Executive attention and personality variables in patients with frontal lobe damage

  1. Rodríguez Bailón, Rosa María 1
  2. Triviño Mosquera, Mónica 1
  3. Lupiáñez Castillo, Juan 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Granada
    info

    Universidad de Granada

    Granada, España

    ROR https://ror.org/04njjy449

Journal:
The Spanish Journal of Psychology

ISSN: 1138-7416

Year of publication: 2012

Volume: 15

Issue: 3

Pages: 967-977

Type: Article

DOI: 10.5209/REV_SJOP.2012.V15.N3.39388 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: The Spanish Journal of Psychology

Abstract

Executive Control is required to deal with novel situations or when an action plan is needed. This study aimed to highlight the executive attention deficits of patients with frontal lobe damage. To do so, the ANT-I task (Attention Network Test-Interactions) was administered for the first time to a group of 9 patients with frontal damage caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI) and a matched control group. This task made it possible to measure the three attentional networks proposed by Posner and Dehaene (1994) and their interactions. Results on the alerting and orienting networks did not show any significant differences between the groups. However, a significant effect of group on the executive control network was observed. In addition, participants' personality was assessed with a clinical inventory (the Millon Personality Inventory) that showed a significant positive correlation between borderline personality disorder and the conflict index. These results suggest that frontal lobe damage causes an exclusive impairment in the conflict resolution network that is related to personality traits characterized by a lack of behavioral control. More research will be necessary to study this causal relationship.

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Funding information

The present research was funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación through a PhD research fellowship awarded to the first author (FPI BES-2009-020741) and a research project awarded to the other two authors (PSI2008-03595PSIC).

Funders

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