Evening star., 1933-05-09
FAULTS IN SPEECH
ARE EATTR|BUTEDT0
SOUND BLINDNESS
Inability to Hear Mistaken
i5r Low Intelligence,
Specialist Says.
DEFECT IN HEARING
BELIEVED INHERITED
Four Year Study of Aphasias Re-
ported to American Neuro-
logical Society.

Discovery of condition affecting the
hearing which acts like color blindness
in seeing was made known by DR..
Samuel T. Orton Of New York before
the American Neurological Society
meeting here today.
The victims apparently Have normal
hearing, but when subjected to definite
tests it is found that they cannot hear
sounds produced at certain frequencies
which occur in the normal range of
conversation. In children, this ap-
parently is responsible for certain
speech defects which may cause serious
delay in school and in some cases lead
to the suspicion Of low intelligence.
This defect appears most frequently
for the higher frequencies of normal
speech, DR.. Orton said. such as enter
into such sounds as IS, F. and TIL"
Children with the defect show up in
pronouncing words with these sounds,
either passing them over altogether or
substituting something else. Later they
may learn to read lips unconsciously
and, by initiating the lip movements of
others, produce sounds which they do
not hear. Great differences were found
In having such a child repeat sounds
facing the speaker and with the back
turned to him
Regional Deafness.
In detecting this tone blindness DR..
Orton used device by which when a
sound OF given frequency was given
and the child pressed a button simul-
taneously toy locomotive was made to
emerge from a tunnel. The defect is
similar to color blindness in that this
well known anomaly is due to complete
failure to receive certain parts of the
visual light range. DR.. Orton named
the defect regional deafness
This is one of the conditions. he said
which cause delay in learning to talk
and prove source of worry to parents
who fear their children may be of sub
normal intelligence There is another
group, he explained, who apparently
hear all sounds within the hearing
range, but to whom many words con.
vey no meaning. When child is slow
in speaking, he pointed out. all these
possibilities should be considered before
questioning the intelligence.
There is some indication that "re-
eional deafness" like color blindness.
may be inherited. The wide differentia-
ton from actual deafness is shown by
the fact that the victim may be better
than normal in certain regions of the
normal hearing range. 1t was found
In one case of a man who had been
World War aviator and passed the
delicate aviation hearing tests without
rousing any suspicion of a defect 1t
appears in more aggravated form in
his two daughters.
Reports on Aphasias.
Results of four-year study of apha-
sias were presented to the neurologists
by Or. T. H. Weisenburg Of Phila-
delphia. The aphasias are those queer
conditions which arise usually from a
lesion in the brain, in which the VIC
tim may recognize familiar object
but be unable to give its name, be un-
able to write, read, or express himself
in speech. The condition takes many
forms. predominantly associated with
the use. of language.
In the past the aphasias have been
widely studied by neurologistS for the
light they might shed on localization in
the cerebral cortex of the brain. Thus
the position of LESSONS might indicate a
speech brain center. writing brain
center, reading center, ETC. DIR. Weis-
enbGrg made the most comprehensive
study yet reported and found that he
could not find such specific centers.
although he did not deny that they
might exist
He divided his asphasic patients into
four groups-those whose difficulty was
especially expressive, those chiefly ef-
fected on the receptive side, combina-
ton of the two. and the amnesic, or
those who showed the greatest difficulty
in naming objects which they recog-
nized. For the first and third groups,
he found, the actual LESSONS in the
brain were chiefly in the forehead side.
principally in the so-called frontal
lobes. 1t is in the left frontal lobe
that many neurologists recognize a
small section. known as Brocca's area,
which they believe to be the center of
speech. But DR.. Weisenburg's cases
did not show LESSONS concentrated
whose difficulty was chiefly in the re-
ception of impulses from the outside
world. also showed extensive LESSONS Of
the frontal lobes, but these extended
also into the so-called temporal and
parietal lobes.
Affects Whole Brain.
Dr. Weisenberg also found that the
aphasias did not fall into the very spe-
grouped by the older neurologists, such
as sudden inability to write without
any other abnormality which might in
dicate that only one tiny part of the
brain had been effected. Inability to
write, he found, might be the outstand-
ing symptom in specific case. but the
deterioration could be found upon ex-
animation through the whole range of
language functions. indicating the deep
involvement of language with mental
life as a whole.
AS 1t was summed up in the discus
sion by DR.. Frederick Tilney of Colum-
bia University: Language appears the
result Of uniform activity of the whole
brain. but there may be localization
of function within the unit"
Many cases of abnormal behavior for
which no obvious organic basis can be
found may be due to minute changes in
the brain substance itself, according to
study presented by Drs. N. w.
Winkelman of Philadelphia and John
L. Eckel of Buffalo. Such changes are
believed to result from head injuries
which leave no apparent trace. The
cases are sometimes put down to ma
lingering on the part Of the patients.
The so-called "fronto-occipital tract"
in the brain, supposed to connect up
the occipital lobe at the back Of the
brain where the center of vision Is 10
Gated with the frontal lobes. was de-
clared q myth in a paper by DR.. Joshua
Rosett of New York. The idea Of the
existence of such an organ in the hu-
man body, he said, was based on the
observation of the brain of one idiot.
Newer developments In intestinal and
abdominal surgery were presented be-