The Face‐Hand Test as a Diagnostic Sign of Organic Mental Syndrome

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Abstract
A group of 400 patients who manifested to some degree mental changes such as impairment of memory, confusion and disorientation, errors on calculation and general information, and distractibility were tested with simultaneous stimulation to the cheek and hand. This was done with touch and other forms of stimuli including both unilateral and contralateral simultaneous stimulation. 91% of patients with organic mental syndrome made errors on the initial trial of the face-hand test. The face percepts were correctly localized and the hand percepts either not perceived or mislocalized. Over 87% made errors through 10 trials. This contrasted to the normal in which less than 0.5% showed errors after 10 trials and less than 3% among schizophrenics. Examinations of children of 3-6 yrs. show a similar high incidence of defects on hand-face testing. The test is of diagnostic value in patients with organic mental syndrome.
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