Effects of Temporal-Lobe Surgery on Behavior

Abstract

When Mr. Murray Falconer moved from New Zealand to London, his neurosurgical unit based jointly in two major London teaching hospitals and at the Maudsley Hospital, one of the leading psychiatric centers of the world, began a methodical study of surgery in the control of temporal-lobe epilepsy. Although the primary indication for surgery was uncontrolled seizures, the presence of behavioral changes in a large fraction of the 250 patients operated on has permitted the accumulation of considerable data on the clinical pictures of these personality changes and the effects of surgery. This study has had the advantage of independent assessment . . .