Objective: Executive function in activities of daily living (ADL) were investigated in 10 patients with excised frontal lobe tumours.
Method: The patients with frontal lesions were compared to 10 normal controls with a neuropsychological test battery, a script generation task and a realistic implementation of complex multi-task ADL (planning and preparing a meal).
Results: The patients manifested numerous basic executive deficits on the paper-pencil tests, were unimpaired on the script generation task despite an aberrant semantic structure and manifested marked anomalies in the meal preparation task.
Conclusion: Frontal lobe deficits in lengthy complex multi-task ADL can be explained by impairment of several executive functions, generalized slowness of performance and paucity of behaviour.