Cheryl A Logan | University of North Carolina at Greensboro (original) (raw)

Books by Cheryl A Logan

Papers by Cheryl A Logan

Brain, Behavior, and Evolution, 2019

Rodents as standardized test animals were developed for commercial distribution in the USA betwee... more Rodents as standardized test animals were developed for commercial distribution in the USA between 1910 and the 1930s. The selective breeding of rats (Rattus norvegicus) and pure-bred mice (Mus musculus) at the Wistar Institute and the Jackson Memorial Laboratories eventually led to a decline in the diversity of species used in American medical and life sciences. The early driving figures, science administrator Milton Greenman and the scientists Henry Donaldson and Clarence Little, sought to standardize animals to render science and its application to humanity more precise. But their efforts were exaggerated in the USA through an expanding industrial and engineering ideal, culminating in a preference for Big Science. I explore the nineteenth century origins of this ideal in Emil Du Bois-Reymond's neurophysiology. This foundation later merged with increasing standardization, American commercialism, and the success of Big Science to transform animal laboratory "standards" into "model animals." Recent accounts of research with commercially bred mice reveal how findings can be co-constructed using human clinical data, as animal research is applied to humans. The neglect of evolutionary perspectives and the dominance of "models" may even have begun with the government's post-war emphasis on funding greater species access for large-scale biomedical research.

In 1936, Eugen Steinach and colleagues published a work that brought steroid biochemistry to the ... more In 1936, Eugen Steinach and colleagues published a work that brought steroid biochemistry to the study of sexual behavior and, using synthetic androgens and estrogens, foreshadowed by an astonishing four decades the discovery of the central role of estrogen in the sexual behavior of male rats. We offer an English translation of that paper, accompanied by historical commentary that presents Steinach as a pioneer in reproductive neuroendocrinology. His work (1) established the interstitial cells as the main source of mammalian gonadal hormones; (2) launched the hypothesis that steroid hormones act on the brain to induce sexual behavior and that chronic gonadal transplants produce sexual reversals in physiology and behavior; (3) demonstrated the influence of sensory stimulation on testicular function; and finally, (4) spearheaded the development of synthetic commercial hormones for clinical use in humans. Though its applications were controversial, Steinach's research was confirme...

Palgrave Communications , 2017

The concept of plasticity infused regenerative approaches to brain science in Switzerland in the ... more The concept of plasticity infused regenerative approaches to brain science in Switzerland in the mid-twentieth century, shaping a holistic tradition prominent among Zurich’s psychiatrists and neurologists. From 1910 to about 1950, they sought to objectify the dynamic unconscious using a psychobiological approach to mental pathology pioneered by the neuroanatomists August Forel and Constantin von Monakow. Little scholarship, however, has explored this tradition. Both Forel and Monakow influenced Rudolf Brun, a Zurich neurologist and ant expert, who championed parallels between biological conflicts measured in social insects and Sigmund Freud’s drive energetics. Brun’s concept of drive conflict integrated Richard Semon’s theory of plastic heredity as “species memory” with a revised Monakow to explain mental pathology in the brain. Through them, he proposed the neuropathology underlying Freud’s “genuine” psychoneuroses: those caused by unconscious memories of traumatic experience.
This paper uses primary historical sources from the Swiss scientific literature to demonstrate that 1) Brun combined Semon’s plastic heredity, Cannon’s physiology and Pavlov’s conditional reflex to objectify Freud’s dynamic unconscious; and 2) though he rejected Monakow’s teleology, Brun’s holistic mind-body approach owed much to Monakow’s theory of emotions and pathology manifest in the brain. Brun elaborated Monakow’s view that psychopathology occurs as unconscious drive conflicts produce neurotoxicity, enabling excess hormones to disrupt the brain’s protective filtering system. Brun’s ant experiments confirmed evolutionary “laws” governing drive conflict and framed the neuro-energetics underlying the resolution of repressed emotional trauma. Tests pitted conflicts between social drives and those serving self-interest. Through them, Brun extended moral conflict beyond the Oedipal domain of psychoanalysis to encompass conflicts in a biological hierarchy of drives. His drive-based account of conscience explored neural pathways reaching back from the cortex to the body, so enabling traumatic memories to generate psychoneuroses. Plasticity could then justify the use of psychotherapy to reverse these pathogenic connections. Brun’s example demonstrates the significance of Semon’s theory of heredity for objective accounts of the unconscious mind in Central Europe and the hidden legacy of Monakow’s neuroendocrine holism. Brun combined that legacy with objective evidence and Zurich’s emphasis on plasticity to endorse—somewhat paradoxically—the reversal of psychoneuroses in the brain.

