Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in patients with focal frontal and posterior brain damage: effects of lesion location and test structure on separable cognitive processes
Abstract
Forty-six patients with single focal lesions (35 frontal, 11 nonfrontal) were administered the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) under three conditions of test administration. The three conditions varied in the amount of external support provided via specificity of instructions. The WCST, while a multifactorial test, is specifically sensitive to the effects of frontal lobe damage if deficits in language comprehension and visual-spatial search are controlled. There is also specificity of functioning within the frontal lobes: patients with inferior medial frontal lesions, unilateral or bilateral, were not impaired on the standard measures although they had increased loss of set when informed of the sorting categories. Verbal instructions may provide a probe to improve diagnosis and prognosis, assessment of the potential efficacy of treatment, and the time frame of plasticity of specific cognitive operations.
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Careful human lesion work has produced results similar to functional imaging results for the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.
“and similar results from careful human lesion work (Stuss et al., 2000).”
From The case for the development and use of ecologically valid measures of executive function in experimental and clinical neuropsychology (2006) · cites this paper as Stuss et al., 2000
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“Right hemisphere hypometabolism has also been linked to greater perseveration in the WCST (Lombardi et al., 1999; but cf. Stuss et al., 2000; Stuss and Alexander, 2007, who show perseveration in patient groups with both right and left hemisphere damage).”
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- Authors
- Stuss, D. T., Levine, B., Alexander, M. P., Hong, J., Palumbo, C., Hamer, L., Murphy, K. J., & Izukawa, D.
- Affiliations
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Boston University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Stuss, D.T.
- Venue
- Neuropsychologia
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2000-04
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 388-402
- ISSN
- 0028-3932 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2031322248
- Cited by
- 596
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 33 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 28
- FWCI
- 26.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuropsychologia (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Historical and Modern Theater Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Keywords
- Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, frontal lobe damage, set-shifting, verbal instructions, cognitive flexibility, lesion localization, cognitive plasticity, neuropsychological assessment
- MeSH terms
- Brain Injuries, Cognition, Female, Frontal Lobe, Humans, Intelligence Tests, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Neuronal Plasticity, Neuropsychological Tests, Tomography, X-Ray Computed, Stroke
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