Disruption of inhibitory control of memory following lesions to the frontal and temporal lobes

A group of patients with lesions to the frontal lobes, a group with lesions to the temporal lobes, and groups of non-brain damaged controls took part in three experiments. The first experiment used directed forgetting (DF) by items, the second DF by lists, and the third retrieval induced forgetting (RIF). Frontal patients with right side lesions could not intentionally inhibit but all frontal patients showed normal RIF. Temporal patients with left side lesions had abnormal DF by lists and all the temporal patients had abnormal RIF. These findings are explained in terms of impairment to executive thought avoidance control processes in frontal patients and impaired knowledge access to long-term memory in temporal patients.