Paradoxical facilitation of a free recall of nonwords in persons with traumatic brain injury

Brain Cogn. 1999 Apr;39(3):187-201. doi: 10.1006/brcg.1999.1077.

Abstract

Brain damage is usually associated with behavioral deficits. However, there is an increasing amount of evidence that lesions of some brain regions are associated with improvements instead of impairments of certain behaviors. We report the results of a study of free recall performance in subjects with traumatic brain injury. One-fourth of the subjects displayed above-normal performance in recall of nonwords. No such facilitation was found with nine lists of words.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Brain Injuries / complications*
  • Brain Injuries / diagnosis
  • Child
  • Educational Status
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Injury Severity Score
  • Male
  • Memory Disorders / diagnosis
  • Memory Disorders / etiology*
  • Mental Recall / physiology*
  • Middle Aged
  • Phonetics
  • Semantics
  • Vocabulary*