D-KEFS Tower Test performance in patients with lateral prefrontal cortex lesions: the importance of error monitoring

Abstract

This study investigated performance on the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Tower Test in a sample of 12 patients with focal lesions in the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and 12 control participants. PFC patients performed worse overall, spent more time on each move, and committed significantly more rule violations. The rule violation measure demonstrated 83% sensitivity and 100% specificity in the detection of lesions. Findings highlight the importance of error monitoring in the assessment of executive functioning. These preliminary results suggest that the lateral PFC may be critical for self-monitoring/inhibition and speed of processing in planning tasks.