come to terms

English translation: (Pavlov) was beginning to suspect this/come to that conclusion

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

English term or phrase:	come to terms
Selected answer:	(Pavlov) was beginning to suspect this/come to that conclusion
Entered by:	Yvonne Gallagher

13:59 Aug 21, 2015

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Idioms / Maxims / Sayings / brain science - conditioning process

English term or phrase: come to terms

Hi,
I'm not sure about the meaning of "coming to terms with this idea" in the passage below.
I think it is used in the sense of "was beginning to understand" this process. Pavlov is older than Hebb, so I think he didn't have all the technology that was available to Hebb and could only imagine what actually happened in the brain..

What's your opinion?
thank you very much in advance for any hint!

One way neuroscientists have expressed the idea is that “neurons that fire together wire together.”
This phrase, known as “Hebb’s axiom,” named after the Canadian neuropsychologist Donald Hebb, essentially explains that when neurons fire simultaneously in response to an experience, those neurons become connected to each other, forming a network. And when an experience is repeated over and over, it deepens and strengthens the connections among those neurons. So when they fire together, they wire together.

The famous physiologist Ivan Pavlov was ** coming to terms with this idea ** when he found that his dogs would salivate not only when actual food appeared before them, but also when he rang the dinner bell for them to come eat. The dogs’ “salivation neurons” became wired, or functionally linked, to their “dinner-bell neurons.”

haribert KudoZ activity Questions: 287 (none open) (1 closed without grading) Answers: 524
Local time: 07:55

(Pavlov) was beginning to suspect this/come to that conclusion

Explanation:
as per discussion

have an inkling this was the case

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Note added at 1 hr (2015-08-21 15:24:53 GMT)
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https://books.google.ie/books?id=vpNFS3y1WTgC&pg=PA81&lpg=PA...

Pavlov definitely influenced Hebb and was starting to make these connections himself or at least to have a notion in his head that this might be the case so your original "was beginning to understand" is valid

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Note added at 1 hr (2015-08-21 15:30:14 GMT)
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this might be useful
https://books.google.ie/books?id=TO0XBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA34&lpg=PA...

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Note added at 4 days (2015-08-26 11:22:50 GMT) Post-grading
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Glad to have helped.
Yes, I can't see how the "reluctance" implied with the standard meaning of this term would fit this context

Selected response from:

Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Local time: 06:55

Grading comment

Thank you very much for your help and your really useful links! I know that the standard meaning is the one posted by Acetran, but I think that in this case Gallagy’s answer - and to some extent also the one by Jonathan - more precisely convey the meaning of the expression in this particular context, as also shown in the references provided by Gallagy, both in his answer and in the Discussion.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

4 +7

To come to accept; become reconciled to

acetran

4 +1

(reluctantly) accept

B D Finch

internalised

Charlesp

(Pavlov) was beginning to suspect this/come to that conclusion

Yvonne Gallagher

had entertained this idea

Jonathan MacKerron

Discussion entries: 10

haribert

ASKER

Gallagy,

15:01 Aug 21, 2015

Thank you very much, indeed!
You could post an answer...

Yvonne Gallagher

Ireland

14:55 Aug 21, 2015

I think so!

https://books.google.ie/books?id=tcOvAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA82&lpg=PA...

haribert

ASKER

Gallagy,

14:47 Aug 21, 2015

That's the word I was thinking of, but I wasn't able to express in English: in my opinion, "Pavlov was beginning to have some inkling or suspect it": could this interpretation of "coming to terms with this idea" be right?
Actually, that is my interpretation...

thanks for your help and also for your useful link!

Yvonne Gallagher

Ireland

14:41 Aug 21, 2015

@ Haribert

Yes, I understand this as Pavlov was coming to that conclusion himself or at least was beginning to have some inkling of it or suspect it from his own experiments with dogs though he never actually formulated it (put it in words as such) but Hebb continued the work and proved (?) the theory. I put (?) because not everyone agree with Hebb's axiom!

haribert

ASKER

Gallagy

14:34 Aug 21, 2015

My English is not very good, but I was actually trying to say what you wrote:

* without knowing it *, Pavlov proved the modern....

and also what you wrote in your Agree to Acetran... "or even begin to come to that conclusion/formulate that theory.:
Pavlov was beginning to formulate the theory....

acetran

@Gallagy

14:20 Aug 21, 2015

Thanks!

Yvonne Gallagher

Ireland

14:19 Aug 21, 2015

http://crackingthelearningcode.com/element24.html
...Therefore, once these networks were linked by simultaneous firing, every time Pavlov rang a bell, his dogs would salivate. Without knowing it, Pavlov proved the modern neuroscientific adage, "neurons that wire together do indeed fire together."...

acetran

@asker

14:15 Aug 21, 2015

I would not mix the two. Pavlov was also coming to terms with this idea -- this can be said from today's perspective. There is no chronology in the events.

B D Finch

France

@haribert

14:15 Aug 21, 2015

According to your source text, he did know about it.

haribert

ASKER

Hi,

14:10 Aug 21, 2015

Thanks for your prompt reply! My doubt is due to the fact that the idea of "neurons that fire together wire together" was developed after Pavlov's studies, if I'm not mistaken... I'm not sure that Pavolv knew this process...

Answers

4 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +7

To come to accept; become reconciled to

Explanation:
That is what it means in standard English.

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/come to terms with
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=come to terms...

acetran
Native speaker of:

Hindi,

English

5 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

(reluctantly) accept

Explanation:
It means accepting (reluctantly), not "to understand".

B D Finch
France
Local time: 07:55
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 36

40 mins confidence:

had entertained this idea

Explanation:
is how I understand it in this specific situation

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Note added at 42 mins (2015-08-21 14:41:37 GMT)
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had more or less adopted this idea when...

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Note added at 3 hrs (2015-08-21 17:29:43 GMT)
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had flirted with the idea

Jonathan MacKerron
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 20

2 days 1 hr confidence:

internalised

Explanation:
I will suggest "internalised" the fact that...

Charlesp
Sweden
Local time: 07:55
Native speaker of: English

1 hr confidence:

(Pavlov) was beginning to suspect this/come to that conclusion

Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Local time: 06:55
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 56

Grading comment

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thank you very much, Gallagy, for these really useful and interesting links!

Asker: Hi, neither do I... Actually, among the synonyms of "come to terms", I've found also come to an understanding http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/come-to-terms Maybe, the expression has been used in this sense.... Thanks again for your support! It's so difficult, at times, to balance the "standard meaning" of a word and the "factual knowledge"...

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