Evening star., 1953-11-02
Broin Surgeons Evoke
Mystical 'Seen-Before'
Man Has Long Tried Hard
To Explain This Sensation
By Thomos R. Henry

To Explain This Sensation
By Thomas R. Henry
But there's tree, of many one; Z.
A single field that I have looked
upon,
Both of them speak Of something
that is gone"
Thus William Wordsworth described
what is probably the most mystical of
all common human experiences-the
deja-vu, the "Seen-before."
1t is the sensation, experienced by
nearly everybody. of having been in
place before-but at the same time
realizing that this is not true. The
phenomenon has been given various
interpretations Some have considered
it-as did MISUNDERSTANDING of re-
incarnation, of having actually expert
enced what seems familiar in some pre-
viouS existence. PsychiatriStS have had
no adequate explanation.
But brain surgeons at the National
Institute of Neurological Diseases are
able to evoke the experience almost at
will by stimulating with an electric
needle memory points" in the temporal
lobe of the brain during long operations
to relieve one form of epilepsy. The
deja-vu quite obviously originates in
the brain itself.
When a patient is asked his state Of
consciousness as a memory point is
stimulated, a quite common immediate
answer is that he feels back in early
childhood again and that there is
vague sense of previous familiarity with
the surroundings. This passes quickly.
and the man begins to tell of actual
memories.
Likens 1t to TV Set.
The sensation also passes quickly in
ordinary experience. An adequate ex--
planation still is lacking; but DR.. Matt
land Baldwin, who performs most OF
the epilepsy operations and is eXplor-
ing the temporal memory points, adj
vances a plausible hypothesis. The
phenomenon, he says, may be the neu-
rological beginning of remembering. He
likens it to the momentary heating UP
of a television set before the picture
appears.
the first effect of stimulating a men,
ory point is to "heat up" the nerve
pathways over which picture out Of
the past is co-ordinated before the
actual memory impulses begin to move
over them. The actual time taken up
probably is very brief. DR.. Baldwin
believes it best could be measured in
thousandthS of a second. But it is
sufficient to create the weird sense of
familiarity for which there is no actual
basis in experience. It is wiped out
quickly when actual memories take
over the brain paths.
Elected, Not Predicted.
There is no single part of the tenn
poral lobe stimulation of which most
easily elicitS the "seen-before" expert
ence. Like memory itself, it can be
elected. not predicted, from numer-
Gus points scattered over the surface
of the part of the cerebral cortex
which lies just back of the ear, on
the left side in right-handed person
and vice versa Every time it is re-
ported the precise area which has been
stimulated is recorded on a map Of
the brain-but this map lboks like a
hodge-podge of pencil dots not ar
ranged in any orderly pattern.
All the patients are victims of cpl
lepSy due to an injured area of some
sort in the temporal lobe The deja-vu
phenomenon sometimes is brought out
in probing to determine the extent Of
the affected region which must be re-
moved. There may be some relation
between it and epilepsy itself DR..
Baldwin believes, and the commonness
OF the experience may indicate that
there are latent possibilities of the
disease in the majority of persons,
although it seldom takes an overt form.
Discrimination Of Time.
1t is all tied up in some way with
consciousness of time, which seems
to depend on the temporal lobe. With
out it, human consciousness would
be entirely three dimensional and sub
jective time would cease to exist. There
would be left only the inexperienceable
physical time of relativistic mathemati-
clans. The deja-vu appears to be in
some way disorientation of time.
In quite different line of inveStiga-
ton the National Institute scientists
are trying to find clues to mental be-
havior in the chemistry of the brain.
All the tissues found associated with
the epileptic seizures are prepared in
slices less than half millionth of an
inch thick and analyzed by the tech
niqueS of oxygen take-llp and acid pro-
duction originated by DR.. Otto War;
burg, former associate of the National
Institute.
The chief finding to date, according
to DR.. Donald Tower, is a disturbance
Of some sort in the metabolism of the
chemical known as scetyl-choline in
the abnormal tisSe. This material is
essential for the transmission of nerve
impulses from one nerve fibre to an
other, but it must be kept under proper
control. In normal brains the supply
is in bound form with other sub
stances and is released as it is required.
There is deficiency of this bound form
in epileptic tissue and all the acetyl-
choline seems to be free.
The condition can be restored to
normal temporarily by various anaes-
theticS and anti-convu]Sants. Also quite
effective is administration of glutamic
and aSpergic acids, both normal con-
stituents of tissue. Glutamic acids
function, DR.. Tower believes, is to play
some part in the binding of acetyl-
choline. Its addition to normal brain
tissue in the laboratory causes no effect
at ALL AS drug for treatment of epi-
lepsy, however, it has proved quite dis
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