title: The anatomy of mental unity and volition: an alternate view.
abstract: The preceding paper, by Louis Tinnin, challenges us to consider that there is a brain agency responsible for mental unity, volition and consciousness, which the author labels a "governing mental system" (GMS), or "ego," and that the neural substrate for this GMS is Wernicke's Area. The primary evidence in support of this position comes from three sources: a review of brain and language development in normal and abnormal individuals (e.g., deaf children); studies of patients who have undergone corpus callosum section for intractable epilepsy; and some observations of memory processing during the intracarotid sodium amytal (Wada) procedure. Our comments address two issues. The first is an analysis of the adequacy of these three sources as evidence for Tinnin's position. The second is a description of an alternative model to account for the mental system we agree exists but do not yet understand.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry Service, Livermore VA Medical Center, Livermore, CA 94550.
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Stillman
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Walker
mesh_terms: D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000502:physiology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D004532:Ego; D006801:Humans; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D010553:Personality Development