Differential effects of frontal-lobe lesions on cognitive estimation and spatial memory

doi:10.1016/0028-3932(84)90096-4

Neuropsychologia

Volume 22, Issue 6, 1984, Pages 697-705

https://doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(84)90096-4 Get rights and content

Abstract

Patients with unilateral frontal- or temporal-lobe excisions and normal control subjects were tested on the recall of objects and of their location in an array. An incidental-learning situation was used, in which the task was presented as a test of the ability to estimate the prices of the objects. Patients with right frontal-lobe lesions were the only group impaired on price estimation, but a correlation was obtained between error-score in price estimation and lesion-size for the left frontal-lobe group. In contrast to patients with extensive right hippocampal excisions, both frontal-lobe groups were accurate on location-recall when tested immediately and again 24 hr later.

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The capacity for active thought is arguably one of humanity's defining features. The frontal lobes are critically involved in active thinking. In this article we will consider what can be learned from the effects of frontal lobe lesions about: (1) the relationship between active thought and intelligence, (2) whether active thought can occur without language, and (3) the processes involved in active thinking. The evidence reviewed reveals that different forms of active thought and their essential pre-requisites can be fractionated and appear to be underpinned by different frontal areas. Hence, active thinking may be achieved by distinct, interacting cognitive processes.
Classification of visual cognitive workload using analytic wavelet transform
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The channels related to the frontal lobe attain the highest classification of 76.25% utilizing 13 channels. Frontal lobe differentiates one object from another and also helps in classifying object [35] and therefore the results are compatible with protocol under consideration. This demonstrates the EEG channel of the frontal lobe are significant in recognizing and classifying objects.
Visual stimuli are used to induce cognitive load of various levels to examine its effect on EEG signals. Four cognitive workload levels are generated by using different shapes and their arrangements in the visual field. Assessing the cognitive load imposed by visual demand is required for developing viable visual interfaces. In this experiment, EEG signals are acquired from 44 subjects by displaying them various cognitive level visual stimuli. The features for the same cognitive level vary significantly across subjects. This poses a complex problem for the classification of cognitive workload levels. The features for classification are obtained by decomposing EEG signals using the analytic wavelet transform. This transform allows to vary Q factor to improve high-frequency resolution. Kurtosis is used as a statistical feature. To capture local variations of the signal local binary pattern is used. The other features computed include morphological features such as curve length and non-linear energy. By using Ensemble subspace k-nearest neighbor and support vector machine, we have done 10-fold cross-validation for obtaining results. We have obtained comparable performance for similar studies. EEG channels are ranked based on weight obtained using neighborhood component feature selection method. The impact of the EEG channel on the detection of cognitive workload level is investigated.
Hemispheric asymmetry in the prefrontal cortex for complex cognition
2019, Handbook of Clinical Neurology
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A few studies identified left prefrontal lesions as differentially affecting the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (Drewe, 1974), Tower of London (Shallice, 1982), and the Stroop task (Perret, 1974; Weekes and Zaidel, 1996). A few other studies identified right prefrontal lesions impairing design fluency (Jones-Gotman and Milner, 1977), cognitive estimation (Smith and Milner, 1984), planning and design tasks (Goel and Grafman, 2000), and cognitive tasks (like humor appreciation) requiring the “breaking of mental sets” (Shammi and Stuss, 1999). A review of 14 patient studies from this period, on the role of prefrontal cortex in planning processes, illustrates this point (Penfield and Evans, 1935; Shallice, 1982; Shallice and Burgess, 1991; Bechara et al., 1994; Goel et al., 1997b; Dritschel et al., 1998; Miotto and Morris, 1998; Burgess, 2000; Goel and Grafman, 2000; Colvin et al., 2001; Fortin et al., 2002, 2003; Bamdad et al., 2003; Fellows, 2006).
With the exception of language, hemispheric asymmetry has not historically been an important issue in the frontal lobe literature. Data generated over the past 20 years is forcing a reconsideration of this position. There is now considerable evidence to suggest that the left prefrontal cortex is an inference engine that automatically makes simple conceptual, logical, and causal connections to fill in missing information and eliminate uncertainty or indeterminacy. This is a fine-tuning of the “left hemisphere interpreter” account from the callosotomy patient literature. What is new is an understanding of the important contributions of the right prefrontal cortex to formal logical inference, conflict detection, and indeterminacy tolerance and maintenance. This chapter articulates these claims and reviews the data on which they are based.
The chapter concludes by speculating that the inference capabilities of the left prefrontal cortex are built into the very fabric of language and can be accounted for by the left hemisphere dominance for language. The roles of the right PFC require multiple mechanisms for explanation. Its role in formal inference may be a function of its visual–spatial processing capabilities. Its role in conflict detection may be explained as a system for checking for consistency between existing beliefs and new information coming into the system and inferences drawn from beliefs and/or new information. There are at least three possible mechanisms to account for its role in indeterminacy tolerance. First, it could contain a representational system with properties very different from those of language, and an accompanying inference engine. Second, it could just contain this different representational system, and the information is at some point passed back to the left prefrontal cortex for inference. Third, the role of the right prefrontal cortex may be largely preventative. That is, it doesn’t provide alternative representational and inference capabilities but simply prevents the left prefrontal cortex from settling on initial, local inferences. The current data do not allow differentiating between these possibilities. Successful real-world functioning requires the participation of both hemispheres.
