Journal article
Neuroanatomical Correlates of Executive Functions: A Neuropsychological Approach Using the EXAMINER Battery
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, Vol.20(1), pp.52-63
01/2014
DOI: 10.1017/S135561771300060X
PMCID: PMC4176938
PMID: 23759126
Abstract
Executive functions (EF) encompass a variety of higher-order capacities such as judgment, planning, decision-making, response monitoring, insight, and self-regulation. Measuring such abilities quantitatively and establishing their neural correlates has proven to be challenging. Here, using a lesion-deficit approach, we report the neural correlates of a variety of EF tests that were developed under the auspices of the NINDS-supported EXAMINER project (Kramer, 2011; www.examiner.ucsf.edu). We administered a diverse set of EF tasks that tap three general domains—cognitive, social/emotional, and insight—to 37 patients with focal lesions to the frontal lobes, and 25 patients with lesions outside the frontal lobes. Using voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM), we found that damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) was predominately associated with deficits in social/emotional aspects of EF, while damage to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and anterior cingulate was predominately associated with deficits in cognitive aspects of EF. Evidence for an important role of some non-frontal regions (e.g., the temporal poles) in some aspects of EF was also found. The results provide further evidence for the neural basis of EF, and extend previous findings of the dissociation between the roles of the ventromedial and dorsolateral prefrontal sectors in organizing, implementing, and monitoring goal-directed behavior. (JINS, 2013, 19, 1–12)
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Neuroanatomical Correlates of Executive Functions: A Neuropsychological Approach Using the EXAMINER Battery
- Creators
- Heather Robinson - Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IowaMatthew Calamia - Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IowaJan Gläscher - Department for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, GermanyJoel Bruss - Department of Neurology, Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, IowaDaniel Tranel - Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, Vol.20(1), pp.52-63
- DOI
- 10.1017/S135561771300060X
- PMID
- 23759126
- PMCID
- PMC4176938
- NLM abbreviation
- J Int Neuropsychol Soc
- ISSN
- 1355-6177
- eISSN
- 1469-7661
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press; New York, USA
- Number of pages
- 12
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/2014
- Academic Unit
- Neurology; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984002491602771
Metrics
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