Intellectual function following penetrating head injury in Vietnam veterans

The extent to which intellectual processes are preserved as a function of preinjury 'intelligence' and of size and location of the brain lesions was evaluated in Vietnam war veterans who survived penetrating missile wounds. With regard to an overall postinjury intelligence test score, preinjury intelligence was most predictive, size of lesion was next most predictive and lesion location was least important. For subtest scores from the same intelligence test, lesion location assumed much greater predictive value. Specifically, left temporal and occipital lesions impaired performance on subtests assessing vocabulary and object-function matching ability.