Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 198-199. (Budapest, 2007)

TANULMÁNYOK — ARTICLES - SZIRMAI, Imre - GOSZTONYI, Georg: Conceps of Localization of Neurological Functions in István Környei 's Oeuvre. - (Az idegműködések helyhez-köthetöségének elméletei Környei István életművében)

the effect of the extensive damage of the white matter influencing the state of unconsciousness. Later, Jellinger (1976) also emphasized the importance of the same finding. Környey pointed out that the Wernicke-Korsakow process may progress into coma, and called up the attention that in these cases "sometimes thalamus lesions can be found". In his study (Környey, 1937), he explained that in the Wernicke-Korsakow process the development of unconsciousness depends on the degree of involvement of the wall of the III'

d ventricle. He was familiar with the observations of Castaigne and coworkers (1966), who first described the symptomatic hypersomnia (akinetic mutism?) caused by symmetric vascular damage to the thalamus within the supplying territory of the arteriae thalamoperforatae. The study on "Aphasie el création artistique" , written about the disease of Béni Ferenczy, who was a famous Hungarian sculptor and painter, represents an extraordinary piece of the Hungarian neurological literature (Környey, 1977). In this analysis not the topographical considerations are in the foreground. Without treating the differences in the functions of the cerebral hemispheres and the important role of the subdominant hemisphere in the preverbal and other association processes he concluded that "the artist did not need words in order to make decisions in his art. Beside his severe aphasia he preserved his capability to express the rich world of his ideas and emotions. In the absence of verbal expression he possessed the figurative speech". As a supplementation of this interpretation he joined Goldstein's (1948) opinion, when he explained in connection with this case that in spite of the almost complete loss of motor speech (which was caused by the emollition of the area of the anterior cerebral artery, extending also to the white matter) the patient retained his ability of symbol creation, i.e the application of symbolic speech was independent of the inability of verbal output. Nobody explained these considerations before Környey in the Hungarian neurological literature. 4. Relationship between artistic creation and speech GEORG GOSZTONYI, MD Researcher Department of Neuropathology Freie Universität Berlin Hindenburgdamm 30, IMRE SZIRMAI, Prof. MD Director of the Department of Neurology Semmelweis University D-12200 BERLIN GERMANY H-1083 BUDAPEST Balassa u 6. HUNGARY E-mail: szirmai@neur.sote.hu