UNILATERAL CEREBRAL DOMINANCE AS RELATED TO MIND BLINDNESS

Abstract

The concept of unilateral cerebral dominance originated with Marc Dax,¹who in 1836 published the observation that hemiplegia affecting the right side of the body is far more often associated with loss of speech than is a similar paralysis of the left side. Through the work of Broca,²Trousseau,³Wernicke,⁴Kussmaul,⁵Jackson⁶and Bastian,⁷to mention only a few of the most prominent pioneers in the study of aphasia, the dominance of the major (usually the left) side of the brain over the minor side in speech was soon established, so that this is now common knowledge. With the work of Liepmann⁸on apraxia, a similar dominance for voluntary acts became recognized to some extent, but several investigators, notably von Monakow⁹and his pupil Brun,¹⁰have taken exception to this doctrine as originally outlined. For general sensation it is established