ABSTRACT
Neurological insult or disease can produce a variety of cognitive and behavioral deficits, including specific disturbances of language, memory, attention, perception, planning, and motor function. Some patients with compromised functions in these areas display impaired awareness of their deficits. Amnesic patients may insist that their memory is functioning normally, hemiplegic patients may deny any motor impairment, and aphasic patients may not be aware of their incoherent speech production (for review, see McGlynn & Schacter, 1989). Yet these deficits have profound effects on patients’ everyday lives. Impaired awareness of deficits has obvious clinical implications in terms of treatment and management. Patients who are unaware of their impairment are unlikely to be motivated to participate in rehabilitation or benefit from any kind of treatment intervention. These patients also pose serious problems for caretakers because they may insist on engaging in activities that they can no longer perform safely or competently.
