ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC CHANGES AFTER PREFRONTAL LOBOTOMY

Abstract

THERE are relatively few reports on electroencephalographic changes following lobotomy.¹Most reports²are in agreement that electroencephalographic slowing occurs after lobotomy, that it is most prominent anterior to the plane of incision and that the degree of slowing decreases within the first few months after operation. Electroencephalographic changes are not correlated with the psychiatric clinical condition,^1dbut may be correlated with seizure phenomena. An abnormal preoperative electroencephalogram increases the chances that a patient will have convulsions postoperatively,^1eand the postoperative electroencephalographic abnormality may become more rather than less pronounced in patients in whom seizures develop.^1cCohn attributed the postoperative slowing to brain injury, whereas Stevens and Moscovich^1dattribute it to the interruption of corticothalamocortical impulses. Our interest in the effect of lobotomy on the electroencephalogram in human beings was aroused by the report of Morison and Bassett,³who describe bursts, trains or spindles