Manual sequence learning after focal cortical lesions.

Patients with unilateral frontal or temporal excisions and normal control subjects learned sequences of hand positions. Left-frontal and left-temporal lesions impaired learning these sequences. No group had particular trouble when order of response was restricted to the original order, compared to when it was not restricted; nor were group differences seen when subjects learned new orders of already-familiar positions. Delayed recall of the positions (which had been learned to a common criterion), was not impaired in any group. Results suggested a role of the left-frontal and left-temporal lobes in learning series of manual responses.