Abstract
Interest in frontal functions has progressively increased over recent years; however, despite this, there are only a few “frontal” tasks for which Italian normative data are available. The objective of this study was to obtain reference values for two frontal tests from a random sample of normal adults: the first (the Test of Classification and Recall of Pictures) has been shown to reveal selective impairment in patients with unilateral frontal excision; the second (the Odd-Man-Out Test) derives from tasks which have been used to evaluate frontal functions in animals and detect frontal impairment in Parkinson patients. We tested 100 normal subjects, aged 22 to 79 years, stratified by education according to the Italian school system. The correction grids for both tests are also presented. The usefulness of these tests is represented not only by their sensitivity to frontal impairment, but also by the possibility of dissociating the various cognitive aspects of frontal lobe dysfunction.
Sommario
L'interesse nei confronti delle funzioni frontali è progressivamente aumentato negli ultimi anni. Nonostante ciò, solo per pochi test “frontali” sono disponibili dati normativi italiani. Lo scopo di questo studio era ottenere valori normativi per due test “frontali” utilizzando un campione di soggetti normali selezionati in maniera casuale. Il primo test, ossia il Test di Classificazione e Rievocazione di Figure, risulta selettivamente compromesso in pazienti sottoposti a escissione frontale unilaterale; il secondo test, ossia il Test della Percora Nera, deriva da compiti utilizzati per rilevare la compromissione frontale negli animali ed è stato usato per individuare una disfunzione di tipo frontale nei parkinsoniani. Sono stati testati 100 soggetti normali, di età compresa fra i 22 e i 79 anni, stratificati per scolarità secondo il modello scolastico italiano. Vengono presentate le griglie di correzione per entrambi i test. La loro utilità consiste non solo nella loro sensibilità al danno frontale, ma anche nella possibilità di dissociare aspetti cognitivi differenti della disfunzione dei lobi frontali.
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Pomati, S., Farina, E., Magni, E. et al. Normative data for two neuropsychological tests sensitive to frontal dysfunction. Ital J Neuro Sci 17, 201–209 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01995684
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01995684