Harvard Psychological Studies Part 3

B. Another test for this anaesthesia during movement is offered in the following experiment. It is clear that, just as a light-stimulation is not perceived if the whole retinal process begins and ends during a movement, so also a particular phase of it should not be perceived if that phase can be given complete within the time of the movement. The same pendulum which was used in the previous experiment makes such a thing possible. If in place of the perforated dumb-bell the pendulum exposes two pieces of gla.s.s of nearly complementary colors, one after the other coming opposite the place of exposure, the sensations will fuse or will not fuse according as the pendulum swings rapidly or slowly. But now a mean rate of succession can be found such as to let the first color be seen pure before the second is exposed, and then to show the second fused with the after-image of the first. Under some conditions the second will persist after the first has faded, and will then itself be seen pure. Thus there may be three phases in consciousness. If the first color exposed is green and the second red, the phases of sensation will be green, white, and perhaps red. These phases are felt to be not simultaneous but successive. A modification of this method is used in the following experiment. (See Fig. 8, Plate IV.)

_T_ and _I_ here correspond to the cards _T_ and _I_ of Fig. 6.

_T_ consists of a rectangular opening, 95 cm., which contains three pieces of gla.s.s, two pieces of green at the ends, each 2.8 cm. wide and 7 cm. high, and a piece of red gla.s.s in the middle 3.4 cm. wide and only 1.5 cm. high, the s.p.a.ce above and below this width being filled with opaque material. The shape of the image is determined as before by the hole in _I_, which now, instead of being a dumb-bell, is merely a rectangular hole 2 cm. wide and 5 cm. high. Exactly as before, _T_ is fixed in the background and _I_ swings with the pendulum, the eye moving with it.

The speed of the pendulum must be determined, such that if _I_ lies in the front groove (Fig. 5, _x_) and the eye is at rest, the image will clearly show two phases of color when _T_ swings past on the pendulum.

With _T_ and _I_ as described above, a very slow pendulum shows the image green, red (narrow), and green, in succession. A very fast pendulum shows only a horizontal straw-yellow band on a green field (Fig. 8:5). There is but one phase and no feeling of succession.

Between these two rates is one which shows two phases--the first a green field with a horizontal, reddish-orange band (Fig. 8:3), the second quickly following, in which the band is straw-yellow (5). It might be expected that this first phase would be preceded by an entirely green phase, since green is at first exposed. Such is however not the case. The straw-yellow of the last phase is of course the fusion-color of the red and green gla.s.ses. It would be gray but that the two colors are not perfectly complementary. Since the arrangement of colors in _T_ is bilaterally symmetrical, the successive phases are the same in whichever direction the pendulum swings.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MONOGRAPH SUPPLEMENT 17. PLATE IV.

Fig. 8.

HOLT ON EYE-MOVEMENT.]

It is desirable to employ the maximum rate of pendulum which will give the two phases. For this the illumination should be very moderate, since the brighter it is, the slower must be the pendulum. With the degree of illumination used in the experiments described, it was found that the pendulum must fall from a height of only 9.5 of its arc: a total swing of 19. The opening of _T_, which is 9 cm. wide, then swings past the middle point of _I_ in 275[sigma].

Now when the eye moves it must move at this rate. If the eye is 56 cm.

distant from the opening, as in the previous case, the 9 cm. of exposure are 9 11' of eye-movement, and we saw above that 9 11' in 110[sigma] is a very slow rate of movement, according to the best measurements. Now it is impossible for the eye to move so slowly as 9 11' in 275[sigma]. If, however, the eye is brought nearer to the opening, it is clear that the 9 cm. of exposure become more than 9 11' of eye-movement. Therefore the eye and the fixation-points are so placed that _EA_ (Fig. 5) = 26 cm. and _PP'_ = 18 cm. The total eye-movement is thus 38 11', of which the nine-centimeter distance of exposure is 19 38'. Now the eye is found to move very well through 19 38' in 275[sigma], although, again, this is much more than a proportionate part of the total time (99.9[sigma]) given by Dodge and Cline for a movement of the eye through 40. The eye is in this case also moving slowly. As before, it is permissible to let the pendulum run down till it swings too slowly for the eye to move with it; since any lessened speed of the pendulum only makes the reddish-orange phase more prominent.

As in the experiment with the dumb-bell, we have also here three cases: the control, the case of the eye moving, and again a control.

