Working memory effects of gap-predictions in normal adults: an event-related potentials study.

PubMed

Hestvik, Arild; Bradley, Evan; Bradley, Catherine

2012-12-01

The current study examined the relationship between verbal memory span and the latency with which a filler-gap dependency is constructed. A previous behavioral study found that low span listeners did not exhibit antecedent reactivation at gap sites in relative clauses, in comparison to high verbal memory span subjects (Roberts et al. in J Psycholinguist Res 36(2):175-188, 2007), which suggests that low span subjects are delayed at gap filling. This possibility was examined in the current study. Using an event-related potentials paradigm, it was found that low span subjects have an onset latency delay of about 200 ms in brain responses to violations of syntactic expectancies after the gap site, thus providing a time course measure of the delay hypothesized by previous literature.

Frontal Phonological Agraphia and Acalculia with Impaired Verbal Short-Term Memory due to Left Inferior Precentral Gyrus Lesion.

PubMed

Sakurai, Yasuhisa; Furukawa, Emi; Kurihara, Masanori; Sugimoto, Izumi

2018-01-01

We report a patient with phonological agraphia (selective impairment of kana [Japanese phonetic writing] nonwords) and acalculia (mental arithmetic difficulties) with impaired verbal short-term memory after a cerebral hemorrhage in the opercular part of the left precentral gyrus (Brodmann area 6) and the adjacent postcentral gyrus. The patient showed phonemic paragraphia in five-character kana nonword writing, minimal acalculia, and reduced digit and letter span. Mental arithmetic normalized after 8 months and agraphia recovered to the normal range at 1 year after onset, in parallel with an improvement of the auditory letter span score from 4 to 6 over a period of 14 months and in the digit span score from 6 to 7 over 24 months. These results suggest a close relationship between the recovery of agraphia and acalculia and the improvement of verbal short-term memory. The present case also suggests that the opercular part of the precentral gyrus constitutes the phonological route in writing that conveys phonological information of syllable sequences, and its damage causes phonological agraphia and acalculia with reduced verbal short-term memory.

The stability of working memory: do previous tasks influence complex span?

PubMed

Healey, M Karl; Hasher, Lynn; Danilova, Elena

2011-11-01

Schmeichel (2007) reported that performing an initial task before completing a working memory span task can lower span scores and suggested that the effect was due to depleted cognitive resources. We showed that the detrimental effect of prior tasks depends on a match between the stimuli used in the span task and the preceding task. A task requiring participants to ignore words reduced performance on a subsequent word-based verbal span task but not on an arrow-based spatial span task. Ignoring arrows had the opposite pattern of effects: reducing performance on the spatial span task but not on the word-based span task. Finally, we showed that antisaccade, a nonverbal task that taxes domain-general processes implicated in working memory, did not influence subsequent performance of either a verbal or a spatial span task. Together these results suggest that while span is sensitive to prior tasks, that sensitivity does not stem from depleted resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).

Short-term memory, executive control, and children's route learning.

PubMed

Purser, Harry R M; Farran, Emily K; Courbois, Yannick; Lemahieu, Axelle; Mellier, Daniel; Sockeel, Pascal; Blades, Mark

2012-10-01

The aim of this study was to investigate route-learning ability in 67 children aged 5 to 11years and to relate route-learning performance to the components of Baddeley's model of working memory. Children carried out tasks that included measures of verbal and visuospatial short-term memory and executive control and also measures of verbal and visuospatial long-term memory; the route-learning task was conducted using a maze in a virtual environment. In contrast to previous research, correlations were found between both visuospatial and verbal memory tasks-the Corsi task, short-term pattern span, digit span, and visuospatial long-term memory-and route-learning performance. However, further analyses indicated that these relationships were mediated by executive control demands that were common to the tasks, with long-term memory explaining additional unique variance in route learning. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A stroke patient with impairment of auditory sensory (echoic) memory.

PubMed

Kojima, T; Karino, S; Yumoto, M; Funayama, M

2014-04-01

A 42-year-old man suffered damage to the left supra-sylvian areas due to a stroke and presented with verbal short-term memory (STM) deficits. He occasionally could not recall even a single syllable that he had heard one second before. A study of mismatch negativity using magnetoencephalography suggested that the duration of auditory sensory (echoic) memory traces was reduced on the affected side of the brain. His maximum digit span was four with auditory presentation (equivalent to the 1st percentile for normal subjects), whereas it was up to six with visual presentation (almost within the normal range). He simply showed partial recall in the digit span task, and there was no self correction or incorrect reproduction. From these findings, reduced echoic memory was thought to have affected his verbal short-term retention. Thus, the impairment of verbal short-term memory observed in this patient was "pure auditory" unlike previously reported patients with deficits of the phonological short-term store (STS), which is the next higher-order memory system. We report this case to present physiological and behavioral data suggesting impaired short-term storage of verbal information, and to demonstrate the influence of deterioration of echoic memory on verbal STM.

Working Memory Deficits in Children with Reading Difficulties: Memory Span and Dual Task Coordination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Shinmin; Gathercole, Susan E.

2013-01-01

The current study investigated the cause of the reported problems in working memory in children with reading difficulties. Verbal and visuospatial simple and complex span tasks, and digit span and reaction times tasks performed singly and in combination, were administered to 46 children with single word reading difficulties and 45 typically…

Short-Term Memory Coding in Children with Intellectual Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henry, Lucy

2008-01-01

To examine visual and verbal coding strategies, I asked children with intellectual disabilities and peers matched for MA and CA to perform picture memory span tasks with phonologically similar, visually similar, long, or nonsimilar named items. The CA group showed effects consistent with advanced verbal memory coding (phonological similarity and…

Recognition memory span in autopsy-confirmed Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Alzheimer's Disease.

PubMed

Salmon, David P; Heindel, William C; Hamilton, Joanne M; Vincent Filoteo, J; Cidambi, Varun; Hansen, Lawrence A; Masliah, Eliezer; Galasko, Douglas

2015-08-01

Evidence from patients with amnesia suggests that recognition memory span tasks engage both long-term memory (i.e., secondary memory) processes mediated by the diencephalic-medial temporal lobe memory system and working memory processes mediated by fronto-striatal systems. Thus, the recognition memory span task may be particularly effective for detecting memory deficits in disorders that disrupt both memory systems. The presence of unique pathology in fronto-striatal circuits in Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) compared to AD suggests that performance on the recognition memory span task might be differentially affected in the two disorders even though they have quantitatively similar deficits in secondary memory. In the present study, patients with autopsy-confirmed DLB or AD, and Normal Control (NC) participants, were tested on separate recognition memory span tasks that required them to retain increasing amounts of verbal, spatial, or visual object (i.e., faces) information across trials. Results showed that recognition memory spans for verbal and spatial stimuli, but not face stimuli, were lower in patients with DLB than in those with AD, and more impaired relative to NC performance. This was despite similar deficits in the two patient groups on independent measures of secondary memory such as the total number of words recalled from long-term storage on the Buschke Selective Reminding Test. The disproportionate vulnerability of recognition memory span task performance in DLB compared to AD may be due to greater fronto-striatal involvement in DLB and a corresponding decrement in cooperative interaction between working memory and secondary memory processes. Assessment of recognition memory span may contribute to the ability to distinguish between DLB and AD relatively early in the course of disease. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recognition Memory Span in Autopsy-Confirmed Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Alzheimer’s Disease

PubMed Central

Salmon, David P.; Heindel, William C.; Hamilton, Joanne M.; Filoteo, J. Vincent; Cidambi, Varun; Hansen, Lawrence A.; Masliah, Eliezer; Galasko, Douglas

2016-01-01

Evidence from patients with amnesia suggests that recognition memory span tasks engage both long-term memory (i.e., secondary memory) processes mediated by the diencephalic-medial temporal lobe memory system and working memory processes mediated by fronto-striatal systems. Thus, the recognition memory span task may be particularly effective for detecting memory deficits in disorders that disrupt both memory systems. The presence of unique pathology in fronto-striatal circuits in Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) compared to AD suggests that performance on the recognition memory span task might be differentially affected in the two disorders even though they have quantitatively similar deficits in secondary memory. In the present study, patients with autopsy-confirmed DLB or AD, and normal control (NC) participants, were tested on separate recognition memory span tasks that required them to retain increasing amounts of verbal, spatial, or visual object (i.e., faces) information across trials. Results showed that recognition memory spans for verbal and spatial stimuli, but not face stimuli, were lower in patients with DLB than in those with AD, and more impaired relative to NC performance. This was despite similar deficits in the two patient groups on independent measures of secondary memory such as the total number of words recalled from Long-Term Storage on the Buschke Selective Reminding Test. The disproportionate vulnerability of recognition memory span task performance in DLB compared to AD may be due to greater fronto-striatal involvement in DLB and a corresponding decrement in cooperative interaction between working memory and secondary memory processes. Assessment of recognition memory span may contribute to the ability to distinguish between DLB and AD relatively early in the course of disease. PMID:26184443

Verbal Short-Term Memory Span in Speech-Disordered Children: Implications for Articulatory Coding in Short-Term Memory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raine, Adrian; And Others

1991-01-01

Children with speech disorders had lower short-term memory capacity and smaller word length effect than control children. Children with speech disorders also had reduced speech-motor activity during rehearsal. Results suggest that speech rate may be a causal determinant of verbal short-term memory capacity. (BC)

Unique and shared validity of the "Wechsler logical memory test", the "California verbal learning test", and the "verbal learning and memory test" in patients with epilepsy.

PubMed

Helmstaedter, Christoph; Wietzke, Jennifer; Lutz, Martin T

2009-12-01

This study was set-up to evaluate the construct validity of three verbal memory tests in epilepsy patients. Sixty-one consecutively evaluated patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) or extra-temporal epilepsy (E-TLE) underwent testing with the verbal learning and memory test (VLMT, the German equivalent of the Rey auditory verbal learning test, RAVLT); the California verbal learning test (CVLT); the logical memory and digit span subtests of the Wechsler memory scale, revised (WMS-R); and testing of intelligence, attention, speech and executive functions. Factor analysis of the memory tests resulted in test-specific rather than test over-spanning factors. Parameters of the CVLT and WMS-R, and to a much lesser degree of the VLMT, were highly correlated with attention, language function and vocabulary. Delayed recall measures of logical memory and the VLMT differentiated TLE from E-TLE. Learning and memory scores off all three tests differentiated mesial temporal sclerosis from other pathologies. A lateralization of the epilepsy was possible only for a subsample of 15 patients with mesial TLE. Although the three tests provide overlapping indicators for a temporal lobe epilepsy or a mesial pathology, they can hardly be taken in exchange. The tests have different demands on semantic processing and memory organization, and they appear differentially sensitive to performance in non-memory domains. The tests capability to lateralize appears to be poor. The findings encourage the further discussion of the dependency of memory outcomes on test selection.

Speech timing and working memory in profoundly deaf children after cochlear implantation

PubMed Central

Burkholder, Rose A.; Pisoni, David B.

2012-01-01

Thirty-seven profoundly deaf children between 8- and 9-years-old with cochlear implants and a comparison group of normal-hearing children were studied to measure speaking rates, digit spans, and speech timing during digit span recall. The deaf children displayed longer sentence durations and pauses during recall and shorter digit spans compared to the normal-hearing children. Articulation rates, measured from sentence durations, were strongly correlated with immediate memory span in both normal-hearing and deaf children, indicating that both slower subvocal rehearsal and scanning processes may be factors that contribute to the deaf children’s shorter digit spans. These findings demonstrate that subvocal verbal rehearsal speed and memory scanning processes are not only dependent on chronological age as suggested in earlier research by Cowan and colleagues (1998). Instead, in this clinical population the absence of early auditory experience and phonological processing activities before implantation appears to produce measurable effects on the working memory processes that rely on verbal rehearsal and serial scanning of phonological information in short-term memory. PMID:12742763

Measures of digit span and verbal rehearsal speed in deaf children after more than 10 years of cochlear implantation.

PubMed

Pisoni, David B; Kronenberger, William G; Roman, Adrienne S; Geers, Ann E

2011-02-01

Conventional assessments of outcomes in deaf children with cochlear implants (CIs) have focused primarily on endpoint or product measures of speech and language. Little attention has been devoted to understanding the basic underlying core neurocognitive factors involved in the development and processing of speech and language. In this study, we examined the development of factors related to the quality of phonological information in immediate verbal memory, including immediate memory capacity and verbal rehearsal speed, in a sample of deaf children after >10 yrs of CI use and assessed the correlations between these two process measures and a set of speech and language outcomes. Of an initial sample of 180 prelingually deaf children with CIs assessed at ages 8 to 9 yrs after 3 to 7 yrs of CI use, 112 returned for testing again in adolescence after 10 more years of CI experience. In addition to completing a battery of conventional speech and language outcome measures, subjects were administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III Digit Span subtest to measure immediate verbal memory capacity. Sentence durations obtained from the McGarr speech intelligibility test were used as a measure of verbal rehearsal speed. Relative to norms for normal-hearing children, Digit Span scores were well below average for children with CIs at both elementary and high school ages. Improvement was observed over the 8-yr period in the mean longest digit span forward score but not in the mean longest digit span backward score. Longest digit span forward scores at ages 8 to 9 yrs were significantly correlated with all speech and language outcomes in adolescence, but backward digit spans correlated significantly only with measures of higher-order language functioning over that time period. While verbal rehearsal speed increased for almost all subjects between elementary grades and high school, it was still slower than the rehearsal speed obtained from a control group of normal-hearing adolescents. Verbal rehearsal speed at ages 8 to 9 yrs was also found to be strongly correlated with speech and language outcomes and Digit Span scores in adolescence. Despite improvement after 8 additional years of CI use, measures of immediate verbal memory capacity and verbal rehearsal speed, which reflect core fundamental information processing skills associated with representational efficiency and information processing capacity, continue to be delayed in children with CIs relative to NH peers. Furthermore, immediate verbal memory capacity and verbal rehearsal speed at 8 to 9 yrs of age were both found to predict speech and language outcomes in adolescence, demonstrating the important contribution of these processing measures for speech-language development in children with CIs. Understanding the relations between these core underlying processes and speech-language outcomes in children with CIs may help researchers to develop new approaches to intervention and treatment of deaf children who perform poorly with their CIs. Moreover, this knowledge could be used for early identification of deaf children who may be at high risk for poor speech and language outcomes after cochlear implantation as well as for the development of novel targeted interventions that focus selectively on these core elementary information processing variables.

Working memory still needs verbal rehearsal.

PubMed

Lucidi, Annalisa; Langerock, Naomi; Hoareau, Violette; Lemaire, Benoît; Camos, Valérie; Barrouillet, Pierre

2016-02-01

The causal role of verbal rehearsal in working memory has recently been called into question. For example, the SOB-CS (Serial Order in a Box-Complex Span) model assumes that there is no maintenance process for the strengthening of items in working memory, but instead a process of removal of distractors that are involuntarily encoded and create interference with memory items. In the present study, we tested the idea that verbal working memory performance can be accounted for without assuming a causal role of the verbal rehearsal process. We demonstrate in two experiments using a complex span task and a Brown-Peterson paradigm that increasing the number of repetitions of the same distractor (the syllable ba that was read aloud at each of its occurrences on screen) has a detrimental effect on the concurrent maintenance of consonants whereas the maintenance of spatial locations remains unaffected. A detailed analysis of the tasks demonstrates that accounting for this effect within the SOB-CS model requires a series of unwarranted assumptions leading to undesirable further predictions contradicted by available experimental evidence. We argue that the hypothesis of a maintenance mechanism based on verbal rehearsal that is impeded by concurrent articulation still provides the simplest and most compelling account of our results.

Verbal Short-term Memory in Down's Syndrome: An Articulatory Loop Deficit?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vicari, S.; Marotta, L.; Carlesimo, G. A.

2004-01-01

Verbal short-term memory, as measured by digit or word span, is generally impaired in individuals with Down's syndrome (DS) compared to mental age-matched controls. Moving from the working memory model, the present authors investigated the hypothesis that impairment in some of the articulatory loop sub-components is at the base of the deficient…

Short-term Memory in Childhood Dyslexia: Deficient Serial Order in Multiple Modalities.

PubMed

Cowan, Nelson; Hogan, Tiffany P; Alt, Mary; Green, Samuel; Cabbage, Kathryn L; Brinkley, Shara; Gray, Shelley

2017-08-01

In children with dyslexia, deficits in working memory have not been well-specified. We assessed second-grade children with dyslexia, with and without concomitant specific language impairment, and children with typical development. Immediate serial recall of lists of phonological (non-word), lexical (digit), spatial (location) and visual (shape) items were included. For the latter three modalities, we used not only standard span but also running span tasks, in which the list length was unpredictable to limit mnemonic strategies. Non-word repetition tests indicated a phonological memory deficit in children with dyslexia alone compared with those with typical development, but this difference vanished when these groups were matched for non-verbal intelligence and language. Theoretically important deficits in serial order memory in dyslexic children, however, persisted relative to matched typically developing children. The deficits were in recall of (1) spoken digits in both standard and running span tasks and (2) spatial locations, in running span only. Children with dyslexia with versus without language impairment, when matched on non-verbal intelligence, had comparable serial order memory, but differed in phonology. Because serial orderings of verbal and spatial elements occur in reading, the careful examination of order memory may allow a deeper understanding of dyslexia and its relation to language impairment. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Psychometric Measure of Working Memory Capacity for Configured Body Movement

PubMed Central

Wu, Ying Choon; Coulson, Seana

2014-01-01

Working memory (WM) models have traditionally assumed at least two domain-specific storage systems for verbal and visuo-spatial information. We review data that suggest the existence of an additional slave system devoted to the temporary storage of body movements, and present a novel instrument for its assessment: the movement span task. The movement span task assesses individuals' ability to remember and reproduce meaningless configurations of the body. During the encoding phase of a trial, participants watch short videos of meaningless movements presented in sets varying in size from one to five items. Immediately after encoding, they are prompted to reenact as many items as possible. The movement span task was administered to 90 participants along with standard tests of verbal WM, visuo-spatial WM, and a gesture classification test in which participants judged whether a speaker's gestures were congruent or incongruent with his accompanying speech. Performance on the gesture classification task was not related to standard measures of verbal or visuo-spatial working memory capacity, but was predicted by scores on the movement span task. Results suggest the movement span task can serve as an assessment of individual differences in WM capacity for body-centric information. PMID:24465437

Happiness increases verbal and spatial working memory capacity where sadness does not: Emotion, working memory and executive control.

PubMed

Storbeck, Justin; Maswood, Raeya

2016-08-01

The effects of emotion on working memory and executive control are often studied in isolation. Positive mood enhances verbal and impairs spatial working memory, whereas negative mood enhances spatial and impairs verbal working memory. Moreover, positive mood enhances executive control, whereas negative mood has little influence. We examined how emotion influences verbal and spatial working memory capacity, which requires executive control to coordinate between holding information in working memory and completing a secondary task. We predicted that positive mood would improve both verbal and spatial working memory capacity because of its influence on executive control. Positive, negative and neutral moods were induced followed by completing a verbal (Experiment 1) or spatial (Experiment 2) working memory operation span task to assess working memory capacity. Positive mood enhanced working memory capacity irrespective of the working memory domain, whereas negative mood had no influence on performance. Thus, positive mood was more successful holding information in working memory while processing task-irrelevant information, suggesting that the influence mood has on executive control supersedes the independent effects mood has on domain-specific working memory.

Questioning short-term memory and its measurement: Why digit span measures long-term associative learning.

PubMed

Jones, Gary; Macken, Bill

2015-11-01

Traditional accounts of verbal short-term memory explain differences in performance for different types of verbal material by reference to inherent characteristics of the verbal items making up memory sequences. The role of previous experience with sequences of different types is ostensibly controlled for either by deliberate exclusion or by presenting multiple trials constructed from different random permutations. We cast doubt on this general approach in a detailed analysis of the basis for the robust finding that short-term memory for digit sequences is superior to that for other sequences of verbal material. Specifically, we show across four experiments that this advantage is not due to inherent characteristics of digits as verbal items, nor are individual digits within sequences better remembered than other types of individual verbal items. Rather, the advantage for digit sequences stems from the increased frequency, compared to other verbal material, with which digits appear in random sequences in natural language, and furthermore, relatively frequent digit sequences support better short-term serial recall than less frequent ones. We also provide corpus-based computational support for the argument that performance in a short-term memory setting is a function of basic associative learning processes operating on the linguistic experience of the rememberer. The experimental and computational results raise questions not only about the role played by measurement of digit span in cognition generally, but also about the way in which long-term memory processes impact on short-term memory functioning. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Two Maintenance Mechanisms of Verbal Information in Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Camos, V.; Lagner, P.; Barrouillet, P.

2009-01-01

The present study evaluated the interplay between two mechanisms of maintenance of verbal information in working memory, namely articulatory rehearsal as described in Baddeley's model, and attentional refreshing as postulated in Barrouillet and Camos's Time-Based Resource-Sharing (TBRS) model. In four experiments using complex span paradigm, we…

Evidence against Decay in Verbal Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oberauer, Klaus; Lewandowsky, Stephan

2013-01-01

The article tests the assumption that forgetting in working memory for verbal materials is caused by time-based decay, using the complex-span paradigm. Participants encoded 6 letters for serial recall; each letter was preceded and followed by a processing period comprising 4 trials of difficult visual search. Processing duration, during which…

Spatial short-term memory is impaired in dependent betel quid chewers.

PubMed

Chiu, Meng-Chun; Shen, Bin; Li, Shuo-Heng; Ho, Ming-Chou

2016-08-01

Betel quid is regarded as a human carcinogen by the World Health Organization. It remains unknown whether chewing betel quid has a chronic effect on healthy betel quid chewers' memory. The present study aims to investigate whether chewing betel quid can affect short-term memory (STM). Three groups of participants (24 dependent chewers, 24 non-dependent chewers, and 24 non-chewers) were invited to carry out the matrix span task, the object span task, and the digit span task. All span tasks' results were adopted to assess spatial STM, visual STM, and verbal STM, respectively. Besides, there are three set sizes (small, medium, and large) in each span task. For the matrix span task, results showed that the dependent chewers had worse performances than the non-dependent chewers and the non-chewers at medium and large set sizes. For the object span task and digit span task, there were no differences in between groups. In each group, recognition performances were worse with the increasing set size and showing successful manipulation of memory load. The current study provided the first evidence that dependent betel quid chewing can selectively impair spatial STM rather than visual STM and verbal STM. Theoretical and practical implications of this result are discussed.

