Causal Reasoning and Intentionality Judgments After Frontal Brain Lesions

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of focal brain lesions on causal reasoning about everyday events that led to adverse outcomes. Participants with focal lesions involving frontal and posterior brain regions and matched healthy control participants were compared in their causal inference judgments about intentional human actions, unintentional human actions and physical events. Compared to the control group, those with frontal lesions, especially to right-sided ventromedial and lateral regions, differentiated less between intentional and unintentional acts. Imaging studies have implicated ventromedial frontal regions in the processing of social and emotional material, while lateral frontal regions have been linked to abstract reasoning and executive control. Difficulties in both social/emotional processing and in abstract reasoning and executive control may impair sensitivity to intentionality when making causal inferences.