Some aspects of brain-mind relationship

One of the most interesting parallels between the functioning of brain and mind is provided by Hughlings Jackson's Doctrine of Dissolution and Freud's theory of psychological regression. Basically, they each imply that under certain circumstances the organism partially or wholly reverts to an earlier stage of functional organization, the one in the bodily and the other in the mental sphere. At first sight the parallel would seem to end here, for neurological dissolution is usually regarded as a passive process, an unmasking of lower levels of functioning by organic disease, while regresson consists of an active withdrawal to an earlier stage of mental development, usually, but not always, brought about by difficulties in external adjustment. Nevertheless, we can attempt a reconciliation between the two if we regard the ‘positive” symptoms of nervous dissolution as representing attempts on the part of a crippled nervous system to adjust to a normal environment. Viewed from this angle both neurological dissolution and psychological regression present themselves as dynamic reactions to stress, promoted in the one instance by internal and in the other by external difficulties. That the two mechanisms are in fact related is suggested by two facts: first, that the symptoms of nervous dissolution can be made worse by environmental difficulties (Cf. Goldstein's “catastrophic reaction”), and second, that regression occurs regularly in sleep, which is surely organically determined.

An automated multiple response alternative training program for use with aphasics

Multiple responses to a configurational sample stimulus were obtained from five male aphasic patients.

Through this technique, it was possible to obtain a stop-motion view of perceptual skills and cognitive functions.

The language handicapped child and education

This article presents the problems involved in definitive differential diagnosis of children with delayed language. It suggests the need to describe language, auditory, mental, and emotional functioning as opposed to depending upon specific diagnostic labels which may rely upon clinical bias. The classroom teacher is viewed as an individual competent to devise teaching methods applicable to the peculiar requirements of widely differing children and is encouraged to trust herself in the face of “experts.”

Test responses as predictors of free-speech characteristics in aphasia patients

Fifty aphasic speakers were classified into six groups, defined by differences in characteristics of their spontaneous speech. A multiple discriminant analysis was performed upon scores on the Language Modalities Test for Aphasia. The findings provide evidence that it is possible to predict, from the performance of aphasia patients on a structured test of language disability, some general features of their spontaneous speech. Findings further attest to the inadequacy of a conception of aphasia as a unidimensional language disorder.

Temporal discrimination in aphasoid and normal children

This study investigated the ability of eight normal and eight aphasoid children to perform tasks involving judgments of succession and order. There was a significant difference in performance between the two groups on the order task only. These findings support the belief that a temporal ordering malfunction could be a major factor in the aphasoid child’s communication problem.

Effect of stimulus variables on dysphasic verbal errors

Reanalysis of oral responses from 32 dysphasics to word stimuli counterbalanced according to abstraction level, part of speech, length, and frequency of occurrence, and presented through the visual, auditory and visual-auditory modalities, indicated that: through the visual modality, high and medium abstract words produced significantly more verbal errors than low; through the visual-auditory modality, medium abstract words produced significantly more verbal errors than low, while through the auditory modality no significant differences were found. Regardless of modality, verbs and adjectives produced significantly more verbal errors than nouns, while no significant difference was found between verbs and adjectives; regardless of modality, long words produced significantly more verbal errors than short; regardless of modality, infrequent words produced significantly more verbal errors than frequent words. Regardless of abstraction level, part of speech, word length, and frequency of occurrence, the visual produced significantly more verbal errors than the auditory and visual-auditory modalities, except in the case of words of medium abstraction level where the visual-auditory modality produced significantly more verbal errors than the auditory modality.