Age, gesture span, and dissociations among component subsystems of working memory.

PubMed

Dolman, R; Roy, E A; Dimeck, P T; Hall, C R

2000-01-01

Working memory was examined in old and young adults using a series of span tasks, including the forward versions of the visual-spatial and digit span tasks from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised, and comparable hand gesture and visual design span tasks. The observation that the young participants performed significantly better on all the tasks except digit span suggested that aging has an impact on some component subsystems of working memory but not others. Analyses of intercorrelations in span performance supports the dissociation among three component subsystems, one for auditory verbal information (the articulatory loop), one for visual-spatial information (visual-spatial scratch-pad), and one for hand/body postural configuration.

Looking for an Explanation for the Low Sign Span. Is Order Involved?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gozzi, Marta; Geraci, Carlo; Cecchetto, Carlo; Perugini, Marco; Papagno, Costanza

2011-01-01

Although signed and speech-based languages have a similar internal organization of verbal short-term memory, sign span is lower than word span. We investigated whether this is due to the fact that signs are not suited for serial recall, as proposed by Bavelier, Newport, Hall, Supalla, and Boutla (2008. Ordered short-term memory differs in signers…

Turning Simple Span into Complex Span: Time for Decay or Interference from Distractors?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewandowsky, Stephan; Geiger, Sonja M.; Morrell, Daniel B.; Oberauer, Klaus

2010-01-01

We investigated the effects of the duration and type of to-be-articulated distractors during encoding of a verbal list into short-term memory (STM). Distractors and to-be-remembered items alternated during list presentation, as in the complex-span task that underlies much of working-memory research. According to an interference model of STM, known…

VERBAL AND SPATIAL WORKING MEMORY LOAD HAVE SIMILARLY MINIMAL EFFECTS ON SPEECH PRODUCTION.

PubMed

Lee, Ogyoung; Redford, Melissa A

2015-08-10

The goal of the present study was to test the effects of working memory on speech production. Twenty American-English speaking adults produced syntactically complex sentences in tasks that taxed either verbal or spatial working memory. Sentences spoken under load were produced with more errors, fewer prosodic breaks, and at faster rates than sentence produced in the control conditions, but other acoustic correlates of rhythm and intonation did not change. Verbal and spatial working memory had very similar effects on production, suggesting that the different span tasks used to tax working memory merely shifted speakers' attention away from the act of speaking. This finding runs contra the hypothesis of incremental phonological/phonetic encoding, which predicts the manipulation of information in verbal working memory during speech production.

Text Comprehension in Chinese Children: Relative Contribution of Verbal Working Memory, Pseudoword Reading, Rapid Automated Naming, and Onset-Rime Phonological Segmentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leong, Che Kan; Tse, Shek Kam; Loh, Ka Yee; Hau, Kit Tai

2008-01-01

The present study examined the role of verbal working memory (memory span, tongue twister), 2-character Chinese pseudoword reading, rapid automatized naming (letters, numbers), and phonological segmentation (deletion of rimes and onsets) in inferential text comprehension in Chinese in 518 Chinese children in Hong Kong in Grades 3 to 5. It was…

A model of memory impairment in schizophrenia: cognitive and clinical factors associated with memory efficiency and memory errors.

PubMed

Brébion, Gildas; Bressan, Rodrigo A; Ohlsen, Ruth I; David, Anthony S

2013-12-01

Memory impairments in patients with schizophrenia have been associated with various cognitive and clinical factors. Hallucinations have been more specifically associated with errors stemming from source monitoring failure. We conducted a broad investigation of verbal memory and visual memory as well as source memory functioning in a sample of patients with schizophrenia. Various memory measures were tallied, and we studied their associations with processing speed, working memory span, and positive, negative, and depressive symptoms. Superficial and deep memory processes were differentially associated with processing speed, working memory span, avolition, depression, and attention disorders. Auditory/verbal and visual hallucinations were differentially associated with specific types of source memory error. We integrated all the results into a revised version of a previously published model of memory functioning in schizophrenia. The model describes the factors that affect memory efficiency, as well as the cognitive underpinnings of hallucinations within the source monitoring framework. © 2013.

Musicians' working memory for tones, words, and pseudowords.

PubMed

Benassi-Werke, Mariana E; Queiroz, Marcelo; Araújo, Rúben S; Bueno, Orlando F A; Oliveira, Maria Gabriela M

2012-01-01

Studies investigating factors that influence tone recognition generally use recognition tests, whereas the majority of the studies on verbal material use self-generated responses in the form of serial recall tests. In the present study we intended to investigate whether tonal and verbal materials share the same cognitive mechanisms, by presenting an experimental instrument that evaluates short-term and working memories for tones, using self-generated sung responses that may be compared to verbal tests. This paradigm was designed according to the same structure of the forward and backward digit span tests, but using digits, pseudowords, and tones as stimuli. The profile of amateur singers and professional singers in these tests was compared in forward and backward digit, pseudoword, tone, and contour spans. In addition, an absolute pitch experimental group was included, in order to observe the possible use of verbal labels in tone memorization tasks. In general, we observed that musical schooling has a slight positive influence on the recall of tones, as opposed to verbal material, which is not influenced by musical schooling. Furthermore, the ability to reproduce melodic contours (up and down patterns) is generally higher than the ability to reproduce exact tone sequences. However, backward spans were lower than forward spans for all stimuli (digits, pseudowords, tones, contour). Curiously, backward spans were disproportionately lower for tones than for verbal material-that is, the requirement to recall sequences in backward rather than forward order seems to differentially affect tonal stimuli. This difference does not vary according to musical expertise.

Investigating the Effects of Veridicality on Age Differences in Verbal Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shake, Matthew C.; Perschke, Meghan K.

2013-01-01

In the typical loaded verbal working memory (WM) span task (e.g., Daneman & Carpenter, 1980), participants judge the veridicality of a series of sentences while simultaneously storing the sentence final word for later recall. Performance declines as the number of sentences is increased; aging exacerbates this decline. The present study examined…

Verbal Short-Term Memory Performance in Pupils with Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdelhameed, Hala; Porter, Jill

2010-01-01

Research has shown that verbal short-term memory span is shorter in individuals with Down syndrome than in typically developing individuals of equivalent mental age, but little attention has been given to variations within or across groups. Differences in the environment and in particular educational experiences may play a part in the relative…

A simultaneous examination of two forms of working memory training: Evidence for near transfer only.

PubMed

Minear, Meredith; Brasher, Faith; Guerrero, Claudia Brandt; Brasher, Mandy; Moore, Andrew; Sukeena, Joshua

2016-10-01

The efficacy of working-memory training is a topic of considerable debate, with some studies showing transfer to measures such as fluid intelligence while others have not. We report the results of a study designed to examine two forms of working-memory training, one using a spatial n-back and the other a verbal complex span. Thirty-one undergraduates completed 4 weeks of n-back training and 32 completed 4 weeks of verbal complex span training. We also included two active control groups. One group trained on a non-adaptive version of n-back and the other trained on a real-time strategy video game. All participants completed pre- and post-training measures of a large battery of transfer tasks used to create composite measures of short-term and working memory in both verbal and visuo-spatial domains as well as verbal reasoning and fluid intelligence. We only found clear evidence for near transfer from the spatial n-back training to new forms of n-back, and this was the case for both adaptive and non-adaptive n-back.

Episodic, semantic and procedural memory in a case of amnesia at an early age.

PubMed

Ostergaard, A L

1987-01-01

The patient C.C. developed an amnesic syndrome at the age of 10 yr. Like adult amnesics, C.C. demonstrated impaired episodic memory for both verbal and visual materials although immediate memory span was spared. However, striking deficits were also observed on a wide variety of semantic memory tasks, including reading vocabulary and verbal fluency tests, semantic classification and lexical decision tasks and tests of verbal intelligence. On the other hand, C.C. showed normal learning and retention of two procedural tasks. It was argued that this evidence is inconsistent with the view that the amnesic syndrome represents a selective defect of episodic memory that leaves semantic memory relatively unaffected.

Hippocampal volume and auditory attention on a verbal memory task with adult survivors of pediatric brain tumor.

PubMed

Jayakar, Reema; King, Tricia Z; Morris, Robin; Na, Sabrina

2015-03-01

We examined the nature of verbal memory deficits and the possible hippocampal underpinnings in long-term adult survivors of childhood brain tumor. 35 survivors (M = 24.10 ± 4.93 years at testing; 54% female), on average 15 years post-diagnosis, and 59 typically developing adults (M = 22.40 ± 4.35 years, 54% female) participated. Automated FMRIB Software Library (FSL) tools were used to measure hippocampal, putamen, and whole brain volumes. The California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition (CVLT-II) was used to assess verbal memory. Hippocampal, F(1, 91) = 4.06, ηp² = .04; putamen, F(1, 91) = 11.18, ηp² = .11; and whole brain, F(1, 92) = 18.51, ηp² = .17, volumes were significantly lower for survivors than controls (p < .05). Hippocampus and putamen volumes were significantly correlated (r = .62, p < .001) with each other, but not with total brain volume (r = .09; r = .08), for survivors and controls. Verbal memory indices of auditory attention list span (Trial 1: F(1, 92) = 12.70, η² = .12) and final list learning (Trial 5: F(1, 92) = 6.01, η² = .06) were significantly lower for survivors (p < .05). Total hippocampal volume in survivors was significantly correlated (r = .43, p = .01) with auditory attention, but none of the other CVLT-II indices. Secondary analyses for the effect of treatment factors are presented. Volumetric differences between survivors and controls exist for the whole brain and for subcortical structures on average 15 years post-diagnosis. Treatment factors seem to have a unique effect on subcortical structures. Memory differences between survivors and controls are largely contingent upon auditory attention list span. Only hippocampal volume is associated with the auditory attention list span component of verbal memory. These findings are particularly robust for survivors treated with radiation. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Article 7: Measures of digit span and verbal rehearsal speed in deaf children following more than 10 years of cochlear implantation

PubMed Central

Pisoni, David; Kronenberger, William; Roman, Adrienne; Geers, Ann

2011-01-01

Precis This paper reports results on the development of immediate memory capacity and verbal rehearsal speed in 112 children with more than ten years of CI use. We found less than half of the sample showed increases in both forward and backward digit spans suggesting disturbances in basic mechanisms related to storage or rehearsal of verbal information. Both spans and verbal rehearsal speeds in elementary school were found to be correlated with speech and language outcomes in high school. These developmental results provide new insights in the elementary neurocognitive information processes associated with high variability in speech and language outcomes. PMID:21832890

Notetaking, Verbal Aptitude, & Listening Span: Factors Involved in Learning from Lectures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walbaum, Sharlene D.

Three variables (verbal aptitude, listening ability, and notetaking) that may mediate how much college students learn from a lecture were studied. Verbal aptitude was operationalized as a Verbal Scholastic Aptitude Test (VSAT) score. Listening ability was measured as the score on an auditory short-term memory task, using the serial running memory…

Contribution of visuospatial attention, short-term memory and executive functions to performance in number interval bisection.

PubMed

Ranzini, Mariagrazia; Carbè, Katia; Gevers, Wim

2017-05-01

Number interval bisection consists of estimating the mid-number within a pair (1-9=>5). Healthy adults and right-brain damage patients can show biased performance in this task, underestimating and overestimating the mid-number, respectively. The role of visuospatial attention during this task, and its interplay with other cognitive abilities (e.g., working memory) is still object of debate. In this study we explored the relation between visuospatial attention and individual differences in working memory and executive functions during number interval bisection. To manipulate the deployment of visuospatial attention, healthy participants tracked a dot moving to the left or moving to the right while bisecting numerical intervals. We also collected information concerning verbal and visuospatial short-term memory span, and concerning verbal and visuospatial fluency scores. Beside replicating what is typically observed in this task (e.g., underestimation bias), a correlation was observed between verbal short-term memory and bisection bias, and an interesting relation between performance in the number interval bisection, verbal short-term memory, and visuospatial attention. Specifically, performance of those participants with low verbal span was affected by the direction of the moving dot, underestimating at a larger extent when the dot moved leftward than rightward. Finally, it was also observed that participants' verbal fluency ability contributed in the generation of biases in the numerical task. The finding of the involvement of abilities belonging to the verbal domain contributes to unveil the multi-componential nature of number interval bisection. Considering the debate on the nature of number interval bisection and its use in the clinical assessment of deficits following brain damage, this finding may be interesting also from a clinical perspective. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Short-term memory coding in children with intellectual disabilities.

PubMed

Henry, Lucy

2008-05-01

To examine visual and verbal coding strategies, I asked children with intellectual disabilities and peers matched for MA and CA to perform picture memory span tasks with phonologically similar, visually similar, long, or nonsimilar named items. The CA group showed effects consistent with advanced verbal memory coding (phonological similarity and word length effects). Neither the intellectual disabilities nor MA groups showed evidence for memory coding strategies. However, children in these groups with MAs above 6 years showed significant visual similarity and word length effects, broadly consistent with an intermediate stage of dual visual and verbal coding. These results suggest that developmental progressions in memory coding strategies are independent of intellectual disabilities status and consistent with MA.

Long-term associative learning predicts verbal short-term memory performance.

PubMed

Jones, Gary; Macken, Bill

2018-02-01

Studies using tests such as digit span and nonword repetition have implicated short-term memory across a range of developmental domains. Such tests ostensibly assess specialized processes for the short-term manipulation and maintenance of information that are often argued to enable long-term learning. However, there is considerable evidence for an influence of long-term linguistic learning on performance in short-term memory tasks that brings into question the role of a specialized short-term memory system separate from long-term knowledge. Using natural language corpora, we show experimentally and computationally that performance on three widely used measures of short-term memory (digit span, nonword repetition, and sentence recall) can be predicted from simple associative learning operating on the linguistic environment to which a typical child may have been exposed. The findings support the broad view that short-term verbal memory performance reflects the application of long-term language knowledge to the experimental setting.

Beyond Capacity Limitations: Determinants of Word Recall Performance on Verbal Working Memory Span Tasks in Children With SLI

PubMed Central

Mainela-Arnold, Elina; Evans, Julia L.

2016-01-01

Reduced verbal working memory capacity has been proposed as a possible account of language impairments in specific language impairment (SLI). Studies have shown, however, that differences in strength of linguistic representations in the form of word frequency affect list recall and performance on verbal working memory tasks. This suggests that verbal memory capacity and long-term linguistic knowledge may not be distinct constructs. It has been suggested that linguistic representations in SLI are weak in ways that result in a breakdown in language processing on tasks that require manipulation of unfamiliar material. In this study, the effects of word frequency, long-term linguistic knowledge, and serial order position on recall performance in the competing language processing task (CLPT) were investigated in 10 children with SLI and 10 age-matched peers (age 8 years 6 months to 12 years 4 months). The children with SLI recalled significantly fewer target words on the CLPT as compared with their age-matched controls. The SLI group did not differ, however, in their ability to recall target words having high word frequency but were significantly poorer in their ability to recall words on the CLPT having low word frequency. Differences in receptive and expressive language abilities also appeared closely related to performance on the CLPT, suggesting that working memory capacity is not distinct from language knowledge and that degraded linguistic representations may have an effect on performance on verbal working memory span tasks in children with SLI. PMID:16378481

The neural substrates of recognition memory for verbal information: spanning the divide between short- and long-term memory.

PubMed

Buchsbaum, Bradley R; Padmanabhan, Aarthi; Berman, Karen Faith

2011-04-01

One of the classic categorical divisions in the history of memory research is that between short-term and long-term memory. Indeed, because memory for the immediate past (a few seconds) and memory for the relatively more remote past (several seconds and beyond) are assumed to rely on distinct neural systems, more often than not, memory research has focused either on short- (or "working memory") or on long-term memory. Using an auditory-verbal continuous recognition paradigm designed for fMRI, we examined how the neural signatures of recognition memory change across an interval of time (from 2.5 to 30 sec) that spans this hypothetical division between short- and long-term memory. The results revealed that activity during successful auditory-verbal item recognition in inferior parietal cortex and the posterior superior temporal lobe was maximal for early lags, whereas, conversely, activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus increased as a function of lag. Taken together, the results reveal that as the interval between item repetitions increases, there is a shift in the distribution of memory-related activity that moves from posterior temporo-parietal cortex (lags 1-4) to inferior frontal regions (lags 5-10), indicating that as time advances, the burden of recognition memory is increasingly placed on top-down retrieval mechanisms that are mediated by structures in inferior frontal cortex.

The Effect of Morphological Complexity on Verbal Working Memory: Results from Arabic Speaking Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen-Mimran, Ravit; Adwan-Mansour, Jasmeen; Sapir, Shimon

2013-01-01

To examine the role of morphology in verbal working memory. Forty nine children, all native speakers of Arabic from the same region and of the same dialect, performed a "Listening Word Span Task", whereby they had to recall Arabic uninflected words (i.e., base words), inflected words with regular (possessive) morphology, or inflected words with…

Visual encoding impairment in patients with schizophrenia: contribution of reduced working memory span, decreased processing speed, and affective symptoms.

PubMed

Brébion, Gildas; Stephan-Otto, Christian; Huerta-Ramos, Elena; Ochoa, Susana; Usall, Judith; Abellán-Vega, Helena; Roca, Mercedes; Haro, Josep Maria

2015-01-01

Previous research has revealed the contribution of decreased processing speed and reduced working memory span in verbal and visual memory impairment in patients with schizophrenia. The role of affective symptoms in verbal memory has also emerged in a few studies. The authors designed a picture recognition task to investigate the impact of these factors on visual encoding. Two types of pictures (black and white vs. colored) were presented under 2 different conditions of context encoding (either displayed at a specific location or in association with another visual stimulus). It was assumed that the process of encoding associated pictures was more effortful than that of encoding pictures that were presented alone. Working memory span and processing speed were assessed. In the patient group, working memory span was significantly associated with the recognition of the associated pictures but not significantly with that of the other pictures. Controlling for processing speed eliminated the patients' deficit in the recognition of the colored pictures and greatly reduced their deficit in the recognition of the black-and-white pictures. The recognition of the black-and-white pictures was inversely related to anxiety in men and to depression in women. Working memory span constrains the effortful visual encoding processes in patients, whereas processing speed decrement accounts for most of their visual encoding deficit. Affective symptoms also have an impact on visual encoding, albeit differently in men and women. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Hyperlink Format, Categorization Abilities and Memory Span as Contributors to Deaf Users Hypertext Access

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farjardo, Inmaculada; Arfe, Barbara; Benedetti, Patrizia; Altoe, Gianmarco

2008-01-01

Sixty deaf and hearing students were asked to search for goods in a Hypertext Supermarket with either graphical or textual links of high typicality, frequency, and familiarity. Additionally, they performed a picture and word categorization task and two working memory span tasks (spatial and verbal). Results showed that deaf students were faster in…

Working memory deficits in children with reading difficulties: memory span and dual task coordination.

PubMed

Wang, Shinmin; Gathercole, Susan E

2013-05-01

The current study investigated the cause of the reported problems in working memory in children with reading difficulties. Verbal and visuospatial simple and complex span tasks, and digit span and reaction times tasks performed singly and in combination, were administered to 46 children with single word reading difficulties and 45 typically developing children matched for age and nonverbal ability. Children with reading difficulties had pervasive deficits in the simple and complex span tasks and had poorer abilities to coordinate two cognitive demanding tasks. These findings indicate that working memory problems in children with reading difficulties may reflect a core deficit in the central executive. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evidence against decay in verbal working memory.

PubMed

Oberauer, Klaus; Lewandowsky, Stephan

2013-05-01

The article tests the assumption that forgetting in working memory for verbal materials is caused by time-based decay, using the complex-span paradigm. Participants encoded 6 letters for serial recall; each letter was preceded and followed by a processing period comprising 4 trials of difficult visual search. Processing duration, during which memory could decay, was manipulated via search set size. This manipulation increased retention interval by up to 100% without having any effect on recall accuracy. This result held with and without articulatory suppression. Two experiments using a dual-task paradigm showed that the visual search process required central attention. Thus, even when memory maintenance by central attention and by articulatory rehearsal was prevented, a large delay had no effect on memory performance, contrary to the decay notion. Most previous experiments that manipulated the retention interval and the opportunity for maintenance processes in complex span have confounded these variables with time pressure during processing periods. Three further experiments identified time pressure as the variable that affected recall. We conclude that time-based decay does not contribute to the capacity limit of verbal working memory. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

[Short term memory and severe language disorders in the child].

PubMed

Gras-Vincendon, A; Belion, M; Abecassis, J; Bursztejn, C

1994-10-01

Memory, and particularly short-term memory or "working memory" (Baddeley), is involved in language acquisition in children. We have studied short-term memory, with verbal-and non verbal tests, of 8 children suffering from developmental dysphasia compared with other ones, matched in terms of age and performance I.Q. (W.I.S.C.-R.). The digit span did not significantly differ in the two groups, while the visuo-spatial span was lower in the dysphasic group. The memorization of a list of monosyllabic words by dysphasic children was poor in the absence of visual presentation and improved by it. Differences between dysphasic and control-children are unlikely to be due to speech rate which does not significantly differ from one group to the other one. The results suggest the existence, in language disordered children, of cognitive functions disorders much more important than those directly involved in the speech production.

Individual differences in proactive interference in verbal and visuospatial working memory.

PubMed

Lilienthal, Lindsey

2017-09-01

Proactive interference (PI) has been shown to affect working memory (WM) span as well as the predictive utility of WM span measures. However, most of the research on PI has been conducted using verbal memory items, and much less is known about the role of PI in the visuospatial domain. In order to further explore this issue, the present study used a within-subjects manipulation of PI that alternated clusters of trials with verbal and visuospatial to-be-remembered items. Although PI was shown to build and release across trials similarly in the two domains, important differences also were observed. The ability of verbal WM to predict performance on a measure of fluid intelligence was significantly affected by the amount of PI present, consistent with past research, but this proved not to be the case for visuospatial WM. Further, individuals' susceptibility to PI in one domain was relatively independent of their susceptibility in the other domain, suggesting that, contrary to some theories of executive function, individual differences in PI susceptibility may not be domain-general.

