Psychology Part 6

To call all mental processes reactions means that it is always in order to ask for the stimulus. Typically, the stimulus is an external force or motion, such as light or sound, striking on a sense organ.

There are also the internal stimuli, consisting of changes occurring within the body and acting on the sensory nerves that are distributed to the muscles, bones, lungs, stomach and most of the organs. The sensations of muscular strain and fatigue, and of hunger and thirst, are aroused by internal stimuli, and many reflexes are aroused in the same way.

Such internal stimuli as these are like the better known external stimuli in that they act upon sense organs; but it {48} seems necessary to recognize another sort of stimuli which act directly on the nerve centers in the brain. These may be called "central stimuli"

and so contrasted with the "peripheral stimuli" that act on any sense organ, external or internal. To do this is to take considerable liberty with the plain meaning of "stimulus", and calls for justification. What is the excuse for thus expanding the notion of a stimulus?

The excuse is found in the frequent occurrence of mental processes that are not directly aroused by any peripheral stimulus, though they are plainly aroused by something else. Anything that arouses a thought or feeling can properly be called its stimulus. Now it often happens that a thought is aroused by another, just preceding thought; and it seems quite in order to call the first thought the stimulus and the second the response. A thought may arouse an emotion, as when the thought of my enemy, suddenly occurring to mind, makes me angry; the thought is then the stimulus arousing this emotional response.

If hearing you speak of Calcutta makes me think of India, your words are the stimulus and my thought the response. Well, then, if I _think_ of Calcutta in the course of a train of thought, and next think of India, what else can we say than that the thought of Calcutta acts as a stimulus to arouse the thought of India as the response? In a long train of thought, where A reminds you of B and B of C and C of D, each of these items is, first, a response to the preceding, and, second, a stimulus to the one following.

There is no special difficulty with the notion of "central stimuli"

from the physiological side. We have simply to think of one nerve center arousing another by means of the tract of axons connecting the two. Say the auditory center is aroused by hearing some one mention your friend's name, {49} and this promptly calls up a mental picture of your friend; here the auditory center has aroused the visual. What happens in a train of thought is that first one group of neurones is aroused to activity, and then this activity, spreading along the axons that extend from this group of neurones to another, arouses the second group to activity; and so on. The brain process may often be exceedingly complex, but this simple scheme gives the gist of it.

The way nerve currents must go shooting around the brain from one center or group of neurones to another, keeping it up for a long time without requiring any fresh peripheral stimulus, is remarkable. We have evidence of this sort of thing in a dream or fit of abstraction.

Likely enough, the series of brain responses would peter out after awhile, in the absence of any fresh peripheral stimulus, and total inactivity ensue. But response of one brain center to nerve currents coming from another brain center, and not directly from any sense organ, must be the rule rather than the exception, since most of the brain neurones are not directly connected with any sense organ, but only with other parts of the brain itself. All the evidence we have would indicate that the brain is not "self-active", but only responsive; but, once thrown into activity at one point, it may successively become active at many other points, so that a long series of mental operations may follow upon a single sensory stimulus.

The Motor Centers, Lower and Higher

A "center" is a collection of nerve cells, located somewhere in the brain or cord, which gives off axons running to some other center or out to muscles or glands, while it also receives axons coming from other centers, or from sense organs. These incoming axons terminate in end-brushes and so form synapses with the dendrites of the local {50} nerve cells. The axons entering any center and terminating there arouse that center to activity, and this activity, when aroused, is transmitted out along the axons issuing from that center, and produces results where those axons terminate in their turn.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 12.--Side view of the left hemisphere of the brain, showing the motor and sensory areas (for the olfactory area, see Fig. 18). The visual area proper, or "visuo-sensory area," lies just around the corner from the spot marked "Visual," on the middle surface of the hemisphere, where it adjoins the other hemisphere.

(Figure text: frontal lobe, parietal lobe, central fissure, occipital lobe, motor area, somesthetic area, auditory area, fissure of Sylvius, temporal lobe, brain stem, cerebellum)]

The _lower_ motor centers, called also reflex centers, are located in the cord or brain stem, and their nerve cells give rise to the axons that form the motor nerves and connect with the muscles and glands. A muscle is thrown into action by nerve currents from its lower motor center.

The princ.i.p.al _higher_ motor center is the "motor area" of the brain, located in the cortex or external layer of gray matter, in the cerebrum. More precisely, the motor area is a long, narrow strip of cortex, lying just forward of what is called the "central fissure" or "fissure of Rolando".

{51}

If you run your finger over the top of the head from one side to the other, about halfway back from the forehead, the motor areas of the two cerebral hemispheres will lie close under the path traced by your finger.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 13.--(After Cajal.) Type of the brain cells that most directly control muscular movement. (Figure text: Axon. Giant pyramid cell from the motor area of the cerebral cortex, magnified 35 diameters. Cell body of same farther magnified)]

The motor area in the right hemisphere is connected with the left half of the cord and so with the muscles of the left half of the body; the motor area of the left hemisphere similarly affects {52} the right half of the body. Within the motor area are centers for the several limbs and other motor organs. Thus, at the top, near the middle line of the head (and just about where the phrenologists located their "b.u.mp of veneration"!), is the center for the legs; next below and to the side is the center for the trunk, next that for the arm, next that for head movements, and at the bottom, not far from the ears, is the center for tongue and mouth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 14.--The nerve path by which the motor area of the cortex influences the muscles. The upper part of this path, consisting of axons issuing from the giant pyramids of the motor area and extending down into the spinal cord, is the pyramidal tract. The lower part of the path consists of axons issuing from the motor cells of the cord and extending out to the muscles. The top of the figure represents a vertical cross-section of the brain, such as is given, on a larger scale, in Fig. 18. (Figure text: cortex, cord, muscles)]

The largest nerve cells of all are found in the motor area, and are called, from their shape, the "giant pyramids". They have large dendrites and very long axons, which latter, {53} running in a thick bundle down from the cortex through the brain stem and cord, const.i.tute the "pyramidal tract", the princ.i.p.al path of communication from the cerebrum to the lower centers. The motor area of the brain has no direct connection with any muscle, but acts through the pyramidal tract on the lower centers, which in turn act on the muscles.

How The Brain Produces Muscular Movements

The motor area is itself aroused to action by nerve currents entering it through axons coming from other parts of the cortex; and it is by way of the motor area that any other part of the cortex produces bodily movement. There are a few exceptions, as, for example, the movements of the eyes are produced generally by the "visual area"

acting directly on the lower motor centers for the eye in the brain stem; but, in the main, any motor effect of brain action is exerted through the motor area. The motor area, as already mentioned, acts on the lower motor centers in the cord and brain stem, and these in turn on the muscles; but we must look into this matter a little more closely.

A lower motor center is a group of motor and central neurones, lying anywhere in the cord or brain stem, and capable of directly arousing a certain coordinated muscular movement. One such unit gives flexion of the leg, another gives extension of the leg, a third gives the rapid alternation of flexion and extension that we see in the scratching movement of the dog. Such a motor center can be aroused to activity by a sensory stimulus, and the resulting movement is then called a reflex.

The lower center can be aroused in quite another way, and that is by nerve currents coming from the brain, by way of the motor area and the pyramidal tract. Thus flexion of the leg can occur voluntarily as well as reflexly. The same {54} muscles, and the same motor neurones, do the job in either case. In the reflex, the lower center is aroused by a sensory nerve, and in the voluntary movement by the pyramidal tract.

The story is told of a stranger who was once dangling his legs over the edge of the station platform at a small backwoods town, when a native called out to him "Hist!" (hoist), pointing to the ground under the stranger's feet. He "histed" obediently, which is to say that he voluntarily threw into play the spinal center for leg flexion; and then, looking down, saw a rattler coiled just beneath where his feet had been hanging. Now even if he had spied the rattler first, the resulting flexion, though impulsive and involuntary, would still have been aroused by way of the motor area and the pyramidal tract, since the movement would have been a response to _knowledge_ of what that object was and signified, and knowledge means action by the cerebral cortex, which we have seen to affect movement through the medium of the motor area. But if the snake had made the first move, the same leg movement on the man's part, made now in response to the painful sensory stimulus, would have been the flexion reflex.

Facilitation and Inhibition

Not only can the motor area call out essentially the same movements that are also produced reflexly, but it can prevent or _inhibit_ the execution of a reflex in spite of the sensory stimulus for the reflex being present, and it can reinforce or _facilitate_ the action of the sensory stimulus so as to a.s.sist in the production of the reflex. We see excellent examples of cerebral facilitation and inhibition in the case of the knee jerk. This sharp forward kick of the foot and lower leg is aroused by a tap on the tendon running in front {55} of the knee. Cross the knee to be stimulated over the other leg, and tap the tendon just below the knee cap, and the knee jerk appears. So purely reflex is this movement that it cannot be duplicated voluntarily; for, though the foot can of course be voluntarily kicked forward, this voluntary movement does not have the suddenness and quickness of the true reflex. For all that, the cerebrum can exert an influence on the knee jerk. Anxious attention to the knee jerk inhibits it; gritting the teeth or clenching the fist reinforces it. These are cerebral influences acting by way of the pyramidal tract upon the spinal center for the reflex.