Developmental Psychobiology, 2007

A tribute to the career of Gilbert Gottlieb represented in the contributions to developmental sci... more A tribute to the career of Gilbert Gottlieb represented in the contributions to developmental science of his former students and colleagues. ß 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 49: 747-748, 2007.

Endocrinology (2014) 155 (3): 688-702, Mar 2014

In 1936, Eugen Steinach and colleagues published a work that brought steroid biochemistry to the ... more In 1936, Eugen Steinach and colleagues published a work that brought steroid biochemistry to the study of sexual behavior and, using synthetic androgens and estrogens, foreshadowed by an astonishing 4 decades the discovery of the central role of estrogen in the sexual behavior of male rats. We offer an English translation of that paper, accompanied by historical commentary that presents Steinach as a pioneer in reproductive neuroendocrinology. His work 1) established the interstitial cells as the main source of mammalian gonadal hormones; 2) launched the hypothesis that steroid hormones act on the brain to induce sexual behavior and that chronic gonadal transplants produce sexual reversals in physiology and behavior; 3) demonstrated the influence of sensory stimulation on testicular function; and finally, 4) spearheaded the development of synthetic commercial hormones for clinical use in humans. Although its applications were controversial, Steinach’s research was confirmed by many, and his concepts were applied to fields such as oncology and vascular disease. His contemporaries lauded his research, as indicated by his seven Nobel Prize nominations. But Steinach’s basic research was rarely acknowledged as the field flourished after 1950. The translation and our commentary attempt to reverse that neglect among behavioral and neuroendocrinologists and clarify his central role as a founder of the neuroendocrinology of sexual behavior and reproduction.

Journal of Experimental Zoology, A, 2015

Founded in Vienna in 1903, the Institute for Experimental Biology pioneered the application of ex... more Founded in Vienna in 1903, the Institute for Experimental Biology pioneered the application of experimental methods to living organisms maintained for sustained periods in captivity. Its Director, the zoologist Hans Przibram, oversaw until 1938, the attempt to integrate ontogeny with studies of inheritance using precise and controlled measurements of the impact of environmental influences on the emergence of form and function. In the early years, these efforts paralleled and even fostered the emergence of experimental biology in America. But fate intervened. Though the Institute served an international community, most of its resident scientists and staff were of Jewish ancestry. Well before the Nazis entered Austria in 1938, these men and women were being fired and driven out; some, including Przibram, were eventually killed. We describe the unprecedented facilities built and the topics addressed by the several departments that made up this Institute, stressing those most relevant to the establishment and success of the Journal of Experimental Zoology, which was founded just a year later. The Institute’s diaspora left an important legacy in North America, perhaps best embodied by the career of the developmental neuroscientist Paul Weiss.

Memory Studies, 2015

The idea that offspring could inherit attributes or dispositions that their parents had acquired ... more The idea that offspring could inherit attributes or dispositions that their parents had acquired is associated with the thinking of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. But the early twentieth century saw several attempts to modernize the concept as a form of “organic” memory. I focus on one uncommonly comprehensive attempt, that of the German morphologist Richard Semon. Semon’s case is instructive because, despite an evidence-based approach that drew on cell biology, neurophysiology, and evolution, his idea was strongly resisted. Some critics failed even to address his central claim. I use criticisms of Semon’s attempt to explore some philosophical, social, and scientific barriers that combined to facilitate the decline of modernized notions of organic memory in the first half of the twentieth century, especially as applied to the science of heredity.

In America by the 1930s, albino rats had become a kind of generic standard in research on physiol... more In America by the 1930s, albino rats had become a kind of generic standard in research on physiology and behavior that de-emphasized diversity across species. However, prior to about 1915, the early work of many of the pioneer rat researchers in America and in central Europe reflected a strong interest in species differences and a deep regard for diversity. These scientists sought broad, often medical, generality, but their quest for generality using a standard animal did not entail a de-emphasis of organic diversity. They chose white rats as test animals for two primary reasons. First, rats develop very slowly. They therefore made features of physiological, neural and psychological development accessible to the experimental method at a time when its application to the phenomena of development remained controversial. Secondly, rats were thought to have unusually strong sex drives. For this reason they became central to the experimental study of sexuality and, in the work of the reproductive physiologist Eugen Steinach, sexual development. Connections among three research institutes that stressed experimental approaches to the study of brain and development demonstrate the importance of the rat's institutional role. As the emphasis on experimentation in the study of development grew, two of these institutes bred rats to provide uniform materials. Eventually, however, their reasons for selecting rats were lost; and the ready availability of a uniform test animal led to a shift in scientists' presumptions about diversity, as the standard rat became a tool for assuring generality.

