Bilateral frontal lobe disease and selective delayed response deficits in humans

The performance of patients with frontal lobe disease was compared with that of amnesic patients (with etiology of alcoholic Korsakoff's disease or surgically treated ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysm) on tasks known to be sensitive to frontal lobe damage in nonhuman primates: delayed alternation (DA) and delayed response (DR). Alcoholic patients with no clinical memory impairment served as controls. Results showed that bilateral frontal lobe damage in humans is associated with impairment on both tasks. In addition, there was no relation between performances on DA and DR and performance on standardized tests of memory, a result strengthening the suggestion that the former tasks are not sensitive to anterograde amnesia in humans.