Thus the cortex controls the reflexes. Other examples of such control are seen when you prevent for a time the natural regular winking of the eyes by voluntarily holding them wide open, or when, carrying a hot dish which you know you must not drop, you check the flexion reflex which would naturally pull the hand away from the painful stimulus. The young child learns to control the reflexes of evacuation, and gradually comes to have control over the breathing movements, so as to hold his breath or breathe rapidly or deeply at will, and to expire vigorously in order to blow out a match.

The coughing, sneezing and swallowing reflexes likewise come under voluntary control. In all such cases, the motor area facilitates or inhibits the action of the lower centers.

Super-motor Centers in the Cortex

Another important effect of the motor area upon the lower centers consists in combining their action so as to produce what we know as skilled movements. It will be remembered that the lower centers themselves give coordinated movements, such as flexion or extension of the whole limb; but still higher coordinations result from cerebral control. {56} When the two hands, though executing different movements, work together to produce a definite result, we have coordination controlled by the cortex. Examples of this are seen in handling an ax or bat, or in playing the piano or violin. A movement of a single hand, as in writing or b.u.t.toning a coat, may also represent a higher or cortical coordination.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 15.--(From Starr.) Axons connecting one part of the cortex with another. The brain is seen from the side, as if in section. At "A" are shown bundles of comparatively short axons, connecting near-by portions of the cortex; while "B," "C," and "D"

show bundles of longer axons, connecting distant parts of the cortex with one another. The "Corpus Callosum" is a great ma.s.s of axons extending across from each cerebral hemisphere to the other, and enabling both hemispheres to work together. "O. T." and "C. N." are interior ma.s.ses of gray matter, which can be seen also in Fig. 18. "O.

T." is the thalamus, about which more later.]

Now it appears that the essential work in producing these higher coordinations of skilled movement is performed not by the motor area, but by neighboring parts of the cortex, which act on the motor area in much the same way as the motor area acts on the lower centers. Some of these {57} skilled-movement centers, or super-motor centers, are located in the cortex just forward of the motor area, in the adjacent parts of the frontal lobe. Destruction of the cortex there, through injury or disease, deprives the individual of some of his skilled movements, though not really paralyzing him. He can still make simple movements, but not the complex movements of writing or handling an instrument.

It is a curious fact that the left hemisphere, which exerts control over the movements of the right hand and right side of the body generally, also plays the leading part in skilled movements of either hand. This is true, at least, of right-handed persons; probably in the left-handed the right hemisphere dominates.

Motor power may be lost through injury at various points in the nervous system. Injury to the spinal cord, destroying the lower motor center for the legs, brings complete paralysis. Injury to the motor area or to the pyramidal tract does not destroy reflex movement, but cuts off all voluntary movement and cerebral control. Injury to the "super-motor centers" causes loss of skilled movement, and produces the condition of "apraxia", in which the subject, though knowing what he wants to do, and though still able to move his limbs, simply cannot get the combination for the skilled act that he has in mind.

Speech Centers

Similar to apraxia is "aphasia" or loss of ability to speak. It bears the same relation to true paralysis of the speech organs that hand apraxia bears to paralysis of the hand. Through brain injury it sometimes happens that a person loses his ability to speak words, though he can still make vocal sounds. The cases differ in severity, some retaining the ability to speak only one or two words which {58} from frequent use have become almost reflex (swear words, sometimes, or "yes" and "no"), while others are able to p.r.o.nounce single words, but can no longer put them together fluently into the customary form of phrases and sentences, and still others can utter simple sentences, but not any connected speech.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 16.--Side view of the left hemisphere, showing the location of the "speech centers." The region marked "Motor" is the motor speech center, that marked "Auditory" the auditory speech center, and that marked "Visual" the visual speech center. (Figure text: central fissure, motor area, auditory area, visual area, fissure of Sylvius, brain stem, cerebellum)]

In pure cases of _motor aphasia_, the subject knows the words he wishes to say, but cannot get them out. The brain injury here lies in the frontal lobe in the left hemisphere, in right-handed people, just forward of the motor area for the mouth, tongue and larynx. This "motor speech center" is the best-known instance of a super-motor center. It coordinates the elementary speech movements into the combinations called words; and perhaps there is no other motor performance so highly skilled as this of speaking. It is acquired so early in life, and practised so constantly, that {59} we take it quite as a matter of course, and think of a word as a simple and single movement, while in fact even a short word, as spoken, is a complex movement requiring great motor skill.

There is some evidence that the motor speech center extends well forward into the frontal lobe, and that the front part of it is related to the part further back as this is to the motor area back of it. That is to say, the back of the speech center combines the motor units of the motor area into the skilled movements of speaking a word, while the more forward part of the speech center combines the word movements into the still more complex movement of speaking a sentence.

It is even possible that the very front part of the speech center has to do with those still higher combinations of speech movements that give fluency and real excellence of speaking.