Evening star., 1936-01-28

Cats with right sided and left-sloeo
personalities are running about the
physiological laboratory of Johns Hop
kins University.
On one side they are gentle, anec-
tionate, purring old pets. On the other
side they are raging, snarllng, clawlng
demons. One side cuddles warmly
against the hand that strokes 1t. The
other side struggles scratches and bites.
They are the result of type OF brain
operation hit upon by accident. But Dr'
Philip Bard. professor OF physiology, can
give no logical reason for the Wlerd COM
bination of pet and demon in the same
animal at the same time-especially SINCE
It has been demonstrated that one Slde
is not more sensitive than the other.
If the problem can be solved it may shed
new light on the neural mechanism o!
emotional behavior. DR.. Bard explained
their behavior in recent lecture at
George Washington University Medical
School.
The strange creatures were produced
in the course of long-continued expert
ments to find what might be superb
cially Decentralization DR.. Bard IS
not satisfied with the term-as the brain
centers of overt emotional behavior. It
long has been known to Psychologists
that when a large part OF the upper
portion of the brain of dog or cat has
been removed the animal, Immediately
upon coming out Of the anesthetic. dis
plays all the symptoms of creature IN
extreme rage. 1t acts as II it were mad
over the dirty trick played upon 1t while
II was unconscious. It continues to fly
into this quasi rage whenever stimulated
as long as it lives. It laSheS its tail,
claws, growls and bites.
Now this cannot be exactly the same
sort of rage as is manifested by the
intact animal, for the "decorticated cat"
is without consciousness. Psychologists
and psychologists are agreed that with
out the cortex of the brain there can
be no consciousness, as the term gen.
orally is understood. The creature can
not know that it is mad. It cannot
"knoW' anything. The rage must be
entirely automatic, like the popping up
of a tack-in -the-box. Yet the body be-
haves exactly as If the animal were
consciously mad. The parallel is both
external and internal. The heart speeds
up The blood pressure rises. There IS
a great increase in the blood sugar.
Movements of the gastro-intestinal tract
stop.
But if the section is made trifle lower
there is no such reaction. Somewhere
in a very narrow area between the top
brain, seat of all consciousness. and the
middle brain, which is a part OF the
mechanism of unconscious functions, Is
the emotion center. DR.. Bard has been
trying to locate 1t more exactly, ana
everything points to the conclusion that
it is found in the so-called hypo-thala-
mus, forming part of the wall OF the
third ventricle. In the experiments
scores of cats have been decorticated.
When the operation is successful they
live indefinitely and their day-by- day
behavior can be studied.
One day decortication operation did
not come out exactly right and in order
TO stop bleeding it was necessary to re-
move q little more tissue than was GUS
tomary. The result was the wierd per.
sonality" combination. Since then 1t
has been possible to operate in the same
way on other cats with the same results.
But there is no clue as to why the two
sides react SO differently. One OF the
cats now has lived in the laboratory
more than five years and always Its
behavior has been the same. The slight.
est contact with one side Of the body
throws It into . snarling rage. while