The comparative effects of brain damage on the halstead impairment index and the wechsler-bellevue scale

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONThe comparative effect of brain damage on various psychological measures is of interest not only for improved diagnostic proficiency but also for gaining a better understanding of the types of abilities especially sensitive to impairment in association with brain damage. The many ways in which brain lesions may vary, however, pose problems with respect to such comparisons. In consideration of the difficulty in determining the characteristics of the lesion and its effects at the time of testing in any patient, it is reasonable to assume that no two independent groups of braindamaged subjects are exactly comparable. The only legitimate approach, then, is to obtain various measures on the same group of subjects a t a particular time and to make direct comparisons of the effect of brain damage on these measures. Such an attempt has been made in this study using the Halstead Impairment Index and various results from the Wechsler-Bellevue Scale for Adult Intelligence.METHODS AND PROCEDURE Subjects. The subjects included in this study were used previously in an investigation of the validity of Halstead's tests for brain damage@). One group was composed of 50 subjects with proved brain damage and the other of 50 subjects with no history or clinical evidence suggesting past or present brain damage. Although great care was used to be sure that the subjects were classified correctly with respect to the presence or absence of brain damage, other variables such as hospitalization, chronic illness and affective disturbances were present in both groups. The subjects in the two groups were matched in pairs on the basis of closely corresponding age, education, color and sex. The group with brain damage had a mean age of 32.42 years and a mean education of 11.56 years. Corresponding means for the group without brain damage were 32.36 years and 11.58 years. Further description of the groups, including the distributions of diagnoses, was presented previously @).

Neuropsychological correlates of rapidly Vs. slowly growing intrinsic cerebral neoplasms

“…In all instances, however, the rapid growing tumors were associated with greater performance deficits than were the slowly growing tumors. These findings are in agreement with certain others (Reitan, 1959) which have found the Wechsler intelligence measures to be less sensitive generally to the effects of brain lesions than the Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological measures. The HalsteadReitan neuropsychological test measures revealed specific differential deficits associated with rapidly and slowly progressive intrinsic cerebral neoplasms that were far less apparent in the W-B results.…”

Relationships between measures of brain functions and general intelligence

“…In the context of the four groups used in this study, it appears that there may be a tendency to underestimate the brain-related adaptive capability (Impairment Index) of control subjects on the basis of their Verbal IQ values. We should note that in direct comparisons of the sensitivity of IQ values and the Impairment Index, the Impairment Index consistently has been shown to be more sensitive to the biological integrity of the cerebral hemispheres (Reitan, 1959b). Table 4 presents Pearson product-moment coefficients of correlation between IQ values and the Impairment Index for each of the groups.…”

Scientific Investigation of Brain-Behavior Relationships Using the Halstead-Reitan Battery

“…Although found to be much less sensitive to cerebral dysfunction than Halstead's tests (Reitan, 1959), Wechsler's scales were observed to provide important information regarding the relative integrity of the cerebral hemispheres and their specialized functions (Reitan, 1955b). Furthermore, the Wechsler Scales in association with other test results have been found, at times, to provide specific information relating to lesion location (Reitan & Wolfson, 1993a).…”