Cognitive estimation: Performance of patients with focal frontal and posterior lesions
2018, Neuropsychologia
Citation Excerpt :
Shallice and Evans (1978) first reported that patients with unilateral left or right anterior lesions produced significantly more bizarre answers than patients with posterior lesions on the CET. Similarly, Smith and Milner (1984) found that right unilateral frontal lobectomy patients (n = 12) made significantly more errors than healthy controls (HC), and left and right temporal lobectomy patients on a price estimation task. However, no CET impairments were detected in the small left frontal group (n = 7) who had smaller lesions than the right frontal group.
The Cognitive Estimation Test (CET) is a widely used test to investigate estimation abilities requiring complex processes such as reasoning, the development and application of appropriate strategies, response plausibility checking as well as general knowledge and numeracy (e.g., Shallice and Evans, 1978; MacPherson et al., 2014). Thus far, it remains unknown whether the CET is both sensitive and specific to frontal lobe dysfunction. Neuroimaging techniques may not represent a useful methodology for answering this question since the complex processes involved are likely to be associated with a large network of brain regions, some of which are not functionally necessary to successfully carry out the CET. Instead, neuropsychological studies may represent a more promising investigation tool for identifying the brain areas necessary for CET performance. We recently developed two new versions of the CET (CET-A and CET-B; MacPherson et al., 2014). We investigated the overall performance and conducted an error analysis on CET-A in patients with focal, unilateral, frontal (n = 38) or posterior (n = 22) lesions and healthy controls (n = 39). We found that frontal patients’ performance was impaired compared to healthy controls on CET. We also found that frontal patients generated significantly poorer estimates than posterior patients on CET-A. This could not be explained by impairments in fluid intelligence. The error analyses suggested that for CET-A, extreme and very extreme responses are impaired following frontal lobe damage. However, only very extreme responses are significantly more impaired following frontal lobe than posterior damage and so represent a measure restricted to frontal “executive” impairment, in addition to overall CET performance.
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The ability to memorize the location of objects holds a central place within spatial cognition. It allows us to relocate personal belongings. In this chapter, we first discuss the spatial components of current theories on working memory and how these theories help understand object location memory. Next, the use of different perspectives from which to memorize object locations are discussed; locations can be represented as a “snapshot,” from the viewpoint of the observer (“egocentric”), or based on the environment (“allocentric”). Also, we will address the fractionation of object location memory into three separate components; memory for object identity, location, and binding of objects to locations. Finally, we will cover consciousness in relation to object location memory.
Investigating higher-order cognitive functions in temporal lobe epilepsy: Cognitive estimation
2013, Epilepsy and Behavior
Citation Excerpt :
although they perform normally on standard intelligence tests. Smith and Milner [3] also considered the importance of the frontal lobe to cognitive estimation. Executive functions constitute a multicomponent domain that allows adaptation to nonroutine situations such as novel, conflicting, or complex tasks [4].
Cognitive estimation, an ability to attribute measurements to concrete things, is relevant to adaptive behavior. This study evaluated cognitive estimation in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with the goal of verifying its relationship to temporal lobe damage and age of seizure onset. One hundred and eight patients with drug-resistant TLE and 51 healthy controls were evaluated using the Cognitive Estimation Task (CET), which requires simple and complex estimations providing the Total and Bizarreness scores. Different tests assessed reasoning, attention, executive, visuospatial, and lexical–semantic abilities. Patients with right TLE had earlier age of seizure onset than patients with left TLE and lower education than controls. Compared with controls, both patient groups obtained worse CET Total and Bizarreness scores, but only patients with right TLE were significantly impaired. Patients with seizure onset before age 12 showed worse scores than patients with later seizure onset irrespective of the side of TLE. The CET Total and Bizarreness scores were predicted by age of seizure onset and semantic fluency; the Bizarreness score also related to education, chronological age, and visual attention. Results highlight the complexity of the cognitive pattern associated with TLE. Cognitive estimation deficit primarily reflects early age of seizure onset and semantic difficulties. An involvement of visual mental operations mediated by the right hemisphere may accentuate the deficit, while cognitive reserve may play a protective role.

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Differential effects of frontal-lobe lesions on cognitive estimation and spatial memory

Abstract

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Exp. Neurol.

Neuropsychologia

Exp. Neurol.

Brain Res.

Neuropsychologia

Cortex

Neuropsychologia

Behavioral deficits in monkeys after selective lesions within the middle third of sulcus principalis

J. comp. physiol. Psychol.

The Nature of Human Intelligence

Classification and recall of pictures after unilateral frontal or temporal lobectomy

Dual encoding in memory: Evidence from temporal-lobe lesions in man