Verbal and figural fluency in patients with mass lesions of the left or right frontal lobes

Impaired verbal and figural fluency has been shown to be associated with fr ontal lobe dysfunction. Jones-Gotman and Milner (1977) demonstrated a doubl e dissociation between verbal and nonverbal fluency in a small sample of pa tients with frontal lesions of the left or right hemisphere. The present st udy has examined verbal and nonverbal fluency in 25 healthy participants an d 95 patients with mass lesions of the left or right frontal lobes. In comp arison with healthy participants, verbal fluency was reduced in patients wi th frontal lesions of the left hemisphere. Patients with right-sided lesion s did not differ from either the control group or from the patients with le ft-sided frontal mass lesions. In the figural fluency task, the performance of the groups did not differ. The finding that patients with left frontal lesions produced fewer words than healthy paticipants suggests an associati on between left frontal lobe pathology and reduced verbal fluency. The resu lts do not support the hypothesis of a double dissociation between verbal/f igural fluency and the side of lesion within the frontal lobes.