Assessment of recovery from serious head injury.

A procedure for serial assessment of neuropsychological recovery after serious head injury was designed. The assessment procedure consists of four segments, each appropriate for different phases of the recovery process. Recovery can be traced from early in the period of post-traumatic amnesia until it reaches an asymptote. The course of recovery of several patients has been observed. The procedure is shown to be practical and appears to be valid. The recovery process is compared to ontogenesis, and is shown to be generally similar though differing in important particulars.