After 1900, the selective breeding of a few standard animals for research in the life sciences ch... more After 1900, the selective breeding of a few standard animals for research in the life sciences changed the way science was done. Among the pervasive changes was a transformation in scientists' assumptions about relationship between diversity and generality.

In 1920, Eugen Steinach and Paul Kammerer reported experiments showing that exposure to high temp... more In 1920, Eugen Steinach and Paul Kammerer reported experiments showing that exposure to high temperatures altered the structure of the gonad and produced hyper-sexuality in “heat rats,” presumably as a result of the increased production of sex hormones. Using Steinach’s evidence that the gonad is a double gland with distinct sexual and generative functions, they used their findings to explain ‘racial’ differences in the sexuality of indigenous tropical peoples and Europeans. The authors also reported that heat induced anatomical changes in the interstitial cells of the gonad were inherited by the heat rats’ descendants. Kammerer used this finding to link endocrinology to his long-standing interest in the inheritance of acquired characteristics. The heat rats supported his hypothesis that the interstitial cells of the double gland were the mechanism of somatic induction in the inheritance of acquired characteristics. The Steinach-Kammerer collaboration, Kammerer’s use of Steinach’s “puberty gland” to explain somatic induction, and his endocrine analysis of symbiosis reveal Paul Kammerer ‘s late career attempt to integrate endocrinology and genetics with the political ideals of Austrian socialism. With them he developed a bioethics that challenged the growing reliance on race in eugenics and instead promoted cooperation over competition in evolution. I relate his attempt to the controversies surrounding the interstitial cells, to the status of extra-nuclear theories of heredity, and to Kammerer’s commitment to Austromarxist social reforms during the interwar period.

For much of the twentieth century scientific psychology treated the relative contributions of nat... more For much of the twentieth century scientific psychology treated the relative contributions of nature and nurture to the development of phenotypes as the result of two quite separate sources of influence. One, nature, was linked to biological perspectives, often manifest as “instinct”, while the other, nurture, was taken to reflect psychological influences. We argue that this separation was contingent on historical circumstance. Prior to about 1920, several perspectives in biology and psychology promoted the synthesis of nature and nurture. But between 1930 and 1980 that synthetic consensus was lost in America as numerous influences converged to promote a view that identified psychological and biological aspects of mind and behavior as inherently separate. Around 1960, during the hegemony of behaviorism, Daniel Lehrman, Gilbert Gottlieb, and other pioneers of developmental psychobiology developed probabilistic epigenesis to reject predeterminist notions of instinct and restore a synthesis. We describe the earlier and later periods of synthesis and discuss several influences that led to the separation of nature and nurture in the middle of the twentieth century.

In the nineteenth century, scientific materials in experimental physiology changed dramatically. ... more In the nineteenth century, scientific materials in experimental physiology changed dramatically. In this context, phenomena that had been widely accepted were lost, sometimes to be reintroduced later as 'discoveries'. I describe the loss of the phenomenon of classical conditioning, later rediscovered by Ivan Pavlov. In 1896, Austrian physiologist Alois Kreidl demonstrated experimentally that animals anticipate the occurrence of food that is cued by a variety of stimuli. Kreidl stated, moreover, that the fact that animals can be called to food had been widely known to science since the 1830s. I describe Kreidl's work and discuss several factors that may have led to the disappearance of conditioning prior to its rediscovery by Pavlov.

The Auk, Jan 1, 1983

Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) song has been demonstrated to function in the species' perennial ... more Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) song has been demonstrated to function in the species' perennial territoriality. Data reported here suggest that this species' diverse song may also function intersexually in reproduction. Observations on the amount of song produced by identified males throughout the breeding season revealed a pronounced cyclicity in the occurrence of song. Further, song cyclicity was systematically associated with the nature of the breeding activity in progress. In each of six mated males, the amount of song increased substantially while the male was nest building. The amount of song decreased significantly during incubation and during the care of offspring. This relationship held even when the cycle of breeding activities was disrupted through nest loss; males resumed singing immediately, although losses often occurred during periods of very little song. Analyses indicated that the nest-building song burst did not result from the activities involved in nest construction itself but often preceded the first observed instance of nest building. Increased song during nest building cannot be explained by excess amounts of unoccupied singing time available to males not engaged in the care of offspring. The overall pattern of results indicates that Mockingbird song may function in reproductive as well as in territorial contexts. Further, the cyclic relationship between song and breeding activities suggests that song may constitute a mechanism by which the reproductive state of the female is rapidly reset in preparation for subsequent broods.

