Processing of temporal duration information in working memory after frontodorsal tumour excisions

• Published in: Brain and cognition Vol. 50; no. 2; pp. 282 - 303
• Main Authors: Hälbig, Thomas D, Yves von Cramon, D, Schmid, Urs D, Gall, Claudius, Friederici, Angela D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Diego, CA Elsevier Inc 01-11-2002; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; Brain Neoplasms - pathology; Brain Neoplasms - surgery; Female; Frontal lobe; Frontal Lobe - pathology; Frontal Lobe - surgery; Functional Laterality - physiology; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Maintenance; Male; Medical sciences; Memory Disorders - diagnosis; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology; Perceptual Disorders - diagnosis; Perceptual Disorders - etiology; Postoperative Complications; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Recognition (Psychology); Space Perception - physiology; Spatial information; Strategic processing; Temporal information; Time Perception - physiology; Spatial information; Frontal lobe; Maintenance; Strategic processing; Temporal information; Human; Recognition memory; Cognitive disorder; Excision; Surgery; Strategy; Tumor; Temporal memory; Duration; Working memory; Spatial memory
• ISSN: 0278-2626; 1090-2147
• DOI: 10.1016/S0278-2626(02)00514-6

This study aimed to test the hypothesis that impairments of temporal duration processing after frontal lobe lesions reflect deficits in executive monitoring functions rather than a domain-specific deficit in the maintenance of duration information in working memory. Patients with frontodorsal lesions, clinical controls with post-central lesions, and healthy controls performed recognition and classification tasks, which should allow for testing maintenance and monitoring functions, respectively. Results showed mild non-selective impairments of the frontal patients on both temporal and spatial recognition tasks, but a marked selective degradation on temporal classification while performance on spatial classification was unimpaired. This suggests that maintenance of duration information in working memory after frontal lesions is basically preserved but that, depending on executive task characteristics, there is a specific deficit in the strategic organization of this type of information.