The Brain and Behavior 73
understood as an indirect effect of the operation. If any op-
eration specifically changed behavior some clear-cut regular
phenomena should have been evoked. If any variety of opera-
tion had specifically resulted in the alleviation of some physi-
cal or mental disease or in the change of a particular per-
sonality structure, then greater regularity of results should
have been achieved. It is an old clinical observation that any
of a wide variety of physical injuries may be followed by a
temporary amelioration of psychotic symptoms. Mentally
disturbed patients are frequently relatively lucid during con-
valescence from an appendectomy, while recovering from a
broken leg, or following an acute bout with an infectious dis-
ease. It is conceivable that the mental amelioration following
topectomy might be basically the same sort of thing” (Met-
tler, 1949, pp. 494-5). In brief, as Landis went on to say, “No
existing theory or hypothesis dealing with the psychologic
significance of the human frontal lobes is tenable” (Mettler,
1949, p. 496).
Neurophysiologists in 1900 were less clear about their con-
ception of the cortical mechanisms involved in emotional
processes than they were about those related to sensory-
motor and intellectual functions. As the studies cited in this
section illustrate, it is not possible at this time either for
neurophysiologists to specify unequivocally the function of
the frontal lobes in emotional processes. Hypotheses have
been advanced, but the data gathered to document them has
not been sufficient to secure a consensus. Part of the difficulty
in studies of emotional processes in contrast to those con-
cerned with sensory-motor or intellectual activities can be
attributed to the relative lack of clarity in specifications of
emotional behavior. The use of lobotomies and lobectomies
for psychiatric treatment represents a significant affirmation
on the part of some neurosurgeons and psychiatrists of the