Working memory in children and adolescents with Down syndrome: evidence from a colour memory experiment.

PubMed

Laws, Glynis

2002-03-01

This paper reports information on the visual and verbal short-term memory of individuals with Down syndrome. Colour memory in 16 children and adolescents with Down syndrome was compared with that of 16 typically developing children matched for receptive vocabulary. It was suggested that focal colours should be remembered more successfully than non-focal colours on the basis that the former could be remembered using a verbal recoding strategy. However, children with Down syndrome, for whom a deficit in verbal short-term memory makes the use of such a strategy unlikely, should remember focal and non-focal colours equally well. More importantly, if individuals with Down syndrome have more developed visual memory abilities than control children, they should outperform them in recognising non-focal colours. Although the group with Down syndrome demonstrated significantly better Corsi blocks performance than controls, and displayed similar levels of colour knowledge, no advantage for colour memory was found. Non-focal colours were remembered by individuals with Down syndrome as successfully as focal colours but there was no indication of a visual memory advantage over controls. Focal colours were remembered significantly more successfully than non-focal colours by the typically developing children. Their focal colour memory was significantly related to digit span, but only Corsi span was related to focal colour memory in the group with Down syndrome.

Short-Term Memory Stages in Sign vs. Speech: The Source of the Serial Span Discrepancy

PubMed Central

Hall, Matthew L.

2011-01-01

Speakers generally outperform signers when asked to recall a list of unrelated verbal items. This phenomenon is well established, but its source has remained unclear. In this study, we evaluate the relative contribution of the three main processing stages of short-term memory – perception, encoding, and recall – in this effect. The present study factorially manipulates whether American Sign Language (ASL) or English was used for perception, memory encoding, and recall in hearing ASL-English bilinguals. Results indicate that using ASL during both perception and encoding contributes to the serial span discrepancy. Interestingly, performing recall in ASL slightly increased span, ruling out the view that signing is in general a poor choice for short-term memory. These results suggest that despite the general equivalence of sign and speech in other memory domains, speech-based representations are better suited for the specific task of perception and memory encoding of a series of unrelated verbal items in serial order through the phonological loop. This work suggests that interpretation of performance on serial recall tasks in English may not translate straightforwardly to serial tasks in sign language. PMID:21450284

Measurements of auditory-verbal STM span in aphasia: effects of item, task, and lexical impairment.

PubMed

Martin, Nadine; Ayala, Jennifer

2004-06-01

In the first part of this study, we investigated effects of item and task type on span performance in a group of aphasic individuals with word processing and STM deficits. Group analyses revealed significant effects of item on span performance with span being greater for digits than for words. We also investigated associations between subjects' lexical-semantic and phonological processing abilities and performance on four measures of verbal span (digit and word span, each varied for type of response, verbal vs. pointing) as well as one measure of nonverbal span. We predicted and found that the patterns of association between verbal span tasks and lexical abilities reflected the integrity of language processes and representations deployed in each paradigm used to assess span. Performance on the pointing span task, which engages both lexical-semantic and phonological processes, correlated with measures of both lexical-semantic and phonological abilities. Performance on repetition span, which engages primarily input and output phonological processes, correlated with measures of phonological abilities but not measures of lexical-semantic abilities. However, when partial correlations were performed for two subject groups based on their relative preservation of lexical-semantic ability (less or more than phonological ability), repetition span correlated with lexical-semantic measures only in the subgroup with relatively impaired lexical-semantics. Additionally, performance on the nonverbal span task correlated with measures of phonological abilities, suggesting either a general cognitive deficit affecting verbal and nonverbal STM or possibly, the use of a verbal strategy to perform this task. Our discussion focuses on the interpretation of span measurements in clinical practice and research, as well as the implications of these data for theories of short-term memory and word processing.

A close relationship between verbal memory and SN/VTA integrity in young and older adults.

PubMed

Düzel, Sandra; Schütze, Hartmut; Stallforth, Sabine; Kaufmann, Jörn; Bodammer, Nils; Bunzeck, Nico; Münte, Thomas F; Lindenberger, Ulman; Heinze, Hans-Jochen; Düzel, Emrah

2008-11-01

Age-related dysfunction in dopaminergic neuromodulation is assumed to contribute to age-associated memory impairment. However, to date there are no in vivo data on how structural parameters of the substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA), the main origin of dopaminergic projections, relate to memory performance in healthy young and older adults. We investigated this relationship in a cross-sectional study including data from the hippocampus and frontal white matter (FWM) and also assessing working memory span and attention. In groups of young and older adults matched for the variance of their age distribution, gender and body mass index, we observed a robust positive correlation between Magnetization Transfer Ratio (MTR)--a measure of structural integrity--of the SN/VTA and FWM with verbal learning and memory performance among older adults, while there was a negative correlation in the young. Two additional imaging parameters, anisotropy of diffusion and diffusion coefficient, suggested that in older adults FWM changes reflected vascular pathology while SN/VTA changes pointed towards neuronal loss and loss of water content. The negative correlation in the young possibly reflected maturational changes. Multiple regression analyses indicated that in both young and older adults, SN/VTA MTR explained more variance of verbal learning and memory than FWM MTR or hippocampal MTR, and contributed less to explaining variance of working memory span. Together these findings indicate that structural integrity in the SN/VTA has a relatively selective impact on verbal learning and memory and undergoes specific changes from young adulthood to older age that qualitatively differ from changes in the FWM and hippocampus.

Verbal short-term memory and vocabulary learning in polyglots.

PubMed

Papagno, C; Vallar, G

1995-02-01

Polyglot and non-polyglot Italian subjects were given tests assessing verbal (phonological) and visuo-spatial short-term and long-term memory, general intelligence, and vocabulary knowledge in their native language. Polyglots had a superior level of performance in verbal short-term memory tasks (auditory digit span and nonword repetition) and in a paired-associate learning test, which assessed the subjects' ability to acquire new (Russian) words. By contrast, the two groups had comparable performance levels in tasks assessing general intelligence, visuo-spatial short-term memory and learning, and paired-associate learning of Italian words. These findings, which are in line with neuropsychological and developmental evidence, as well as with data from normal subjects, suggest a close relationship between the capacity of phonological memory and the acquisition of foreign languages.

Listening comprehension in preschoolers: the role of memory.

PubMed

Florit, Elena; Roch, Maja; Altoè, Gianmarco; Levorato, Maria Chiara

2009-11-01

The current study analyzed the relationship between text comprehension and memory skills in preschoolers. We were interested in verifying the hypothesis that memory is a specific contributor to listening comprehension in preschool children after controlling for verbal abilities. We were also interested in analyzing the developmental path of the relationship between memory skills and listening comprehension in the age range considered. Forty-four, 4-year-olds (mean age = 4 years and 6 months, SD = 4 months) and 40, 5-year-olds (mean age = 5 years and 4 months, SD = 5 months) participated in the study. The children were administered measures to evaluate listening comprehension ability (story comprehension), short-term and working memory skills (forward and backward word span), verbal intelligence and receptive vocabulary. Results showed that both short-term and working memory predicted unique and independent variance in listening comprehension after controlling for verbal abilities, with working memory explaining additional variance over and above short-term memory. The predictive power of memory skills was stable in the age range considered. Results also confirm a strong relation between verbal abilities and listening comprehension in 4- and 5-year-old children.

The Neural Substrates of Recognition Memory for Verbal Information: Spanning the Divide between Short- and Long-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buchsbaum, Bradley R.; Padmanabhan, Aarthi; Berman, Karen Faith

2011-01-01

One of the classic categorical divisions in the history of memory research is that between short-term and long-term memory. Indeed, because memory for the immediate past (a few seconds) and memory for the relatively more remote past (several seconds and beyond) are assumed to rely on distinct neural systems, more often than not, memory research…

Selective deficits in verbal working memory associated with a known genetic etiology: The neuropsychological profile of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

PubMed Central

HINTON, VERONICA J.; DE VIVO, DARRYL C.; NEREO, NANCY E.; GOLDSTEIN, EDWARD; STERN, YAAKOV

2007-01-01

Forty-one boys diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) were each compared to an unaffected sibling on a battery of neuropsychological tests. Verbal, visuospatial, attention/memory, abstract thinking, and academic achievement skills were tested. Results indicated the boys with DMD performed similarly to their siblings on the majority of measures, indicating intact verbal, visuospatial, long-term memory, and abstract skills. However, the DMD group did significantly more poorly than their siblings on specific measures of story recall, digit span, and auditory comprehension, as well as in all areas of academic achievement (reading, writing, and math). This profile indicates that verbal working memory skills are selectively impaired in DMD, and that that likely contributes to limited academic achievement. The association between the known impact of the genetic mutation on the development of the central nervous system and boys’ cognitive profile is discussed. PMID:11253841

Electrophysiological indices of altered working memory processes in long-term ecstasy users.

PubMed

Nulsen, Claire; Fox, Allison; Hammond, Geoff

2011-10-01

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of light long-term ecstasy consumption on verbal short-term and working memory and to identify the cognitive processes contributing to task performance. Electroencephalogram was recorded while ecstasy users (N = 11), polydrug users (N = 13), and non-users (N = 13) completed forward and backward serial recognition tasks designed to engage verbal short-term memory and verbal working memory, respectively. All three groups displayed significantly lower digit-backward span than digit-forward span with ecstasy users displaying the greatest difference. The parietally distributed P3b was significantly smaller in the digits backward task than in the digits forward task in non-ecstasy-using controls. Ecstasy users did not show the reduced P3b component in the backward task that was seen in both non-ecstasy-using control groups. Ecstasy users' performance was suppressed more by the concurrent processing demands of the working memory task than that of the non-ecstasy-using controls. Non-ecstasy-using controls showed differential event-related potential wave forms in the short-term and working memory tasks, and this pattern was not seen in the ecstasy users. This is consistent with a reduction in the cognitive resources allocated to processing in working memory in ecstasy users. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Beyond capacity limitations II: Effects of lexical processes on word recall in verbal working memory tasks in children with and without specific language impairment

PubMed Central

Mainela-Arnold, Elina; Evans, Julia L.; Coady, Jeffry

2010-01-01

Purpose This study investigated the impact of lexical processes on target word recall in sentence span tasks in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). Method Participants were 42 children (ages 8;2–12;3), 21 with SLI and 21 typically developing peers matched on age and nonverbal IQ. Children completed a sentence span task where target words to be recalled varied in word frequency and neighborhood density. Two measures of lexical processes were examined, the number of non-target competitor words activated during a gating task (lexical cohort competition) and word definitions. Results Neighborhood density had no effect on word recall for either group. However, both groups recalled significantly more high than low frequency words. Lexical cohort competition and specificity of semantic representations accounted for unique variance in the number of target word recalled in the SLI and CA groups combined. Conclusions Performance on verbal working memory span tasks for both SLI and CA children is influenced by word frequency, lexical cohorts, and semantic representations. Future studies need to examine the extent to which verbal working memory capacity is a cognitive construct independent of extant language knowledge representations. PMID:20705747

Phonological similarity effect in complex span task.

PubMed

Camos, Valérie; Mora, Gérôme; Barrouillet, Pierre

2013-01-01

The aim of our study was to test the hypothesis that two systems are involved in verbal working memory; one is specifically dedicated to the maintenance of phonological representations through verbal rehearsal while the other would maintain multimodal representations through attentional refreshing. This theoretical framework predicts that phonologically related phenomena such as the phonological similarity effect (PSE) should occur when the domain-specific system is involved in maintenance, but should disappear when concurrent articulation hinders its use. Impeding maintenance in the domain-general system by a concurrent attentional demand should impair recall performance without affecting PSE. In three experiments, we manipulated the concurrent articulation and the attentional demand induced by the processing component of complex span tasks in which participants had to maintain lists of either similar or dissimilar words. Confirming our predictions, PSE affected recall performance in complex span tasks. Although both the attentional demand and the articulatory requirement of the concurrent task impaired recall, only the induction of an articulatory suppression during maintenance made the PSE disappear. These results suggest a duality in the systems devoted to verbal maintenance in the short term, constraining models of working memory.

Word-length effect in verbal short-term memory in individuals with Down's syndrome.

PubMed

Kanno, K; Ikeda, Y

2002-11-01

Many studies have indicated that individuals with Down's syndrome (DS) show a specific deficit in short-term memory for verbal information. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of the length of words on verbal short-term memory in individuals with DS. Twenty-eight children with DS and 10 control participants matched for memory span were tested on verbal serial recall and speech rate, which are thought to involve rehearsal and output speed. Although a significant word-length effect was observed in both groups for the recall of a larger number of items with a shorter spoken duration than for those with a longer spoken duration, the number of correct recalls in the group with DS was reduced compared to the control subjects. The results demonstrating poor short-term memory in children with DS were irrelevant to speech rate. In addition, the proportion of repetition-gained errors in serial recall was higher in children with DS than in control subjects. The present findings suggest that poor access to long-term lexical knowledge, rather than overt articulation speed, constrains verbal short-term memory functions in individuals with DS.

Working and strategic memory deficits in schizophrenia

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stone, M.; Gabrieli, J. D.; Stebbins, G. T.; Sullivan, E. V.

1998-01-01

Working memory and its contribution to performance on strategic memory tests in schizophrenia were studied. Patients (n = 18) and control participants (n = 15), all men, received tests of immediate memory (forward digit span), working memory (listening, computation, and backward digit span), and long-term strategic (free recall, temporal order, and self-ordered pointing) and nonstrategic (recognition) memory. Schizophrenia patients performed worse on all tests. Education, verbal intelligence, and immediate memory capacity did not account for deficits in working memory in schizophrenia patients. Reduced working memory capacity accounted for group differences in strategic memory but not in recognition memory. Working memory impairment may be central to the profile of impaired cognitive performance in schizophrenia and is consistent with hypothesized frontal lobe dysfunction associated with this disease. Additional medial-temporal dysfunction may account for the recognition memory deficit.

Searching for the Hebb effect in Down syndrome: evidence for a dissociation between verbal short-term memory and domain-general learning of serial order.

PubMed

Mosse, E K; Jarrold, C

2010-04-01

The Hebb effect is a form of repetition-driven long-term learning that is thought to provide an analogue for the processes involved in new word learning. Other evidence suggests that verbal short-term memory also constrains now vocabulary acquisition, but if the Hebb effect is independent of short-term memory, then it may be possible to demonstrate its preservation in a sample of individuals with Down syndrome, who typically show a verbal short-term memory deficit alongside surprising relative strengths in vocabulary. In two experiments, individuals both with and without Down syndrome (matched for receptive vocabulary) completed immediate serial recall tasks incorporating a Hebb repetition paradigm in either verbal or visuospatial conditions. Both groups demonstrated equivalent benefit from Hebb repetition, despite individuals with Down syndrome showing significantly lower verbal short-term memory spans. The resultant Hebb effect was equivalent across verbal and visuospatial domains. These studies suggest that the Hebb effect is essentially preserved within Down syndrome, implying that explicit verbal short-term memory is dissociable from potentially more implicit Hebb learning. The relative strength in receptive vocabulary observed in Down syndrome may therefore be supported by largely intact long-term as opposed to short-term serial order learning. This in turn may have implications for teaching methods and interventions that present new phonological material to individuals with Down syndrome.

The Effect of Rehearsal Training on Working Memory Span of Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loomes, Carly; Rasmussen, Carmen; Pei, Jacqueline; Manji, Shazeen; Andrew, Gail

2008-01-01

A key area of weakness in individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is working memory, thus the goal of this study was to determine whether teaching children (aged 4-11) with FASD verbal rehearsal would increase their memory. Rehearsal training has been effective in other populations with working memory difficulties, so we…

Longitudinal and concurrent links between memory span, anxiety symptoms, and subsequent executive functioning in young children

PubMed Central

Visu-Petra, Laura; Stanciu, Oana; Benga, Oana; Miclea, Mircea; Cheie, Lavinia

2014-01-01

It has been conjectured that basic individual differences in attentional control influence higher-level executive functioning and subsequent academic performance in children. The current study sets out to complement the limited body of research on early precursors of executive functions (EFs). It provides both a cross-sectional, as well as a longitudinal exploration of the relationship between EF and more basic attentional control mechanisms, assessed via children's performance on memory storage tasks, and influenced by individual differences in anxiety. Multiple measures of verbal and visuospatial short-term memory (STM) were administered to children between 3 and 6 years old, alongside a non-verbal measure of intelligence, and a parental report of anxiety symptoms. After 9 months, children were re-tested on the same STM measures, at which time we also administered multiple measures of executive functioning: verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM), inhibition, and shifting. A cross-sectional view of STM development indicated that between 3 and 6 years the trajectory of visuospatial STM and EF underwent a gradual linear improvement. However, between 5 and 6 years progress in verbal STM performance stagnated. Hierarchical regression models revealed that trait anxiety was negatively associated with WM and shifting, while non-verbal intelligence was positively related to WM span. When age, gender, non-verbal intelligence, and anxiety were controlled for, STM (measured at the first assessment) was a very good predictor of overall executive performance. The models were most successful in predicting WM, followed by shifting, yet poorly predicted inhibition measures. Further longitudinal research is needed to directly address the contribution of attentional control mechanisms to emerging executive functioning and to the development of problematic behavior during early development. PMID:24904462

Association of Chronic Subjective Tinnitus with Neuro- Cognitive Performance.

PubMed

Gudwani, Sunita; Munjal, Sanjay K; Panda, Naresh K; Kohli, Adarsh

2017-12-01

Chronic subjective tinnitus is associated with cognitive disruptions affecting perception, thinking, language, reasoning, problem solving, memory, visual tasks (reading) and attention. To evaluate existence of any association between tinnitus parameters and neuropsychological performance to explain cognitive processing. Study design was prospective, consisting 25 patients with idiopathic chronic subjective tinnitus and gave informed consent before planning their treatment. Neuropsychological profile included (i) performance on verbal information, comprehension, arithmetic and digit span; (ii) non-verbal performance for visual pattern completion analogies; (iii) memory performance for long-term, recent, delayed-recall, immediate-recall, verbal-retention, visualretention, visual recognition; (iv) reception, interpretation and execution for visual motor gestalt. Correlation between tinnitus onset duration/ loudness perception with neuropsychological profile was assessed by calculating Spearman's coefficient. Findings suggest that tinnitus may interfere with cognitive processing especially performance on digit span, verbal comprehension, mental balance, attention & concentration, immediate recall, visual recognition and visual-motor gestalt subtests. Negative correlation between neurocognitive tasks with tinnitus loudness and onset duration indicated their association. Positive correlation between tinnitus and visual-motor gestalt performance indicated the brain dysfunction. Tinnitus association with non-auditory processing of verbal, visual and visuo-spatial information suggested neuroplastic changes that need to be targeted in cognitive rehabilitation.

Asymmetry in auditory and spatial attention span in normal elderly genetically at risk for Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Jacobson, Mark W; Delis, Dean C; Bondi, Mark W; Salmon, David P

2005-02-01

Some studies of elderly individuals with the ApoE-e4 genotype noted subtle deficits on tests of attention such as the WAIS-R Digit Span subtest, but these findings have not been consistently reported. One possible explanation for the inconsistent results could be the presence of subgroups of e4+ individuals with asymmetric cognitive profiles (i.e., significant discrepancies between verbal and visuospatial skills). Comparing genotype groups with individual, modality-specific tests might obscure subtle differences between verbal and visuospatial attention in these asymmetric subgroups. In this study, we administered the WAIS-R Digit Span and WMS-R Visual Memory Span subtests to 21 nondemented elderly e4+ individuals and 21 elderly e4- individuals matched on age, education, and overall cognitive ability. We hypothesized that a) the e4+ group would show a higher incidence of asymmetric cognitive profiles when comparing Digit Span/Visual Memory Span performance relative to the e4- group; and (b) an analysis of individual test performance would fail to reveal differences between the two subject groups. Although the groups' performances were comparable on the individual attention span tests, the e4+ group showed a significantly larger discrepancy between digit span and spatial span scores compared to the e4- group. These findings suggest that contrast measures of modality-specific attentional skills may be more sensitive to subtle group differences in at-risk groups, even when the groups do not differ on individual comparisons of standardized test means. The increased discrepancy between verbal and visuospatial attention may reflect the presence of "subgroups" within the ApoE-e4 group that are qualitatively similar to asymmetric subgroups commonly associated with the earliest stages of AD.

Is the frontal dysexecutive syndrome due to a working memory deficit? Evidence from patients with stroke.

PubMed

Roussel, Martine; Dujardin, Kathy; Hénon, Hilde; Godefroy, Olivier

2012-07-01

Although frontal dysexecutive disorders are frequently considered to be due to working memory deficit, this has not been systematically examined and very little evidence is available for impairment of working memory in frontal damage. The objective of this study was to examine the components of working memory, their anatomy and the relations with executive functions in patients with stroke involving the frontal or posterior cortex. The study population consisted of 29 patients (frontal: n=17; posterior: n=12) and 29 matched controls. Phonological loop (letter and word spans, phonological store; rehearsal process), visuospatial sketchpad (visuospatial span) and the central executive (working memory span, dual task and updating process) were examined. The group comparison analysis showed impairment in the frontal group of: (i) verbal spans (P<0.03); (ii) with a deficit of the rehearsal process (P=0.006); (iii) visuospatial span (P=0.04); (iv) working memory span (P=0.001) that disappeared after controlling for verbal span and (v) running memory (P=0.05) unrelated to updating conditions. The clinical anatomical correlation study showed that impairment of the central executive depended on frontal and posterior lesion. Cognitive dysexecutive disorders were observed in 11/20 patients with central executive deficit and an inverse dissociation was observed in two patients. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that cognitive dysexecutive disorders had the highest ability to discriminate frontal lesions (area under curve=0.844, 95% confidence interval: 0.74-0.95; P=0.0001; central executive impairment: area under curve=0.732, 95% confidence interval: 0.57-0.82; P=0.006). This study reveals that frontal lesions induce mild impairment of short-term memory associated with a deficit of the rehearsal process supporting the role of the frontal lobe in this process; the central executive depends on lesions in the frontal lobe and posterior regions accounting for its low frequency and the negative results of group studies. Finally, the frontal dysexecutive syndrome cannot be attributed to central executive impairment, although it may contribute to some dysexecutive disorders.

