strangers who are endeavouring to follow my remarks slightly moving their
lips."




THE PRIMARY SITE OF REVIVAL OF WORDS IN SILENT THOUGHT


Since destructive lesions of the speech zone of the left hemisphere in
right-handed persons leads to inability to revive the memory pictures of
the sounds of words as heard in ordinary speech, the revival of visual
impressions as seen in printed or written characters, and of the
kinæsthetic (sense of movement) impressions concerned with the alterations
of the minute tensions of the muscle structures employed in the
articulation of words, it must be presumed that the left hemisphere in
right-handed persons is dominant in speech and silent thought; it may even
dominate the use of the left hand for many movements. But does not the
right hemisphere take a part? Yes; and I will give my reasons later for
supposing that the whole brain is in action. During the voluntary recall of
words in speech and thought by virtue of the intimate association tracts
connecting the grey matter of the whole speech zone, it is not a single
part of this zone which is in action, but the whole of it; and when we
assign to definite parts of the speech zone different functions in
connection with language, we really refer to areas in which the process is
most active or is primarily initiated, for the whole brain is in action
just as it is in the recognition of an object which we see, hear, feel, or
move. What really comes before us is contributed more by the mind itself
than by the present object.