The effects of anterior lesions on performance on a story comprehension test: left anterior impairment on a theory of mind-type task

Participants with unilateral anterior or posterior lesions were compared to a healthy group on a theory of mind-type task that involved explaining the words or actions of story characters in a series of brief vignettes. Parti cipants also carried out a set of non-social neuropsychological tests. Thos e with left anterior brain lesions (n = 6) showed impairment relative to th ose with right anterior (n = 13), left (n = 4) and right (n = 8) posterior lesions and healthy participants (n = 60) in story comprehension, and their errors commonly involved failure to make non-literal interpretations. The left anterior lesion participants also showed impairment on some measures o f executive function. The implications of the findings for our understandin g of impairments in story comprehension after brain injury are discussed in terms of models of executive function and theory of mind. (C) 2000 Elsevie r science Ltd. All rights reserved.