The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2)James, William
Philosophy
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
conclude with them that as yet we have no decisive grounds for locating
muscular and cutaneous feeling apart. Much still remains to be learned
about the relations between musculo-cutaneous sensibility and the
cortex, but one thing is certain: that neither the occipital, the
forward frontal, nor the temporal lobes seem to have anything essential
to do with it in man. It is knit up with the performances of the
_motor zone and of the convolutions backwards and midwards of them_.
The reader must remember this conclusion when we come to the chapter on
the Will.
* * * * *
I must add a word about the connection of aphasia with the tactile
sense. On p. 40 I spoke of those cases in which the patient can write
but not read his own writing. He cannot read by his eyes; but he can
read by the feeling in his fingers, if he retrace the letters in the
air. It is convenient for such a patient to have a pen in hand whilst
reading in this way, in order to make the usual feeling of writing more
complete.[57] In such a case we must suppose that the path between the
optical and the graphic centres remains open, whilst that between the
optical and the auditory and articulatory centres is closed. Only thus
can we understand how the look of the writing should fail to suggest
the sound of the words to the patient's mind, whilst it still suggests
the proper movements of graphic imitation. These movements in their
turn must of course be felt, and the feeling of them must be associated
with the centres for hearing and pronouncing the words. The injury in
cases like this where very special combinations fail, whilst others go
on as usual, must always be supposed to be of the nature of increased
resistance to the passage of certain currents of association. If any of
the _elements_ of mental function were destroyed the incapacity would
necessarily be much more formidable. A patient who can both read and
write with his fingers most likely uses an identical 'graphic' centre,
at once sensory and motor, for both operations.
* * * * *
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