Organic Causes of Minimal Brain Dysfunction

Abstract

The fetus and newborn incur cerebral hypoxic lesions which result in minimal brain dysfunction. The lesions are basically of a venous infarctional nature. In the premature, the damage affects primarily periventricular deposits of germinal tissue. At term, the loss is mainly in the cortex. Subacute lesions defined provide a transitional link between the acute patterns of neonatal cerebral damage and the chronic lesions in minimal brain dysfunction. This syndrome, estimated to affect over 3 million in this country, is responsible for nervous system disability not only in infants and children, but also in adults.