Evening star., 1936-12-29
IMAGINATION CUT
OUT OF THE BRAIN
Result of 20 Years Study
Reported at Meeting
of Scientists.
~ . st.n Correspondent of The star.

of Scientists.
~ stsn Correspondent Of The star.
ATLANTIC CITY. December 90
Imagination and the capacity for alb
stract thought can be cut out Of the
brain.
These distinctive properties Of hui
man beings are lost almost completely
by persons who have suffered ex-
tensive LESSONS of the frontal lobes
Of the cerebral cortex. according to a
paper based on 20 years Of studies
presented before psychologists attend
ing the sessions of the American As
sociation for the Advancement Of
Science here by DR.. Kurt Goldstein
Of the Montefiore Hospital, New York
City.
Such LESSONS in the part of the brain
in which man shows the greatest Diff
ferentiation from the great apes and
which often has been regarded as the
seat Of intelligence often are caused
BY operations for brain tumors. Su-
perfcially, DR.. Goldstein said. the
patients may show no mental change
and even perform some tasks requir-
ing concentration better than before.
They completely lose, however. the
capacity to do some very simple
things.
Could Redraw Details.
A man with such frontal lobe
lesion could look at fairly compli-
Gated picture of a house and then,
without looking at it, redraw 1t in all
its details. He was completely unable,
however, to draw two lines at As
degree angle with the opening up
ward without keeping his eye on the
design-something any kindergarten
child could do easily. When the angle
was reversed so that the opening was
downward, the drawing gave him no
difficulty.
Between these two tasks, DR.. Gold
stein explained, there was the widest
gulf in human mental life. The As
degree angle opening downward cor
responded with many things the man
knew in real life-the gable of
house. an Indian teepee. etc. When
meaningless lines in abstract space.
Memory and capacity to comprehend
disappear completely except for things
in concrete, familiar patterns.
His tests also showed, DR.. Goldstein
reported, that such a person has al
most no capacity to adjust, mentally
or emotionally. He can think only in
q straight line. When such person
Is asked to count to 20 he can go
ahead as we'll as anybody else, but
cannot resume counting if he is in
terrupted at any point. Once there
Is break in normal friendly relations
he cannot resume friendship again.
Reports Two Attitudes.
In every normal mind. DR.. Goldstein
said, there are two attitudes toward
the world-the concrete and the alb
stract-which in ordinary behavior are
50 mixed together that they cannot
be differentiated. One is the atti-
tude Of taking the world exactly as
one finds 1t and being guided entirely
by the environment. The other is
that OF rearranging things in new
combinations, which is the exclusive
property Of human beings. This ca
pacity apparently is centered entirely
In the frontal lobes.
New light was thrown on the be-
havior OF the brain at the same meet
ing BY DR.. Margaret Rheinberger Of
Brown University from experiments
with the brain waves" of cats.
;v,fn L1
tices of these animals at different
points detected electric currents run
ming through the brains which varied
with the nature Of the stimulation.
In one case, DR.. Rheinberger
showed. the behavior of the animal
could be predicted as much as 10
minutes in advance by q characters-
tic change in the pattern of the brain
waves-some time before any idea of
what it intended to do had con-
sciously entered the mind Of the cat
itself. All these animals were house
broke" The appearance of the par
ticular pattern Is known in the lab
cratory as the "sand-box sign"
The studies showed that the cortex
Is whole, but when some particular
sense is stimulated the patterns va
sied in q peculiar way. The areas
concerned in touch and movement
seemed to work together, as did those
TOR sight and sound.
Sick Headache Described.
The recurrent sick headache, known
As m1graine, was described as like
"a perpetually emotional drunk" by
DR.. Milton B. Jensen, consulting psy-
ehologist Of Louisville, KY, who told
OF cures brought about by PSYCHOLOGY
ical methods.
A headache, DR.. Jensen said, almost
invariably Is due to the amount of
fuid in and around the brain. Either
TOO little or too much results in
stretching the large blood vessels that
supply the cortex. When a person is
emotionally upset, he said, there are
profound chemical changes in the
body. one Of the results of which is
TO tighten the muscles at the back
OF the neck, which interferes with
the flow Of blood and other fluids.
At the same time the blood has
been made richer in blood sugar from
the effect of the emotion on the liver
through the adrenal glands and in
red corpuscles through the "soueez-
ing OF the Spleen" due to the same
cause.
This explains, he pointed out. why
emotionally upset women complain So
frequently of headaches. Resort to-
. dark and quiet room because of a
headache also is often the escape of
girls in crises of their love affairs.
1t is not just an excuse, DIR. Jensen
stressed. The headache is real enough,
Migraine in the past has been re-
garded as an hereditary curse of some
persons, In the same category as
epilepsy. If there is . hereditary
EDUCATIONAL.