Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory correlates of lateralized cerebral lesions and aphasic deficits.

Abstract

In the present study, we investigated the emotional adjustment of brain-damaged patients as a function of (a) the hemispheric location of the lesion and (b) the degree of aphasia as measured by the HalsteadWepman Aphasia Screening Test. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) profiles of 35 patients with right-hemisphere lesions were compared with those of 25 patients with left-hemisphere lesions. Both samples produced similar composite profiles that indicated the presence of mild dysphoria, dissatisfaction, withdrawal, decreased initiative, and mild somatic preoccupations. Within the left-hemisphere-damaged group, significant correlations emerged between the degree of aphasic disability and MMPI F, Pa, Pi, and Sc. When the variance in MMPI scores due to premorbid status (education) was partialled out, however, these correlations dropped to nonsignifican t levels. These findings failed to provide support for the widely held association of speech-related deficits with psychopathology. A number of investigators (Flor-Henry, 1976; Gainotti, 1972) have reported a connection between lateralizcd brain lesions and specific emotional disturbances in brain-damaged patients. In general, symptoms of depression, withdrawal, and anxiety have been associated with impairment of the dominant hemisphere (Berent, 1981), whereas symptoms of denial, indifference, and euphoria have been linked with nondominant hemispheric pathology (Hecean, 1962). In the present study, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was used to assess the emotional status of patients with unilateral brain lesions. Previous MMPI studies of patients with lateralized lesions have yielded mixed results. Despite the clinical lore, several MMPI investigators have failed to find any differences in patients' emotional adjustment as a function of lesion laterality (Dikmen & Reitan, 1974a; Friedman, 1950; Meier & French, 1965; Vogel, 1962). Dikmen and Reitan (1974b), however, found evidence suggesting that the MMPI may be sensitive to specific verbal deficits associated with cerebral impairment. Dysphasic symptoms, for example, were associated with elevations on the MMPI F, Psychopathic Deviate (Pd), and Schizophrenia (Sc) scales. Slightly higher elevations on MMPI variables in brain-damaged individuals have also been associated with functional deficits of a verbal-intellectual nature (Dikmen & Reitan, 1977; Osmon & Golden, 1978). In the two most recently published MMPI studies of patients with lateralized lesions Black (1975) and Gasparrini, Satz, Heilman, and Coolidge (1978) found profile differences due to lesion laterality, and they attributed these differences to the structural loss of brain tissue rather than to any specific loss of abilities. In