Animal behaviour, Jan 1, 1990

Mockingbirds commonly show clutch overlap, initiating work on a subsequent brood while older youn... more Mockingbirds commonly show clutch overlap, initiating work on a subsequent brood while older young remain dependent on parental care. Several days before the male begins to build a new nest, he resumes singing. The result is a cyclic pattern of singing in which song ceases during the nestling period and recurs each time the male builds a nest. To determine if song can stimulate renesting in the presence of dependent young, and thereby regulate the amount of clutch overlap, mated males were played song earlier in the breeding cycle than they would normally begin to sing. Experimental pairs were played 140 min of mockingbird song per day in their territories beginning at nestling day 6 and continuing through the onset of renesting. They began nest building sooner and built more before the older young fledged than either males that heard no song or two that heard brown thrasher, Toxastoma rufum, song. In several pairs hearing mockingbird song, nest building continued after the stimulus song ceased, and the female laid in the nest begun in response to song. The amount of nest building was positively correlated with the male's initial aggressive reaction to the speaker playing song, but unrelated to the amount of his own song production. These data constitute the first demonstration in the field of the role of passerine song in re-initiating breeding in established pairs.

Hormones and Behavior, Mar 1, 1995

Journal of Field Ornithology, Jan 1, 1987

... Reproductively dependent song cyclicity in mated male mockingbirds. Auk 100:404-413. LOGAN, C... more ... Reproductively dependent song cyclicity in mated male mockingbirds. Auk 100:404-413. LOGAN, CA, P. BUDMAN, AND KR FULK. 1983. ... Pp. 135-158, in AC Kamil and T. Sargent, eds. Foraging behavior, ecological, ethological and psychological approaches. ...

History of Psychology, Jan 1, 1999

The dominance of albino rats in non-human research in experimental psychology was often accompani... more The dominance of albino rats in non-human research in experimental psychology was often accompanied by an assumption that they embodied unchanging fundamentals that could generalize to a wide range of vertebrates. I describe the comparative context surrounding the original choice of the white rat as a standard animal in the thinking of the two individuals most responsible for establishment of the rat: Adolf Meyer and Henry H. Donaldson. I argue that their original rationale for the choice of white rats as a mammalian research standard reflected careful attention to species differences. Finally, I suggest that as a result of the engineering ideal in physiology and psychology, this reasoning was transformed into an assumption that one animal could stand for all vertebrates.

Hormones and Behavior, Jan 1, 1990

Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) show intense territorial activity in the autumn as newcomers att... more Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) show intense territorial activity in the autumn as newcomers attempt to establish space within resident populations. Examination of autumnal territorial behavior showed that unmated males sing more and engage in more territorial fights than mated males. Newcomers that have just acquired space also sing more and show more territorial fights than birds resident to the population for at least one prior season. Among established residents, the average number of territorial fights was greater in birds that shared more territory boundaries with new residents. Radioimmunoassay of plasma samples taken from males during the molt and following the onset of territorial defense showed that during both periods plasma concentrations of testosterone (T), dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and estradiol were basal or below the sensitivity of the assay system. Moreover, groups of males that differed in song and territorial aggression did not differ in plasma concentrations of T, DHT, or luteinizing hormone (LH). Hormone analyses confirm measurements on several other avian species suggesting that sex steroid concentrations are low in the fall and winter and that variations in aggressive behavior at this time of year may be unrelated to LH and androgen levels. Our observations contribute to a growing body of work in temperate passerines indicating that the role of androgens in mediating aggressive challenge may be restricted to the breeding season. The possible hormonal basis (if any) of song and territorial aggression in mockingbirds outside the breeding season remains obscure.

Brain, Behavior, and Evolution, 2019

Rodents as standardized test animals were developed for commercial distribution in the USA betwee... more Rodents as standardized test animals were developed for commercial distribution in the USA between 1910 and the 1930s. The selective breeding of rats (Rattus norvegicus) and pure-bred mice (Mus musculus) at the Wistar Institute and the Jackson Memorial Laboratories eventually led to a decline in the diversity of species used in American medical and life sciences. The early driving figures, science administrator Milton Greenman and the scientists Henry Donaldson and Clarence Little, sought to standardize animals to render science and its application to humanity more precise. But their efforts were exaggerated in the USA through an expanding industrial and engineering ideal, culminating in a preference for Big Science. I explore the nineteenth century origins of this ideal in Emil Du Bois-Reymond's neurophysiology. This foundation later merged with increasing standardization, American commercialism, and the success of Big Science to transform animal laboratory "standards" into "model animals." Recent accounts of research with commercially bred mice reveal how findings can be co-constructed using human clinical data, as animal research is applied to humans. The neglect of evolutionary perspectives and the dominance of "models" may even have begun with the government's post-war emphasis on funding greater species access for large-scale biomedical research.

