Question: What Are the Effects of a Frontal Lobe Stroke?
Answer: Frontal lobe strokes can cause a variety of effects which range from weakness to lack of motivation. For this reason, it is helpful to separate these effects into four categories.
Motor:
- Weakness or paralysis on the side of the body opposite the stroke
- Unmasking of primitive reflexes such as instinctive sucking, grasping, and groping
- Compulsive mimicking of facial gestures made by others
- Compulsive repetition of a movement (motor perseveration)
- Abulia
- Apraxia of gait
- Urinary incontinence
Speech and Language
- Broca’s aphasia (when stroke affects the dominant language hemisphere)
Cognition and Intellect
- Lack of initiative, vacillation, mood changes and inattentiveness
- Difficulty solving problems (goal-directed behavior) in different realms of cognition including psycholinguistic, constructive, logical, and arithmetical
Behavior and Personality
- Profound lack of initiative and motivation
- Spontaneous expression of socially inappropriate remarks
- Irritability
- Carelessness and apathy
- Inappropriate and seemingly random persistence and repetition of certain behaviors
Source:
Allan Ropper and Robert Brown, Adam's and Victor's Principles of Neurology, 8th Edition McGraw-Hill Companies Inc, United States of America, 2005, pp 417-430.
