A type of psychosurgery in which one or more nerve tracts in the cerebrum are severed. This procedure is now rarely used in the united states except for intractable obsessive-compulsive disorder.
A surgical procedure to sever the connections between two or more lobes of the brain.
A surgical operation formerly used to treat mental illness by cutting into a lobe of the brain to cut the nerve fibres.
Surgical procedure in which certain nerve fibers in the frontal lobe of the brain are severed (usually by a wire inserted through the eye socket) to prevent transmission of various impulses. Once commonly used to treat certain mental illness, it is now rarely performed because it has many undesirable effects. Also called leukotomy.
The surgical operation of interrupting the pathways of the white nerve fibers within the brain: it is the most common procedure in psychosurgery. In the original form, prefrontal leukotomy (lobotomy). the operation involved cutting through the nerve fibers connecting the frontal lobe with the thalamus and the association fibers of the frontal lobe. This was often successful in reducing severe emotional tension but had serious side-effects, including epilepsy and changes in the personality towards apathy and irresponsibility.