Evening star., 1940-03-14
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henrv.

SsSt
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.
Accidental finding of what appears to
be remote control tongue-tying center
in the brain, a hitherto unknown organ,
has just been reported to American
neurologists by DR.. Richard M. Brickner
of Columbia University.
The finding came during recent brain
operation performed under local an
aesthesia in which the skull was opened
and various bits of tissue Of the cerebral
cortex stimulated into action by touching
them with electrodes.
The supposed center lies very deep in
the grey matter of the left frontal lobe
Tof the brain, whose depths still are rela-
lively unexplored in human beings. The
response was immediate and unexpected.
The patient, fully conscious and aware of
what he was doing, began repeating in.
voluntarily something which sounded like
"err-err-err" and could not stop until
the electrical stimulation was removed.
Careful probing showed that the center
was less than half an inch in diameter,
but its precise thickness was not deter
mined. The response was particularly
surprising since the spot was some dis
tance removed from that point in the
brain known to control speech.
DR.. Brickner calls it "the area of
speech preservation" He has reported
his findings in the current issue of the
journal of Neurophysiology.
The portion Of the brain which enables
man to talk-an ability unique with the
human race-is the so-called Brocca's
area in the left frontal lobe. It is a small
bit of tissue which borders on one side
the temporal lobe behind the ear which
is the center of hearing and on the other
the brain area which governs voluntary
movements of the tongue and throat
muscles.
The new brain center is about three
inches away from Brocca's area. The
patient was asked to repeat the alphabet.
This necessitated throwing Brocca's area
into action, as does the intentional max
ing of any specific sounds with the throat
and tongue.
Then the newly found area was stimu-
lated with an electrode. AS soon as the
stimulation was applied the man could
only repeat incessantly the letter which
he had reached at that instant. If he had
said the alphabet up to L he would con-
tlnue repeating L until the electrode was
removed. Then he would continue nor
mally with the rest of the alphabet.
The man was aware that he was max
ing fool of himself" But apparently
there was no way possible for him to say
M, however hard he might try, so long as
this particular group Of brain cells was in
disease, and also in certain forms of in
sanity, this symptom, known as per-
severation is prominent feature
While it is probable that this center
exists in every human brain, the report
points out, this cannot be considered
certain. This particular patient was suf-
fering from brain disease and it is
barely possible that in some way an ab-
normal function had been created for
tiny mass of brain tissue. -.
Assuming that the area exists in nor
NAL brains, the report points out, 1t is
OF considerably more interest even than
as new brain center. It is about three
inches away from Broccas area yet the
effect OF stimulating it is manifested by a
pronounced effect on this center. This
is the first evidence known to brain
specialists of remote control" stations
in the brain. A stimuli applied a. one
point definitely affects the ability of an
other point with known specific func-
ton, some distance away, to perform its
normal function. Brain surgeons also
are puzzled by the possible purpose of
such an area, and it is difficult to con-
ceive of human organ being evolved
for no purpose whatever.
The problem as to whether the area
exists in entirely normal brains probably
never can be answered. The only way
to find out would be to cut open some
bodys skull and start probing. 1t would
be impossible to find anybody to go
through such dangerous operation for
the sake of science. There is still the
possibility that the hypothesis can be
tested on some person with head injury
which lays the brain bare, such as
shrapnel wound in battle. Such wounds
first enabled brain surgeons to determine
the various motor centerS in normal
brains.
Much Of this now can be checked up
on the brains of chimpanzees which
largely parallel man so far as motor
activities are concerned. But the chim-
panzee has no speech center.