Psychosurgery Outcome and CNV Asymmetry

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses psychosurgery outcome and contingent negative variation (CNV) asymmetry. Event-related slow brain potentials are useful neurophysiological indicators of information processing. One brain wave complex, contingent negative variation (CNV), is a sensitive indicator of changes in brain functioning associated with impairment in attention processes. Moreover, there is evidence that CNV may provide a method of assessing brain lesion effects on psychological functions. The findings on split-brain and frontal lobe patients do not indicate hemispheric differences in CNV development. An attempt is made to assess the possible association between hemispheric differences in CNV development and clinical outcome following a bimedial prefrontal leukotomy. The fact that hemispheric differences characterize the CNV development of groups of psychosurgery patients with a more favorable and a less favorable outcome suggests that CNV asymmetries may be a useful, non-invasive method for the clinical assessment of behavioral changes following brain lesions. Normal subjects tend to show little or no lateral asymmetry in amplitude of CNV recorded either at the vertex or in areas other than motor cortex.