Abstract
H. M. HILDRETH, at the meeting of the American. Association for the Advancement of Science, Columbus, Ohio, December 1939, presented a statistical study of the cortical localization of intelligence. The problem involves the correlation of an independent physiological variable with a dependent psychological variable. Since in studying human beings it is not possible to destroy predetermined parts of the cortex by operation, an experimental group of individuals whose brains had been damaged by disease or by natural organic changes had to be used. The psychological variable could be measured by using well-established tests of intelligence. The group studied consisted of individuals found to be suffering from cerebral arteriosclerosis, in which disease small areas, apparently occurring at random, are destroyed throughout the brain. From a psychopathic hospital of 4,000, all the patients who after complete examination were found to be suffering from this disease were selected, and from this group were eliminated those who showed signs of any disease, for example, brain tumour, that might conceivably affect intelligence. This gave a selected experimental group of 201 subjects. A control group of 201 normal individuals was also selected, comparable except that they had no signs of arteriosclerosis. Previous records of intelligence and school attainments were available.
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Cortical Localization of Intelligence. Nature 145, 829–830 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/145829b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/145829b0