Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology
585 (2003) 1–10
Commentary on “The lesion(s) in traumatic brain injury:
implications for clinical neuropsychology”
Paul R. Lees-Haley
a,*
, Paul Green
b
, Martin L. Rohling
c
,
David D. Fox
d
, Lyle M. Allen, III
e
a
Independent Practice, 2915 Bob Wallace Avenue, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA
b
Neurobehavioural Associates, Edmonton, Alta., Canada
c
University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA
d
Consultants in Psychological Assessment, Glendale, CA, USA
e
CogniSyst, Inc., Durham, NC, USA
Accepted 24 April 2002
We applaud Dr. Bigler’s signaling the need for attention to the future prospects of neu-
ropsychology in a competitive environment, and his enduring enthusiasm and leadership in
encouraging neuropsychologists to involve themselves in neuroradiological imaging (Bigler,
2001). However, we have several concerns about possible misinterpretation of the data and
views presented in the article entitled “The lesion(s) in traumatic brain injury: implications
for clinical neuropsychology.” Our first concern is the blurring of the effects of mild traumatic
brain injury (MTBI) with the effects of moderate and severe brain injury. Another concern is
the pervasive tendency to suggest physiological origins of observed effects such as subjective
complaints and test measures. Physiological origins are presumed far beyond the explanatory
power of the available scientific literature. A third concern is a broad tendency to ignore and
discount psychological explanations for the observed effects, specifically including a conspic-
uous failure to take into account recent literature on the profound effects of effort, response
bias, and compensation-related contexts.
The title, abstract, and introduction to Dr. Bigler’s article refer to traumatic brain injury
(TBI) in general. There is no language in the title, abstract or introduction to indicate that his
focus would be limited to moderate or severe TBI, and his conclusion makes an ambiguous
reference to damage caused by “at least mild-moderate to severe TBI” (p. 123). The intro-
duction states, “This review focuses on the neuropathological substrates of TBI in relation to
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-256-551-1024.
E-mail address: paullh@lees-haley.com (P.R. Lees-Haley).
0887-6177/03/$ – see front matter © 2002 National Academy of Neuropsychology.
PII: S0887-6177(02)00155-5