Scooping Rice Into a Glass and Putting a Cell Phone in the Refrigerator: Action Slips in an Individual With a Diffuse Axonal Injury

Abstract

A 39-year-old man with a diffuse axonal injury self-presented to the cognitive function clinic of the Ashikaga Red Cross Hospital complaining of behavioral errors in his daily life, such as scooping hot rice into a glass instead of a bowl or forgetting to turn off the gas stove after cooking. This type of error has been referred to as an action slip—a form of unintentional behavioral error that occurs when an individual attempts to perform an automatic and/or familiar task. In this case, action slips occurred nine times a day on average and had a serious and long-term impact on the man’s daily quality of life. To reduce the impact of action slips, we created a one-on-one cognitive intervention that used a combination of mnemonic strategies, such as verbalizing his actions as he carried them out, and external aids, including a waist pouch, a voice-controlled artificial intelligence (AI) speaker, and an AI key finder. After 3 years of intervention, the man reported some improvement in his daily activities and a reduction in the number of action slips. Thus, intervention strategies for individuals with a diffuse axonal injury may benefit from targeting action slips. To our knowledge, this is the first detailed description of action slips in an individual with a diffuse axonal injury.