Case 1. _T_ swings with the pendulum. _I_ is placed in the front groove, and the eye looks straight forward without moving. The pendulum falls from 9.5 at one side, and the illumination is so adjusted that the phase in which the band is reddish-orange, is _unmistakably_ perceived before that in which it is straw-yellow. The appearance must be 3 followed by 5 (Fig. 8).

Case 2. _T_ is fixed in the background, _I_ on the pendulum, and the phenomena are observed with the eye moving.

Case 3. A repet.i.tion of case 1, to make sure that no different adaptation or fatigue condition of the eye has come in to modify the appearance of the two successive phases as at first seen.

The possible appearances to the moving eye are closely a.n.a.logous to those in the dumb-bell experiment. If the eye moves too soon or too late, so that it is at rest during the exposure, the image is like _T_ itself (Fig. 8) but somewhat fainter and localized midway between the points _P_ and _P'_. If the eye moves reflexly at the rate of the pendulum, the image is of the shape _i_ and shows the two phases (3 followed by 5). It is localized in the middle and appears to move across the nine-centimeter opening.

A difficulty is met here which was not found in the case of the dumb-bell. The eye is very liable to come to a full stop on one of the colored surfaces, and then to move quickly on again to the final fixation-point. And this happens contrary to the intention of the subject, and indeed usually without his knowledge. This stopping is undoubtedly a reflex process, in which the cerebellar mechanism which tends to hold the fixation on any bright object, a.s.serts itself over the voluntary movement and arrests the eye on the not moving red or green surface as the exposure takes place. A comparable phenomenon was found sometimes in the experiment with the dumb-bell, where an eye-movement commenced as voluntary would end as a reflex following of the pendulum. In the present experiment, until the subject is well trained, the stopping of the eye must be watched by a second person who looks directly at the eye-ball of the subject during each movement. The appearances are very varied when the eye stops, but the typical one is shown in Fig. 8:1. The red strip _AB_ is seldom longer and often shorter than in the figure. That part of it which is superposed on the green seldom shows the orange phase, being almost always of a pure straw-yellow. The localization of these images is variable. All observations made during movements in which the eye stops, are of course to be excluded.

If now the eye does not stop midway, and the image is not localized in the center, the appearance is like either 2, 4, or 5, and is localized over the final fixation-point. 2 is in all probability the case of the eye moving very much faster than the pendulum, so that if the movement is from left to right, the right-hand side of the image is the part first exposed (by the uncovering of the left-hand side of _T_), which is carried ahead by the too swift eye-movement and projected in perception on the right of the later portion. 3 is the case of the eye moving at very nearly but not quite the rate of the pendulum. The image which should appear 2 cm. wide (like the opening _i_) appears about 3 cm. wide. The middle band is regularly straw-yellow, extremely seldom reddish, and if we could be sure that the eye moves more slowly than the pendulum, so that the succession of the stimuli is even slower than in the control, and the red phase is surely given, this appearance (3) would be good evidence of anaesthesia during which the reddish-orange phase elapses. It is more likely, however, that the eye is moving faster than the pendulum, but whether or not so inconsiderably faster as still to let the disappearance of the reddish phase be significant of anaesthesia, is not certain until one shall have made some possible but tedious measurements of the apparent width of the after-image. Both here and in the following case the _feeling of succession_, noticeable between the two phases when the eye is at rest, has _disappeared with the sensation of redness_.

The cases in which 5 is seen are, however, indisputably significant.

The image is apparently of just the height and width of _i_, and there is not the slightest trace of the reddish-orange phase. The image flashes out over the final fixation-point, green and straw-yellow, just as the end-circles of the dumb-bell appeared without their handle. The rate of succession of the stimuli, green--red--green, on the retina, is identical with that rate which showed the two phases to the resting eye: for the pendulum is here moving at the very same rate, and the eye is moving exactly with the pendulum, as is shown by the absence of any horizontal elongation of the image seen. The trained subject seldom sees any other images than 4 and 5, and these with about equal frequency, although either is often seen in ten or fifteen consecutive trials. As in the cases of the falsely localized images and of the handleless dumb-bell, movements of both eyes, as well as of the head but not the eyes, yield the same phenomena. It is interesting again to compare the appearance under reflex movement. If at any time during the experiments the eye is allowed to follow the pendulum reflexly, the image is at once and invariably seen to pa.s.s through its two phases as it swings past the nine-centimeter opening.