Verbal working memory performance correlates with regional white matter structures in the frontoparietal regions.

PubMed

Takeuchi, Hikaru; Taki, Yasuyuki; Sassa, Yuko; Hashizume, Hiroshi; Sekiguchi, Atsushi; Fukushima, Ai; Kawashima, Ryuta

2011-10-01

Working memory is the limited capacity storage system involved in the maintenance and manipulation of information over short periods of time. Previous imaging studies have suggested that the frontoparietal regions are activated during working memory tasks; a putative association between the structure of the frontoparietal regions and working memory performance has been suggested based on the analysis of individuals with varying pathologies. This study aimed to identify correlations between white matter and individual differences in verbal working memory performance in normal young subjects. We performed voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analyses using T1-weighted structural images as well as voxel-based analyses of fractional anisotropy (FA) using diffusion tensor imaging. Using the letter span task, we measured verbal working memory performance in normal young adult men and women (mean age, 21.7 years, SD=1.44; 42 men and 13 women). We observed positive correlations between working memory performance and regional white matter volume (rWMV) in the frontoparietal regions. In addition, FA was found to be positively correlated with verbal working memory performance in a white matter region adjacent to the right precuneus. These regions are consistently recruited by working memory. Our findings suggest that, among normal young subjects, verbal working memory performance is associated with various regions that are recruited during working memory tasks, and this association is not limited to specific parts of the working memory network. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Memory functions of children born with asymmetric intrauterine growth restriction.

PubMed

Geva, Ronny; Eshel, Rina; Leitner, Yael; Fattal-Valevski, Aviva; Harel, Shaul

2006-10-30

Learning difficulties are frequently diagnosed in children born with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). Models of various animal species with IUGR were studied and demonstrated specific susceptibility and alterations of the hippocampal formation and its related neural structures. The main purpose was to study memory functions of children born with asymmetric IUGR in a large-scale cohort using a long-term prospective paradigm. One hundred and ten infants diagnosed with IUGR were followed-up from birth to 9 years of age. Their performance was compared with a group of 63 children with comparable gestational age and multiple socioeconomic factors. Memory functions (short-term, super- and long-term spans) for different stimuli types (verbal and visual) were evaluated using Visual Auditory Digit Span tasks (VADS), Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (Rey-AVLT), and Rey Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCF). Children with IUGR had short-term memory difficulties that hindered both serial verbal processing system and simultaneous processing of high-load visuo-spatial stimuli. The difficulties were not related to prematurity, neonatal complications or growth catch-up, but were augmented by lower maternal education. Recognition skills and benefits from reiteration, typically affected by hippocampal dysfunction, were preserved in both groups. Memory profile of children born with IUGR is characterized primarily by a short-term memory deficit that does not necessarily comply with a typical hippocampal deficit, but rather may reflect an executive short-term memory deficit characteristic of anterior hippocampal-prefrontal network. Implications for cognitive intervention are discussed.

How Does Consecutive Interpreting Training Influence Working Memory: A Longitudinal Study of Potential Links Between the Two

PubMed Central

Dong, Yanping; Liu, Yuhua; Cai, Rendong

2018-01-01

With an intention to contribute to the issue of how language experience may influence working memory (WM), we focused on consecutive interpreting (CI), analyzed its potential links with WM functions and tested these links in a longitudinal experiment, trying to answer the specific question of how CI training may influence WM. Two comparable groups of Chinese learners of English received either CI or general second language (L2) training for one semester, and were tested before and after the training with the tasks of n-back (non-verbal updating), L2 listening span, and letter running span (verbal spans). CI performance was tested in the posttest. The results showed that (1) updating efficiency in both the pretest and posttest predicted CI performance, and CI training enhanced updating efficiency while general L2 training did not; (2) the relationship between verbal spans and CI performance was weaker (i.e., only pretest L2 listening span correlated with CI performance and predicted CI performance with marginal significance), and CI training did not make a unique contribution to these spans (i.e., no group differences). The results indicated an “interpreter advantage” in updating, which was probably due to that updating was more central in the CI task than WM spans. Theoretically, we believe that updating and CI are closely related because they share the same underlying mechanism, or more specifically updating and the recalling process in the CI task share the same attentional control process, a unique link between updating and the CI task. Methodological implications are discussed. PMID:29922199

Polish Listening SPAN: A New Tool for Measuring Verbal Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zychowicz, Katarzyna; Biedron, Adriana; Pawlak, Miroslaw

2017-01-01

Individual differences in second language acquisition (SLA) encompass differences in working memory capacity, which is believed to be one of the most crucial factors influencing language learning. However, in Poland research on the role of working memory in SLA is scarce due to a lack of proper Polish instruments for measuring this construct. The…

Conversion disorder in children and adolescents: a disorder of cognitive control.

PubMed

Kozlowska, Kasia; Palmer, Donna M; Brown, Kerri J; Scher, Stephen; Chudleigh, Catherine; Davies, Fiona; Williams, Leanne M

2015-03-01

To assess cognitive function in children and adolescents presenting with acute conversion symptoms. Fifty-seven participants aged 8.5-18 years (41 girls and 16 boys) with conversion symptoms and 57 age- and gender-matched healthy controls completed the IntegNeuro neurocognitive battery, an estimate of intelligence, and self-report measures of subjective emotional distress. Participants with conversion symptoms showed poorer performance within attention, executive function, and memory domains. Poorer performance was reflected in more errors on specific tests: Switching of Attention (t(79) = 2.17, p = .03); Verbal Interference (t(72) = 2.64, p = .01); Go/No-Go (t(73) = 2.20, p = .03); Memory Recall and Verbal Learning (interference errors for memory recall; t(61) = 3.13, p < .01); and short-delay recall (t(75) = 2.05, p < .01) and long-delay recall (t(62) = 2.24, p = .03). Poorer performance was also reflected in a reduced span of working memory on the Digit Span Test for both forward recall span (t(103) = -3.64, p < .001) and backward recall span (t(100) = -3.22, p < .01). There was no difference between participants and controls on IQ estimate (t(94) = -589, p = .56), and there was no correlation between cognitive function and perceived distress. Children and adolescents with acute conversion symptoms have a reduced capacity to manipulate and retain information, to block interfering information, and to inhibit responses, all of which are required for effective attention, executive function, and memory. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Robust relationship between reading span and speech recognition in noise

PubMed Central

Souza, Pamela; Arehart, Kathryn

2015-01-01

Objective Working memory refers to a cognitive system that manages information processing and temporary storage. Recent work has demonstrated that individual differences in working memory capacity measured using a reading span task are related to ability to recognize speech in noise. In this project, we investigated whether the specific implementation of the reading span task influenced the strength of the relationship between working memory capacity and speech recognition. Design The relationship between speech recognition and working memory capacity was examined for two different working memory tests that varied in approach, using a within-subject design. Data consisted of audiometric results along with the two different working memory tests; one speech-in-noise test; and a reading comprehension test. Study sample The test group included 94 older adults with varying hearing loss and 30 younger adults with normal hearing. Results Listeners with poorer working memory capacity had more difficulty understanding speech in noise after accounting for age and degree of hearing loss. That relationship did not differ significantly between the two different implementations of reading span. Conclusions Our findings suggest that different implementations of a verbal reading span task do not affect the strength of the relationship between working memory capacity and speech recognition. PMID:25975360

Robust relationship between reading span and speech recognition in noise.

PubMed

Souza, Pamela; Arehart, Kathryn

2015-01-01

Working memory refers to a cognitive system that manages information processing and temporary storage. Recent work has demonstrated that individual differences in working memory capacity measured using a reading span task are related to ability to recognize speech in noise. In this project, we investigated whether the specific implementation of the reading span task influenced the strength of the relationship between working memory capacity and speech recognition. The relationship between speech recognition and working memory capacity was examined for two different working memory tests that varied in approach, using a within-subject design. Data consisted of audiometric results along with the two different working memory tests; one speech-in-noise test; and a reading comprehension test. The test group included 94 older adults with varying hearing loss and 30 younger adults with normal hearing. Listeners with poorer working memory capacity had more difficulty understanding speech in noise after accounting for age and degree of hearing loss. That relationship did not differ significantly between the two different implementations of reading span. Our findings suggest that different implementations of a verbal reading span task do not affect the strength of the relationship between working memory capacity and speech recognition.

Factor Analysis of the WAIS and Twenty French-Kit Reference Tests.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramsey, Philip H.

1979-01-01

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and 20 tests from the French Kit were administered to over 100 undergraduates. Analyses revealed ten factors: verbal comprehension, visualization, memory span, syllogistic reasoning, general reasoning, induction, mechanical knowledge, number facility, spatial orientation, and associative memory.…

How do subvocal rehearsal and general attentional resources contribute to verbal short-term memory span?

PubMed Central

Morra, Sergio

2015-01-01

Whether rehearsal has a causal role in verbal STM has been controversial in the literature. Recent theories of working memory emphasize a role of attentional resources, but leave unclear how they contribute to verbal STM. Two experiments (with 49 and 102 adult participants, respectively) followed up previous studies with children, aiming to clarify the contributions of attentional capacity and rehearsal to verbal STM. Word length and presentation modality were manipulated. Experiment 1 focused on order errors, Experiment 2 on predicting individual differences in span from attentional capacity and articulation rate. Structural equation modeling showed clearly a major role of attentional capacity as a predictor of verbal STM span; but was inconclusive on whether rehearsal efficiency is an additional cause or a consequence of verbal STM. The effects of word length and modality on STM were replicated; a significant interaction was also found, showing a larger modality effect for long than short words, which replicates a previous finding on children. Item errors occurred more often with long words and correlated negatively with articulation rate. This set of findings seems to point to a role of rehearsal in maintaining item information. The probability of order errors per position increased linearly with list length. A revised version of a neo-Piagetian model was fit to the data of Experiment 2. That model was based on two parameters: attentional capacity (independently measured) and a free parameter representing loss of partly-activated information. The model could partly account for the results, but underestimated STM performance of the participants with smaller attentional capacity. It is concluded that modeling of verbal STM should consider individual and developmental differences in attentional capacity, rehearsal rate, and (perhaps) order representation. PMID:25798114

How do subvocal rehearsal and general attentional resources contribute to verbal short-term memory span?

PubMed

Morra, Sergio

2015-01-01

Whether rehearsal has a causal role in verbal STM has been controversial in the literature. Recent theories of working memory emphasize a role of attentional resources, but leave unclear how they contribute to verbal STM. Two experiments (with 49 and 102 adult participants, respectively) followed up previous studies with children, aiming to clarify the contributions of attentional capacity and rehearsal to verbal STM. Word length and presentation modality were manipulated. Experiment 1 focused on order errors, Experiment 2 on predicting individual differences in span from attentional capacity and articulation rate. Structural equation modeling showed clearly a major role of attentional capacity as a predictor of verbal STM span; but was inconclusive on whether rehearsal efficiency is an additional cause or a consequence of verbal STM. The effects of word length and modality on STM were replicated; a significant interaction was also found, showing a larger modality effect for long than short words, which replicates a previous finding on children. Item errors occurred more often with long words and correlated negatively with articulation rate. This set of findings seems to point to a role of rehearsal in maintaining item information. The probability of order errors per position increased linearly with list length. A revised version of a neo-Piagetian model was fit to the data of Experiment 2. That model was based on two parameters: attentional capacity (independently measured) and a free parameter representing loss of partly-activated information. The model could partly account for the results, but underestimated STM performance of the participants with smaller attentional capacity. It is concluded that modeling of verbal STM should consider individual and developmental differences in attentional capacity, rehearsal rate, and (perhaps) order representation.

Verbal short-term memory span in children: long-term modality dependent effects of intrauterine growth restriction.

PubMed

Geva, R; Eshel, R; Leitner, Y; Fattal-Valevski, A; Harel, S

2008-12-01

Recent reports showed that children born with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) are at greater risk of experiencing verbal short-term memory span (STM) deficits that may impede their learning capacities at school. It is still unknown whether these deficits are modality dependent. This long-term, prospective design study examined modality-dependent verbal STM functions in children who were diagnosed at birth with IUGR (n = 138) and a control group (n = 64). Their STM skills were evaluated individually at 9 years of age with four conditions of the Visual-Aural Digit Span Test (VADS; Koppitz, 1981): auditory-oral, auditory-written, visuospatial-oral and visuospatial-written. Cognitive competence was evaluated with the short form of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children--revised (WISC-R95; Wechsler, 1998). We found IUGR-related specific auditory-oral STM deficits (p < .036) in conjunction with two double dissociations: an auditory-visuospatial (p < .014) and an input-output processing distinction (p < .014). Cognitive competence had a significant effect on all four conditions; however, the effect of IUGR on the auditory-oral condition was not overridden by the effect of intelligence quotient (IQ). Intrauterine growth restriction affects global competence and inter-modality processing, as well as distinct auditory input processing related to verbal STM functions. The findings support a long-term relationship between prenatal aberrant head growth and auditory verbal STM deficits by the end of the first decade of life. Empirical, clinical and educational implications are presented.

Working memory span and motor and cognitive speed in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Brébion, Gildas; David, Anthony S; Jones, Hugh M; Pilowsky, Lyn S

2009-06-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the verbal working memory deficit and decrease of motor and cognitive speed in patients with schizophrenia, and to clarify their associations with negative and depressive symptomatology. Forty patients with schizophrenia and 41 healthy control individuals were administered the backward digit span to assess the working memory capacity, along with 3 tests of processing speed. Patients demonstrated reduced backward digit span, as well as decreased motor and cognitive speed. Regression analyses indicated that the backward digit span was associated with cognitive speed. It was not associated with either negative or depressive symptoms. Decreased processing speed was unrelated to negative symptoms, but the depression score was significantly associated with the cognitive speed measure. Working memory and processing speed seem to share a cognitive component. Depression, but not negative symptoms, affects processing speed, especially by decreasing cognitive speed.

Role of Working Memory in Children's Understanding Spoken Narrative: A Preliminary Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montgomery, James W.; Polunenko, Anzhela; Marinellie, Sally A.

2009-01-01

The role of phonological short-term memory (PSTM), attentional resource capacity/allocation, and processing speed on children's spoken narrative comprehension was investigated. Sixty-seven children (6-11 years) completed a digit span task (PSTM), concurrent verbal processing and storage (CPS) task (resource capacity/allocation), auditory-visual…

Serial Recall and Nonword Repetition in Reading Disabled Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roodenrys, Steven; Stokes, Julie

2001-01-01

Examines the performance on verbal short-term memory tasks of specifically reading disabled children relative to reading-age matched and chronological-age matched control groups. Examines memory span for words, highly wordlike nonwords and less wordlike nonwords, speech rates for these items, and nonword repetition. Suggests that there is a…

Sentence processing and verbal working memory in a white-matter-disconnection patient.

PubMed

Meyer, Lars; Cunitz, Katrin; Obleser, Jonas; Friederici, Angela D

2014-08-01

The Arcuate Fasciculus/Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus (AF/SLF) is the white-matter bundle that connects posterior superior temporal and inferior frontal cortex. Its causal functional role in sentence processing and verbal working memory is currently under debate. While impairments of sentence processing and verbal working memory often co-occur in patients suffering from AF/SLF damage, it is unclear whether these impairments result from shared white-matter damage to the verbal-working-memory network. The present study sought to specify the behavioral consequences of focal AF/SLF damage for sentence processing and verbal working memory, which were assessed in a single patient suffering from a cleft-like lesion spanning the deep left superior temporal gyrus, sparing most surrounding gray matter. While tractography suggests that the ventral fronto-temporal white-matter bundle is intact in this patient, the AF/SLF was not visible to tractography. In line with the hypothesis that the AF/SLF is causally involved in sentence processing, the patient׳s performance was selectively impaired on sentences that jointly involve both complex word orders and long word-storage intervals. However, the patient was unimpaired on sentences that only involved long word-storage intervals without involving complex word orders. On the contrary, the patient performed generally worse than a control group across standard verbal-working-memory tests. We conclude that the AF/SLF not only plays a causal role in sentence processing, linking regions of the left dorsal inferior frontal gyrus to the temporo-parietal region, but moreover plays a crucial role in verbal working memory, linking regions of the left ventral inferior frontal gyrus to the left temporo-parietal region. Together, the specific sentence-processing impairment and the more general verbal-working-memory impairment may imply that the AF/SLF subserves both sentence processing and verbal working memory, possibly pointing to the AF and SLF respectively supporting each. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Processing efficiency theory in children: working memory as a mediator between trait anxiety and academic performance.

PubMed

Owens, Matthew; Stevenson, Jim; Norgate, Roger; Hadwin, Julie A

2008-10-01

Working memory skills are positively associated with academic performance. In contrast, high levels of trait anxiety are linked with educational underachievement. Based on Eysenck and Calvo's (1992) processing efficiency theory (PET), the present study investigated whether associations between anxiety and educational achievement were mediated via poor working memory performance. Fifty children aged 11-12 years completed verbal (backwards digit span; tapping the phonological store/central executive) and spatial (Corsi blocks; tapping the visuospatial sketchpad/central executive) working memory tasks. Trait anxiety was measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children. Academic performance was assessed using school administered tests of reasoning (Cognitive Abilities Test) and attainment (Standard Assessment Tests). The results showed that the association between trait anxiety and academic performance was significantly mediated by verbal working memory for three of the six academic performance measures (math, quantitative and non-verbal reasoning). Spatial working memory did not significantly mediate the relationship between trait anxiety and academic performance. On average verbal working memory accounted for 51% of the association between trait anxiety and academic performance, while spatial working memory only accounted for 9%. The findings indicate that PET is a useful framework to assess the impact of children's anxiety on educational achievement.

Cognitive strategy interventions improve word problem solving and working memory in children with math disabilities.

PubMed

Swanson, H Lee

2015-01-01

This study investigated the role of strategy instruction and working memory capacity (WMC) on problem solving solution accuracy in children with and without math disabilities (MD). Children in grade 3 (N = 204) with and without MD subdivided into high and low WMC were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: verbal strategies (e.g., underlining question sentence), visual strategies (e.g., correctly placing numbers in diagrams), verbal + visual strategies, and an untreated control. The dependent measures for training were problem solving accuracy and two working memory transfer measures (operation span and visual-spatial span). Three major findings emerged: (1) strategy instruction facilitated solution accuracy but the effects of strategy instruction were moderated by WMC, (2) some strategies yielded higher post-test scores than others, but these findings were qualified as to whether children were at risk for MD, and (3) strategy training on problem solving measures facilitated transfer to working memory measures. The main findings were that children with MD, but high WM spans, were more likely to benefit from strategy conditions on target and transfer measures than children with lower WMC. The results suggest that WMC moderates the influence of cognitive strategies on both the targeted and non-targeted measures.

Cognitive strategy interventions improve word problem solving and working memory in children with math disabilities

PubMed Central

Swanson, H. Lee

2015-01-01

This study investigated the role of strategy instruction and working memory capacity (WMC) on problem solving solution accuracy in children with and without math disabilities (MD). Children in grade 3 (N = 204) with and without MD subdivided into high and low WMC were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: verbal strategies (e.g., underlining question sentence), visual strategies (e.g., correctly placing numbers in diagrams), verbal + visual strategies, and an untreated control. The dependent measures for training were problem solving accuracy and two working memory transfer measures (operation span and visual-spatial span). Three major findings emerged: (1) strategy instruction facilitated solution accuracy but the effects of strategy instruction were moderated by WMC, (2) some strategies yielded higher post-test scores than others, but these findings were qualified as to whether children were at risk for MD, and (3) strategy training on problem solving measures facilitated transfer to working memory measures. The main findings were that children with MD, but high WM spans, were more likely to benefit from strategy conditions on target and transfer measures than children with lower WMC. The results suggest that WMC moderates the influence of cognitive strategies on both the targeted and non-targeted measures. PMID:26300803

Neuropsychological sequelae of exposure to welding fumes in a group of occupationally exposed men.

PubMed

Bowler, Rosemarie M; Gysens, Sabine; Diamond, Emily; Booty, Andrew; Hartney, Christopher; Roels, Harry A

2003-10-01

This study compares the neuropsychological function, emotional status, visual function, and illness prevalence of 76 former and current chemical industry welders primarily involved in steel welding, and exposed to welding fumes for an average of 24.9 years with that of 42 unexposed, non-welder controls. Health and occupational history questionnaires were administered, as were the neuropsychological tests included in the World Health Organization Neurobehavioral Core Test Battery, Luria Motor Test, and selected tests from the WAIS-III, and WMS-III. Emotional status tests included the BSI, POMS, BAI, and BDI, and vision tests included the Snellen near visual acuity, Lanthony d-15 color vision, Vistech Contrast Sensitivity, and Schirmer strips. While welders and controls performed similarly on tests of verbal skills, verbal retention, and auditory span, welders performed worse than controls on tests of verbal learning, working memory, cognitive flexibility, visuomotor processing speed, and motor efficiency. Welders had poorer color vision and emotional status, and increased prevalence of illnesses and psychiatric symptoms. The increased symptoms in welders were related to decreased scores on tasks measuring verbal learning, visuomotor abilities, visuospatial abilities, and information processing, and motor efficiency. Within the group of welders, the number of hours welding was negatively related to scores on verbal learning, auditory span, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and motor efficiency.

The suppression effect in visuospatial and verbal working memory span tasks in patients with Alzheimer's disease: a 2-year follow-up study.

PubMed

Elosúa, M Rosa; Peinado, Matías; Contreras, María José; Reales, J Manuel; Montoro, Pedro R

2016-10-01

This study adapted a new task to assess visuospatial and verbal working memory impairments in patients with Alzheimer Disease (AD), including an executive strategy of information suppression. The aim was to examine the visuospatial and verbal difficulties, and additionally to explore the average sex differences, during a 2-year follow-up study. The results indicated that patients with AD showed a significantly lower performance, compared with healthy elderly controls, especially with the suppression of information required in this new task. However, suppression did not lead to a significantly greater decline in the performance of patients when compared with the control group.

