[Differences in the spontaneous organization of auditory verbal learning in brain damaged adolescents].

OBJECTIVE

Subjective organization (SO) of verbal memory and learning was investigated for 44 adolescent patients.

METHOD

The patients were subdivided into four clinical groups according to localization of lesion: right hemisphere (RH), left hemisphere (LH), frontal (FL), and brain stem (SL).

RESULTS

As expected RH patients performed best on this verbal learning task, whereas FL and SL patients demonstrated very poor SO, indicating their failure in categorize memory input. LH patients increased SO, following successive trials, which suggests an active learning strategy.

CONCLUSIONS

It is argued that the use SO analysis in neuropsychology will stimulate the course of further research towards attaining a better understanding of memory and learning impairments and their remission in brain-damaged patient.