Bridgeton pioneer., 1908-01-16
WORK OF THE BRAIN
Curious Facts About the Human
Thinking Apparatus.
WHERE THOUGHTS ARE BORN.
Right Handed Persons Form Ideas In
the Left Half of the Brain and Left
Handlers In the Right HaIf-Strange
Freaks of Mental Blindness.


Handlers In the Right HaIf-stranse
Freaks of Mental Blindness.
Common opinion has it that the
thinking Is done in the front part of
the brain, so that a high forehead
means lofty intellect Common opin-
ion, 1t turns out, is precisely wrong.
More hard thinking is done at the back
part of the head than anywhere else
Much of the rest is done in a region
just above the ears.
When the thinking involves action
the sides and top of the head play their
special part. In fact, about the only
portion of the outer layers of the brain
substance that has never been found
to have the least connection with any
sort of thinking is that lying above the
eyes.
There is another curious fact about
the thinking apparatus. Nine men out
of ten at least do all their thinking on
the left side Of the brain and might,
as far as their purely mental opera
tions are concerned, get on just as well
if the entire right half were removed
To be sure, tumor on the right side
of the brain, broken blood vessel or
disintegration Of the brain substance
is apt to cause more or less complete
and permanent paralysis of correspond
ing groups of muscles, always, of course.
on the left side Of the body, since, as
Is well known, nearly all the nerve
fibers in passing from the brain to the
hO6U 10 +ho
side.
Such an injury to the right side of
the brain, however, does not in gen.
| eral affect the mind. This remains as
clear and sane and vigorous as ever.
On the other hand, the very same in
| jury to the brain which on the right
| side affected only the body will when
it occurs on the left side affect the
mind as WELL To paralysis of the mus
cles is added curtailment of the think
ing powers
| There have been men who have lost
cupful of brains out of the right side
of their heads and retained all their
mental faculties unimpaired There
have been other men in whom the loss
of half a thimbeful from the left
side has rendered them for the re-
mainder of their lives unable to rec
ognize by sight their own wives.
1 have said that most men do all
their thinking on the left side of their
brains. The remainder use only the
right sides of theirs. These, moreover,
are the left handed men.
| Apparently, too, right handed men
are right eyed men also, and not only
sight gun or use microscope with
the right eye, but also sit to drive or
stand to bat or grasp tools in the way
that will give to that eye the more un-
1mpeded view. In addition, right hand
ed men are also right eared-while
they hear with both ears, they listen
with the right-as any one may test
In his own case for himself.
Left handed men are corresponding
ly left eyed and left cared. Thus, the
centers for the more skillful hand and
| probably for the better trained eye
come normally on the same side Of
the brain as the thinking apparatus,
so that the eye, hand and thought
work together.
In general, then, all the thinking Is
done on the left side Of the brain.
Can we not go farther and say that
| particular kinds Of thinking are done
in particular regions of the left cor
tex?
! The phrenologists, Of course, have
the entire brain mapped out like city
observation-disclosures here, order there.
This part of ones brain operates when
he puts away his shoes in the closet,
that when he throws them at the cat
! Now, as a matter of fact, we have
faculties in the mind and Organs"
in the brain about as much as we
have baseball playing muscle and a
wood saving muscle and still another
muscle for standing still. The brain
| acts as a whole just as the body does
We use all our muscles to play ball,
and we use them all to saw wood.
l have already touched upon the
case of the man who suddenly lost the
ability to recognize his wife. This
man, who was workman in GlaS
gov, had his skull fractured by blow
| on the left side of the head about mid
| way UttWteu lue car duu Tie CTOWu,
so that splinter Of bone became i'm
bedded in the gray matter of his brain.
At once he lost the capacity for think
ing about what he saw.
| Though his sight was sharp enough,
he could not recognize the most famil-
lar objects. His friends his children,
his wife, appeared merely as colored
spots, yet otherwise his mind was
clear, and the moment any Of them
spoke he knew them at once. He could
not tell by eyesight how many fingers
were held up before his face, but by
touch he could count them as well as
| ever. G
Still stranger freaks Of mental blind
ness however, are brought about by
the bursting or plugging of minute
blood vessels in the brain. There is
| New York case of this sort an educat-