Results of Isolation of the Orbital Lobes in Leucotomy

Abstract

Many authors, examining personality changes after brain injury, have observed that lesions of the orbital surface of the frontal lobes are more frequently accompanied by emotional changes than lesions in any other part of the cortex. Amongst others, Schuster (1902), Berger (1923), Kleist (1931) and Rylander (1939), have called attention to this fact, and experimental work by Fulton and Ingraham (1929) on cats has established confirmatory evidence. Freeman and Watts (1942), in their study of leucotomized patients observed that, if only the lower quadrants of the white matter in the prefrontal area were cut, the results of leucotomy were better than when the cut was placed in the upper quadrants only. Groups of cases, in whom only the lower quadrants were sectioned, have also been reported on by Dax and Radley Smith (1943 and 1946), Reitman (1946) and Hofstatter et al (1945).