ELECTRO-ENCEPHALOGRAPHIC STUDIES OF PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITIES

The effects of temporal lobe lesions on behavior in paranoid states

The effects of temporal lobe lesions on behaviour have recently received considerable attention. There is reason to believe that certain types of abnormal behaviour are related to neurophysiological disturbances localized in the temporal lobes (Hill and Watterson, 1942; Rey, Pond and Evans, 1949). The effects of excisions of the temporal lobes on behaviour have been studied in animals (Klüver and Bucy, 1938), and in human subjects (Penfield and Flanigan, 1950; Bailey and Gibbs, 1951), while those of therapeutic incisions have been described by Obrador (1947). They appear to have certain features in common with those resulting from lesions of the frontal lobes. However, knowledge in this field is still in its infancy, and the following two cases in which temporal lobe lesions supervened upon paranoid states are therefore considered as worthy of interest. They were observed at the Professorial Unit of the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals.

Episodic rage, theta rhythm and obsessions

The association of an abnormal electroencephalogram with obsessive-compulsive states has been investigated by Pacellaet al.(1944), who found in these states a higher incidence of “convulsive-type” patterns, consisting of occasional or frequent runs of serial 2–4 c/s potentials of high amplitude than in a random control group. In most of the cases this type of activity was only noted after a period of hyperventilation not exceeding two minutes.

The E.E.G.S of the relatives of schizophrenics

It has been shown by a number of workers that in a large proportion of cases the E.E.G.s of schizophrenic patients are abnormal. This paper is an attempt to increase our knowledge of the hereditary background of schizophrenia by recording the E.E.G.s not only of those suffering from the disease but also those of their near relatives.

Psychopathic personality and crime

Psychiatric research has elucidated many unrecognized facts, and added much to our knowledge of the causes of criminal behaviour in mentally abnormal persons. At the same time the fluidity of modern psychiatry, itself evidence of progress, makes it difficult always to present simply and clearly modern views in a court of law. “”