MAN'S FRONTAL LOBES

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Abstract
Examination of the current literature concerning the frontal lobes reveals an almost universal belief that surgical removals from this area must produce serious psychologic defects. The evidence on which the belief is founded, however, is not nearly so satisfactory as one might suppose. In this paper I propose to review and evaluate the published reports which attempt to analyze the functions of the frontal lobes on the basis of neurosurgical material. In the review, emphasis is laid on problems of method which are common to any such analysis, whatever region of the brain may be concerned. The occasion for a reevaluation of theories concerned with the frontal lobes was a fortunate opportunity to observe the social adjustment of K. M., a patient of Dr. Wilder Penfield's, six years after a partial bilateral frontal lobectomy (Hebb and Penfield,11940). The patient's excellent recovery showed that a large bilateral removal is