Prism adaptation and other tasks involving spatial abilities in patients with Parkinson's disease, patients with frontal lobe lesions and patients with unilateral temporal lobectomies.

Patients in the early stages of Parkinson's disease were compared with patients who had sustained damage specific to either the frontal or temporal lobes and normal controls on a delayed alternation task, a test of the left right orientation and a prism adaptation task. On the former two tasks age accounted for more of the variability in performance than did site of brain lesion. However, patients with frontal lobe, right temporal lobe or basal ganglia damage were significantly impaired on the adaptation task. The results are discussed with regard to "switching", "sequencing" and "internal guidance" of movement hypotheses.