Chairman and chancellor, Psych. Dept., McGill University
Donald Hebb began his adult life intending to be a novelist, and decided that his calling required an understanding of psychology. He became one of the most influential psychologists of his time after he embarked on a course that led him into two decades of research, working with researchers like Penfield and Lashley. His studies culminated in 1949 with the publication of The Organization of Behaviour, a keystone of modern neuroscience that broke new ground by positing neural structures, called cell assemblies, which were formed through the action of feedback loops or what is now called the Hebb synapse. The cell-assembly theory guided Hebb's landmark experiments on the influence of early environment on adult intelligence. It foreshadowed neural network theory, an active line of research in artificial intelligence.
B.A., Dalhousie U., 1925; M.A. psychology, McGill; Ph.D., Harvard, 1936. Author: The Organization of Behaviour: A Neuropsychological Theory, John Wiley: 1949; A Textbook of Psychology, 1958; Essay on Mind, L. Erlbaum Assoc.: 1980,
Sources: Peter Milner, Scientific American, Jan 1993
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