The frequent and unmistakable appearance of this band of straw-yellow on a non-elongated green field _without the previous phase in which the band is reddish-orange_, although this latter was unmistakable when the same stimulation was given to the eye at rest, is authenticated by eight subjects. _This appearance, together with that of the handleless dumb-bell, is submitted as a demonstration that during voluntary movements of the eyes, and probably of the head as well, there is a moment in which stimulations are not transmitted from the retina to the cerebral cortex, that is, a moment of central anaesthesia_. The reason for saying 'and _probably_ of the head as well,' is that although the phenomena described are gotten equally well from movements of the head, yet it is not perfectly certain that when the head moves the eyes do not also move slightly within the head, even when the attempt is made to keep them fixed.

Most of the criticisms which apply to this last experiment apply to that with the dumb-bell and have already been answered. There is one however which, while applying to that other, more particularly applies here. It would be, that these after-images are too brief and indistinct to be carefully observed, so that judgments as to their shape, size, and color are not valid evidence. This is a perfectly sensible criticism, and a person thoroughly convinced of its force should repeat the experiments and decide for himself what reliance he will place on the judgments he is able to make. The writer and those of the subjects who are most trained in optical experiments find the judgments so simple and easily made as not to be open to doubt.

In the first place, it should be remembered that only those cases are counted in which the movement was so timed that the image was seen in direct vision, that is, was given on or very near the fovea. In such cases a nice discrimination of the shape and color of the images is easily possible.

Secondly, the judgments are in no case quant.i.tative, that is, they in no case depend on an estimate of the absolute size of any part of the image. At most the proportions are estimated. In the case of the dumb-bell the question is, Has the figure a handle? The other question, Are the end-circles horizontally elongated? has not to be answered with mathematical accuracy. It is enough if the end-circles are approximately round, or indeed are narrower than 9 cm.

horizontally, for at even that low degree of concentration the handle was still visible to the resting eye. Again, in the experiment with the color-phases, only two questions are essential to identify the appearance 5: Does the horizontal yellow band extend quite to both edges of the image? and, Is there certainly no trace of red or orange to be seen? The first question does not require a quant.i.tative judgment, but merely one as to whether there is any green visible to the right or left of the yellow strip. Both are therefore strictly questions of quality. And the two are sufficient to identify appearance 5, for if no red or orange is visible, images 1, 2, and 3 are excluded; and if no green lies to the right or left of the yellow band, image 4 is excluded. Thus if one is to make the somewhat superficial distinction between qualitative and quant.i.tative judgments, the judgments here required are qualitative. Moreover, the subjects make these judgments unhesitatingly.

Finally, the method of making judgments on after-images is not new in psychology. Lamansky's well-known determination of the rate of eye-movements[22] depends on the possibility of counting accurately the number of dots in a row of after-images. A very much bolder a.s.sumption is made by Guillery[23] in another measurement of the rate of eye-movements. A trapezoidal image was generated on the moving retina, and the after-image of this was projected on to a plane bearing a scale of lines inclining at various angles. On this the degree of inclination of one side of the after-image was read off, and thence the speed of the eye-movement was calculated. In spite of the boldness of this method, a careful reading of Guillery's first article cited above will leave no doubt as to its reliability, and the accuracy of discrimination possible on these after-images.

[22] Lamansky, S., (Pfluger's) Archiv f. d. gesammte Physiologie, 1869, II., S. 418.

[23] Guillery, (Pfluger's) Archiv f. d. ges. Physiologie, 1898, LXXI., S. 607; and 1898, LXXIII., S. 87.

As to judgments on the color and color-phases of after-images, there is ample precedent in the researches of von Helmholtz, Hering, Hess, von Kries, Hamaker, and Munk. It is therefore justifiable to a.s.sume the possibility of making accurately the four simple judgments of shape and color described above, which are essential to the two proofs of anaesthesia.

V. SUMMARY AND COROLLARIES OF THE EXPERIMENTS, AND A PARTIAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE CENTRAL ANaeSTHESIA.

We have now to sum up the facts given by the experiments. The fact of central anaesthesia during voluntary movement is supported by two experimental proofs, aside from a number of random observations which seem to require this anaesthesia for their explanation. The first proof is that if an image of the shape of a dumb-bell is given to the retina during an eye-movement, and in such a way that the handle of the image, while positively above the threshold of perception, is yet of brief enough duration to fade completely before the end of the movement, it then happens that both ends of the dumb-bell are seen but the handle not at all. The fact of its having been properly given to the retina is made certain by the presence of the now disconnected ends.

