THE EFFECTS OF CEREBRAL LESIONS ON INTELLECTUAL FUNCTION: A REVIEW OF CURRENT RESEARCH TRENDS

The literature of the psychological effects of brain injury is extensive and disconnected. It abounds in inadequate definitions, incompatible theories and disagreements as to appropriate methods of investigation. This situation results partly from the variety of disciplines which guide different investigators; but it results too from the great logical difficulties encountered by anybody who seeks to throw light on normal intelligent behaviour by studying the effects of cerebral lesions. Some have even argued that such attempts are always unprofitable (47, 77).

Prosopagnosia

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Association, agnosia, and intellect

“O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall, Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed.”

The importance of the anatomical basis of the simpler motor and sensory functions of the central nervous system, and their disorders, has been recognized for over a century (Brown-Séquard, 1855). But that more complex intellectual functions and their disorders should also have a relevant anatomical substrate is only slowly coming into recognition. Indeed, a still-fashionable theory of mental function, originating in Vienna towards the end of the last century, regards the study of brain structure as unnecessary and beneath contempt—for all that its founder began as a neuro-anatomist.