Assessing frontal lobe behavioral syndromes with the Frontal Lobe Personality Scale

Reliability and construct validity are reported for the Frontal Lobe Personality Scale (FLOPS), a brief neurobehavior rating scale. The FLOPS Family form was completed by family members of 24 frontal lobe brain-damaged patients, 15 non-frontal lobe brain-damaged patients, and 48 healthy controls. Intrascale reliability was demonstrated (internal consistency .96; split half .93). Validity studies of frontal lobe patients post-lesion compared to their pre-lesion status, to healthy controls, and of frontal lobe patients pre-and post-lesion compared to non-frontal lobe patients pre- and post-lesion, indicated that frontal lobe patients post-lesion showed significantly more "frontal" behavior than (a) pre-lesion frontal lobe patients, (b) healthy controls, and (c) post-lesion non-frontal lobe patients. The FLOPS appears to be useful for quantifying frontal lobe behavior in clinical and research settings.