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Neurologists experienced in the interpretation of disease in terms of disordered action of the nervous system should be well suited to extend their field of interest to the more complex disorders of human behavior, including hysteria, delirium, ill-defined pain syndromes, unexplained fatigue, disorders of thought, atypical depression, and delusions. To illustrate the potential of neurology in approaching the more complex disorders of behavior, several examples from clinical neurology are presented in which phenomena calling for inquiry and analysis in neurological terms are described. The categories are temporal lobe epilepsy, delirium, drug toxicity, disease processes of the cerebrum, obscure pain, dyslexia, and hysteria. Inquiry into complex disorders of behavior is inseparable from the broad subject of normal mental activity, the neural organization subserving all human thought, emotion, and action. Because of this close association, the comment on hysteria includes an introduction to the important question of whether we humans possess a free will to choose our course of behavior.

Psychophysiological inhibition theories of hysterical anesthesia were not supported in a study of habituation of scalp somatosensory average-evoked responses. Facilitation, rather than habituation, was found in responses contralaterial to the affected side with strong tactile stimuli in patients with hysterical heminesthesia or hemihypoesthesia, regional pain, and weakness. We suggest that the increase in response amplitude is related to the unusual congnitive set in these patients. Corticufugal influences on tactile sensory input might be mediated through increasing-excitation in a spinal-gating system.