In 1936, Eugen Steinach and colleagues published a work that brought steroid biochemistry to the ... more In 1936, Eugen Steinach and colleagues published a work that brought steroid biochemistry to the study of sexual behavior and, using synthetic androgens and estrogens, foreshadowed by an astonishing four decades the discovery of the central role of estrogen in the sexual behavior of male rats. We offer an English translation of that paper, accompanied by historical commentary that presents Steinach as a pioneer in reproductive neuroendocrinology. His work (1) established the interstitial cells as the main source of mammalian gonadal hormones; (2) launched the hypothesis that steroid hormones act on the brain to induce sexual behavior and that chronic gonadal transplants produce sexual reversals in physiology and behavior; (3) demonstrated the influence of sensory stimulation on testicular function; and finally, (4) spearheaded the development of synthetic commercial hormones for clinical use in humans. Though its applications were controversial, Steinach's research was confirme...

Palgrave Communications , 2017

The concept of plasticity infused regenerative approaches to brain science in Switzerland in the ... more The concept of plasticity infused regenerative approaches to brain science in Switzerland in the mid-twentieth century, shaping a holistic tradition prominent among Zurich’s psychiatrists and neurologists. From 1910 to about 1950, they sought to objectify the dynamic unconscious using a psychobiological approach to mental pathology pioneered by the neuroanatomists August Forel and Constantin von Monakow. Little scholarship, however, has explored this tradition. Both Forel and Monakow influenced Rudolf Brun, a Zurich neurologist and ant expert, who championed parallels between biological conflicts measured in social insects and Sigmund Freud’s drive energetics. Brun’s concept of drive conflict integrated Richard Semon’s theory of plastic heredity as “species memory” with a revised Monakow to explain mental pathology in the brain. Through them, he proposed the neuropathology underlying Freud’s “genuine” psychoneuroses: those caused by unconscious memories of traumatic experience.
This paper uses primary historical sources from the Swiss scientific literature to demonstrate that 1) Brun combined Semon’s plastic heredity, Cannon’s physiology and Pavlov’s conditional reflex to objectify Freud’s dynamic unconscious; and 2) though he rejected Monakow’s teleology, Brun’s holistic mind-body approach owed much to Monakow’s theory of emotions and pathology manifest in the brain. Brun elaborated Monakow’s view that psychopathology occurs as unconscious drive conflicts produce neurotoxicity, enabling excess hormones to disrupt the brain’s protective filtering system. Brun’s ant experiments confirmed evolutionary “laws” governing drive conflict and framed the neuro-energetics underlying the resolution of repressed emotional trauma. Tests pitted conflicts between social drives and those serving self-interest. Through them, Brun extended moral conflict beyond the Oedipal domain of psychoanalysis to encompass conflicts in a biological hierarchy of drives. His drive-based account of conscience explored neural pathways reaching back from the cortex to the body, so enabling traumatic memories to generate psychoneuroses. Plasticity could then justify the use of psychotherapy to reverse these pathogenic connections. Brun’s example demonstrates the significance of Semon’s theory of heredity for objective accounts of the unconscious mind in Central Europe and the hidden legacy of Monakow’s neuroendocrine holism. Brun combined that legacy with objective evidence and Zurich’s emphasis on plasticity to endorse—somewhat paradoxically—the reversal of psychoneuroses in the brain.

Developmental Psychobiology, 2007

A tribute to the career of Gilbert Gottlieb represented in the contributions to developmental sci... more A tribute to the career of Gilbert Gottlieb represented in the contributions to developmental science of his former students and colleagues. ß 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 49: 747-748, 2007.

