Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 1, 2026
The Dig Task: A Simple Scent Discrimination Reveals Deficits Following Frontal Brain Damage
Published on: January 4, 2013
Impaired decision-making after traumatic brain injury: the Iowa Gambling Task
Charles Cotrena1, Laura Damiani Branco, Nicolle Zimmermann
1Department of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul , Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul , Brazil.
Summary:
The aim of the present study was to use the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) to investigate differences in decision-making (DM) between patients who sustained TBI and healthy subjects, while controlling for age, education and gender.
Methods:
A hundred and ten participants, half of whom had severe or mild TBI, completed the IGT.
Results:
Differences between control participants and patients with TBI were found regarding total net score, block score, number of selections from each deck and classification of performance as impaired or unimpaired. No significant differences in IGT performance were found between patients with and without frontal lesions and between patients with mild and severe TBI.
Conclusions:
Results indicate poor DM on the IGT in patients with TBI, regardless of lesion location and severity. The instrument proved to be equally sensitive to both frontal and extrafrontal lesions and did not differentiate between patients with mild and severe TBI.
