74 The Rice Institute Pamphlet
adequacy of our knowledge of the central nervous system
and its relations to behavior. They believe that some types of
disturbance in a patient’s life are serious enough to justify a
radical procedure in spite of the inadequacy of our knowl-
edge and because such operations might add to that knowl-
edge. Others believe that until we understand more about
the neurophysiological functions of the cortex such opera-
tions should not be performed. Further research will in time
provide data which should allow this issue to be decided,
providing that more adequate criteria for specifying emo-
tional behavior are developed.
Discussion
In the preceding three sections selected studies have been
examined which illustrate contemporary knowledge about
the relations between certain parts of the cerebral cortex and
somatic sensory and motor processes, intellectual processes,
and emotional processes. While neurophysiologists in 1900
were confident about the adequacy of their understanding of
the ways in which the brain functioned to mediate between
the environment and behavior, neurophysiologists of the
present are far from certain, Penfield & Rasmussen (1950),
discussing the neurosurgeon’s interest in the functions of the
central nervous system, noted that “he must endeavor to de-
termine what areas may be removed from the cerebral cortex
without producing functional defects. His goal is achieved if
he Ieams nothing at all positive about function! He thus dis-
covers that removal of certain areas produces no defect that
he or the patient recognizes. . . . The surprising fact is that
so large a proportion of the human cerebral cortex may be
called dispensable cortex” (p. 201).
Contemporary neurophysiologists, while uncertain, are far
from inactive. Extensive research studies are being con-