Endocrinology (2014) 155 (3): 688-702, Mar 2014

In 1936, Eugen Steinach and colleagues published a work that brought steroid biochemistry to the ... more In 1936, Eugen Steinach and colleagues published a work that brought steroid biochemistry to the study of sexual behavior and, using synthetic androgens and estrogens, foreshadowed by an astonishing 4 decades the discovery of the central role of estrogen in the sexual behavior of male rats. We offer an English translation of that paper, accompanied by historical commentary that presents Steinach as a pioneer in reproductive neuroendocrinology. His work 1) established the interstitial cells as the main source of mammalian gonadal hormones; 2) launched the hypothesis that steroid hormones act on the brain to induce sexual behavior and that chronic gonadal transplants produce sexual reversals in physiology and behavior; 3) demonstrated the influence of sensory stimulation on testicular function; and finally, 4) spearheaded the development of synthetic commercial hormones for clinical use in humans. Although its applications were controversial, Steinach’s research was confirmed by many, and his concepts were applied to fields such as oncology and vascular disease. His contemporaries lauded his research, as indicated by his seven Nobel Prize nominations. But Steinach’s basic research was rarely acknowledged as the field flourished after 1950. The translation and our commentary attempt to reverse that neglect among behavioral and neuroendocrinologists and clarify his central role as a founder of the neuroendocrinology of sexual behavior and reproduction.

Journal of Experimental Zoology, A, 2015

Founded in Vienna in 1903, the Institute for Experimental Biology pioneered the application of ex... more Founded in Vienna in 1903, the Institute for Experimental Biology pioneered the application of experimental methods to living organisms maintained for sustained periods in captivity. Its Director, the zoologist Hans Przibram, oversaw until 1938, the attempt to integrate ontogeny with studies of inheritance using precise and controlled measurements of the impact of environmental influences on the emergence of form and function. In the early years, these efforts paralleled and even fostered the emergence of experimental biology in America. But fate intervened. Though the Institute served an international community, most of its resident scientists and staff were of Jewish ancestry. Well before the Nazis entered Austria in 1938, these men and women were being fired and driven out; some, including Przibram, were eventually killed. We describe the unprecedented facilities built and the topics addressed by the several departments that made up this Institute, stressing those most relevant to the establishment and success of the Journal of Experimental Zoology, which was founded just a year later. The Institute’s diaspora left an important legacy in North America, perhaps best embodied by the career of the developmental neuroscientist Paul Weiss.

Memory Studies, 2015

The idea that offspring could inherit attributes or dispositions that their parents had acquired ... more The idea that offspring could inherit attributes or dispositions that their parents had acquired is associated with the thinking of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. But the early twentieth century saw several attempts to modernize the concept as a form of “organic” memory. I focus on one uncommonly comprehensive attempt, that of the German morphologist Richard Semon. Semon’s case is instructive because, despite an evidence-based approach that drew on cell biology, neurophysiology, and evolution, his idea was strongly resisted. Some critics failed even to address his central claim. I use criticisms of Semon’s attempt to explore some philosophical, social, and scientific barriers that combined to facilitate the decline of modernized notions of organic memory in the first half of the twentieth century, especially as applied to the science of heredity.

In America by the 1930s, albino rats had become a kind of generic standard in research on physiol... more In America by the 1930s, albino rats had become a kind of generic standard in research on physiology and behavior that de-emphasized diversity across species. However, prior to about 1915, the early work of many of the pioneer rat researchers in America and in central Europe reflected a strong interest in species differences and a deep regard for diversity. These scientists sought broad, often medical, generality, but their quest for generality using a standard animal did not entail a de-emphasis of organic diversity. They chose white rats as test animals for two primary reasons. First, rats develop very slowly. They therefore made features of physiological, neural and psychological development accessible to the experimental method at a time when its application to the phenomena of development remained controversial. Secondly, rats were thought to have unusually strong sex drives. For this reason they became central to the experimental study of sexuality and, in the work of the reproductive physiologist Eugen Steinach, sexual development. Connections among three research institutes that stressed experimental approaches to the study of brain and development demonstrate the importance of the rat's institutional role. As the emphasis on experimentation in the study of development grew, two of these institutes bred rats to provide uniform materials. Eventually, however, their reasons for selecting rats were lost; and the ready availability of a uniform test animal led to a shift in scientists' presumptions about diversity, as the standard rat became a tool for assuring generality.

After 1900, the selective breeding of a few standard animals for research in the life sciences ch... more After 1900, the selective breeding of a few standard animals for research in the life sciences changed the way science was done. Among the pervasive changes was a transformation in scientists' assumptions about relationship between diversity and generality.

