Leucotomized and nonleucotomized schizophrenics: comparison on tests of attention.

Deficits in attention have been strongly linked with both schizophrenia and pathology in the prefrontal cortex. This observation was tested by administering a battery of commonly used tests of attention, sustained mental activity, and tracking to 16 patients who had undergone prefrontal leucotomy approximately 25 years earlier. Presurgical diagnosis in each patient was schizophrenia. The 16 were divided into three groups based on their recovery after surgery. A control group of nonleucotomized schizophrenics was established to control for psychiatric symptomatology. A second control group consisted of subjects without history of psychiatric or CNS disorder. In general, there was no statistically significant impairment of performance in attention tests between the patients with prefrontal psychosurgery and the normal control subjects. The nonoperated schizophrenic control group performed most poorly. Lesion chronicity, interaction of leucotomy and presurgical psychiatric state, and conditions of test administration are suggested as possible explanations for the unexpected results.