ABSTRACT
Intellectual activity, which has been thoroughly studied by psychology, has its own peculiar structure and consists of a number of clearly distinguishable phases. The methods used to study conceptual thinking are inappropriate since they establish only the level of abstract codes mastered by the subject which are not indicative of the dynamics of intellectual processes. An injury to the premotor sections of the brain impairs the highest automatisms, hinders the transition from one element of a complex movement to another and impairs the performance of complex motor skills. If the lesion covers the premotor area of the left hemisphere and extends to the area of the second and the third frontal convolutions, it affects verbal processes with the ensuing distortions in the automatization of speech and verbal thinking. The methods of research which are adequate for analyzing so-called nonverbal intellectual operations cannot be applied to study the system of verbal thinking or its dynamics.
