"No Longer Gage": Frontal Lobe Dysfunction and Emotional Changes

This review presents the multiple changes in emotional response and personality that occur after damage to the frontal systems, proposes operational definitions, and analyzes the published reports according to these definitions. Neurological causes of frontal lobe damage and associations of frontal dysfunction with psychiatric disturbances are summarized. It is concluded that symptoms of frontal lobe damage that have been labeled as emotional disturbances may be classified as disorders of drive or motivation, mood (subjective emotional experience), and affect (emotional expression). It is proposed that the primary change after frontal lobe pathology is a disorder of personality, a change in the stable response patterns that define an individual as a unique self. Dysfunction of personality includes cognitive abilities, with a disorder of self-reflective awareness as a key deficit.