Zsanett Tárnok | PubMed Health

PubMed2006

[Executive dysfunction in frontal lesions and frontal epilepsy].

BACKGROUND: To explore the functions of the frontal lobe that are associated with high order cognitive and behavioral aspects such as the organization and execution of thoughts and behavior by neuropsychological methods is difficult. These so called executive functions are in close connection with the prefrontal thalamocortical circuits, damage of which can cause deficits in cognitive functions and even changes in personality. METHODS: The aim of this study is to present a neuropsychological battery for testing frontal lobe functions. 31 patients (with frontal epilepsy and/or frontal lesion) and 38 healthy control subjects participated in the study. The control subjects were matched to the patient group in age, gender and education. RESULTS: Comparing to the controls the patient group showed significant deficits in most of the measured executive functions, except two tests which show that the short time selective attention is preserved. We divided the patient group into three subgroups (frontal epilepsy only FLE, frontal lesion only FL, frontal lesion and epilepsy FLE+FL) and we found that except working memory deficits and problems in inhibition, there were no difference between the FLE patients and the control group. We found most frequently perseveration and errors in a strategy making task among the FL (mainly medial) patients. We didn't find any difference in these tests according to the lateralization of the lesion. CONCLUSION: In conclusion we found that working memory deficits and problems in inhibition differentiated the frontal patient group from the controls in all cases. We emphasize that in frontal epilepsy (with no reported MR lesion) there are the same type, however more limited neuropsychological alterations as in lesional frontal dysfunction.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

[Neurocognitive symptoms of childhood attention deficit hyperactivity disorder].

OBJECTIVES: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is the most common childhood-onset disorder that has been characterized with the dysfunction of executive functions. These functions are related to the frontal lobe, especially to different frontostriatal networks. The purpose of this study was to examine executive functions of 5-7 years old (non-literate) children with and without ADHD. METHOD: We used well-known neuropsychological tests (and some other tests developed by us) which measure the organisation and execution of behavior and thinking. 31 children with ADHD and 26 healthy children without ADHD -- comparable to the other sample with respect to age and sex -- participated in this examination. We compared the two groups in terms of various aspects of executive functions, such as inhibition, attention, motor implementation and visual memory. The test battery used included the Colour Raven Test, a version of the Tower of Hanoi for children, the Bender A and B Test, the Block Design Subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale, the children version of Rey Complex Figure Test, the Picture Attention Test and the Fruit Stroop Test. In order to explore the characteristics of the variables, the factor-analytic method was used by which the various aspects of executive functions could be separated. RESULTS: Statistical comparison of the two groups revealed that several aspects of executive dysfunctions (strategy-constitution, inhibition, attention and motor implementation) can be seen in ADHD.

Analysis of Variance↗