Interhemispheric Transfer after Spontaneous Recovery in 43 Cases of Severe Closed Head Injury

Postmortem histology, brain imaging, and four previously published case reports based on untimed behavioral tests suggest the possibility of frequent callosal disconnection following closed head injury (CHI). No group study has evaluated the frequency of occurrence of this syndrome in CHI using untimed behavioral measures of interhemispheric transfer. The present study consisted of an evaluation of interhemispheric transfer in 43 severe closed-head-injured patients using a wide-ranging battery of untimed behavioral tasks, after the period of spontaneous recovery. Only one patient showed signs of callosal disconnection. It was concluded that much effective interhemispheric transfer occurred in closed-head-injured patients after the period Of spontaneous recovery. More frequent occurrence of the disconnection syndrome in its acute phase is a possibility that cannot be excluded at the present time, however.