Abstracts of Posters

2001 Brain and Cognition  
The sequelae of traumatic brain injury (TBI) include frontal lobe deficits such as reduced self-awareness and pragnosia. Alexithymia is an impairment in identifying and describing emotion. This study examined the relationship between alexithymia and affective behavior following TBI. Eleven individuals diagnosed with moderate to severe TBI and a control group of 13 individuals matched for age and education participated. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS20) was used to measure alexithymia. The
more » ... urobehavioral Affect Profile (NBAP) was used to measure affective behavior. Significant positive correlations between the TAS20, and the Indifference and Pragnosia scales of the NBAP were found in the TBI group. These results support a relationship between reduced self-awareness, pragnosia, and alexithymia following TBI that may be mediated by frontal lobe damage. Fifteen patients with frontal and 16 with posterior lesions (matched for age, intelligence, memory, reading speed, and laterality of lesion) were compared on a computerized verbal solutions test with 15 orthopedic controls. The test required subjects to solve a convergent solution from a series of clues, through a yes/no recognition response. Three conditions varied according to the nature of the preceding hint (two priming a solution and one neutral). In a "shift-set condition" the hint misled the subject toward a solution which was alternative to an equally correct proffered solution thus requiring the subject to think flexibly. A significant interaction between condition and groups showed the patients with frontal lesions to be slower and less accurate in the "shift-set" condition only, when compared to the other two groups. Objective. Our objective was to describe the magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychological findings of a right-handed woman with porencephaly of the left prefrontal cortex. Background. There are several reports supporting the concept of cortical reorganization for language and motor functions in patients after congenital brain damage, but few of these reports have evaluated functions of the prefrontal cortex. Methods. A case is reported. Results. Our patient had a normal development and standard neurologic examination. She had mastered five languages and was socially adept. Standard neuropsychological testing revealed superior general intellectual functioning. Testing of executive functions, however, revealed moderate impairments. We discuss these findings in relation to frontal lobe functions and cerebral plasticity. Fifteen frontal and 15 posterior aneurysm patients were compared with 15 non-brain-damaged controls, using a simulation of two working-memory paradigms developed by Baddeley and Hitch and Goldman-Rakic. The tasks required the patients to give either congruent or noncongruent solutions to a series of clues presented on a computer screen. Working memory was assessed in various delay and competing interference conditions. The results demonstrated that the frontal aneurysm patients did more poorly on the more demanding interference paradigm and also in the condition requiring the production of noncongruent solutions to sets of four convergent clues. Furthermore, the lesion location or type appears more important than the lesion volume in the response to the verbal problem-solving tasks.
doi:10.1006/brcg.2000.1281 fatcat:fbc4yxkhcbeehbdhxbhikfzpt4