ashed", till it was finally discovered that what he wanted
was to have his hair cut.

The cortical area affected in this form of aphasia is located a little
further back on the surface of the brain than {60} the motor speech
center, being close to the auditory area proper. The latter is a small
cortical region in the temporal lobe, connected (through lower
centers) with the ear, and is the only part of the cortex to receive
nerve currents from the organ of hearing. The auditory area is,
indeed, the organ of hearing, or an organ of hearing, for without it
the individual is deaf. He may make a few reflex responses to loud
noises, but, consciously, he does not hear at all; he has no auditory
sensations.

In the immediate neighborhood of the auditory area proper (or of the
"auditory-sensory area", as it may well be called), are portions of
the cortex intimately connected by axons with it, and concerned in
what may be called auditory perceptions, i.e., with recognizing and
understanding sounds. Probably different portions of the cortex near
the auditory-sensory center have to do with different sorts of
auditory perception. At least, we sometimes find individuals who, as a
result of injury or disease affecting this general region, are unable
any longer to follow and appreciate music. They cannot "catch the
tune" any longer, though they may have been fine musicians before this
portion of their cortex was destroyed. In other cases, we find,
instead of this music deafness, the word deafness mentioned just
above.

The jargon talk that so often accompanies word deafness reminds us of
the fact that speech is first of all auditory to the child. He
understands what is said to him before he talks himself, and his
vocabulary for purposes of understanding always remains ahead of his
speaking vocabulary. It appears that this precedence of auditory
speech over motor remains the fact throughout life, in most persons,
and that the auditory speech center is the most fundamental of all the
speech centers, of which there is one more not yet mentioned, used in
reading.

{61}

[Illustration: Fig. 17.--(From Cajal.) Magnified sections through the
cortex, to show the complexity of its inner structure. One view shows
nerve cells and their dendrites, with only a few axons, while the
other shows axons, outgoing and incoming, and some of their fine
branches. Imagine one view superimposed upon the other, and you get
some idea of the intricate i