ABSTRACT
The dysexecutive syndrome includes difficulties in problem solving, planning and organisation, self-monitoring, initiation, error correction, and behavioural regulation. In characterising this syndrome, Baddeley and Wilson (1988) drew on the work of Rylander (1939), who described how individuals who suffer damage to the frontal lobes have impairments in attention (being easily distracted), difficulties grasping the whole of a complicated state of affairs (an abstraction problem), and whilst they may be able to work along routine lines, they have difficulties in new situations. Baddeley (1986) coined the term dysexecutive syndrome as a replacement for the term “frontal lobe syndrome”. He wanted to move away from an anatomically based description for a set of cognitive impairments, in favour of a common cognitive or functional link between the diverse set of problems that can occur after frontal lobe damage. He emphasised the importance of the underlying processes served by the frontal lobes, including that of the “central executive” component of the working memory model. Baddeley suggested that impairment in the central executive results in a “dysexecutive” syndrome.
