Evening star., 1952-01-25
Voices Cut Out Of Brain
By Two Surgeons Here
Tiny Afens Of Tissue Removed
Above and Buck Of Ears
By Thomos Z. Henry

ABOVE 0n0 DOCK 0f EofS
By Thomos R. Henry
An, operation which cuts voices" out
Of the brain has Just been described BY
two washington surgeons.
It consists Of removal Of two tiny
areas Of brain tissue. one on each sides
called the anygdaloid nuclei. They are
III the brains temporal lobes, the areas
just above and back Of the ears where
are located the centers Of hearing.
one Of the most obstinate symptoms
In many psychoses Is hearing voices"
These seem to the victim to come from
the outside world. They often are
threatening.
About 15 years ago Drs. Walter Free.
man and James w. Watts introduced IN
the United States the operation known
as preferential lobotomy In which nerve
pathways from the front Of the brain TO
the rear are severed. Since then more
than 10000 such operations have been
performed all over the country. They
have resulted In considerable improve
ment In the psychiatric symptoms IN
most cases, but usually the voices" have
continued as annoying as ever.
IN the Imagination Centers.
\ These are the voices Of the non.
existent persons created In the imagina.
ton centers of the prefrontal lobes.
They could not be heard. reasoned Dr..
Freeman and DR.. Jonathon NJ. Williams
II there were no nerve pathways from
the prefrontal region to the hearing
centers. The symptom Of seeing
things" for example. completely disap-
peared as q rule after the prefrontal
lobotomy operation. This was because
pathways to the seeing centerS In the
rear Of the brain were destroyed.
But the first such operation ever
performed here was highly suggestive.
The patient was q woman who was
''being threatened by the devil" mn
mediately after the surgery she reported
that she no longer could see Satan. but
that he was talking to her as loudly
as ever. She no longer, however, re-
garded the threats as real.
The surgeons saw q possibility that
some Of these pathways to the hearing
centers might go through the amygdaloid
nuclei. Their function always had been
mysterious. Experiments with animals
had shown that both monkeys and rats
were rendered tame by their extirpation.
On the other hand, tame cats were made
vicious. Neither result can logically be
explained, other than by assuming that
the mental makeup Of cats is quite
different from that Of rats and monkeys.
The single operation on a human re-
ported to date has been on q 20-year.
old man who had suffered from voice"
for several years. He was quite deaf in
both ears The voices coming from one
part Of the brain to- the other were
never derogatory, but they were 50 per-
sistent that the victim was not able to
work. Curiously, they were worse when
he wore his hearing aid. This was so
much the case that he had discarded
the apparatus.
Two Separate Operations.
i The amygdaloid nuclei were removed
under local anesthesia in two separate
operations.
After the second operation. Drs. VIII
liams and Freeman report. "there was
no elation. Discrimination. apathy or
impairment Of judgment. The patient
denied hallucipations. Three weeks later
he was substantially brighter and he
was again wearing his hearing aid. There
had been some mild return Of the
hallucinations but their insiStent quality
and general interference were sub
stantially diminished.
'sWe find our results In this one patient
distinctly encouraging and we believe
that they lend validity to our concept"
The results are reported In the Journal
Of Psychiatry and Neurology Of the
Washington Institute Of Medicine.
In the same journal is reported the
work Of two French surgeons. Drs. Paul
Abely and Paul Guyot Of Paris, in pro-
ducing many Of the effects Of prefrontal
lobotomy by direct injection INTO the
brain tissue Of various drugs which
temporarily. and to some extent per-
manently, paralyze the nerve pathways.
This is not followed. they say. by the
extreme apathy which sometimes follows
the surgical procedure.
They already have treated so cases
IN this way. It has been especially vaIu.
able, they say, In cases characterized
by recurrent melancholy and IN the
weird phenomenon Of cenesthopatl1ia, q
condition In which the consciousness
seems to exist independently Of the body
and person has no awareness Of his
own body.