavlov. According to Hebb, we must postulate the existence of ”plastic synapses” capable of adapting their transmission efficacy. — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 84

Categorization

• DEFINE: Grounds the plasticity concept in Hebb’s specific rejection of Pavlovian fixed localization — the historical anchor for the whole definition.