White Matter Integrity Dissociates Verbal Memory and Auditory Attention Span in Emerging Adults with Congenital Heart Disease.

PubMed

Brewster, Ryan C; King, Tricia Z; Burns, Thomas G; Drossner, David M; Mahle, William T

2015-01-01

White matter disruptions have been identified in individuals with congenital heart disease (CHD). However, no specific theory-driven relationships between microstructural white matter disruptions and cognition have been established in CHD. We conducted a two-part study. First, we identified significant differences in fractional anisotropy (FA) of emerging adults with CHD using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS). TBSS analyses between 22 participants with CHD and 18 demographically similar controls identified five regions of normal appearing white matter with significantly lower FA in CHD, and two higher. Next, two regions of lower FA in CHD were selected to examine theory-driven differential relationships with cognition: voxels along the left uncinate fasciculus (UF; a tract theorized to contribute to verbal memory) and voxels along the right middle cerebellar peduncle (MCP; a tract previously linked to attention). In CHD, a significant positive correlation between UF FA and memory was found, r(20)=.42, p=.049 (uncorrected). There was no correlation between UF and auditory attention span. A positive correlation between MCP FA and auditory attention span was found, r(20)=.47, p=.027 (uncorrected). There was no correlation between MCP and memory. In controls, no significant relationships were identified. These results are consistent with previous literature demonstrating lower FA in younger CHD samples, and provide novel evidence for disrupted white matter integrity in emerging adults with CHD. Furthermore, a correlational double dissociation established distinct white matter circuitry (UF and MCP) and differential cognitive correlates (memory and attention span, respectively) in young adults with CHD.

Effects of lexical competition on immediate memory span for spoken words.

PubMed

Goh, Winston D; Pisoni, David B

2003-08-01

Current theories and models of the structural organization of verbal short-term memory are primarily based on evidence obtained from manipulations of features inherent in the short-term traces of the presented stimuli, such as phonological similarity. In the present study, we investigated whether properties of the stimuli that are not inherent in the short-term traces of spoken words would affect performance in an immediate memory span task. We studied the lexical neighbourhood properties of the stimulus items, which are based on the structure and organization of words in the mental lexicon. The experiments manipulated lexical competition by varying the phonological neighbourhood structure (i.e., neighbourhood density and neighbourhood frequency) of the words on a test list while controlling for word frequency and intra-set phonological similarity (family size). Immediate memory span for spoken words was measured under repeated and nonrepeated sampling procedures. The results demonstrated that lexical competition only emerged when a nonrepeated sampling procedure was used and the participants had to access new words from their lexicons. These findings were not dependent on individual differences in short-term memory capacity. Additional results showed that the lexical competition effects did not interact with proactive interference. Analyses of error patterns indicated that item-type errors, but not positional errors, were influenced by the lexical attributes of the stimulus items. These results complement and extend previous findings that have argued for separate contributions of long-term knowledge and short-term memory rehearsal processes in immediate verbal serial recall tasks.

The Effects of a Brief Acceptance-based Behavior Therapy vs. Traditional Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Public Speaking Anxiety: Differential Effects on Performance and Verbal Working Memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glassman, Lisa Hayley

Individuals with public speaking phobia experience fear and avoidance that can cause extreme distress, impaired speaking performance, and associated problems in psychosocial functioning. Most extant interventions for public speaking phobia focus on the reduction of anxiety and avoidance, but neglect performance. Additionally, very little is known about the relationship between verbal working memory and social performance under conditions of high anxiety. The current study compared the efficacy of two cognitive behavioral treatments, traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (tCBT) and acceptance-based behavior therapy (ABBT), in enhancing public speaking performance via coping with anxiety. Verbal working memory performance, as measured by the backwards digit span (BDS), was measured to explore the relationships between treatment type, anxiety, performance, and verbal working memory. We randomized 30 individuals with high public speaking anxiety to a 90-minute ABBT or tCBT intervention. As this pilot study was underpowered, results are examined in terms of effect sizes as well as statistical significance. Assessments took place at pre and post-intervention and included self-rated and objective anxiety measurements, a behavioral assessment, ABBT and tCBT process measures, and backwards digit span verbal working memory tests. In order to examine verbal working memory during different levels of anxiety and performance pressure, we gave each participant a backwards digit span task three times during each assessment: once under calm conditions, then again while experiencing anticipatory anxiety, and finally under conditions of acute social performance anxiety in front of an audience. Participants were asked to give a video-recorded speech in front of the audience at pre- and post-intervention to examine speech performance. Results indicated that all participants experienced a very large and statistically significant decrease in anxiety (both during the speech and BDS), as well as an improvement in speech performance regardless of intervention received. While not statistically significant, participants who received an acceptance-based intervention exhibited larger improvements in observer-rated speech performance at post-treatment in comparison to tCBT (F (1,21) = 1.91, p =.18, etap2 = .08) such that individuals in the ABBT condition exhibited a considerably greater improvement in observer-rated speech performance than those in the tCBT condition. There was no differential impact of treatment condition on subjective speech anxiety or working memory task performance. Potential mediators and moderators of treatment were also examined. Results provide support for a brief 90-minute intervention for public speaking anxiety, but more research is needed in a study with a larger sample to fully understand the relationship between ABBT strategies and improvements in behavioral performance.

Maintenance of item and order information in verbal working memory.

PubMed

Camos, Valérie; Lagner, Prune; Loaiza, Vanessa M

2017-09-01

Although verbal recall of item and order information is well-researched in short-term memory paradigms, there is relatively little research concerning item and order recall from working memory. The following study examined whether manipulating the opportunity for attentional refreshing and articulatory rehearsal in a complex span task differently affected the recall of item- and order-specific information of the memoranda. Five experiments varied the opportunity for articulatory rehearsal and attentional refreshing in a complex span task, but the type of recall was manipulated between experiments (item and order, order only, and item only recall). The results showed that impairing attentional refreshing and articulatory rehearsal similarly affected recall regardless of whether the scoring procedure (Experiments 1 and 4) or recall requirements (Experiments 2, 3, and 5) reflected item- or order-specific recall. This implies that both mechanisms sustain the maintenance of item and order information, and suggests that the common cumulative functioning of these two mechanisms to maintain items could be at the root of order maintenance.

Preliminary findings of the effects of rivastigmine, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, on working memory in cocaine-dependent volunteers

PubMed Central

Mahoney, James J.; Kalechstein, Ari D.; Verrico, Christopher D.; Arnoudse, Nicholas M.; Shapiro, Benjamin A.; De La Garza, Richard

2015-01-01

Long-term cocaine use is a risk factor for the onset of neurocognitive impairment. This study sought to determine whether the cholinesterase inhibitor rivastigmine could improve neurocognitive performance in cocaine-dependent individuals. Cocaine-dependent individuals who were not seeking treatment at the time of enrollment in the study were randomly assigned to receive placebo (n = 16), rivastigmine 3 mg (n = 13), or rivastigmine 6 mg (n = 12). The baseline neurocognitive assessment, which included measures of attention/information processing (as measured by the Continuous Performance Task-II (CPT-II)), verbal learning/episodic memory (as measured by the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R)), and working memory (as measured by the Dual N-Back Task), was conducted prior to the administration of study medication (Day 0). The follow-up assessment was conducted on Day 8 after the participants had received rivastigmine or placebo for 7 days (Day 2–8). Rivastigmine administration significantly improved performance on one measure of working memory span (mean n-back span). This study provides additional data showing that cocaine-associated neurocognitive impairment, specifically working memory deficits, can be remediated, at least to some degree. PMID:24239594

Preliminary findings of the effects of rivastigmine, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, on working memory in cocaine-dependent volunteers.

PubMed

Mahoney, James J; Kalechstein, Ari D; Verrico, Christopher D; Arnoudse, Nicholas M; Shapiro, Benjamin A; De La Garza, Richard

2014-04-03

Long-term cocaine use is a risk factor for the onset of neurocognitive impairment. This study sought to determine whether the cholinesterase inhibitor rivastigmine could improve neurocognitive performance in cocaine-dependent individuals. Cocaine-dependent individuals who were not seeking treatment at the time of enrollment in the study were randomly assigned to receive placebo (n=16), rivastigmine 3mg (n=13), or rivastigmine 6mg (n=12). The baseline neurocognitive assessment, which included measures of attention/information processing (as measured by the Continuous Performance Task-II (CPT-II)), verbal learning/episodic memory (as measured by the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R)), and working memory (as measured by the Dual N-Back Task), was conducted prior to the administration of study medication (Day 0). The follow-up assessment was conducted on Day 8 after the participants had received rivastigmine or placebo for 7days (Day 2-8). Rivastigmine administration significantly improved performance on one measure of working memory span (mean n-back span). This study provides additional data showing that cocaine-associated neurocognitive impairment, specifically working memory deficits, can be remediated, at least to some degree. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Skilled memory in expert figure skaters.

PubMed

Deakin, J M; Allard, F

1991-01-01

The present studies extend skilled-memory theory to a domain involving the performance of motor sequences. Skilled figure skaters were better able than their less skilled counterparts to perform short skating sequences that were choreographed, rather than randomly constructed. Expert skaters encoded sequences for performance very differently from the way in which they encoded sequences that were verbally presented for verbal recall. Tasks interpolated between sequence and recall showed no significant influence on recall accuracy, implicating long-term memory in skating memory. There was little evidence for the use of retrieval structures when skaters learned the brief sequences used throughout these studies. Finally, expert skaters were able to judge the similarity of two skating elements faster than less skilled skaters, indicating a faster access to semantic memory for experts. The data indicate that skaters show many of the same skilled-memory characteristics as have been described in other skill domains involving memorization, such as digit span and memory for dinner orders.

Investigating Sentence Processing and Language Segmentation in Explaining Children's Performance on a Sentence-Span Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mainela-Arnold, Elina; Misra, Maya; Miller, Carol; Poll, Gerard H.; Park, Ji Sook

2012-01-01

Background: Children with poor language abilities tend to perform poorly on verbal working memory tasks. This result has been interpreted as evidence that limitations in working memory capacity may interfere with the development of a mature linguistic system. However, it is possible that language abilities, such as the efficiency of sentence…

The Role of Working Memory and Contextual Constraints in Children's Processing of Relative Clauses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wieghall, Anna R.; Altmann, Gerry T. M.

2011-01-01

An auditory sentence comprehension task investigated the extent to which the integration of contextual and structural cues was mediated by verbal memory span with 32 English-speaking six- to eight-year-old children. Spoken relative clause sentences were accompanied by visual context pictures which fully (depicting the actions described within the…

Working memory and the identification of facial expression in patients with left frontal glioma.

PubMed

Mu, Yong-Gao; Huang, Ling-Juan; Li, Shi-Yun; Ke, Chao; Chen, Yu; Jin, Yu; Chen, Zhong-Ping

2012-09-01

Patients with brain tumors may have cognitive dysfunctions including memory deterioration, such as working memory, that affect quality of life. This study was to explore the presence of defects in working memory and the identification of facial expressions in patients with left frontal glioma. This case-control study recruited 11 matched pairs of patients and healthy control subjects (mean age ± standard deviation, 37.00 ± 10.96 years vs 36.73 ± 11.20 years; 7 male and 4 female) from March through December 2011. The psychological tests contained tests that estimate verbal/visual-spatial working memory, executive function, and the identification of facial expressions. According to the paired samples analysis, there were no differences in the anxiety and depression scores or in the intelligence quotients between the 2 groups (P > .05). All indices of the Digit Span Test were significantly worse in patients than in control subjects (P < .05), but the Tapping Test scores did not differ between patient and control groups. Of all 7 Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) indexes, only the Preservative Response was significantly different between patients and control subjects (P < .05). Patients were significantly less accurate in detecting angry facial expressions than were control subjects (30.3% vs 57.6%; P < .05) but showed no deficits in the identification of other expressions. The backward indexes of the Digit Span Test were associated with emotion scores and tumor size and grade (P < .05). Patients with left frontal glioma had deficits in verbal working memory and the ability to identify anger. These may have resulted from damage to functional frontal cortex regions, in which roles in these 2 capabilities have not been confirmed. However, verbal working memory performance might be affected by emotional and tumor-related factors.

The role of executive functioning in memory performance in pediatric focal epilepsy.

PubMed

Sepeta, Leigh N; Casaletto, Kaitlin Blackstone; Terwilliger, Virginia; Facella-Ervolini, Joy; Sady, Maegan; Mayo, Jessica; Gaillard, William D; Berl, Madison M

2017-02-01

Learning and memory are essential for academic success and everyday functioning, but the pattern of memory skills and its relationship to executive functioning in children with focal epilepsy is not fully delineated. We address a gap in the literature by examining the relationship between memory and executive functioning in a pediatric focal epilepsy population. Seventy children with focal epilepsy and 70 typically developing children matched on age, intellectual functioning, and gender underwent neuropsychological assessment, including measures of intelligence (Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence [WASI]/Differential Ability Scales [DAS]), as well as visual Children's Memory Scale (CMS Dot Locations) and verbal episodic memory (Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning [WRAML] Story Memory and California Verbal Learning Test for Children [CVLT-C]). Executive functioning was measured directly (WISC-IV Digit Span Backward; Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Fourth Edition (CELF-IV) Recalling Sentences) and by parent report (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function [BRIEF]). Children with focal epilepsy had lower delayed free-recall scores than controls across visual and verbal memory tasks (p = 0.02; partial η 2 = 0.12). In contrast, recognition memory performance was similar for patients and controls (p = 0.36; partial η 2 = 0.03). Children with focal epilepsy demonstrated difficulties in working memory (p = 0.02; partial η 2 = 0.08) and planning/organization (p = 0.02) compared to controls. Working memory predicted 9-19% of the variance in delayed free recall for verbal and visual memory; organization predicted 9-10% of the variance in verbal memory. Patients with both left and right focal epilepsy demonstrated more difficulty on verbal versus visual tasks (p = 0.002). Memory performance did not differ by location of seizure foci (temporal vs. extratemporal, frontal vs. extrafrontal). Children with focal epilepsy demonstrated memory ability within age-level expectations, but delayed free recall was inefficient compared to typically developing controls. Memory difficulties were not related to general cognitive impairment or seizure localization. Executive functioning accounted for significant variance in memory performance, suggesting that poor executive control negatively influences memory retrieval. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 International League Against Epilepsy.

The role of executive functioning in memory performance in pediatric focal epilepsy

PubMed Central

Sepeta, Leigh N.; Casaletto, Kaitlin Blackstone; Terwilliger, Virginia; Facella-Ervolini, Joy; Sady, Maegan; Mayo, Jessica; Gaillard, William D.; Berl, Madison M.

2016-01-01

Objective Learning and memory are essential for academic success and everyday functioning, but the pattern of memory skills and its relationship to executive functioning in children with focal epilepsy is not fully delineated. We address a gap in the literature by examining the relationship between memory and executive functioning in a pediatric focal epilepsy population. Methods Seventy children with focal epilepsy and 70 typically developing children matched on age, intellectual functioning, and gender underwent neuropsychological assessment, including measures of intelligence (WASI/DAS), as well as visual (CMS Dot Locations) and verbal episodic memory (WRAML Story Memory and CVLT-C). Executive functioning was measured directly (WISC-IV Digit Span Backward; CELF-IV Recalling Sentences) and by parent report (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF)). Results Children with focal epilepsy had lower delayed free recall scores than controls across visual and verbal memory tasks (p = 0.02; partial η2 = .12). In contrast, recognition memory performance was similar for patients and controls (p = 0.36; partial η2 = .03). Children with focal epilepsy demonstrated difficulties in working memory (p = 0.02; partial η2 = .08) and planning/organization (p = 0.02) compared to controls. Working memory predicted 9–19% of the variance in delayed free recall for verbal and visual memory; organization predicted 9–10% of the variance in verbal memory. Patients with both left and right focal epilepsy demonstrated more difficulty on verbal versus visual tasks (p = 0.002). Memory performance did not differ by location of seizure foci (temporal vs. extra-temporal, frontal vs. extra-frontal). Significance Children with focal epilepsy demonstrated memory ability within age-level expectations, but delayed free recall was inefficient compared to typically developing controls. Memory difficulties were not related to general cognitive impairment or seizure localization. Executive functioning accounted for significant variance in memory performance, suggesting that poor executive control negatively influences memory retrieval. PMID:28111742

The memory that’s right and the memory that’s left: Event-related potentials reveal hemispheric asymmetries in the encoding and retention of verbal information

PubMed Central

Evans, Karen M.; Federmeier, Kara D.

2009-01-01

We examined the nature and timecourse of hemispheric asymmetries in verbal memory by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) in a continuous recognition task. Participants made overt recognition judgments to test words presented in central vision that were either novel (new words) or had been previously presented in the left or right visual field (old words). An ERP memory effect linked to explicit retrieval revealed no asymmetries for words repeated at short and medium retention intervals, but at longer repetition lags (20–50 intervening words) this ‘old/new effect’ was more pronounced for words whose study presentation had been biased to the right hemisphere (RH). Additionally, a repetition effect linked to more implicit recognition processes (P2 amplitude changes) was observed at all lags for words preferentially encoded by the RH but was not observed for left hemisphere (LH)-encoded words. These results are consistent with theories that the RH encodes verbal stimuli more veridically whereas the LH encodes in a more abstract manner. The current findings provide a critical link between prior work on memory asymmetries, which has emphasized general LH advantages for verbal material, and on language comprehension, which has pointed to an important role for the RH in language processes that require the retention and integration of verbal information over long time spans. PMID:17291547

Measures of Working Memory Span and Verbal Rehearsal Speed in Deaf Children after Cochlear Implantation

PubMed Central

Pisoni, David B.; Cleary, Miranda

2012-01-01

Large individual differences in spoken word recognition performance have been found in deaf children after cochlear implantation. Recently, Pisoni and Geers (2000) reported that simple forward digit span measures of verbal working memory were significantly correlated with spoken word recognition scores even after potentially confounding variables were statistically controlled for. The present study replicates and extends these initial findings to the full set of 176 participants in the CID cochlear implant study. The pooled data indicate that despite statistical “partialling-out” of differences in chronological age, communication mode, duration of deafness, duration of device use, age at onset of deafness, number of active electrodes, and speech feature discrimination, significant correlations still remain between digit span and several measures of spoken word recognition. Strong correlations were also observed between speaking rate and both forward and backward digit span, a result that is similar to previously reported findings in normalhearing adults and children. The results suggest that perhaps as much as 20% of the currently unexplained variance in spoken word recognition scores may be independently accounted for by individual differences in cognitive factors related to the speed and efficiency with which phonological and lexical representations of spoken words are maintained in and retrieved from working memory. A smaller percentage, perhaps about 7% of the currently unexplained variance in spoken word recognition scores, may be accounted for in terms of working memory capacity. We discuss how these relationships may arise and their contribution to subsequent speech and language development in prelingually deaf children who use cochlear implants. PMID:12612485

Interactions of cognitive and auditory abilities in congenitally blind individuals.

PubMed

Rokem, Ariel; Ahissar, Merav

2009-02-01

Congenitally blind individuals have been found to show superior performance in perceptual and memory tasks. In the present study, we asked whether superior stimulus encoding could account for performance in memory tasks. We characterized the performance of a group of congenitally blind individuals on a series of auditory, memory and executive cognitive tasks and compared their performance to that of sighted controls matched for age, education and musical training. As expected, we found superior verbal spans among congenitally blind individuals. Moreover, we found superior speech perception, measured by resilience to noise, and superior auditory frequency discrimination. However, when memory span was measured under conditions of equivalent speech perception, by adjusting the signal to noise ratio for each individual to the same level of perceptual difficulty (80% correct), the advantage in memory span was completely eliminated. Moreover, blind individuals did not possess any advantage in cognitive executive functions, such as manipulation of items in memory and math abilities. We propose that the short-term memory advantage of blind individuals results from better stimulus encoding, rather than from superiority at subsequent processing stages.

Interpreting potential markers of storage and rehearsal: Implications for studies of verbal short-term memory and neuropsychological cases.

PubMed

Wang, Xiaoli; Logie, Robert H; Jarrold, Christopher

2016-08-01

Neuropsychological studies of verbal short-term memory have often focused on two signature effects - phonological similarity and word length - the absence of which has been taken to indicate problems in phonological storage and rehearsal respectively. In the present study we present a possible alternative reading of such data, namely that the absence of these effects can follow as a consequence of an individual's poor level of recall. Data from a large normative sample of 251 adult participants were re-analyzed under the assumption that the size of phonological similarity and word length effects are proportional to an individual's overall level of recall. For both manipulations, when proportionalized effects were plotted against memory span, the same function fit the data in both auditory and visual presentation conditions. Furthermore, two additional sets of single-case data were broadly comparable to those that would be expected for an individual's level of verbal short-term memory performance albeit with some variation across tasks. These findings indicate that the absolute magnitude of phonological similarity and word length effects depends on overall levels of recall, and that these effects are necessarily eliminated at low levels of verbal short-term memory performance. This has implications for how one interprets any variation in the size of these effects, and raises serious questions about the causal direction of any relationship between impaired verbal short-term memory and the absence of phonological similarity or word length effects.

Short-Term Memory Stages in Sign vs. Speech: The Source of the Serial Span Discrepancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Matthew L.; Bavelier, Daphne

2011-01-01

Speakers generally outperform signers when asked to recall a list of unrelated verbal items. This phenomenon is well established, but its source has remained unclear. In this study, we evaluate the relative contribution of the three main processing stages of short-term memory--perception, encoding, and recall--in this effect. The present study…

[Individual differences in strategy use in the Japanese reading span test].

