Informational structure of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test: A probabilistic approach to the assessment of frontal lobe function
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1
Universitat de les Illes Balears, Laboratory of Clinical Neuropsychology, Institut Universitari d'Investigació en Ciències de la Salut (IUNICS) , Spain
For decades the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) has been one of the most distinctive tests of frontal lobe function. Current models in Cognitive Neuroscience attribute the behavioural and brain responses measured during WCST performance to a variety of neurocognitive control processes. Yet there have been few attempts to model cognitive control in terms of probabilistic associations between stimuli and responses within a hierarchy of neural or mental representations. In this study we adopted a hierarchical model of frontal lobe function (E. K. Miller, 2000), combined with the formal information theoretical approach to cognitive control (E. Koechlin & C. Summerfield, 2007) to describe and interpret the behaviour and neural activity of young subjects in a simplified WCST version adapted for measuring event-related potentials (ERPs), where tonal cues instructed either to switch or repeat the sorting rule. A single-task condition with identical sensory and motor demands, but involving lesser higher cognitive demands was used as a control. The behaviour and ERP results agreed with our modelling of distinct information processing profiles for the single-task and task-switching situations. We conclude that WCST results reflect probabilistic associations within a putative hierarchy of sensorimotor –rather than merely sensory or motor– neural representations.
Conference:
The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes, Toronto, Canada, 22 Mar - 26 Mar, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Abstracts
Citation:
Barceló
F,
Porte
X,
Prada
L and
Rodríguez
I
(2010). Informational structure of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test: A probabilistic approach to the assessment of frontal lobe function.
Conference Abstract:
The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.14.00055
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Received:
28 Jun 2010;
Published Online:
28 Jun 2010.
*
Correspondence:
F. Barceló, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Laboratory of Clinical Neuropsychology, Institut Universitari d'Investigació en Ciències de la Salut (IUNICS), Palma de Mallorca, Spain, barcelo.paco@gmail.com