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BMC Neurology
Published in: BMC Neurology 1/2013

Open Access 01-12-2013 | Research article

Performance on the Frontal Assessment Battery is sensitive to frontal lobe damage in stroke patients

Authors: Bruno Kopp, Nina Rösser, Sandra Tabeling, Hans Jörg Stürenburg, Bianca de Haan, Hans-Otto Karnath, Karl Wessel

Published in: BMC Neurology | Issue 1/2013

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Abstract

Background

The Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) is a brief battery of six neuropsychological tasks designed to assess frontal lobe function at bedside [Neurology 55:1621-1626, 2000]. The six FAB tasks explore cognitive and behavioral domains that are thought to be under the control of the frontal lobes, most notably conceptualization and abstract reasoning, lexical verbal fluency and mental flexibility, motor programming and executive control of action, self-regulation and resistance to interference, inhibitory control, and environmental autonomy.

Methods

We examined the sensitivity of performance on the FAB to frontal lobe damage in right-hemisphere-damaged first-ever stroke patients based on voxel-based lesion-behavior mapping.

Results

Voxel-based lesion-behavior mapping of FAB performance revealed that the integrity of the right anterior insula (BA13) is crucial for the FAB global composite score, for the FAB conceptualization score, as well as for the FAB inhibitory control score. Furthermore, the FAB conceptualization and mental flexibility scores were sensitive to damage of the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG; BA9). Finally, the FAB inhibitory control score was sensitive to damage of the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG; BA44/45).

Conclusions

These findings indicate that several FAB scores (including composite and item scores) provide valid measures of right hemispheric lateral frontal lobe dysfunction, specifically of focal lesions near the anterior insula, in the MFG and in the IFG.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Performance on the Frontal Assessment Battery is sensitive to frontal lobe damage in stroke patients
Authors
Bruno Kopp
Nina Rösser
Sandra Tabeling
Hans Jörg Stürenburg
Bianca de Haan
Hans-Otto Karnath
Karl Wessel
Publication date
01-12-2013
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Neurology / Issue 1/2013
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2377
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2377-13-179

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