Impairment of executive functions in a patient with a focal lesion in the anterior cingulate cortex. Evidence from neuropsychological assessment.

Patients with naturally occurring lesions involving the anterior cingulate cortex are rare and there thus exist very few reports of focal lesions in this area. We report a longitudinal study of a new case of selective anterior cingulate damage due to the presence of an angiocavernoma at the junction of the anterior third with the middle third of the right gyrus cinguli. Before surgery, the results of several, different tests suggested a significant impairment of executive functions, including deficits in planning, monitoring of ongoing behavior, and strategy shifting, as well as an exaggerated susceptibility to retroactive interference. Most of these symptoms disappeared completely or almost completely after the surgical removal of the angiocavernoma, although exaggerated susceptibility to interference was found to persist four months after surgery.