Evening Star Newspaper, January 2, 1935, Page 10

BABY “BRANLESS FRSTTHO MONTES | | Researcher Says Speech Is Sign of Thorough Functioning. BY THOMAS R. HENRY. PITTSBURGH, January 2.—1’hel‘ human infant is “brainless” for ap- | proximately the first tvo months of | life, according to evidence presented | before the American Association tor‘ Advancement of Science here by Dr. | Mandel Sherman of the University of | Chicago, former director of the Na- | ticnal Child Research Center in Wash- ! ington. | Not until it starts to talk, Dr. Sher- | man said, can the child be seid to have | ® thoroughly functioning human brain. | The characteristic reactions of the . new-born child, Dr. Sherman found | in experiments with Chicago infants, | are almost identical with those of the | “pitted frog” of the biological labora- | tery. In these frogs the brain has, been almost completely cut away and yet, within a very narrow range, they show certain fundamental reflexes, | netably those of righting themselves| and of automatic defense. Control Unnecessary. These are precisely the movements of the new born, Dr. Sherman found, | and apparently are not controlled in | any way through the cerebral cortex, | cr upper level of the brain, where is | Iccated all the “mind” of humans and higher animals, He found, as an example, that with- in a few days after birth the infant will make hand movements to push away some unpleasant stimulation, such as a fly lighting on its chin. It will do this quite efficiently, The pitted frog will act relatively the same. But a few months later, when the corebral cortex hook-ups have started, the child will make the same move- ments in a much clumsier fashion. ‘The cortex has begun to assume domi- nance over the behavior of the indi- vidual, and the new arrangement is messing things up for the time being. fundamental bit of animal be- havior, Dr. Sherman said. is the so- called “righting reflex,” by which the subject strives to keep itself in the proper bodily orientation. It is found operating strongly in the pitted frog. A part of this reflex pattern in the section of the animal kingdom to which man belongs is the “grasping reflex,” shown strongly by the monkeys. This is strongly developed in the new-born infant, which can support itself with its hands in thor- oughly monkey fashion. Within a short time, however, this ability dis- appears, the need for it having been discarded in the evolutionary process. Reappearance Noted. But Dr. Sherman has found it re- appears just as strongly as ever in men who have suffered injury to a very narrow strip of the cerebral cortex, known to neurologists as “pre- motor area six.” This phenomenon i3 interpreted as meaning that it is entirely actuated, in both humans and monkeys, in the lower brain cen- ters, but with the assumption of cor- tical control it is inhibited in the cne and left alone in the other. Upon the basis of his experiments with children; Dr. Sherman developed the hypothesis that the development of the human brain is primarily a} psychological and secondarily hysi- clogical matter. The gradual dssump- tion through the first year of life of control by the cortex over all the ac- tivities of the organism, he finds, pro- ceeds with, rather than precedes, edu- cation. From this point of view the experiments have considerable funda- mental significance in theaples of education. - Thus, he deduces, probably man owes no small part of his intellectual superiority in the animal kingdom to what appears at first as a disadvan- tage, his long weaning period. This gives the cortex the opportunity to take over gradually and effectively its various functions, whereas with the lower animals a good deal of the basic reflex type of behavior must be preserved because they must shift for themselves almost from the first. Education Delayed. But, he said, until the cortical domi- nance begins at about the second month of life, all education is mean- ingless and hence the initial environ- ment can have practically no effect on the future reactions of the organism. Previous work along this line has been by neurologists. who have studied the process of nerve fiber myeliniza- tion—the appearance of a sort of in- sulation sheath around a nerve fiber without which, it has been believed, it does not function. The myelinization of the fibers from the cortex does not take place until well after birth. By his studies on actual behavior, Dr. Sherman reverses the process in showing that the behavior itself pre- cedes the physiological processes of brain functioning. SOUND VAGARIES PROBED. California Professor Wins $1,000 Prize for Discoveries. PITTSBURGH, January 2 (P)— Discovery of new principles of how sound waves act, useful in ways rang- ing from making speeches better heard in halls to improved understanding of chemical compounds, today won the $1,000 prize of the American Associa- tion for the Advancement of Science. The winner was Prof. Vern Oliver Knudsen of Los Angeles, Calif. His paper was entitled “The Absorption of Sound in Gases.” Air can be “conditioned” for best possible hearing conditions, it was ex- plained. for Prof. Knudsen has found a way to calculate the “acoustic trans- parency” or rate at which sound will die away in air, at any temperature or degree of humidity. 1t will aid the improvement of secret signals now used by the Navy, which are made with sounds so shrill they cannot be heard. These signals can be sent several miles unsuspected by the enemy and picked up with special delicate receiving devices Round-Trip Fares i onl. 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A strip of the old creek bed 72 feet long is being demolished and rebuilt into a sewer 9 feet wide and 54 inches high, The famous old stream formerly flowed as an open creek through downtown Washington and was 8 conspicuous feature of the city, dividing Capitol Hill and the business section. Several bridges carried vehicular and pedestrian traffic over it until it was put underground into the huge sewer shown above during the ad- ministration of President Grant. . —Star Staff Photo. Physicians acclaim this stronger new yeast that corrects Indigestion, Skin Ills, Loss of Energy more quickly than any yeast before! F YOU ARE CONSTIPATED ... if your stom- I ach gets upset . . . or if your complexion is poor . . . take 60 seconds to read this—now! A famous American scientist, connected with a great university, has discovered a new yeast— a wonderful new kind of yeast. 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Army, Navy, foreign service and other Government employes assigned to duty in foreign countrias—following revaluation of the dollar—suffered losses estimated at 40 per cent by ex- change until President Roosevelt issued an executive order providing for repayment of part of their losses. Under that system, basic exchange rates for each country—computed from a three-year average—were specified and employes were re- imbursed on that basis. Studies and surveys carried on by Wilbur J. Carr, Assistant Secretary of State, established that the three-year period used gave an inequitable re- payment in many countries. In the new regulations effective yesterday, the President has directed that new basic exchange rates, ba: year average, be used in computing losses. Computation of the basic rates on a five-year average is expected to benefit employes in all foreign countries except in Great Britain and China. 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