Neuropsychological impairments associated with lesions caused by tumor or stroke
S. W. Anderson, H. Damasio and D. Tranel
Department of Neurology, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City.
Populations of patients with strokes or tumors constitute the most
frequently used subjects in neuropsychological research, and these
populations are often combined when the investigation aims at establishing
brain-behavior relationships. We compared these two populations with
respect to their neuropsychological profiles. Seventeen subjects with
tumors were individually matched to subjects with unilateral strokes on the
basis of lesion location. Despite close matching of lesions, there were
major differences in the neuropsychological impairments of the two groups,
eg, all subjects with stroke in the left hemisphere had more severe
language defects than did their counterparts with tumors, and some tumor
subjects performed normally on all neuropsychological tests. These findings
demonstrate that the cognitive and/or behavioral consequences of tumors or
strokes in similar locations can be radically different. The two patient
types should be treated separately for the purpose of neuropsychological
research.
