Hypo-Responsiveness as a Behavioral Correlate of Brain-Damage in Children

Abstract

It is hypothesized that hypo-responsiveness is a behavioral correlate of brain-damage in children. This hypothesis, which contradicts the concept of distractibility, is that brain-damaged children demonstrate fewer and less varied responses per unit of time for a given stimulus situation than normal children of comparable intelligence. The hypothesis is general and relevant variables such as time, locus, and extent of injury have yet to be investigated for their effect on this proposed behavioral correlate. Hypo-responsiveness evolved from the observation that distractibility was more characteristic of normal than of brain-damaged children and from previous studies of discrimination learning, test performance, responsiveness to illusions, stimulus generalization, and drugs. The procedures utilized in activation research, psychophysical assessment of stimulus thresholds for different modalities need exploration as do the environmental stimulus conditions under which brain-damaged Ss perform optimally.