A HUMAN CORTICAL AREA PRODUCING REPETITIVE PHENOMENA WHEN STIMULATED

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Abstract
During the electrical exploration of a human cortex, an area was found which, when stimulated, produced perseveration of speech. The area (area X) lay on the mesial side of the left hemisphere, in area 6, probably just above the junction of that area with the posterior part of area 32. The patient, under local anesthesia, said the alphabet. At each application of the stimulus, and throughout the period of stimulation, the letter the patient was saying was repeated over and over again. The perseveration ceased instantly when the stimulus was stopped. Area X is far from any known part of the speech zone. It influenced the function of distant neurones, and in such a way that these neurones were thrown into action again and again, as though the impulse were imprisoned in a given cell group, able to activate that group only, but unable to pass to another.