Use in Research
The WCST has been used in neuroimaging paradigms such as PET and fMRI. As predicted by the acquired brain injury literature, early PET studies have shown the task involves significant activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. However, more recent fMRI studies have shown that the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (Konishi et al., 1998, Nature Neuroscience) together with the caudate nucleus (Monchi et al., 2001, J. Neuroscience) may be the regions most important for the set-shifting process required in the WCST. These regions are also associated with working memory functions (Frank et al., 2001). The test's use in neurodegenerative diseases such as motor neurone disease has identified at least a subgroup of these patients for whom there is some subtle degree of cognitive dysfunction, in contrast to the traditional view that these were pure disorders of the motor system.
The test is also widely used in research into schizophrenia.
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