MOVEMENT DISTURBANCES FOLLOWING FRONTAL-LOBE LESIONS - QUALITATIVE-ANALYSIS OF GESTURE AND MOTOR PROGRAMMING

The goal of this systematic examination of Luria's hypothesis regardin g frontal lobe functions was to identify the types of gesture and moto r programming errors most closely associated with lesions in different areas of the frontal lobes. A test protocol based on Luria's examinat ion techniques was given to 75 patients with isolated frontal involvem ent. This protocol identified the three most prominent types of errors : simplification, deautomatization, and disinhibition. Simplification was linked with prefrontal lesions (p < .02), deautomatization was ass ociated with premotor lesions (p <.001), and disinhibition tended to b e linked with lesions involving the orbitomedial region (p < .001).