Assessing the Cognitive Functions of the Dorsal Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Individuals with a Neurological Illness

The dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) has been implicated in a vast range of cognitive tasks. Its exact function, however, remains in contention. As reported in neuropsychological studies, apathetic presentations, slowed responses, and an inability to “sustain attention” are characteristic deficits of people with dmPFC damage. Autonomic abnormalities have also been documented, but their link to functional and behavioural impairments are yet to be investigated. In the current thesis, we aimed to assess patients who have been diagnosed with a neurological illness and healthy controls on several tasks which measure the predicted functions of the dmPFC. First, we report reaction time and physiological (heart rate variability) data from a study using a modified choice reaction time (CRT) task with a group of healthy participants. In a subsequent study, we then pilot our CRT task, as well as several fluency tasks, on six patients who had experienced a rare form of stroke, cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). In three of the six cases, available medical information suggests that the stroke may have impacted the dmPFC. However, brain scans were unavailable. In spite of this, findings from both studies have provided crucial information regarding the validity of our tasks’ sensitivity to dmPFC pathology and has guided suggestions for future research.