The Hunt-Minnesota Test for Organic Brain Damage in cases of functional depression.

Among the several tests which have been devised for the detection of intellectual deterioration, one of the most efficient is the HuntMinnesota Test for Organic Brain Damage (Hunt, 1943a,b, 1944, 1945) The author developed this instrument specifically for the diagnosis of organic damage. While the detection and measurement of a decrement in intellectual function, however caused, is an important part of the clinical psychologist’s work, methods must eventually be developed for distinguishing between two kinds of deterioration. On the one hand are those which are secondary to “emotionalmotivational” factors (e.g. in schizophrenia) and, on the other, those which represent the direct effect of organic central nervous system pathology. Since many varieties of behavior disorders are characterized by a certain amount of psychological deficit, the psychologist will obviously be playing a more significant clinical role if he can make a definite contribution to differential diagnosis (e.g. as between “functional” and “organic” deficit) instead of merely reporting a deviation from the “ normal” or “optimal” level. Such an added report would carry no implication as to the ultimate etiology of the disorder which he has thus labeled as showing either “functional” or “organic” deterioration. Because even if “organic” (endocrine, metabolic, or autonomic) factors should finally be established as primary causes of the development of a schizophrenia, it would still be possible for an observed intellectual deficit to occur as a function of motivation, itself dependent upon the organic factors. In cases with “functional” deterioration, techniques to effectively motivate the patient may cause him to return temporarily to his “true” level, a phenomenon which has often been observed by clinicians. Whereas, in the strictly “organic” case, no such motivational improve-