[Mental disorders in patients with unilateral frontal tumors]

Using clinical procedures and psychological tests, the authors examined 72 patients with tumours of the left, and 68 with those of the right frontal lobe of the brain. Tumours of the left frontal lobe were shown to be associated with such manifestations as an impoverishment of motor activity and facial mobility, speech disturbances in the form of efferent motor or dynamic aphasia, slower rate of mental processes, impaired verbal memory, diminished capacity for generalization, difficulty in switching attention to another subject, and inclination toward stereotypy. These disturbances were attended by depressive emotions at the initial, and by the apathoabulic syndrome at the later stages. Tumours located in the right frontal lobe resulted in excessive elation and euphoria, underestimation of the gravity of one's condition and anosognosia, noncritical perception of reality, lack of concentration, diminution in the volume of perception, and a tendency toward confabular additions, which was particularly manifest in the sphere of visual perceptions. The local factor appears to play the principal part in the development of psychic disorders related to the left frontal tumours, whereas in cases of the right frontal tumours, it is the size and the degree of malignancy that matter.