In 1920, Eugen Steinach and Paul Kammerer reported experiments showing that exposure to high temp... more In 1920, Eugen Steinach and Paul Kammerer reported experiments showing that exposure to high temperatures altered the structure of the gonad and produced hyper-sexuality in “heat rats,” presumably as a result of the increased production of sex hormones. Using Steinach’s evidence that the gonad is a double gland with distinct sexual and generative functions, they used their findings to explain ‘racial’ differences in the sexuality of indigenous tropical peoples and Europeans. The authors also reported that heat induced anatomical changes in the interstitial cells of the gonad were inherited by the heat rats’ descendants. Kammerer used this finding to link endocrinology to his long-standing interest in the inheritance of acquired characteristics. The heat rats supported his hypothesis that the interstitial cells of the double gland were the mechanism of somatic induction in the inheritance of acquired characteristics. The Steinach-Kammerer collaboration, Kammerer’s use of Steinach’s “puberty gland” to explain somatic induction, and his endocrine analysis of symbiosis reveal Paul Kammerer ‘s late career attempt to integrate endocrinology and genetics with the political ideals of Austrian socialism. With them he developed a bioethics that challenged the growing reliance on race in eugenics and instead promoted cooperation over competition in evolution. I relate his attempt to the controversies surrounding the interstitial cells, to the status of extra-nuclear theories of heredity, and to Kammerer’s commitment to Austromarxist social reforms during the interwar period.

For much of the twentieth century scientific psychology treated the relative contributions of nat... more For much of the twentieth century scientific psychology treated the relative contributions of nature and nurture to the development of phenotypes as the result of two quite separate sources of influence. One, nature, was linked to biological perspectives, often manifest as “instinct”, while the other, nurture, was taken to reflect psychological influences. We argue that this separation was contingent on historical circumstance. Prior to about 1920, several perspectives in biology and psychology promoted the synthesis of nature and nurture. But between 1930 and 1980 that synthetic consensus was lost in America as numerous influences converged to promote a view that identified psychological and biological aspects of mind and behavior as inherently separate. Around 1960, during the hegemony of behaviorism, Daniel Lehrman, Gilbert Gottlieb, and other pioneers of developmental psychobiology developed probabilistic epigenesis to reject predeterminist notions of instinct and restore a synthesis. We describe the earlier and later periods of synthesis and discuss several influences that led to the separation of nature and nurture in the middle of the twentieth century.

In the nineteenth century, scientific materials in experimental physiology changed dramatically. ... more In the nineteenth century, scientific materials in experimental physiology changed dramatically. In this context, phenomena that had been widely accepted were lost, sometimes to be reintroduced later as 'discoveries'. I describe the loss of the phenomenon of classical conditioning, later rediscovered by Ivan Pavlov. In 1896, Austrian physiologist Alois Kreidl demonstrated experimentally that animals anticipate the occurrence of food that is cued by a variety of stimuli. Kreidl stated, moreover, that the fact that animals can be called to food had been widely known to science since the 1830s. I describe Kreidl's work and discuss several factors that may have led to the disappearance of conditioning prior to its rediscovery by Pavlov.

The Auk, Jan 1, 1983

Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) song has been demonstrated to function in the species' perennial ... more Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) song has been demonstrated to function in the species' perennial territoriality. Data reported here suggest that this species' diverse song may also function intersexually in reproduction. Observations on the amount of song produced by identified males throughout the breeding season revealed a pronounced cyclicity in the occurrence of song. Further, song cyclicity was systematically associated with the nature of the breeding activity in progress. In each of six mated males, the amount of song increased substantially while the male was nest building. The amount of song decreased significantly during incubation and during the care of offspring. This relationship held even when the cycle of breeding activities was disrupted through nest loss; males resumed singing immediately, although losses often occurred during periods of very little song. Analyses indicated that the nest-building song burst did not result from the activities involved in nest construction itself but often preceded the first observed instance of nest building. Increased song during nest building cannot be explained by excess amounts of unoccupied singing time available to males not engaged in the care of offspring. The overall pattern of results indicates that Mockingbird song may function in reproductive as well as in territorial contexts. Further, the cyclic relationship between song and breeding activities suggests that song may constitute a mechanism by which the reproductive state of the female is rapidly reset in preparation for subsequent broods.

Animal behaviour, Jan 1, 1990

Mockingbirds commonly show clutch overlap, initiating work on a subsequent brood while older youn... more Mockingbirds commonly show clutch overlap, initiating work on a subsequent brood while older young remain dependent on parental care. Several days before the male begins to build a new nest, he resumes singing. The result is a cyclic pattern of singing in which song ceases during the nestling period and recurs each time the male builds a nest. To determine if song can stimulate renesting in the presence of dependent young, and thereby regulate the amount of clutch overlap, mated males were played song earlier in the breeding cycle than they would normally begin to sing. Experimental pairs were played 140 min of mockingbird song per day in their territories beginning at nestling day 6 and continuing through the onset of renesting. They began nest building sooner and built more before the older young fledged than either males that heard no song or two that heard brown thrasher, Toxastoma rufum, song. In several pairs hearing mockingbird song, nest building continued after the stimulus song ceased, and the female laid in the nest begun in response to song. The amount of nest building was positively correlated with the male's initial aggressive reaction to the speaker playing song, but unrelated to the amount of his own song production. These data constitute the first demonstration in the field of the role of passerine song in re-initiating breeding in established pairs.

