Failure to learn from repeated mistakes: persistent decision-making impairment as measured by the iowa gambling task in patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions.
Although frontal patients show impaired decision-making on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), there has been no follow-up study to date to determine whether there is recovery of function over time. We examined neurological participants' performance on repeated administrations of the IGT over the course of 6 years. We found that, while non-neurological participants showed considerable improvement due to practice effects on the IGT, patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) damage persisted in showing impaired performance on each retest. These results validate the clinical observations that VMPFC dysfunction does not appear to be subject to autonomous recovery over time in real-life. (JINS, 2012, 18, 1-4).
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-2520, USA. samantha.waters@usc.edu
Samantha M
SM
Waters-Wood
Lin
L
Xiao
Natalie L
NL
Denburg
Michael
M
Hernandez
Antoine
A
Bechara
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology*