Comparative Studies, The Basal Ganglia In Patients With Stroke Were Learning And Implicit Learning

Objectives:To explore the effects of basal ganglia stroke on executive function and learning potential.Method:Seventeen patients with basal ganglia stroke contained 8 cases of left basal ganglia lesions and 9 cases of right basal ganglia lesions. Ten cases without brain damage were used as control. The executive function and learning potential in all subjects were tested by use of Tower of Hanoi (TOH), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Trail Making Tests (TMT) and Phonemic Verbal Fluency (PVF) for 3 consecutive days.Results:In comparison to control, Percent Errors of WCST, times of TOH, TMT-A and TMT-B increased significantly and Number of Categories Completed of WCST decreased significantly before learning in patients with basal ganglia lesions. In comparison to patients with left basal ganglia lesions, Percent Perseverative Responses of WCST and time of TOH increased significantly before learning in patients with right basal ganglia lesions. In patients with left basal ganglia lesions, the learning potential of Percent Perservative Responses increased significantly compared with control and patients with right basal ganglia lesions, and the learning potential of PVF decreased significantly compared with control. In patients with right basal ganglia lesions, the learning potential of Number of Categories Completed decreased significantly compared with control.Conclusion:The basal ganglia stroke may retain certain learning potential in spite of executive functional impairment. The category and extent of learning potential displayed in basal ganglia lesions of left and right are not alike, which suggest that selecting opportune cognitive training programs in accordance with the site of basal ganglia lesions may raise effects of exercise therapy. Objectives:The purpose of the present study was to gain a deeper understanding of the role of the basal ganglia in implicit learning by examining Weather Prediction Category Learning Task among patients with basal ganglia stroke.Method:Seventeen patients with basal ganglia stroke contained 8 cases of left basal ganglia lesions and 9 cases of right basal ganglia lesions. Ten cases without brain damage were used as control. All of the subjects were tested by use of Weather Prediction Category Learning Task (WPCLT) and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) in 3 consecutive days.Results:The patients with right basal ganglia lesions were consistently impaired compared with the controls, and the patients with right basal ganglia lesions were impaired in the last day. But in patients of left and right basal ganglia lesions, the learning potential of WPCLT decreased significantly compared with the control. In the control group, the WPCLT total number of correct and WCST Number of Categories Completed were highly related in the second day. The WPCLT total number of correct correlated significantly with Percent Errors and Number of Categories Completed of WCST in the third day.Conclusion:The basal ganglia lesions may decrease implicit learning, and the bottom-up (implicit-to-explicit) learning pattern is impaired in patients with basal ganglia lesions.