[Disorders of the emotional behavior during cerebral lesions]

A systematic study of the emotional behavior of right and left brain-damage patients was conducted on large groups of patients with unilateral cerebral lesions. The incidence of "catastrophic reactions" was found to be significantly higher among the left brain-damaged patients, whereas "indifference reactions" were significantly more frequent in the group with right-sided lesions. The depressive-catastrophic reactions of left brain-damaged patients seemed due chiefly to marked difficulties in verbal expression, while the indifference reactions of the right brain-damaged patients were highly correlated with neglect phenomena for the opposite half of the body and of space. The meaning of the emotional reaction shown by left brain-damaged patients seems easy to understand, if we consider that these subjects are affected by aphasia and by a paresis of the right hand. More surprising and paradoxical is, on the contrary, the emotional behavior of the right brain-damaged patients. The hypothesis is advanced that the indifference of these subjects may be only apparent, and due to a strong need of denying illness. The prevalence of denial of illness among the right brain-damaged patients could be due to the "non verbal" functional organization which is supposed to be characteristic of this half of the brain.