The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2)James, William
Philosophy
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
(2) _Cortical Ablations._ When the cortical spot which is found to
produce a movement of the fore-leg, in a dog, is excised (see spot 5
in Fig. 5), the leg in question becomes peculiarly affected. At first
it seems paralyzed. Soon, however, it is used with the other legs, but
badly. The animal does not bear his weight on it, allows it to rest on
its dorsal surface, stands with it crossing the other leg, does not
remove it if it hangs over the edge of a table, can no longer 'give the
paw' at word of command if able to do so before the operation, does
not use it for scratching the ground, or holding a bone as formerly,
lets it slip out when running on a smooth surface or when shaking
himself, etc., etc. Sensibility of all kinds seems diminished as well
as motility, but of this I shall speak later on. Moreover the dog tends
in voluntary movements to swerve towards the side of the brain-lesion
instead of going straight forward. All these symptoms gradually
decrease, so that even with a very severe brain-lesion the dog may be
outwardly indistinguishable from a well dog after eight or ten weeks.
Still, a slight chloroformization will reproduce the disturbances, even
then. There is a certain appearance of ataxic in-coordination in the
movements--the dog lifts his fore-feet high and brings them down with
more strength than usual, and yet the trouble is not ordinary lack of
co-ordination. Neither is there paralysis. The strength of whatever
movements are made is as great as ever--dogs with extensive destruction
of the motor zone can jump as high and bite as hard as ever they did,
but they seem _less easily moved_ to do _anything_ with the affected
parts. Dr. Loeb, who has studied the motor disturbances of dogs more
carefully than any one, conceives of them _en masse_ as effects of an
increased inertia in all the processes of innervation towards the side
opposed to the lesion. All such movements require an unwonted effort
for their execution; and when only the normally usual effort is made
they fall behind in effectiveness.[11]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Left Hemisphere of Dog's Brain, after Ferrier.
_A_, the fissure of Sylvius. _B_, the crucial sulcus. _O_, the
olfactory bulb. _I, II, III, IV,_ indicate the first, second, third,
and fourth external convolutions respectively. (1), (4), and (5) are on
the _sigmoid_ gyrus.]
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Left Hemisphere of Monkey's Brain. Outer
Surface.]
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