Rotation tendency and cerebral dysfunction in children.

Abstract

Rotational errors in tests such as Bender's Visual-motor Gestalt Test or Benton's Visual Retention Test have been accepted in individual diagnostics of children as an indication of an organic disturbance. A series of experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that the tendency to rotate in perceptual tests would be characteristic of children with a suspected or confirmed brain injury. The tendency to rotate figures was measured with different types of perceptual tests. Besides Benton's test and Bender's Gestalt test, newly constructed tests were employed to measure the rotational tendency quantitatively and more objectively. The tasks were made more complicated by presenting geometrical figures tachistoscopically or by requiring intersensory communication for solving the test task. Experimental groups referred for an EEG examination on the suspicion of an organic disturbance in the majority of experiments did not display a greater tendency to rotate figures than control groups; nor did a pathological EEG attend an increased rotational tendency. Younger children committed more rotational errors than older children. Children exhibiting a high rotational tendency, compared with the remaining children, more often had concentration difficulties according to the teachers' ratings; however, hyperactive behavior or motor difficulties were not more frequent. Nor did they have a greater tendency, based on the teachers' rating, to transpose, reverse, or to rotate letters or digits. No relationship between the tendency to rotate and IQ, measured with the WISC, was noted. Individuals with right-left discrimination difficulties committed rotational errors more often on Bender's test. The hypothesis that individuals with right-left discrimination difficulties would also exhibit finger agnosia, dyslexia, and dysgraphia at a high frequency (Developmental Gerstmann's Syndrome) was not confirmed.