THE EFFECT OF GOAL-SUBGOAL CONFLICT ON PLANNING ABILITY AFTER FRONTAL-LOBE AND TEMPORAL-LOBE LESIONS IN HUMANS

Citation
Rg. Morris et al., THE EFFECT OF GOAL-SUBGOAL CONFLICT ON PLANNING ABILITY AFTER FRONTAL-LOBE AND TEMPORAL-LOBE LESIONS IN HUMANS, Neuropsychologia, 35(8), 1997, pp. 1147-1157
Citations number
30
Categorie Soggetti
Psychology, Experimental",Neurosciences,"Behavioral Sciences
Journal title
ISSN journal
00283932
Volume
35
Issue
8
Year of publication
1997
Pages
1147 - 1157
Database
ISI
SICI code
0028-3932(1997)35:8<1147:TEOGCO>2.0.ZU;2-5
Abstract
Twenty-one patients with unilateral prefrontal cortical neurosurgical lesions (11 left and 10 right) and 38 patients with unilateral tempora l lobectomy (19 left and 19 right) were compared to 44 matched control subjects on their performance on the 3-D Computerized Tower of Hanoi (3-D CTOH) test. The problems were split into those with or without a significant goal-subgoal conflict determined by whether the correct fi rst move in each problem took the subject apparently away or towards t he final goal state. The left frontal lesion and right temporal lobect omy groups were significantly impaired on problems with goal-subgoal c onflicts. In the left frontal group, this deficit was confined to earl ier four-move problems, whereas the right temporal group showed a more general deficit on later five-move problems. The left frontal lesion deficit is explained in terms of an inability to inhibit the response compatible with achieving a final goal, whereas the impairment in the right lesion group was related to a specific impairment in spatial mem ory. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.