PubMed

Endo, Kaori; Osaka, Mariko

2012-02-01

Working memory is a system for processing and storing information. The Reading Span Test (RST), developed by Daneman and Carpenter (1980), is well-known for assessing individual difference in working memory. In the present investigation, we used the Japanese version of the RST (Osaka, 2002) and analyzed individual differences in strategy use from the viewpoint of strategy type (rehearsal, chaining, word-image, scene-image, and initial letter) and frequency of use (used in almost all trials, in half the trials, or not used). Data from the participants (N = 132) were assigned to groups according to the scores, for the total number of words correctly recalled and the proportion correct. The results showed that the frequency of word-image strategy use differed significantly between high-scoring subjects (HSS) and low-scoring subjects (LSS). HSS mainly used word-image and chaining strategies, while LSS used rehearsal and chaining strategies. This indicates that HSS used both verbal and visual strategies, whereas LSS relied only on verbal strategies. The use of the word-image is important for effective retention of words in memory.

Effects of Hearing Status and Sign Language Use on Working Memory

PubMed Central

Sarchet, Thomastine; Trani, Alexandra

2016-01-01

Deaf individuals have been found to score lower than hearing individuals across a variety of memory tasks involving both verbal and nonverbal stimuli, particularly those requiring retention of serial order. Deaf individuals who are native signers, meanwhile, have been found to score higher on visual-spatial memory tasks than on verbal-sequential tasks and higher on some visual-spatial tasks than hearing nonsigners. However, hearing status and preferred language modality (signed or spoken) frequently are confounded in such studies. That situation is resolved in the present study by including deaf students who use spoken language and sign language interpreting students (hearing signers) as well as deaf signers and hearing nonsigners. Three complex memory span tasks revealed overall advantages for hearing signers and nonsigners over both deaf signers and deaf nonsigners on 2 tasks involving memory for verbal stimuli (letters). There were no differences among the groups on the task involving visual-spatial stimuli. The results are consistent with and extend recent findings concerning the effects of hearing status and language on memory and are discussed in terms of language modality, hearing status, and cognitive abilities among deaf and hearing individuals. PMID:26755684

Good Holders, Bad Shufflers: An Examination of Working Memory Processes and Modalities in Children with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

PubMed

Simone, Ashley N; Bédard, Anne-Claude V; Marks, David J; Halperin, Jeffrey M

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine working memory (WM) modalities (visual-spatial and auditory-verbal) and processes (maintenance and manipulation) in children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The sample consisted of 63 8-year-old children with ADHD and an age- and sex-matched non-ADHD comparison group (N=51). Auditory-verbal and visual-spatial WM were assessed using the Digit Span and Spatial Span subtests from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Integrated - Fourth Edition. WM maintenance and manipulation were assessed via forward and backward span indices, respectively. Data were analyzed using a 3-way Group (ADHD vs. non-ADHD)×Modality (Auditory-Verbal vs. Visual-Spatial)×Condition (Forward vs. Backward) Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Secondary analyses examined differences between Combined and Predominantly Inattentive ADHD presentations. Significant Group×Condition (p=.02) and Group×Modality (p=.03) interactions indicated differentially poorer performance by those with ADHD on backward relative to forward and visual-spatial relative to auditory-verbal tasks, respectively. The 3-way interaction was not significant. Analyses targeting ADHD presentations yielded a significant Group×Condition interaction (p=.009) such that children with ADHD-Predominantly Inattentive Presentation performed differentially poorer on backward relative to forward tasks compared to the children with ADHD-Combined Presentation. Findings indicate a specific pattern of WM weaknesses (i.e., WM manipulation and visual-spatial tasks) for children with ADHD. Furthermore, differential patterns of WM performance were found for children with ADHD-Predominantly Inattentive versus Combined Presentations. (JINS, 2016, 22, 1-11).

[Effect of concreteness of target words on verbal working memory: an evaluation using Japanese version of reading span test].

PubMed

Kondo, H; Osaka, N

2000-04-01

Effects of concreteness and representation mode (kanji/hiragana) of target words on working memory during reading was tested using Japanese version of reading span test (RST), developed by Osaka and Osaka (1994). Concreteness and familiarity of target words and difficulty of sentences were carefully controlled. The words with high concreteness resulted in significantly higher RST scores, which suggests the high efficiency of working memory in processing these words. The results suggest that high concrete noun-words associated with visual clues consume less working memory capacity during reading. The effect of representation mode is different between subjects with high-RST and low-RST scores. Characteristic of the high concrete words that may be responsible for the effectiveness of processing are discussed.

The relation of hippocampal subfield volumes to verbal episodic memory measured by the California Verbal Learning Test II in healthy adults.

PubMed

Aslaksen, Per M; Bystad, Martin K; Ørbo, Marte C; Vangberg, Torgil R

2018-06-08

Total hippocampal volume has previously been shown to correlate with performance on tests for verbal episodic memory. However, there are sparse evidence on how hippocampal subfield volumes are related to verbal episodic memory in healthy adults. The present study investigated the association between volumes of separate hippocampal subfields and verbal episodic memory performance in healthy volunteers. Forty-seven participants (31 females) between 20 to 71 years age underwent testing with the California Verbal Learning Test II (CVLT II), and the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) to obtain an estimate of cognitive functioning. T1-weighted MR images were obtained after cognitive testing, and volumetric estimates adjusted for age and estimated total intracranial volume were calculated in the FreeSurfer 6.0 software suite for cerebral -and hippocampal structures. The sample performed within the statistical normal range on both CVLT II and WASI. Significant correlations adjusted for multiple testing were found between CVLT II subtests of total learning, free immediate recall and free delayed recall and volumes of the left Cornu Ammonis (CA) 1-4 subfields. There were no significant correlations between right hippocampal subfields and CVLT II performance, and no significant correlation between WASI results and hippocampal subfields. The present results suggest that better verbal episodic memory measured by the CVLT II is associated with relative larger volumes of specific left CA hippocampal subfields in healthy adults. Due to the small sample size and large age-span of the participants, the present findings are preliminary and should be confirmed in larger samples. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Independent and Combined Effects of Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Bilingualism on Children's Vocabulary and Verbal Short-Term Memory.

PubMed

Meir, Natalia; Armon-Lotem, Sharon

2017-01-01

The current study explores the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) and bilingualism on the linguistic skills and verbal short-term memory of preschool children. In previous studies comparing children of low and mid-high SES, the terms "a child with low-SES" and "a child speaking a minority language" are often interchangeable, not enabling differentiated evaluation of these two variables. The present study controls for this confluence by testing children born and residing in the same country and attending the same kindergartens, with all bilingual children speaking the same heritage language (HL-Russian). A total of 120 children (88 bilingual children: 44 with low SES; and 32 monolingual children: 16 with low SES) with typical language development, aged 5; 7-6; 7, were tested in the societal language (SL-Hebrew) on expressive vocabulary and three repetition tasks [forward digit span (FWD), nonword repetition (NWR), and sentence repetition (SRep)], which tap into verbal short-term memory. The results indicated that SES and bilingualism impact different child abilities. Bilingualism is associated with decreased vocabulary size and lower performance on verbal short-term memory tasks with higher linguistic load in the SL-Hebrew. The negative effect of bilingualism on verbal short-term memory disappears once vocabulary is accounted for. SES influences not only linguistic performance, but also verbal short-term memory with lowest linguistic load. The negative effect of SES cannot be solely attributed to lower vocabulary scores, suggesting that an unprivileged background has a negative impact on children's cognitive development beyond a linguistic disadvantage. The results have important clinical implications and call for more research exploring the varied impact of language and life experience on children's linguistic and cognitive skills.

Visual Working Memory Capacity Can Be Increased by Training on Distractor Filtering Efficiency.

PubMed

Li, Cui-Hong; He, Xu; Wang, Yu-Juan; Hu, Zhe; Guo, Chun-Yan

2017-01-01

It is generally considered that working memory (WM) capacity is limited and that WM capacity affects cognitive processes. Distractor filtering efficiency has been suggested to be an important factor in determining the visual working memory (VWM) capacity of individuals. In the present study, we investigated whether training in visual filtering efficiency (FE) could improve VWM capacity, as measured by performance on the change detection task (CDT) and changes of contralateral delay activity (CDA) (contralateral delay activity) of different conditions, and evaluated the transfer effect of visual FE training on verbal WM and fluid intelligence, as indexed by performance on the verbal WM span task and Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) test, respectively. Participants were divided into high- and low-capacity groups based on their performance in a CDT designed to test VWM capacity, and then the low-capacity individuals received 20 days of FE training. The training significantly improved the group's performance in the CDT, and their CDA models of different conditions became more similar with high capacity group, and the effect generalized to improve verbal WM span. These gains were maintained at a 3-month follow-up test. Participants' RSPM scores were not changed by the training. These findings support the notion that WM capacity is determined, at least in part, by distractor FE and can be enhanced through training.

The development of memory maintenance: children's use of phonological rehearsal and attentional refreshment in working memory tasks.

PubMed

Tam, Helen; Jarrold, Christopher; Baddeley, Alan D; Sabatos-DeVito, Maura

2010-11-01

Past research suggests that children begin to phonologically rehearse at around 7 years of age. Less is known regarding the development of refreshment, an attention-based maintenance mechanism. Therefore, the use of these two maintenance methods by 6- and 8-year-olds was assessed using memory span tasks that varied in their opportunities for maintenance activity. Experiment 1 showed that nonverbal processing impaired both groups' performance to similar extents. Experiment 2 employed phonologically similar or dissimilar memory items and compared the effects of verbal versus nonverbal processing on recall. Both groups showed evidence of phonological maintenance under nonverbal processing but not under verbal processing. Furthermore, nonverbal processing again impaired recall. Verbal processing was also more detrimental to performance in 8-year-olds than in 6-year-olds. Together, the results suggest that nonverbal processing impairs recall by obstructing refreshment and that developmental change in maintenance between 6 and 8 years of age consists primarily of an increase in phonological rehearsal. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The neuropsychology of emerging psychosis and the role of working memory in episodic memory encoding.

PubMed

Pflueger, Marlon O; Calabrese, Pasquale; Studerus, Erich; Zimmermann, Ronan; Gschwandtner, Ute; Borgwardt, Stefan; Aston, Jacqueline; Stieglitz, Rolf-Dieter; Riecher-Rössler, Anita

2018-01-01

Episodic memory encoding and working memory (WM) deficits are among the first cognitive signs and symptoms in the course of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. However, it is not clear whether the deficit pattern is generalized or specific in nature. We hypothesized that encoding deficits at an early stage of the disease might be due to the more fundamental WM deficits. We examined episodic memory encoding and WM by administering the California Verbal Learning Test, a 2-back task, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in 90 first-episode psychosis (FE) patients and 116 individuals with an at-risk mental state for psychosis (ARMS) compared to 57 healthy subjects. Learning progress, but not span of apprehension, was diminished to a similar extent in both the ARMS and the FE. We showed that this was due to WM impairment by applying a structural equation approach. Thus, we conclude that verbal memory encoding deficits are secondary to primary WM impairment in emerging psychosis.

The effect of morphological complexity on verbal working memory: results from Arabic speaking children.

PubMed

Cohen-Mimran, Ravit; Adwan-Mansour, Jasmeen; Sapir, Shimon

2013-06-01

To examine the role of morphology in verbal working memory. Forty nine children, all native speakers of Arabic from the same region and of the same dialect, performed a Listening Word Span Task, whereby they had to recall Arabic uninflected words (i.e., base words), inflected words with regular (possessive) morphology, or inflected words with irregular (broken plural) morphology. Each of these words was at the end of a sentence (henceforth, target word). The participant's task was to listen to a series of sentences and then recall the target words. Recall of inflected words was significantly poorer than uninflected words, and recall of words with regular morphology was significantly poorer than recall of words with irregular morphology. These findings, albeit preliminary, suggest a role of morphology in verbal working memory. They also suggest that, at least in Arabic, regular morphological forms are decomposed into their component elements and hence impose an extra load on the central executive and episodic buffer components of working memory. Furthermore, in concert with findings from other studies, they suggest that the effect of morphology on working memory is probably language-specific. The clinical implications of the present findings are addressed.

The phonological short-term store-rehearsal system: patterns of impairment and neural correlates.

PubMed

Vallar, G; Di Betta, A M; Silveri, M C

1997-06-01

Two left brain-damaged patients (L.A. and T.O.) with a selective impairment of auditory-verbal span are reported. Patient L.A. was unable to hold auditory-verbal material in the phonological store component of short-term memory. His performance was however normal on tasks requiring phonological judgements, which specifically involve the phonological output buffer component of the rehearsal process. He also showed some evidence that rehearsal contributed to the immediate retention of auditory-verbal material. Patient T.O. never made use of the rehearsal process in tasks assessing both immediate retention and the ability to make phonological judgements, but the memory capacity of the phonological short-term store was comparatively preserved. These contrasting patterns of impairment suggest that the phonological store component of verbal short-term memory was severely impaired in patient L.A., and spared, at least in part, in patient T.O. The rehearsal process was preserved in L.A., and primarily defective in T.O. The localisation of the lesions in the left hemisphere (L.A.: inferior parietal lobule, superior and middle temporal gyri; T.O.: sub-cortical premotor and rolandic regions, anterior insula) suggests that these two sub-components of phonological short-term memory have discrete anatomical correlates.

Left TPJ activity in verbal working memory: implications for storage- and sensory-specific models of short term memory.

PubMed

Ravizza, Susan M; Hazeltine, Eliot; Ruiz, Sandra; Zhu, David C

2011-04-15

Patients with damage to the left temporoparietal junction (TPJ) have a low verbal span without concomitant deficits in speech perception. This pattern of cognitive impairment is taken as evidence for a dedicated phonological buffer that plays little role in perception (storage-specific account). In contrast, other research suggests that items are maintained and perceived in the same regions (sensory-specific account). In an fMRI study, we demonstrate that the left TPJ does not respond in a way predicted of a phonological buffer; that is, activity in this region is not sustained during encoding or maintenance. Instead, a region in the superior temporal gyrus that has been associated with both speech perception and production demonstrated the expected profile of a store: it was more active in the verbal condition than the object condition and was active during both encoding and maintenance. These results support the sensory-specific account of short term memory rather than the storage-specific account. Based on the pattern of activity in the left TPJ, we suggest that the impairment of verbal working memory observed in patients with TPJ damage may be due to diminished attentional processes rather than reduced storage capacity. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Fractionating nonword repetition: The contributions of short-term memory and oromotor praxis are different

PubMed Central

Alcock, Katherine J.; Carey, Daniel; Bergström, Lina; Karmiloff-Smith, Annette; Dick, Frederic

2017-01-01

The ability to reproduce novel words is a sensitive marker of language impairment across a variety of developmental disorders. Nonword repetition tasks are thought to reflect phonological short-term memory skills. Yet, when children hear and then utter a word for the first time, they must transform a novel speech signal into a series of coordinated, precisely timed oral movements. Little is known about how children’s oromotor speed, planning and co-ordination abilities might influence their ability to repeat novel nonwords, beyond the influence of higher-level cognitive and linguistic skills. In the present study, we tested 35 typically developing children between the ages of 5−8 years on measures of nonword repetition, digit span, memory for non-verbal sequences, reading fluency, oromotor praxis, and oral diadochokinesis. We found that oromotor praxis uniquely predicted nonword repetition ability in school-age children, and that the variance it accounted for was additional to that of digit span, memory for non-verbal sequences, articulatory rate (measured by oral diadochokinesis) as well as reading fluency. We conclude that the ability to compute and execute novel sensorimotor transformations affects the production of novel words. These results have important implications for understanding motor/language relations in neurodevelopmental disorders. PMID:28704379

Older adults get episodic memory boosting from noninvasive stimulation of prefrontal cortex during learning

PubMed Central

Brambilla, Michela; Cobelli, Chiara; Cohen, Leonardo G.; Cotelli, Maria

2016-01-01

Episodic memory displays the largest degree of age-related decline, a process that is accelerated in pathological conditions such as amnestic mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Previous studies have shown that the left lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) contributes to the encoding of episodic memories along the life span. The aim of this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was to test the hypothesis that anodal trascranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left lateral PFC during the learning phase would enhance delayed recall of verbal episodic memories in elderly individuals. Older adults learned a list of words while receiving anodal or placebo (sham) tDCS. Memory recall was tested 48 hours and 1 month later. The results showed that anodal tDCS strengthened episodic memories, an effect indicated by enhanced delayed recall (48 hours) compared to placebo stimulation (Cohen's d effect size = 1.01). The observation that PFC-tDCS during learning can boost verbal episodic memory in the elderly opens up the possibility to design-specific neurorehabilitation protocols targeted to conditions that affect episodic memory such as mild cognitive impairment. PMID:26923418

Investigation of verbal and visual working memory by multi-channel time-resolved functional near-infrared spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Contini, D.; Caffini, M.; Re, R.; Zucchelli, L.; Spinelli, L.; Basso Moro, S.; Bisconti, S.; Ferrari, M.; Quaresima, V.; Cutini, S.; Torricelli, A.

2013-03-01

Working memory (WM) is fundamental for a number of cognitive processes, such as comprehension, reasoning and learning. WM allows the short-term maintenance and manipulation of the information selected by attentional processes. The goal of this study was to examine by time-resolved fNIRS neural correlates of the verbal and visual WM during forward and backward digit span (DF and DB, respectively) tasks, and symbol span (SS) task. A neural dissociation was hypothesised between the maintenance and manipulation processes. In particular, a dorsolateral/ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC/VLPFC) recruitment was expected during the DB task, whilst a lateralised involvement of Brodmann Area (BA) 10 was expected during the execution of the DF task. Thirteen subjects were monitored by a multi-channel, dual-wavelength (690 and 829 nm) time-resolved fNIRS system during 3 minutes long DF and DB tasks and 4 minutes long SS task. The participants' mean memory span was calculated for each task: DF: 6.46+/-1.05 digits; DB: 5.62+/-1.26 digits; SS: 4.69+/-1.32 symbols. No correlation was found between the span level and the heart rate data (measured by pulse oximeter). As expected, DB elicited a broad activated area, in the bilateral VLPFC and the right DLPFC, whereas a more localised activation was observed over the right hemisphere during either DF (BA 10) or SS (BA 10 and 44). The robust involvement of the DLPFC during DB, compared to DF, is compatible with previous findings and with the key role of the central executive subserving in manipulating processes.

MAP1B and NOS1 genes are associated with working memory in youths with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Salatino-Oliveira, Angélica; Wagner, Flávia; Akutagava-Martins, Glaucia C; Bruxel, Estela M; Genro, Júlia P; Zeni, Cristian; Kieling, Christian; Polanczyk, Guilherme V; Rohde, Luis A; Hutz, Mara H

2016-06-01

Diverse efforts have been done to improve the etiologic understanding of mental disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It becomes clear that research in mental disorders needs to move beyond descriptive syndromes. Several studies support recent theoretical models implicating working memory (WM) deficits in ADHD complex neuropsychology. The aim of this study was to examine the association between rs2199161 and rs478597 polymorphisms at MAP1B and NOS1 genes with verbal working memory in children and adolescents with ADHD. A total of 253 unrelated ADHD children/adolescents were included. The sample was diagnosed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-4th edition criteria. Digit Span from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition was used to assess verbal WM. The raw scores from both forward and backward conditions of Digit Span were summed and converted into scaled scores according to age. The means of scaled Digit Span were compared according to genotypes by ANOVA. Significant differences in Digit Span scores between MAP1B genotype groups (rs2199161: F = 5.676; p = 0.018) and NOS1 (rs478597: F = 6.833; p = 0.009) genes were detected. For both polymorphisms, the CC genotype carriers showed a worse performance in WM task. Our findings suggest possible roles of NOS1 and MAP1B genes in WM performance in ADHD patients, replicating previous results with NOS1 gene in this cognitive domain in ADHD children.

Consolidation and restoration of memory traces in working memory.

PubMed

De Schrijver, Sébastien; Barrouillet, Pierre

2017-10-01

Consolidation is the process through which ephemeral sensory traces are transformed into more stable short-term memory traces. It has been shown that consolidation plays a crucial role in working memory (WM) performance, by strengthening memory traces that then better resist interference and decay. In a recent study, Bayliss, Bogdanovs, and Jarrold (Journal of Memory and Language, 81, 34-50, 2015) argued that this process is separate from the processes known to restore WM traces after degradation, such as attentional refreshing and verbal rehearsal. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between the two types of processes in the context of WM span tasks. Participants were presented with series of letters for serial recall, each letter being followed by four digits for parity judgment. Consolidation opportunity was manipulated by varying the delay between each letter and the first digit to be processed, while opportunities for restoration were manipulated by varying the pace at which the parity task had to be performed (i.e., its cognitive load, or CL). Increasing the time available for either consolidation or restoration resulted in higher WM spans, with some substitutability between the two processes. Accordingly, when consolidation time was added to restoration time in the calculation of CL, the new resulting index, called extended CL, proved a very good predictor of recall performance, a finding also observed when verbal rehearsal was prevented by articulatory suppression. This substitutability between consolidation and restoration suggests that both processes may rely on the same mechanisms.

Effects of Age, Acoustic Challenge, and Verbal Working Memory on Recall of Narrative Speech.

PubMed

Ward, Caitlin M; Rogers, Chad S; Van Engen, Kristin J; Peelle, Jonathan E

2016-01-01

A common goal during speech comprehension is to remember what we have heard. Encoding speech into long-term memory frequently requires processes such as verbal working memory that may also be involved in processing degraded speech. Here the authors tested whether young and older adult listeners' memory for short stories was worse when the stories were acoustically degraded, or whether the additional contextual support provided by a narrative would protect against these effects. The authors tested 30 young adults (aged 18-28 years) and 30 older adults (aged 65-79 years) with good self-reported hearing. Participants heard short stories that were presented as normal (unprocessed) speech or acoustically degraded using a noise vocoding algorithm with 24 or 16 channels. The degraded stories were still fully intelligible. Following each story, participants were asked to repeat the story in as much detail as possible. Recall was scored using a modified idea unit scoring approach, which included separately scoring hierarchical levels of narrative detail. Memory for acoustically degraded stories was significantly worse than for normal stories at some levels of narrative detail. Older adults' memory for the stories was significantly worse overall, but there was no interaction between age and acoustic clarity or level of narrative detail. Verbal working memory (assessed by reading span) significantly correlated with recall accuracy for both young and older adults, whereas hearing ability (better ear pure tone average) did not. The present findings are consistent with a framework in which the additional cognitive demands caused by a degraded acoustic signal use resources that would otherwise be available for memory encoding for both young and older adults. Verbal working memory is a likely candidate for supporting both of these processes.

