ABSTRACT
Stroke, the sudden loss of a neurological function, was known to early Greek physicians (Clarke, 1963). However, few authorities connected the symptoms of stroke to disorders of circulation until Johanne Jacob Wepfer published his Observationses Anatomicae [Anatomical Observations] in 1658 (Donley, 1909). Wepfer’s studies of the postmortem brain showed that the internal carotid arteries perforate the dura to enter the brain, where they branch into more Wnely articulated cerebral vessels (Benton, 1991). Wepfer was also the Wrst author to show that stroke could be caused by occlusion of cerebral vessels or by subdural or intracerebral hemorrhage (Benton, 1991). Wepfer’s distinction between cerebrovascular occlusive disease and cerebral hemorrhage remains one of the fundamental clinical distinctions in the differential diagnosis of stroke (Wiebe-Velazquez & Hachinski, 1991). A related etiologic distinction, between ischemic brain disease and brain hemorrhage, is important for the classiWcation of neuropsychological studies of stroke. This chapter is a review of neuropsychological studies of stroke caused by ischemia or hemorrhage of large cerebral vessels. Neuropsychological dysfunction associated with other types of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular conditions, as well as the neuropsychological effects of stroke treatments, are discussed in other chapters. Meier and Strauman (1991) reviewed the literature on recovery of function following cerebral infarction.
