[Neuropsychological investigations of thought processes in aphasics (author's transl)].

Fifteen aphasics and 10 patients with cortical lesions of the right (nondominant) hemisphere were examined using 10 nonverbal psychological tests with 23 variants. The number of correct solutions and the duration of fulfillment of each variant were recorded with statistical significance and standard deviations. Aphasics as well as patients with right-sided cortical damage have lower scores than normal individuals for both correctness and duration of performance. The two groups of patients differed in that the number of correct solutions was higher in aphasics than it was in right-sided cortical injury cases. Aphasics required a longer time to perform the tests used by the authors than normals did, and those with right-sided cortical lesions required an even longer time. The results were also dependent on the kind of test applied. For example, the differences shown by tests 4, 5, 6, and 10 were comparatively less among the three groups (normals, aphasics, and right-sided damage of the cortex) and nonsignificant. The results are discussed in relation to thought processes, language, and aphasia.