Maternal working memory and reactive negativity in parenting.

PubMed

Deater-Deckard, Kirby; Sewell, Michael D; Petrill, Stephen A; Thompson, Lee A

2010-01-01

We examined the role of working memory in observed reactive parenting in a sample of 216 mothers and their same-sex twin children. The mothers and their children were observed completing two frustrating cooperation tasks during a visit to the home. The mothers worked one-on-one with each child separately. Mothers completed the Vocabulary (verbal), Block Design (spatial), and Digit Span (working memory) subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition. We used a within-family quasi-experimental design to estimate the magnitude of the association between sibling differences in observed challenging behaviors (i.e., opposition and distractibility) and the difference in the mother's negativity toward each child. As hypothesized, reactive negativity was evident only among mothers with poorer working memory. Verbal and spatial ability did not show this moderating effect. The effect was replicated in a post hoc secondary data analysis of a sample of adoptive mothers and sibling children. Results implicate working memory in the etiology of harsh reactive parenting.

Short-Term and Working Memory Impairments in Early-Implanted, Long-Term Cochlear Implant Users Are Independent of Audibility and Speech Production

PubMed Central

AuBuchon, Angela M.; Pisoni, David B.; Kronenberger, William G.

2015-01-01

OBJECTIVES Determine if early-implanted, long-term cochlear implant (CI) users display delays in verbal short-term and working memory capacity when processes related to audibility and speech production are eliminated. DESIGN Twenty-three long-term CI users and 23 normal-hearing controls each completed forward and backward digit span tasks under testing conditions which differed in presentation modality (auditory or visual) and response output (spoken recall or manual pointing). RESULTS Normal-hearing controls reproduced more lists of digits than the CI users, even when the test items were presented visually and the responses were made manually via touchscreen response. CONCLUSIONS Short-term and working memory delays observed in CI users are not due to greater demands from peripheral sensory processes such as audibility or from overt speech-motor planning and response output organization. Instead, CI users are less efficient at encoding and maintaining phonological representations in verbal short-term memory utilizing phonological and linguistic strategies during memory tasks. PMID:26496666

Short-Term and Working Memory Impairments in Early-Implanted, Long-Term Cochlear Implant Users Are Independent of Audibility and Speech Production.

PubMed

AuBuchon, Angela M; Pisoni, David B; Kronenberger, William G

2015-01-01

To determine whether early-implanted, long-term cochlear implant (CI) users display delays in verbal short-term and working memory capacity when processes related to audibility and speech production are eliminated. Twenty-three long-term CI users and 23 normal-hearing controls each completed forward and backward digit span tasks under testing conditions that differed in presentation modality (auditory or visual) and response output (spoken recall or manual pointing). Normal-hearing controls reproduced more lists of digits than the CI users, even when the test items were presented visually and the responses were made manually via touchscreen response. Short-term and working memory delays observed in CI users are not due to greater demands from peripheral sensory processes such as audibility or from overt speech-motor planning and response output organization. Instead, CI users are less efficient at encoding and maintaining phonological representations in verbal short-term memory using phonological and linguistic strategies during memory tasks.

Does modafinil enhance cognitive performance in young volunteers who are not sleep-deprived?

PubMed

Randall, Delia C; Viswanath, Aparna; Bharania, Punam; Elsabagh, Sarah M; Hartley, David E; Shneerson, John M; File, Sandra E

2005-04-01

In a double-blind, parallel groups study, 60 healthy student volunteers (29 men and 31 women, aged 19-22 years) were randomly allocated to receive placebo, 100 or 200 mg modafinil. Two hours later, in the early evening, they completed an extensive cognitive battery. The 3 groups did not differ in self-ratings of sleepiness or tiredness before the testing session, and there were no treatment-associated changes in these or in mood ratings during the tests. Modafinil was without effect in several tests of reaction time and attention, but the 200-mg group was faster at simple color naming of dots and performed better than placebo in the Rapid Visual Information Processing test of sustained attention. Modafinil was without effect on spatial working memory, but the 100-mg group performed better in the backward part of the digit span test. Modafinil was without effect on verbal short-term memory (story recall), but 100 mg improved digit span forward, and both doses improved pattern recognition, although this was accompanied by a slowing of response latency in the 200-mg group. There were no significant effects of modafinil compared with placebo in tests of long-term memory, executive function, visuospatial and constructional ability, or category fluency. These results suggest that the benefits of modafinil are not clearly dose-related, and those from 100 mg are limited to the span of immediate verbal recall and short-term visual recognition memory, which is insufficient for it to be considered as a cognitive enhancer in non-sleep-deprived individuals.

Cognitive functions in first-episode depression and recurrent depressive disorder.

PubMed

Talarowska, Monika; Zajączkowska, Marlena; Gałecki, Piotr

2015-03-01

Cognitive deficits in the course of depressive disorders affect mainly memory, attention and the frontal functions. They are associated with both an earlier onset of symptoms and prolonged episodes. The main aim of the study was to verify the hypothesis of differences in the effectiveness of cognitive processes between patients with a first episode of depression (ED-I) and recurrent depressive disorders (rDD). The study comprised 210 subjects: patients with ED-I (n=60) and patients with rDD (n=150). The assessment of cognitive functions was based on performance of the Trail Making Test, the Stroop Test, the Verbal Fluency Test, the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) and the digit span from WAIS-R. There were no statistically significant differences between the analysed groups in the severity of depressive symptoms. The negative impact of depressive symptoms on the effectiveness of cognitive functions was observed. The ED-I group recorded better results compared to the rDD group in terms of the speed of information processing, visual-spatial and auditory-verbal memory and executive functions, auditory-verbal immediate and delayed memory, ability to learn and verbal fluency. The same differences were observed with respect to the patients from the ED-I group and the patients with the second episode of depression (ED-II) in the course of rDD. There are significant differences in cognitive functioning of patients with a depressive episode and recurrent depressive disorders. These differences are already visible from the second episode of a major depressive disorder. Memory, verbal fluency and frontal functions are reduced.

Processing Determinants of Reading Speed.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Mark D.; McClelland, James L.

1979-01-01

Two groups of undergraduates differing in reading ability were tested on a number of reaction-time tasks designed to determine the speed of encoding visual information at several different levels, tests of sensory functions, verbal and quantitative reasoning ability, short-term auditory memory span, and ability to comprehend spoken text.…

Association of auditory-verbal and visual hallucinations with impaired and improved recognition of colored pictures.

PubMed

Brébion, Gildas; Stephan-Otto, Christian; Usall, Judith; Huerta-Ramos, Elena; Perez del Olmo, Mireia; Cuevas-Esteban, Jorge; Haro, Josep Maria; Ochoa, Susana

2015-09-01

A number of cognitive underpinnings of auditory hallucinations have been established in schizophrenia patients, but few have, as yet, been uncovered for visual hallucinations. In previous research, we unexpectedly observed that auditory hallucinations were associated with poor recognition of color, but not black-and-white (b/w), pictures. In this study, we attempted to replicate and explain this finding. Potential associations with visual hallucinations were explored. B/w and color pictures were presented to 50 schizophrenia patients and 45 healthy individuals under 2 conditions of visual context presentation corresponding to 2 levels of visual encoding complexity. Then, participants had to recognize the target pictures among distractors. Auditory-verbal hallucinations were inversely associated with the recognition of the color pictures presented under the most effortful encoding condition. This association was fully mediated by working-memory span. Visual hallucinations were associated with improved recognition of the color pictures presented under the less effortful condition. Patients suffering from visual hallucinations were not impaired, relative to the healthy participants, in the recognition of these pictures. Decreased working-memory span in patients with auditory-verbal hallucinations might impede the effortful encoding of stimuli. Visual hallucinations might be associated with facilitation in the visual encoding of natural scenes, or with enhanced color perception abilities. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Sensitivity to Referential Ambiguity in Discourse: The Role of Attention, Working Memory, and Verbal Ability

PubMed Central

Boudewyn, Megan A.; Long, Debra L.; Traxler, Matthew J.; Lesh, Tyler A.; Dave, Shruti; Mangun, George R.; Carter, Cameron S.; Swaab, Tamara Y.

2016-01-01

The establishment of reference is essential to language comprehension. The goal of this study was to examine listeners’ sensitivity to referential ambiguity as a function of individual variation in attention, working memory capacity, and verbal ability. Participants listened to stories in which two entities were introduced that were either very similar (e.g., two oaks) or less similar (e.g., one oak and one elm). The manipulation rendered an anaphor in a subsequent sentence (e.g., oak) ambiguous or unambiguous. EEG was recorded as listeners comprehended the story, after which participants completed tasks to assess working memory, verbal ability, and the ability to use context in task performance. Power in the alpha and theta frequency bands when listeners received critical information about the discourse entities (e.g., oaks) was used to index attention and the involvement of the working memory system in processing the entities. These measures were then used to predict an ERP component that is sensitive to referential ambiguity, the Nref, which was recorded when listeners received the anaphor. Nref amplitude at the anaphor was predicted by alpha power during the earlier critical sentence: Individuals with increased alpha power in ambiguous compared with unambiguous stories were less sensitive to the anaphor's ambiguity. Verbal ability was also predictive of greater sensitivity to referential ambiguity. Finally, increased theta power in the ambiguous compared with unambiguous condition was associated with higher working-memory span. These results highlight the role of attention and working memory in referential processing during listening comprehension. PMID:26401815

Sensitivity to Referential Ambiguity in Discourse: The Role of Attention, Working Memory, and Verbal Ability.

PubMed

Boudewyn, Megan A; Long, Debra L; Traxler, Matthew J; Lesh, Tyler A; Dave, Shruti; Mangun, George R; Carter, Cameron S; Swaab, Tamara Y

2015-12-01

The establishment of reference is essential to language comprehension. The goal of this study was to examine listeners' sensitivity to referential ambiguity as a function of individual variation in attention, working memory capacity, and verbal ability. Participants listened to stories in which two entities were introduced that were either very similar (e.g., two oaks) or less similar (e.g., one oak and one elm). The manipulation rendered an anaphor in a subsequent sentence (e.g., oak) ambiguous or unambiguous. EEG was recorded as listeners comprehended the story, after which participants completed tasks to assess working memory, verbal ability, and the ability to use context in task performance. Power in the alpha and theta frequency bands when listeners received critical information about the discourse entities (e.g., oaks) was used to index attention and the involvement of the working memory system in processing the entities. These measures were then used to predict an ERP component that is sensitive to referential ambiguity, the Nref, which was recorded when listeners received the anaphor. Nref amplitude at the anaphor was predicted by alpha power during the earlier critical sentence: Individuals with increased alpha power in ambiguous compared with unambiguous stories were less sensitive to the anaphor's ambiguity. Verbal ability was also predictive of greater sensitivity to referential ambiguity. Finally, increased theta power in the ambiguous compared with unambiguous condition was associated with higher working-memory span. These results highlight the role of attention and working memory in referential processing during listening comprehension.

Modeling Learning and Memory Using Verbal Learning Tests: Results From ACTIVE

PubMed Central

Gross, Alden L.

2013-01-01

Objective. To investigate the influence of memory training on initial recall and learning. Method. The Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly study of community-dwelling adults older than age 65 (n = 1,401). We decomposed trial-level recall in the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) and Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT) into initial recall and learning across trials using latent growth models. Results. Trial-level increases in words recalled in the AVLT and HVLT at each follow-up visit followed an approximately logarithmic shape. Over the 5-year study period, memory training was associated with slower decline in Trial 1 AVLT recall (Cohen’s d = 0.35, p = .03) and steep pre- and posttraining acceleration in learning (d = 1.56, p < .001). Findings were replicated using the HVLT (decline in initial recall, d = 0.60, p = .01; pre- and posttraining acceleration in learning, d = 3.10, p < .001). Because of the immediate training boost, the memory-trained group had a higher level of recall than the control group through the end of the 5-year study period despite faster decline in learning. Discussion. This study contributes to the understanding of the mechanisms by which training benefits memory and expands current knowledge by reporting long-term changes in initial recall and learning, as measured from growth models and by characterization of the impact of memory training on these components. Results reveal that memory training delays the worsening of memory span and boosts learning. PMID:22929389

Modeling learning and memory using verbal learning tests: results from ACTIVE.

PubMed

Gross, Alden L; Rebok, George W; Brandt, Jason; Tommet, Doug; Marsiske, Michael; Jones, Richard N

2013-03-01

To investigate the influence of memory training on initial recall and learning. The Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly study of community-dwelling adults older than age 65 (n = 1,401). We decomposed trial-level recall in the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) and Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT) into initial recall and learning across trials using latent growth models. Trial-level increases in words recalled in the AVLT and HVLT at each follow-up visit followed an approximately logarithmic shape. Over the 5-year study period, memory training was associated with slower decline in Trial 1 AVLT recall (Cohen's d = 0.35, p = .03) and steep pre- and posttraining acceleration in learning (d = 1.56, p < .001). Findings were replicated using the HVLT (decline in initial recall, d = 0.60, p = .01; pre- and posttraining acceleration in learning, d = 3.10, p < .001). Because of the immediate training boost, the memory-trained group had a higher level of recall than the control group through the end of the 5-year study period despite faster decline in learning. This study contributes to the understanding of the mechanisms by which training benefits memory and expands current knowledge by reporting long-term changes in initial recall and learning, as measured from growth models and by characterization of the impact of memory training on these components. Results reveal that memory training delays the worsening of memory span and boosts learning.

Intact short-term memory and impaired executive functions in obsessive compulsive disorder.

PubMed

Demeter, Gyula; Racsmány, Mihály; Csigó, Katalin; Harsányi, András; Németh, Attila; Döme, László

2013-01-30

Previous neuropsychological studies produced inconsistent results with tasks tapping short-term verbal and visual-spatial memory and executive functions in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of deficits in these cognitive domains. A further goal was to describe the distribution of patients in different impairment ranges for all functions, and clarify the relationship between symptom severity and cognitive impairments. Thirty patients with OCD (DSM-IV) and 30 healthy volunteers were compared using well-known neuropsychological tasks. We assessed short-term verbal memory with the Digit Span Forward and Digit Span Backward Tasks, short-term visual-spatial memory with the Corsi Block Tapping Task, while we measured the level of executive functions with the StroopTask and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Compared with a matched healthy control group, the performance of OCD patients was in the impaired range only in the two executive tasks. We find a significant positive correlations between the Y-BOCS (Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale) total scores and the number of perseverative responses (r(28) = 0.409, p < 0.05) and perseverative errors (r(28) = 0.385, p < 0.05) in the WCST. Our results gave evidence that executive functions are impaired while short-term memory is intact in OCD. This is in line with neuropsychological model of OCD that the deficit of cognitive and behavioral inhibition are responsible for the main cognitive findings of this disorder, most prevalently the deficit in set shifting and prepotent response inhibition.

Executive function impairment in community elderly subjects with questionable dementia.

PubMed

Lam, Linda C W; Lui, Victor W C; Chiu, Helen F K; Chan, Sandra S M; Tam, Cindy W C

2005-01-01

The neurocognitive profile of community-dwelling Chinese subjects with 'questionable' dementia was studied. One hundred and fifty-four ambulatory Chinese subjects were recruited from local social centers for the elderly. Each subject was examined using the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), the Cantonese version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (CMMSE), the Chinese version of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog), the Category Verbal Fluency Test (CVFT), digit and visual span tests, and the Cambridge Neurological Inventory. The neurocognitive profile of nondemented subjects (CDR 0) was compared with that of subjects with 'questionable' dementia (CDR 0.5). Subjects with 'questionable' dementia were older, and had lower educational levels and global cognitive assessment scores than the controls (CMMSE and ADAS-Cog; t tests, p < 0.001). In addition, they also had significantly lower scores in delayed recall, reverse span, verbal fluency tests and worse performance in complex motor tasks related to executive function (Mann-Whitney tests, p < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that ADAS-Cog, CVFT, and reverse visual span were significant predictors for the CDR of 'questionable' dementia. Aside from memory impairment, executive function deficits were also present in subjects with 'questionable' dementia. To identify groups cognitively at risk for dementia, concomitant assessments of memory and executive function are suggested.

Older adults get episodic memory boosting from noninvasive stimulation of prefrontal cortex during learning.

PubMed

Sandrini, Marco; Manenti, Rosa; Brambilla, Michela; Cobelli, Chiara; Cohen, Leonardo G; Cotelli, Maria

2016-03-01

Episodic memory displays the largest degree of age-related decline, a process that is accelerated in pathological conditions such as amnestic mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Previous studies have shown that the left lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) contributes to the encoding of episodic memories along the life span. The aim of this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was to test the hypothesis that anodal trascranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left lateral PFC during the learning phase would enhance delayed recall of verbal episodic memories in elderly individuals. Older adults learned a list of words while receiving anodal or placebo (sham) tDCS. Memory recall was tested 48 hours and 1 month later. The results showed that anodal tDCS strengthened episodic memories, an effect indicated by enhanced delayed recall (48 hours) compared to placebo stimulation (Cohen's d effect size = 1.01). The observation that PFC-tDCS during learning can boost verbal episodic memory in the elderly opens up the possibility to design-specific neurorehabilitation protocols targeted to conditions that affect episodic memory such as mild cognitive impairment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Phonological memory in sign language relies on the visuomotor neural system outside the left hemisphere language network.

PubMed

Kanazawa, Yuji; Nakamura, Kimihiro; Ishii, Toru; Aso, Toshihiko; Yamazaki, Hiroshi; Omori, Koichi

2017-01-01

Sign language is an essential medium for everyday social interaction for deaf people and plays a critical role in verbal learning. In particular, language development in those people should heavily rely on the verbal short-term memory (STM) via sign language. Most previous studies compared neural activations during signed language processing in deaf signers and those during spoken language processing in hearing speakers. For sign language users, it thus remains unclear how visuospatial inputs are converted into the verbal STM operating in the left-hemisphere language network. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the present study investigated neural activation while bilinguals of spoken and signed language were engaged in a sequence memory span task. On each trial, participants viewed a nonsense syllable sequence presented either as written letters or as fingerspelling (4-7 syllables in length) and then held the syllable sequence for 12 s. Behavioral analysis revealed that participants relied on phonological memory while holding verbal information regardless of the type of input modality. At the neural level, this maintenance stage broadly activated the left-hemisphere language network, including the inferior frontal gyrus, supplementary motor area, superior temporal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule, for both letter and fingerspelling conditions. Interestingly, while most participants reported that they relied on phonological memory during maintenance, direct comparisons between letters and fingers revealed strikingly different patterns of neural activation during the same period. Namely, the effortful maintenance of fingerspelling inputs relative to letter inputs activated the left superior parietal lobule and dorsal premotor area, i.e., brain regions known to play a role in visuomotor analysis of hand/arm movements. These findings suggest that the dorsal visuomotor neural system subserves verbal learning via sign language by relaying gestural inputs to the classical left-hemisphere language network.

The role of working memory in inferential sentence comprehension.

PubMed

Pérez, Ana Isabel; Paolieri, Daniela; Macizo, Pedro; Bajo, Teresa

2014-08-01

Existing literature on inference making is large and varied. Trabasso and Magliano (Discourse Process 21(3):255-287, 1996) proposed the existence of three types of inferences: explicative, associative and predictive. In addition, the authors suggested that these inferences were related to working memory (WM). In the present experiment, we investigated whether WM capacity plays a role in our ability to answer comprehension sentences that require text information based on these types of inferences. Participants with high and low WM span read two narratives with four paragraphs each. After each paragraph was read, they were presented with four true/false comprehension sentences. One required verbatim information and the other three implied explicative, associative and predictive inferential information. Results demonstrated that only the explicative and predictive comprehension sentences required WM: participants with high verbal WM were more accurate in giving explanations and also faster at making predictions relative to participants with low verbal WM span; in contrast, no WM differences were found in the associative comprehension sentences. These results are interpreted in terms of the causal nature underlying these types of inferences.

Relationships between Dietary Intake and Cognitive Function in Healthy Korean Children and Adolescents

PubMed Central

Kim, Jin Young; Kang, Seung Wan

2017-01-01

Background It has long been theorized that a relatively robust dietary intake impacts cognitive function. The aim of the study was to explore dietary intake and cognitive function in healthy Korean children and adolescents. Methods Three hundred and seventeen healthy children with no previous diagnosis of neurologic or psychiatric disorders were evaluated (167 girls and 150 boys with a mean age of 11.8 ± 3.3 years). Analysis indicators including food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) consisting of 76 items and neurocognitive tests including symbol digit modalities (SDMT), verbal memory, visual memory, shift attention, reasoning, and digit span (forward and backward) tests were observed and recorded. Results The standard deviation in reaction time was significantly shorter in girls than in boys (p < 0.05). Verbal memory and SDMT percentile results were significantly higher in girls than in boys (p < 0.05). Vitamin C and potassium intake showed positive correlation with SDMT results (p < 0.05). Vitamin B1 intake showed positive correlation with the results of digit span forward tasks and SDMT (p < 0.01). Vitamin B6 intake showed positive correlation with the results of digit span forward tasks (p < 0.01). The consumption of noodles showed negative correlation with verbal memory, SDMT, shift attention, and reasoning test results (p < 0.05). The consumption of fast food showed negative correlation with SDMT and reasoning test results (p < 0.05). The consumption of Coca-Cola showed negative correlation with the results of verbal memory tests (p < 0.05). The consumption of mushrooms showed positive correlation with visual memory and reasoning test results (p < 0.05). The consumption of nuts showed positive correlation with SDMT results (p < 0.01). Omission errors were negatively correlated with the intake of protein, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, niacin, and vitamin B6 (p < 0.05), as well as with vitamin D and zinc intake (p < 0.01). Reaction time showed positive correlation with caffeine intake (p < 0.05). Omission errors were positively correlated with the consumption of rice and ramyeon (p < 0.01). Reaction time showed positive correlation with the consumption of snacks (p < 0.05). Standard deviations in reaction times showed positive correlation with the consumption of rice (p < 0.01), snacks, and chocolate (p < 0.05). Omission errors were negatively correlated with the consumption of rice with mixed grains (p < 0.01) and eggs (p < 0.05). Conclusion The relationship between dietary intake and cognitive function is generally better observed in girls than in boys. The consumption of healthy foods is correlated with good cognitive function. These results suggest that diet is closely related to cognitive function, even in healthy children and adolescents. PMID:28261556

Relationships between Dietary Intake and Cognitive Function in Healthy Korean Children and Adolescents.