Hormones and Behavior, Mar 1, 1995

Journal of Field Ornithology, Jan 1, 1987

... Reproductively dependent song cyclicity in mated male mockingbirds. Auk 100:404-413. LOGAN, C... more ... Reproductively dependent song cyclicity in mated male mockingbirds. Auk 100:404-413. LOGAN, CA, P. BUDMAN, AND KR FULK. 1983. ... Pp. 135-158, in AC Kamil and T. Sargent, eds. Foraging behavior, ecological, ethological and psychological approaches. ...

History of Psychology, Jan 1, 1999

The dominance of albino rats in non-human research in experimental psychology was often accompani... more The dominance of albino rats in non-human research in experimental psychology was often accompanied by an assumption that they embodied unchanging fundamentals that could generalize to a wide range of vertebrates. I describe the comparative context surrounding the original choice of the white rat as a standard animal in the thinking of the two individuals most responsible for establishment of the rat: Adolf Meyer and Henry H. Donaldson. I argue that their original rationale for the choice of white rats as a mammalian research standard reflected careful attention to species differences. Finally, I suggest that as a result of the engineering ideal in physiology and psychology, this reasoning was transformed into an assumption that one animal could stand for all vertebrates.

Hormones and Behavior, Jan 1, 1990

Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) show intense territorial activity in the autumn as newcomers att... more Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) show intense territorial activity in the autumn as newcomers attempt to establish space within resident populations. Examination of autumnal territorial behavior showed that unmated males sing more and engage in more territorial fights than mated males. Newcomers that have just acquired space also sing more and show more territorial fights than birds resident to the population for at least one prior season. Among established residents, the average number of territorial fights was greater in birds that shared more territory boundaries with new residents. Radioimmunoassay of plasma samples taken from males during the molt and following the onset of territorial defense showed that during both periods plasma concentrations of testosterone (T), dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and estradiol were basal or below the sensitivity of the assay system. Moreover, groups of males that differed in song and territorial aggression did not differ in plasma concentrations of T, DHT, or luteinizing hormone (LH). Hormone analyses confirm measurements on several other avian species suggesting that sex steroid concentrations are low in the fall and winter and that variations in aggressive behavior at this time of year may be unrelated to LH and androgen levels. Our observations contribute to a growing body of work in temperate passerines indicating that the role of androgens in mediating aggressive challenge may be restricted to the breeding season. The possible hormonal basis (if any) of song and territorial aggression in mockingbirds outside the breeding season remains obscure.

Journal of Comparative …, Jan 1, 1983

Page 1. Journal of Comparative Piychotogy 1983. Vol 97, No 4. 292-301 Copyright 1983 by the Ameri... more Page 1. Journal of Comparative Piychotogy 1983. Vol 97, No 4. 292-301 Copyright 1983 by the American Psychological Association, Inc Role of Chatburst Versus Song in the Defense of Fall Territory in Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) ...

Advances in analysis of behavior

Applied developmental psychology, Jan 1, 1985

In G Müller (ed.). Vivarium. MIT Press, 2017

The famed Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler believed in memory. In 1931, he published a work that ... more The famed Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler believed in memory. In 1931, he published a work that elevated memory to the status of a universal conceptual framework for the life sciences. In it, he terms his approach "mnemism"; and he argues that mnemism is a superior foundation for understanding life and mind than either the neovitalism, then emerging to explain development and regeneration, or the reductive mechanism traditionally dominant in physiology and genetics. His goal was an holistic integration of bodily function combined with a pervasive mnemic plasticity that, he argues, is at work in heredity as well as in mind and that undergirds both evolution and human nature.

“Mnemism”: Memory, Evolution, and the Extended Unconscious in Eugen Bleuler’s Theory of Human Nature , 2023

Late in life, the famed Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler developed a theory of human nature that ... more Late in life, the famed Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler developed a theory of human nature that stressed flexible heredity and a holistic approach to evolutionary adaptation. At its core is a "bodily psyche" that he proposed to ensure the maintenance of bodily expediency. With the theory, he hoped to both challenge Freud and place psychiatry on a more firm scientific foundation than that offered by Emil Kraepelin.