COGNITIVE-FUNCTIONING IN SYDENHAMS CHOREA .2. EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING

Ten patients with Sydenham's chorea, ages 7 to 15 years, were tested on two executive functioning tasks-the Tower of Hanoi and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST). Both tasks have demonstrated deficits in performance by other basal ganglia disorders (e.g., Huntington's chorea, Parkinson's disease). Deficits were observed during performance of the Tower of Hanoi, but not the WCST, relative to age- and sex-matched controls. The results are discussed in terms of frontostriatal circuits involved in maintaining and sequencing of spatially controlled motor moves and thought to be affected in Sydenham's chorea.