On Certain Aspects of the Sensory Organization of the Human Brain

Abstract

In adult subjects with irreversible changes in the central nervous system, simultaneous ipsilateral stimuli result in the perception of only the more rostral signal. Children below the approx. ages of 5.5 yrs. show persistent patterns that in all ways resemble the picture observed in adults with irreversibly disturbed brain cell activity. A persistence of the phenomenon of rostral dominance in a well-developed child past the age of 6 yrs. has proved to be a fair correlate of mental retardation. It is apparent that rostral dominance is representative of an innate pattern of perception; that in adults a persistent rostral dominance represents a regression phenomenon; that sentiency to, and resolution of, multiple disparate stimuli are learned,* or maturation, processes.- Robert Cohn.