Frontal Lobe Tumor Research Articles

Forced Grasping and Disturbances of Attention

As a result of two operations which were performed on a rhesus monkey with the object of working out an approach for the destruction of the anterior nuclei of the thalamus, not only were the latter involved, but lesions were also produced in the frontal lobe. The lesions were largely caused by the removal of firm adhesions which had developed after the first operation. The motor disturbances and the mental changes which appeared after the second operation revealed some features which had much in common with a clinical syndrome previously observed in a patient who had died from a frontal lobe tumour in the same region. For this reason it seems worth while to record and to discuss these two cases. The experimental operations may be described in some detail in order to explain the extent of the lesions produced.

NICOTINIC ACID IN THE TREATMENT OF ATYPICAL PSYCHOTIC STATES

There have been reports of excellent results from the treatment of pellagrous psychoses with nicotinic acid;¹these have dealt with the more familiar mental symptoms occurring in frank or subclinical pellagra of the usual type. The present communication deals with observations made on nineteen individuals all presenting mental symptoms of somewhat similar pattern, none corresponding to the ordinary conception of pellagrous dementia. Hebetude grading into profound stupor was a feature so prominent that frontal lobe tumor was suspected in three patients, lethargic encephalitis in one and chronic subdural hematoma in a third. Delirium was present three times, agitated depression once, and one patient presented the signs of central neuritis. Signs of peripheral neuritis were not discovered, but five patients had marked deafness which disappeared under treatment; it was difficult to determine whether this transient deafness was due to failure of attention or to actual interference with the auditory mechanism.

A Case of Frontal Lobe Tumour

1. A case of left-sided frontal lobe tumour is described, and the recent literature of these tumours is reviewed. 2. The differential diagnosis in such a case is discussed. 3. The prominence of mental symptoms in the left-sided tumour is stressed. 4. The absence of classical symptoms and the presence of aphasic symptoms in a case of tumour deep in the frontal lobe are raised as diagnostic and localizing points.