Demonstration of dog Louisa who reacts to acoustic stimuli after extirpation of both temporal lobes / by Walter B. Swift, A.B., S.B., M.D., assistant in neurology, Tufts Medical School; assistant to physcians for nervous diseases, Boston City Hospital.

  • Swift, Walter Babcock, 1868-
Date:
1912
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Demonstration of dog Louisa who reacts to acoustic stimuli after extirpation of both temporal lobes / by Walter B. Swift, A.B., S.B., M.D., assistant in neurology, Tufts Medical School; assistant to physcians for nervous diseases, Boston City Hospital. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Dr. W. B. Swift, in demonstrating a dog with both temporal lobes extirpated, said: This demonstration will show that a dog may be trained to differentiate between two tones after both temporal lobes are extirpated. The dog—Louisa— was trained by me to take meat at the tone c and refuse it at the tone e. After a few weeks of such training, Prof. L. Jacob- sohn, of Berlin, removed the left temporal lobe. Then, following a further training for several weeks, he removed the right temporal lobe. Af¬ ter some weeks’ training, the dog was demon¬ strated in Berlin before the Berlin Society for Psychiatry and Neurology, and there differen¬ tiated tones as in the following demonstration. I. (Louisa in box, meat on block.) Six or eight times tones c and e were sounded. At c she took the meat; at e she refrained. Dr. Mitchell, of Danvers, requested that the eating tone be sounded first. This was done and the dog ate. From this demonstration in Berlin it was the consensus of opinion at that time (with one exception) that the dog could not hear, but could react to two tones. Reaction to other tones was absent. Since that time, during the last four months, she has gradually regained a reaction to other tones, as follows: II. Whistles, calls and clapping of hands of¬ fered as stimuli, to which the dog reacted by pricking up her ears, throwing her head back and turning around.