Alterations of decision making and underlying neural correlates after resection of a mediofrontal cortical dysplasia: A single case study

Abstract

We investigated the impact of a congenital prefrontal lesion and its resection on decision making under risk and under ambiguity in a patient with right mediofrontal cortical dysplasia. Both kinds of decision making are normally associated with the medial prefrontal cortex. We additionally studied pre- and postsurgical fMRI activations when processing information relevant for risky decision making. Results indicate selective impairments of ambiguous decision making pre- and postsurgically. Decision making under risk was intact. In contrast to healthy subjects the patient exhibited no activation within the dysplastic anterior cingulate cortex but left-sided orbitofrontal activation on the fMRI task suggesting early reorganization processes.

Keywords:

• Frontal lobe
• Malformation of cortical development
• Congenital lesion
• fMRI
• Neuropsychology
• Decision making

We thank Simone Horstmann for administering most of the standardized neuropsychological tests and Philip Grewe for his help with accomplishing some of the experimental task.

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (BR 2894/1-1 and BR 2894/4-1).

Notes

¹The authors defined decision making under risk and ambiguity slightly different compared to other authors in this field.