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ROBERT M. BENJAMIN 



the thalamic taste cells. What does this mean? If these are indeed taste 

 cells, then they must project to some area not removed by the lesion (Fig. 

 16). On the surface the ablation marked by black included all of the evoked 

 potential taste nerve areas (black and white) and within the fissure, most 

 of the fronto-parietal operculum and underlying insula as well. The right 



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Fig. 16. Reconstruction of a cortical lesion in one hemisphere of a squirrel 

 monkey producing the degeneration in Fig. 15. The lesion was approximately 

 bilaterally symmetrical. The right section of each pair is from the experimental 

 brain, the left section from a normal brain. The dots approximate the removed 

 tissue. The claustrum is outlined. 



section of each pair is from the experimental brain, the left an equivalent 

 normal section on which dots indicate approximately the tissue that was 

 removed. 



Where is the projection of those intact taste cells? Probably not to the 

 intact cortex on the surface ; first, because most of this is known to be 

 occupied with other functions, and secondly, because other investigators 

 could not produce taste deficits with even much larger surface lesions 

 (Patton, 1955). They were able, however, to produce substantial deficits in 

 taste discrimination with lesions inside the Sylvian fissure involving oper- 

 cular and insular cortex (Bagshaw and Pribram, 1953 ; Patton, 1955). 

 Unfortunately, in the squirrel monkey most of the remaining opercular 

 and insular cortex belongs either to the trunk part of the somatic sensory 



