THE END of the 19th century was particularly important in the development of the ideas concerning the functional organization of the cortex. The localizationists found support in the findings of Broca and Wernicke (cited by Giannitrapani¹) concerning speech, Fritsch and Hitzig² concerning motion and Munk³ concerning vision. The findings of Goltz⁴ and the heirarchic principles of Jackson⁵ clearly opposed these views.

Today, while findings supporting a strict localization of cortical functions are not expected, the opposite attitude is difficult to hold. Several reasons can be adduced: (1) thoughts cannot easily rally around a nebulous concept of nonlocalization, (2) research in humans is limited by the shortcomings of clinical investigations, which have allowed for very little progress since the 19th century, and (3) the easily obtainable abstractions concerning "functions" in man do not seem to have a