The second proof is that, similarly, if during an eye-movement two stimulations of different colors are given to the retina, superposed and at such intensity and rate of succession as would show to the resting eye two successive phases of color (in the case taken, reddish-orange and straw-yellow), it then happens that the first phase, which runs its course and is supplanted by the second before the movement is over, is not perceived at all. The first phase was certainly given, because the conditions of the experiment require the orange to be given if the straw-yellow is, since the straw-yellow which is seen can be produced only by the addition of green to the orange which is not seen.

These two phenomena seem inevitably to demonstrate a moment during which a process on the retina, of sufficient duration and intensity ordinarily to determine a corresponding conscious state, is nevertheless prevented from doing so. One inclines to imagine a retraction of dendrites, which breaks the connection between the central end of the optic nerve and the occipital centers of vision.

The fact of anaesthesia demonstrated, other phenomena are now available with further information. From the phenomena of the 'falsely localized' images it follows that at least in voluntary eye-movements of considerable arc (30 or more), the anaesthesia commences appreciably later than the movement. The falsely localized streak is not generated before the eye moves, but is yet seen before the correctly localized streak, as is shown by the relative intensities of the two. The anaesthesia must intervene between the two appearances.

The conjecture of Schwarz, that the fainter streak is but a second appearance of the stronger, is undoubtedly right.

We know too that the anaesthesia depends on a mechanism central of the retina, for stimulations are received during movement but not transmitted to consciousness till afterward. This would be further shown if it should be found that movements of the head, no less than those of the eyes, condition the anaesthesia. As before said, it is not certain that the eyes do not move slightly in the head while the head moves. The movement of the eyes must then be very slight, and the anaesthesia correspondingly either brief or discontinuous. Whereas, the phenomena are the same when the head moves 90 as when the eyes move that amount. It seems probable, then, that voluntary movements of the head do equally condition the anaesthesia.

We have seen, too, that in reflex eye-or head-movements no anaesthesia is so far to be demonstrated. The closeness with which the eye follows the unexpected gyrations of a slowly waving rush-light, proves that the reflex movement is produced by a succession of brief impulses (probably from the cerebellum), each one of which carries the eye through only a very short distance. It is an interesting question, whether there is an instant of anaesthesia for each one of these involuntary innervations--an instant too brief to be revealed by the experimental conditions employed above. The seeming continuity of the sensation during reflex movement would of course not argue against such successive instants of anaesthesia, since no discontinuity of vision during voluntary movement is noticeable, although a relatively long moment of anaesthesia actually intervenes.

But decidedly the most interesting detail about the anaesthesia is that shown by the extreme liability of the eye to stop reflexly on the red or the green light, in the second experiment with the pendulum.

Suppose the eye to be moving from _P_ to _P'_ (Fig. 5); the anaesthesia, although beginning later than the movement, is present when the eye reaches _O_, while it is between _O_ and _N_, that is, during the anaesthetic moment, that the eye is reflexly caught and held by the light. This proves again that the anaesthesia is not retinal, but it proves very much more; namely, that _the retinal stimulation is transmitted to those lower centers which mediate reflex movements, at the very instant during which it is cut off from the higher, conscious centers_. The great frequency with which the eye would stop midway in its movements, both in the second pendulum-experiment and in the repet.i.tion of Dodge's perimeter-test, was very annoying at the time, and the observation cannot be questioned. The fact of the habitual reflex regulation of voluntary movements is otherwise undisputed.

Exner[24] mentions a variety of similar instances. Also, with the moving dumb-bell, as has been mentioned, the eye having begun a voluntary sweep would often be caught by the moving image and carried on thereafter reflexly with the pendulum. These observations hang together, and prove a connection between the retina and the reflex centers even while that between the retina and the conscious centers is cut off.

[24] Exner, Sigmund, 'Entwurf zu einer physiologischen Erklarung der psychischen Erscheinungen,' Leipzig und Wien, 1894, S. 124-129.

