Synthetic Conceptions in Neuropsychology
Abstract
We thus see that the cause of the particular events, and their particular mode of succession, in the several conditions described in the fore-going, is a wave of disability, or inhibition of function, which floods in succession the several links of the reflex arc in the normal direction of nerve conduction, from the receptive, through the associative and to its muscular end. As the function of each of these links of the nerve pathway is reduced or extinguished, that of the next succeeding link is activated to a corresponding degree. After involving the muscular end of the reflex arc, the wave disability recedes, and it may be observed in a number of cases that recovery of function proceeds in a direction from the muscular to the receptive end of the nerve pathway. In the greater number of instances, however, the disability does not involve the entire reflex nerve pathway but after proceeding for a variable distance along it, recedes. The particular condition is in such instances short of one or more of the later stages. Such is notably the case in the instances of thought, of the ``startle,'' and of the minor epileptic seizure. We have seen that in the instance of Jacksonian seizures, the person remains conscious and oriented. The disorder consists of a localized convulsion and subsequent relative flaccidity of the muscles involved. The occurrence of these seizures is corroborative of the present thesis. The cause of the disorder is a small tumor, a scar or other lesion in the immediate neighborhood of the motor area of the cerebral cortex. The wave of disability in these cases floods the nerve pathway from the motor area onward, leaving the nerve systems in the rear of it--the associative and receptive apparatus--intact. The person, therefore, remains conscious and oriented.
- Publication:
-
The Scientific Monthly
- Pub Date:
- November 1941
- Bibcode:
- 1941SciMo..53..417R