Prochaska was a pioneer in the field of
neurophysiology, being remembered for developing a comprehensive theory of reflex action involving the concepts of "vis nervosa" and "sensorium commune". "Vis nervosa" was described as a latent nervous force possessed in the nerves, and the term
sensorium commune was defined as the point of reflection between the
sensory and
motor nerves. Prochaska used the term
vis nervosa as a direct
analogy to
Isaac Newton's "vis gravitans", due to his belief that "vis nervosa" was an elemental form of energy, that could not be observed except through its effects such as reflexes and reflections, adhering to natural laws that could be described (as could Newton's theories of
gravitation), but at the same time were unexplainable. Prochaska described the "sensorium commune" as the core mechanism of the reflex. It involved the
spinal cord,
medulla oblongata and the
basal ganglia, and had the ability to reflect sensory impressions into the motor nervous system by definite laws unique to itself, and also independent of
consciousness. Prochaska demonstrated that reflex worked without a
brain, but could not work without a spinal cord, and summarized that voluntary behavior was a brain function, while reflex was spinal-based. One of Prochaska's better-known writings is
Dissertation on the Functions of the Nervous System, a work that was later combined with John Augustus Unzer's
The Principles of Physiology as one publication, being translated and edited by English physiologist
Thomas Laycock (1812–1876). ==References==