MOTIVATIONAL DEFICITS AFTER BRAIN INJURY - A NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH USING NEW ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES

Deficits of motivation art: recognized as a significant clinical probl em following brain injury, and a neuropsychological model is postulate d linking such deficits with cognitive deficits of a frontal type. How ever, few, if any, quantitative assessment measures exist; most descri ptions in the literature are qualitative, and this has limited the sco pe and robustness of research into the problem. The authors in the pre sent research have developed new tools for assessing patients' level o f motivation in therapy (percent participation index) and their behavi oral responsiveness to experimental incentive (the card-arranging rewa rd responsivity objective test). Relationships among poor motivation, reward responsiveness, frontal lobe function, and mood were explored i n a sample of 54 patients with nonfocal vascular or traumatic brain in jury; the results were consistent with the neuropsychological model. P reliminary reliability and validation data on the new measures are rep orted.