Fig. 15
FIG. 15.—Diagrammatic representation of a motor neurone magnified 300 diameters. Whereas the nerve cell and its branching processes (the dendrons) form but a minute speck of protoplasm, the nerve fibre which arises from it, although microscopic in diameter, extends a very long distance; in some cases it is a yard long; consequently only a minute fraction of the nerve fibre is represented in the diagram.
The great brain or cerebrum consists of two halves equal in weight, termed hemispheres, right and left; and the grey matter covering their surface is thrown into folds with fissures between, thus increasing enormously the superficial area of the grey matter and of the neurones of which it consists without increasing the size of the head. The pattern of the folds or convolutions shows a general similarity in all human beings, certain fissures being always present; and around these fissures which are constantly present are situated fibre systems and communities of neurones having particular functions (vide [fig. 16].) Thus there is a significance in the convolutional pattern of the brain. But just as there are no two faces alike, so there are no two brains alike in their pattern; and just as it is rare to find the two halves of the face quite symmetrical, so the two halves of the brain are seldom exactly alike in their pattern. Although each hemisphere is especially related to the opposite half of the body, the two are unified in function by a great bridge of nerve fibres, called the corpus callosum, which unites them. The cortical centres or structures with specialised functions [!-- pagenumber --]localised in particular regions of one hemisphere are associated by fibres passing [!-- pagenumber --]to the same region in the opposite hemisphere by this bridge.
Fig. 16
FIG. 16.—Diagram of the left hemisphere of the brain showing localised centres, of which the functions are known. It will be observed that the centres for the special senses, tactile, muscular, hearing, and vision, are all situated behind the central fissure. The tactile-motor kinæsthetic sense occupies the whole of the post-central convolution; the centre for hearing (and in the left hemisphere memory of words) is shown at the end of the first temporal convolution, but the portion shaded by no means indicates the whole of the grey cortex which possesses this function; a large portion of this centre cannot be seen because it lies within the fissure forming the upper surface of the temporal lobe. Behind this is the angular gyrus which is connected with visual word memory. The half-vision centre, and by this is meant the portion of brain which receives impressions from each half of the field of vision, is situated for the most part on the inner (unseen) surface of the occipital lobe. In front of the central fissure is situated the motor area, or that region destruction of which causes paralysis of the muscles moving the structures of the opposite half of the body. If the situations indicated by black dots be excited by an interrupted electric current, movements of the limbs, trunk, and face occur in the precise order shown, from the great toe to the larynx. In front of this precentral convolution are the three frontal convolutions, and it would seem that the functions of these convolutions are higher movements and attention in fixation of the eyes; moreover, in the lowest frontal region, indicated by fine dots, we have Broca's convolution, which is associated with motor speech; above at the base of the second middle frontal convolution is the portion of cortex in which is localised the function of writing. Taste and smell functions reside in brain cortex only a small portion of which can be seen, viz. that at the tip of the temporal lobe.
Muscles and groups of muscles on the two sides of the body which invariably act together may thus be innervated from either hemisphere, e.g. the muscles of the larynx, the trunk, and upper part of the face.