Travel Planning Ability in Right Brain-Damaged Patients: Two Case Reports

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Goal-directed spatial navigation relies on planning ability.
• Travel planning (TP) may be a distinct cognitive process from visuospatial planning (VP).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether travel planning (TP) is a distinct ability separate from visuospatial planning (VP).

Main Methods:

• Two right brain-damaged patients and a control group completed the Tower of London-16 (ToL-16) for VP and the Minefield Task (MFT) for TP.
• Lesion locations were analyzed in relation to task performance.

Main Results:

• Patient 1 (temporoparietal/insula lesions) showed impaired VP (ToL-16) but intact TP (MFT).
• Patient 2 (occipitoparietal lesions) showed impaired TP (MFT) but intact VP (ToL-16).
• These findings represent a double dissociation between TP and VP.

Conclusions:

• Travel planning (TP) is a distinct cognitive ability.
• TP is functionally and neuroanatomically dissociated from visuospatial planning (VP).