But shall we suppose that the 'connection' between the retina and the conscious centers is cut off during the central anaesthesia? All that the facts prove is that the centers are at that time not conscious. It would be at present an unwarrantable a.s.sumption to make, that these centers are therefore disconnected from the retina, at the optic thalami, the superior quadrigeminal bodies, or wheresoever. On broad psychological grounds the action-theory of Munsterberg[25] has proposed the hypothesis that cerebral centers fail to mediate consciousness not merely when no stimulations are transmitted to them, but rather when the stimulations transmitted are not able to pa.s.s through and out. The stimulation arouses consciousness when it finds a ready discharge. And indeed, in this particular case, while we have no other grounds for supposing stimulations _to_ the visual centers to be cut off, we do have other grounds for supposing that egress _from_ these cells would be impeded.

[25] Munsterberg, Hugo, 'Grundzuge der Psychologie,' Leipzig, 1900, S. 525-561.

The occipital centers which mediate sensations of color are of course most closely a.s.sociated with those other centers (probably the parietal) which receive sensations from the eye-muscles and which, therefore, mediate sensations which furnish s.p.a.ce and position to the sensations of mere color. Now it is these occipital centers, mediators of light-sensations merely, which the experiments have shown most specially to be anaesthetic. The discharge of such centers means particularly the pa.s.sage of excitations on to the parietal localization-centers. There are doubtless other outlets, but these are the chief group. The movements, for instance, which activity of these cells produces, are first of all eye-movements, which have to be _directly_ produced (according to our present psychophysical conceptions) by discharges from the centers of eye-muscle sensation.

The princ.i.p.al direction of discharge, then, from the color-centers is toward the localization-centers.

Now the experiment with falsely and correctly localized after-images proves that before the anaesthesia all localization is with reference to the point of departure, while afterwards it is with reference to the final fixation-point. The transition is abrupt. During the anaesthesia, then, the mechanism of localization is suffering a readjustment. It is proved that during this interval of readjustment in the centers of eye-muscle sensation the way is closed to oncoming discharges from the color-centers; but it is certain that any such discharge, during this complicated process of readjustment, would take the localization-centres by surprise, as it were, and might conceivably result in untoward eye-movements highly prejudicial to the safety of the individual as a whole. The much more probable event is the following:

Although Schwarz suggests that the moment between seeing the false and seeing the correct after-image is the moment that consciousness is taken up with 'innervation-feelings' of the eye-movement, this is impossible, since the innervation-feelings (using the word in the only permissible sense of remembered muscle-sensations) must _precede_ the movement, whereas even the first-seen, falsely localized streak is not generated till the movement commences. But we do have to suppose that during the visual anaesthesia, muscle-sensations of _present_ movement are streaming to consciousness, to form the basis of the new post-motum localization. And these would have to go to those very centers mentioned above, the localization-centers or eye-muscle sensation centers. One may well suppose that these incoming currents so raise the tension of these centers that for the moment no discharge can take place thither from other parts of the brain, among which are the centers for color-sensations. The word 'tension' is of course a figure, but it expresses the familiar idea that centers which are in process of receiving peripheral stimulations, radiate that energy _to_ other parts of the brain (according to the neural dispositions), and probably do not for the time being receive communications therefrom, since those other parts are now less strongly excited. It is, therefore, most probable that during the incoming of the eye-muscle sensations the centers for color are in fact not able to discharge through their usual channels toward the localization-centers, since the tension in that direction is too high. If, now, their other channels of discharge are too few or too little used to come into question, the action-theory would find in this a simple explanation of the visual anaesthesia.

The fact that the anaesthesia commences appreciably later than the movement so far favors this interpretation. For if the anaesthesia is conditioned by high tension in the localization-centers, due to incoming sensations from the eye-muscles, it could not possibly commence synchronously with the movement. For, first the sensory end-organs in the eye-muscles (or perhaps in the ligaments, surfaces of the eye-sockets, etc.) have their latent period; then the stimulation has to travel to the brain; and lastly it probably has to initiate there a summation-process equivalent to another latent period. These three processes would account very readily for what we may call the latent period of the anaesthesia, as observed in the experiments. It is true that this latent period was observed only in long eye-and head-movements, but the experiments were not delicate enough in this particular to bring out the finer points.

Finally, the conditioning of anaesthesia by movements of the head, if really proved, would rather corroborate this interpretation. For of course the position of the head on the shoulders is as important for localization of the retinal picture as the position of the eyes in the head, so that sensations of head-movements must be equally represented in the localization centers; and head movements would equally raise the tension on those centers against discharge-currents from the color-centers.

The conclusion from the foregoing experiments is that voluntary movements of the eyes condition a momentary, visual, central anaesthesia.

TACTUAL ILLUSIONS.

BY CHARLES H. RIEBER.