[The process of learning verbal material in patients with various damaged cerebral structures]

The results are described of a study of the process of verbal material learning and its recall after distraction in 20 patients with involuntary movements treated by thalamotomy, and in 20 epileptic patients treated by amygdalotomy and hippocampotomy. In both groups learning difficulties had been noted already before the operation. In postoperative tests these difficulties were found to have increased immediately after the surgical intervention in patients with lesions in the left cerebral hemisphere. On the other hand, late after the operation they were particularly pronounced after lesions placed in the right thalamus. Disturbances of material recall after distraction were shown in both groups independently of the side of the lesion.