**4. Conclusion**

Present results support the hypothesis that the emergence of TS (with a prevalence of 16% in this sample) not only may be a consequence of focal brain lesions, of any type or site, but also is associated with cognitive impairment. TSP showed, as a whole, an impaired GNP relative to non-TSP and HP. The implication of TS on cognition was more related to E&T, rather than to CR, that is, although both CR and E&T contributed with the differences observed in GNP, when the two components of performance were differentiated, E&T were significantly associated with TS whereas CR were not. Alternatively, the tasks of the battery related with DP were significantly associated with TS whereas the tasks related with verbal fluency were not. More detailed analyses carried out to discover the cognitive nature of the TS correlates, indicated that the effect of TS on E&T involved tasks of different modality such as verbal and nonverbal sustained attention and attention (orientation) to the time of day. On the contrary, the effect of TS on the tasks related to DP involved, specifically, complex verbal comprehension and the spontaneous, implicit and delayed recall of a story, excluding cued recall. The association between TS and recognized measures of discourse processing (such as narrative comprehension, memory and production [8–10]) provided support for the viability and validity of the present screening scale to assess TS. A satisfactory inter-rater reliability for the TS scale was also observed. Additionally, TS was associated with emotional and behavioral alterations in the clinical sample: significant correlations were observed between TS and the emergence of behavioral and thought disturbances, as reported by the caregiver during the initial interview, as well as between TS and the complementary behavioral observations of emotional excitement, rapid speech and diminished cooperation, as reported by the neuropsychologist during the battery administration. Regarding intervening clinical variables, and aside from the type and site of injury (see above), TS was independent of demographic variables, presence of neurological risks and disease duration.
