Roughness discrimination after penetrating brain injury in man: Analysis according to locus of lesion.

Abstract

43 men with unilateral penetrating brain injury and 20 controls were tested for roughness discrimination. There were 4 conditions of testing, each yielding an average error: unilateral-successive for ipsilateral hand, unilateral-successive for contralateral hand, bilateral-successive, and bilateral-simultaneous. In all groups each unilateral condition produced a significantly smaller average error than the bilateral conditions. Average errors obtained under the bilateral-successive condition were significantly smaller than those under the bilateral-simultaneous condition. Permanent deficit in roughness discrimination was found to occur in man after penetrating brain injury. Degree of deficit was not related simply to locus or severity of injury.