Evening star., 1940-01-09
Of Sturs, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

| By Thomas r. Henry.
Severing with knife emotion -imagi-
nation and past-future bridges in the
human brain with what is perhaps the
most fantastically daring operation in
modern surgery is reported by two
George Washington University brain
specialists.
Drs. Walter Freeman and James w.
Watts during the past four years have
performed nearly 100 of these operations
for a variety of mental diseases with
various degrees of success and failure.
They have followed up their patients
with careful mental examinations. In
several cases they have worked with
local anaesthetics so that they could
talk with the persons on the operating
table and get a record of the changes
that took place when the connections
between the front and back of the
brain were partially severed.
When they reported their first opera
tions In this so-called soul surgery"
there was no clear idea of what was
happening. They only knew that they
brought relief to some persons obsessed
with worries to the verge of insanity
| by removing two small cores in the
cerebral cortex Of the brain after bor-
ing two holes in the skull just above
the ears.
In the years of success and failure
| that have followed they have ap-
| preached a definite philosophy of the
relations Of human personality to the
| brain, DR.. Freeman has just reported
to the Medical Society of the District
of Columbia in summarizing all the
cases to date.
The one most pronounced result in a
majority of the cases has been cessation
| of worry and fear In all cases hate
has gone with fear. DR.. Freeman says.
for one hates only what one fears. There
are, he stresses, two components of fear
the emotion itself and the thing
feared. Fear is always projected into
the future. There can be no fear of
something which is past but only Of
something which will happen.
One would not for example. fear
death from bullet which had been
fired but only from one which might
be fired in the future. Thus, an animal
with no concept of the future probably
has no fear of death.
Neurologists have long known that
the emotion of fear is centered in one
of the underlying nuclei Of the brain,
the thalamus. Diseases of the thalamus
cause literally fear of nothing-just a
vague. underlined terror.
The operation the two surgeons now
believe, is cutting some of the con-
nections between the thalamus and the
high brain centers. But 1t also is cur
ing some of the connections between
the back and front of the brain with
| far-reaching consequences, for fear OF
consequences must be based on associa-
| tions with the past.
Out of all this, DR.. Freeman says. a
new philosophy of brain functioning has
| evolved.
The cerebral cortex. or top layer Of
| the brain, is split approximately in two
halves breadthwise by deep wrinkle
VIC SO-CdllCu Va ASoiailuo
Behind this fissure are the brain areas,
| for the most part rather minute, which
| form the sites for all the sensations
sight. hearing touch, heat and cold, etc.
The greater part of this back country
| of the mind is concerned with the CO.
ordination of the impulses coming in
| through these senses. They are tied
| -
| DR. Freeman believes are also co-ordi-
mated with the experiences of the past.
| Says Dr. Freeman: 1.-The individual is
brought by the post -Rolandic cortex into
relation with all that has gone before
in his existence. Experience and intelli-
gence. the bases of behavior are medi-
| ated by this part of the BRAIN
Just in front of the fissure of Rolando
| and behind the forehead are the frontal
lobes. They are enormously developed
in man. For years neurologists looked
upon them as the centers of intelligence,
but this hypothesis fell down when 1t
was found that they could largely be
intelligence. A limited part of the
frontal areas, however. governs voluntary
movements. including those of the
tongue and throat muscles in speech
Without them man would be dumb
The operations In which the front of
the brain is partly disconnected from
the back. DR.. Freeman says. have led
himself and DR.. Watts to believe that the
majority of the frontal cortex is con-
cerned with the projection of the whole
individual into the future-with the
capacities of imagination, planning and
foreseeing consequences.
After the operation the frontal lobes
themselves remain essentially intact and
the capacities for imagining and fore
seeing remain, but parts of the wires
connecting them with the past" have
been severed.
The clearest demonstration of this,
DR.. Freeman said, came from one
patient who at first did not respond well
to the operation and was quite violent
for few days. He slapped nurses and
tore things from the hospital walls.
After he had done it he was quite
penitent.' Nov that I have done it,
he told DR.. Freeman after he was remon-
strated with for slapping nurse, Il
can see that 1T was not the thing to do,