PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF FUNCTIONS OF THE TEMPORAL LOBES IN MONKEYS

Abstract

In previous communications¹we pointed out that the chief symptoms following bilateral temporal lobectomy in the rhesus monkey consist in "psychic blindness" (<i>Seelenblindheit</i>) or visual agnosia, strong "oral" tendencies and profound emotional changes. Our results were primarily based on an analysis of the behavioral symptoms of a female rhesus monkey which had been studied for a period of four months following the operations. The type of disturbance analyzed in that case seemed to be similar to the "associative mind blindness" of Lissauer.²It is true that the diagnosis "agnosia" can be only of practical importance and merely serves to raise a number of questions. A review of the clinical literature indicates that the more carefully a case is studied the more difficult it may be to decide whether there is really an "agnostic" or merely a "visual" defect, that is, whether the variety of "agnostic" symptoms can be