PubMed

Kim, Jin Young; Kang, Seung Wan

2017-01-01

It has long been theorized that a relatively robust dietary intake impacts cognitive function. The aim of the study was to explore dietary intake and cognitive function in healthy Korean children and adolescents. Three hundred and seventeen healthy children with no previous diagnosis of neurologic or psychiatric disorders were evaluated (167 girls and 150 boys with a mean age of 11.8 ± 3.3 years). Analysis indicators including food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) consisting of 76 items and neurocognitive tests including symbol digit modalities (SDMT), verbal memory, visual memory, shift attention, reasoning, and digit span (forward and backward) tests were observed and recorded. The standard deviation in reaction time was significantly shorter in girls than in boys (p < 0.05). Verbal memory and SDMT percentile results were significantly higher in girls than in boys (p < 0.05). Vitamin C and potassium intake showed positive correlation with SDMT results (p < 0.05). Vitamin B1 intake showed positive correlation with the results of digit span forward tasks and SDMT (p < 0.01). Vitamin B6 intake showed positive correlation with the results of digit span forward tasks (p < 0.01). The consumption of noodles showed negative correlation with verbal memory, SDMT, shift attention, and reasoning test results (p < 0.05). The consumption of fast food showed negative correlation with SDMT and reasoning test results (p < 0.05). The consumption of Coca-Cola showed negative correlation with the results of verbal memory tests (p < 0.05). The consumption of mushrooms showed positive correlation with visual memory and reasoning test results (p < 0.05). The consumption of nuts showed positive correlation with SDMT results (p < 0.01). Omission errors were negatively correlated with the intake of protein, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, niacin, and vitamin B6 (p < 0.05), as well as with vitamin D and zinc intake (p < 0.01). Reaction time showed positive correlation with caffeine intake (p < 0.05). Omission errors were positively correlated with the consumption of rice and ramyeon (p < 0.01). Reaction time showed positive correlation with the consumption of snacks (p < 0.05). Standard deviations in reaction times showed positive correlation with the consumption of rice (p < 0.01), snacks, and chocolate (p < 0.05). Omission errors were negatively correlated with the consumption of rice with mixed grains (p < 0.01) and eggs (p < 0.05). The relationship between dietary intake and cognitive function is generally better observed in girls than in boys. The consumption of healthy foods is correlated with good cognitive function. These results suggest that diet is closely related to cognitive function, even in healthy children and adolescents.

A category-specific advantage for numbers in verbal short-term memory: evidence from semantic dementia.

PubMed

Jefferies, Elizabeth; Patterson, Karalyn; Jones, Roy W; Bateman, David; Lambon Ralph, Matthew A

2004-01-01

This study explored possible reasons for the striking difference between digit span and word span in patients with semantic dementia. Immediate serial recall (ISR) of number and non-number words was examined in four patients. For every case, the recall of single-digit numbers was normal whereas the recall of non-number words was impaired relative to controls. This difference extended to multi-digit numbers, and remained even when frequency, imageability, word length, set size and size of semantic category were matched for the numbers and words. The advantage for number words also applied to the patients' reading performance. Previous studies have suggested that semantic memory plays a critical role in verbal short-term memory (STM) and reading: patients with semantic dementia show superior recall and reading of words that are still relatively well known compared to previously known but now semantically degraded words. Additional assessments suggested that this semantic locus was the basis of the patients' category-specific advantage for numbers. Comprehension was considerably better for number than non-number words. Number knowledge may be relatively preserved in semantic dementia because the cortical atrophy underlying the condition typically spares the areas of the parietal lobes thought to be crucial in numerical cognition but involves the inferolateral temporal-lobes known to support general conceptual knowledge.

Temporal precision and the capacity of auditory-verbal short-term memory.

PubMed

Gilbert, Rebecca A; Hitch, Graham J; Hartley, Tom

2017-12-01

The capacity of serially ordered auditory-verbal short-term memory (AVSTM) is sensitive to the timing of the material to be stored, and both temporal processing and AVSTM capacity are implicated in the development of language. We developed a novel "rehearsal-probe" task to investigate the relationship between temporal precision and the capacity to remember serial order. Participants listened to a sub-span sequence of spoken digits and silently rehearsed the items and their timing during an unfilled retention interval. After an unpredictable delay, a tone prompted report of the item being rehearsed at that moment. An initial experiment showed cyclic distributions of item responses over time, with peaks preserving serial order and broad, overlapping tails. The spread of the response distributions increased with additional memory load and correlated negatively with participants' auditory digit spans. A second study replicated the negative correlation and demonstrated its specificity to AVSTM by controlling for differences in visuo-spatial STM and nonverbal IQ. The results are consistent with the idea that a common resource underpins both the temporal precision and capacity of AVSTM. The rehearsal-probe task may provide a valuable tool for investigating links between temporal processing and AVSTM capacity in the context of speech and language abilities.

Interference, aging, and visuospatial working memory: the role of similarity.

PubMed

Rowe, Gillian; Hasher, Lynn; Turcotte, Josée

2010-11-01

Older adults' performance on working memory (WM) span tasks is known to be negatively affected by the buildup of proactive interference (PI) across trials. PI has been reduced in verbal tasks and performance increased by presenting distinctive items across trials. In addition, reversing the order of trial presentation (i.e., starting with the longest sets first) has been shown to reduce PI in both verbal and visuospatial WM span tasks. We considered whether making each trial visually distinct would improve older adults' visuospatial WM performance, and whether combining the 2 PI-reducing manipulations, distinct trials and reversed order of presentation, would prove additive, thus providing even greater benefit. Forty-eight healthy older adults (age range = 60-77 years) completed 1 of 3 versions of a computerized Corsi block test. For 2 versions of the task, trials were either all visually similar or all visually distinct, and were presented in the standard ascending format (shortest set size first). In the third version, visually distinct trials were presented in a reverse order of presentation (longest set size first). Span scores were reliably higher in the ascending version for visually distinct compared with visually similar trials, F(1, 30) = 4.96, p = .03, η² = .14. However, combining distinct trials and a descending format proved no more beneficial than administering the descending format alone. Our findings suggest that a more accurate measurement of the visuospatial WM span scores of older adults (and possibly neuropsychological patients) might be obtained by reducing within-test interference.

Acute effects of exergames on cognitive function of institutionalized older persons: a single-blinded, randomized and controlled pilot study.

PubMed

Monteiro-Junior, Renato Sobral; da Silva Figueiredo, Luiz Felipe; Maciel-Pinheiro, Paulo de Tarso; Abud, Erick Lohan Rodrigues; Braga, Ana Elisa Mendes Montalvão; Barca, Maria Lage; Engedal, Knut; Nascimento, Osvaldo José M; Deslandes, Andrea Camaz; Laks, Jerson

2017-06-01

Improvements on balance, gait and cognition are some of the benefits of exergames. Few studies have investigated the cognitive effects of exergames in institutionalized older persons. To assess the acute effect of a single session of exergames on cognition of institutionalized older persons. Nineteen institutionalized older persons were randomly allocated to Wii (WG, n = 10, 86 ± 7 year, two males) or control groups (CG, n = 9, 86 ± 5 year, one male). The WG performed six exercises with virtual reality, whereas CG performed six exercises without virtual reality. Verbal fluency test (VFT), digit span forward and digit span backward were used to evaluate semantic memory/executive function, short-term memory and work memory, respectively, before and after exergames and Δ post- to pre-session (absolute) and Δ % (relative) were calculated. Parametric (t independent test) and nonparametric (Mann-Whitney test) statistics and effect size were applied to tests for efficacy. VFT was statistically significant within WG (-3.07, df = 9, p = 0.013). We found no statistically significant differences between the two groups (p > 0.05). Effect size between groups of Δ % (median = 21 %) showed moderate effect for WG (0.63). Our data show moderate improvement of semantic memory/executive function due to exergames session. It is possible that cognitive brain areas are activated during exergames, increasing clinical response. A single session of exergames showed no significant improvement in short-term memory, working memory and semantic memory/executive function. The effect size for verbal fluency was promising, and future studies on this issue should be developed. RBR-6rytw2.

Attention and memory evaluation across the life span: heterogeneous effects of age and education.

PubMed

Gómez-Pérez, Esther; Ostrosky-Solís, Feggy

2006-05-01

The developmental sequences of attention and memory were studied by utilizing normative data derived from the neuropsychological battery named NEUROPSI ATTENTION AND MEMORY. A sample of 521 Spanish-speaking individuals, aged 6 to 85 years, participated in this study. In the adult sample, educational level ranged from 0 to 22 years of education. Data from subtests measuring orientation, attention and concentration, executive functions, working memory, immediate and delayed verbal memory, and immediate and delayed visual memory were included. The factor structure of the analyzed battery is presented. The effects of age and education on this structure were analyzed. Results suggested that although attention and memory are related, their developmental sequences are separated from one another. During childhood, the development of selective and sustained attention, attentional-working memory, and executive functions showed a fast improvement in performance. Development of verbal memory and place and person orientation showed a slower increment in scores. In the adult sample it was found that factors related to memory are sensitive to age, whereas those related to attention and executive functions are sensitive to education. The consideration of both the developmental sequence, as well as differential effects of education, can improve the sensitivity and specificity of neuropsychological measures, allowing early diagnosis of cognitive dysfunction and implementation of adequate rehabilitation programs.

Short-term and long-term memory in early temporal lobe dysfunction.

PubMed

Hershey, T; Craft, S; Glauser, T A; Hale, S

1998-01-01

Following medial temporal damage, mature humans are impaired in retaining new information over long delays but not short delays. The question of whether a similar dissociation occurs in children was addressed by testing children (ages 7-16) with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and controls on short- and long-term memory tasks, including a spatial delayed response task (SDR). Early-onset TLE did not affect performance on short delays on SDR, but it did impair performance at the longest delay (60 s), similar to adults with unilateral medial temporal damage. In addition, early-onset TLE affected performance on pattern recall, spatial span, and verbal span with rehearsal interference. No differences were found on story recall or on a response inhibition task.

Administration of Neuropsychological Tests Using Interactive Voice Response Technology in the Elderly: Validation and Limitations

PubMed Central

Miller, Delyana Ivanova; Talbot, Vincent; Gagnon, Michèle; Messier, Claude

2013-01-01

Interactive voice response (IVR) systems are computer programs, which interact with people to provide a number of services from business to health care. We examined the ability of an IVR system to administer and score a verbal fluency task (fruits) and the digit span forward and backward in 158 community dwelling people aged between 65 and 92 years of age (full scale IQ of 68–134). Only six participants could not complete all tasks mostly due to early technical problems in the study. Participants were also administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale fourth edition (WAIS-IV) and Wechsler Memory Scale fourth edition subtests. The IVR system correctly recognized 90% of the fruits in the verbal fluency task and 93–95% of the number sequences in the digit span. The IVR system typically underestimated the performance of participants because of voice recognition errors. In the digit span, these errors led to the erroneous discontinuation of the test: however the correlation between IVR scoring and clinical scoring was still high (93–95%). The correlation between the IVR verbal fluency and the WAIS-IV Similarities subtest was 0.31. The correlation between the IVR digit span forward and backward and the in-person administration was 0.46. We discuss how valid and useful IVR systems are for neuropsychological testing in the elderly. PMID:23950755

Discrepancies between bilinguals' performance on the Spanish and English versions of the WAIS Digit Span task: Cross-cultural implications.

PubMed

López, Enrique; Steiner, Alexander J; Hardy, David J; IsHak, Waguih W; Anderson, W Brantley

2016-01-01

This study explored within-subjects differences in the performance of 40 bilingual participants on the English and Spanish versions of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) Digit Span task. To test the linguistic hypothesis that individuals would perform worse in Spanish because of its syllabic demand, we compared the number of syllables correctly recalled by each participant for every correct trial. Our analysis of the correct number of syllables remembered per trial showed that participants performed significantly better (i.e., recalling more syllables) in Spanish than in English on the total score. Findings suggest the Spanish version of the Digit Span (total score) was significantly more difficult than the English version utilizing traditional scoring methods. Moreover, the Forward Trial, rather than the Backward Trial, was more likely to show group differences between both language versions. Additionally, the Spanish trials of the Digit Span were correlated with language comprehension and verbal episodic memory measures, whereas the English trials of the Digit Span were correlated with confrontational naming and verbal fluency tasks. The results suggest that more research is necessary to further investigate other cognitive factors, rather than just syllabic demand, that might contribute to performance and outcome differences on the WAIS Digit Span in Spanish-English bilinguals.

The Relationship Between Selected Subtests of the Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude and Second Grade Reading Achievement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sherwood, Charles; Chambless, Martha

Relationships between reading achievement and perceptual skills as measured by selected subtests of the Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude were investigated in a sample of 73 second graders. Verbal opposites, visual memory for designs, and visual attention span for letters were significantly correlated with both word meaning and vocabulary…

The Complexities of Complex Memory Span: Storage and Processing Deficits in Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Archibald, Lisa M. D.; Gathercole, Susan E.

2007-01-01

This study investigated the verbal and visuospatial processing and storage skills of children with SLI and typically developing children. Fourteen school-age children with SLI, and two groups of typically developing children matched either for age or language abilities, completed measures of processing speed and storage capacity, and a set of…

The Contribution of Cognitive Factors to Individual Differences in Understanding Noise-Vocoded Speech in Young and Older Adults

PubMed Central

Rosemann, Stephanie; Gießing, Carsten; Özyurt, Jale; Carroll, Rebecca; Puschmann, Sebastian; Thiel, Christiane M.

2017-01-01

Noise-vocoded speech is commonly used to simulate the sensation after cochlear implantation as it consists of spectrally degraded speech. High individual variability exists in learning to understand both noise-vocoded speech and speech perceived through a cochlear implant (CI). This variability is partly ascribed to differing cognitive abilities like working memory, verbal skills or attention. Although clinically highly relevant, up to now, no consensus has been achieved about which cognitive factors exactly predict the intelligibility of speech in noise-vocoded situations in healthy subjects or in patients after cochlear implantation. We aimed to establish a test battery that can be used to predict speech understanding in patients prior to receiving a CI. Young and old healthy listeners completed a noise-vocoded speech test in addition to cognitive tests tapping on verbal memory, working memory, lexicon and retrieval skills as well as cognitive flexibility and attention. Partial-least-squares analysis revealed that six variables were important to significantly predict vocoded-speech performance. These were the ability to perceive visually degraded speech tested by the Text Reception Threshold, vocabulary size assessed with the Multiple Choice Word Test, working memory gauged with the Operation Span Test, verbal learning and recall of the Verbal Learning and Retention Test and task switching abilities tested by the Comprehensive Trail-Making Test. Thus, these cognitive abilities explain individual differences in noise-vocoded speech understanding and should be considered when aiming to predict hearing-aid outcome. PMID:28638329

Treating verbal working memory in a boy with intellectual disability

PubMed Central

Orsolini, Margherita; Melogno, Sergio; Latini, Nausica; Penge, Roberta; Conforti, Sara

2015-01-01

The present case study investigates the effects of a cognitive training of verbal working memory that was proposed for Davide, a 14-year-old boy diagnosed with mild intellectual disability. The program stimulated attention, inhibition, switching, and the ability to engage either in verbal dual tasks or in producing inferences after the content of a short passage had been encoded in episodic memory. Key elements in our program included (1) core training of target cognitive mechanisms; (2) guided practice emphasizing concrete strategies to engage in exercises; and (3) a variable amount of adult support. The study explored whether such a complex program produced “near transfer” effects on an untrained dual task assessing verbal working memory and whether effects on this and other target cognitive mechanisms (i.e., attention, inhibition, and switching) were long-lasting and produced “far transfer” effects on cognitive flexibility. The effects of the intervention program were investigated with a research design consisting of four subsequent phases lasting 8 or 10 weeks, each preceded and followed by testing. There was a control condition (phase 1) in which the boy received, at home, a stimulation focused on the visuospatial domain. Subsequently, there were three experimental training phases, in which stimulation in the verbal domain was first focused on attention and inhibition (phase 2a), then on switching and simple working memory tasks (phase 2b), then on complex working memory tasks (phase 3). A battery of neuropsychological tests was administered before and after each training phase and 7 months after the conclusion of the intervention. The main finding was that Davide changed from being incapable of addressing the dual task request of the listening span test in the initial assessment to performing close to the normal limits of a 13-year-old boy in the follow-up assessment with this test, when he was 15 years old. PMID:26284014

Expanding the mind's workspace: training and transfer effects with a complex working memory span task.

PubMed

Chein, Jason M; Morrison, Alexandra B

2010-04-01

In the present study, a novel working memory (WM) training paradigm was used to test the malleability of WM capacity and to determine the extent to which the benefits of this training could be transferred to other cognitive skills. Training involved verbal and spatial versions of a complex WM span task designed to emphasize simultaneous storage and processing requirements. Participants who completed 4 weeks of WM training demonstrated significant improvements on measures of temporary memory. These WM training benefits generalized to performance on the Stroop task and, in a novel finding, promoted significant increases in reading comprehension. The results are discussed in relation to the hypothesis that WM training affects domain-general attention control mechanisms and can thereby elicit far-reaching cognitive benefits. Implications include the use of WM training as a general tool for enhancing important cognitive skills.

Intelligence as the efficiency of cue-driven retrieval from secondary memory.

PubMed

Liesefeld, Heinrich René; Hoffmann, Eugenia; Wentura, Dirk

2016-01-01

Complex-span (working-memory-capacity) tasks are among the most successful predictors of intelligence. One important contributor to this relationship is the ability to efficiently employ cues for the retrieval from secondary memory. Presumably, intelligent individuals can considerably restrict their memory search sets by using such cues and can thereby improve recall performance. We here test this assumption by experimentally manipulating the validity of retrieval cues. When memoranda are drawn from the same semantic category on two successive trials of a verbal complex-span task, the category is a very strong retrieval cue on its first occurrence (strong-cue trial) but loses some of its validity on its second occurrence (weak-cue trial). If intelligent individuals make better use of semantic categories as retrieval cues, their recall accuracy suffers more from this loss of cue validity. Accordingly, our results show that less variance in intelligence is explained by recall accuracy on weak-cue compared with strong-cue trials.

Working memory training and transfer in older adults.

PubMed

Richmond, Lauren L; Morrison, Alexandra B; Chein, Jason M; Olson, Ingrid R

2011-12-01

There has been a great deal of interest, both privately and commercially, in using working memory training exercises to improve general cognitive function. However, many of the laboratory findings for older adults, a group in which this training is of utmost interest, are discouraging due to the lack of transfer to other tasks and skills. Importantly, improvements in everyday functioning remain largely unexamined in relation to WM training. We trained working memory in older adults using a task that encourages transfer in young adults (Chein & Morrison, 2010). We tested transfer to measures of working memory (e.g., Reading Span), everyday cognitive functioning [the Test of Everyday Attention (TEA) and the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT)], and other tasks of interest. Relative to controls, trained participants showed transfer improvements in Reading Span and the number of repetitions on the CVLT. Training group participants were also significantly more likely to self-report improvements in everyday attention. Our findings support the use of ecological tasks as a measure of transfer in an older adult population.

[Serotonin receptor (5-HTR2A) and dysbindin (DTNBP1) genes and component process variables of short-term verbal memory in schizophrenia].

PubMed

Alfimova, M V; Monakhov, M V; Abramova, L I; Golubev, S A; Golimbet, V E

2009-01-01

An association study of variations in the DTNBP1 (P1763 and P1578) and 5-HTR2A (T102C and A-1438G) genes with short-term verbal memory efficiency and its component process variables was carried out in 405 patients with schizophrenia and 290 healthy controls. All subjects were asked to recall immediately two sets of 10 words. Total recall, List 1 recall, immediate recall or attention span, proactive interference and a number of intrusions were measured. Patients significantly differed from controls by all memory variables. The efficiency of test performance, efficiency of immediate memory, effect of proactive interference as well as number of intrusions were decreased in the group of patients. Both 5-HTR2A polymorphisms were associated with short-term verbal memory efficiency in the combined sample, with the worst performance observed in carriers of homozygous CC (T102C) and GG (A-1438G) genotypes. The significant effect of the P1763 (DTNBP1) marker on the component process variables (proactive interference and intrusions) was found while its effect on the total recall was non-significant. The homozygotes for GG (P1763) had the worst scores. Overall, the data obtained are in line with the conception of DTNBP1 and 5-HTR2A involvement in different component process variables of memory in healthy subjects and patients with schizophrenia.

Attention, memory, visuoconstructive, and executive task performance in adolescents with anxiety disorders: a case-control community study.

PubMed

Jarros, Rafaela Behs; Salum, Giovanni Abrahão; Silva, Cristiano Tschiedel Belem da; Toazza, Rudineia; Becker, Natália; Agranonik, Marilyn; Salles, Jerusa Fumagalli de; Manfro, Gisele Gus

2017-01-01

The aim of the present study was to assess children and adolescents with mild and severe anxiety disorders for their performance in attention, verbal episodic memory, working memory, visuoconstructive skills, executive functions, and cognitive global functioning and conduct comparative analyses with the performance of children free from anxiety disorders. Our sample comprised 68 children and adolescents aged 10 to 17 years (41 with current diagnoses of anxiety disorders and 27 controls) selected from a larger cross-sectional community sample of adolescents. Children and adolescents with anxiety disorders were categorized into two groups on the basis of anxiety severity (mild or severe). All participants underwent a neuropsychological assessment battery to evaluate attention, verbal episodic memory, working memory, visuoconstructive skills, and executive and cognitive functions. No differences were found in any neuropsychological tests, with the single exception that the group with mild anxiety had better performance on the Digit Span backward test compared to subjects with severe anxiety and to controls (p = 0.041; η2 = 0.11). Not only might anxiety disorders spare main cognitive functions during adolescence, they may even enhance certain working memory processes.

Time Estimation in Alzheimer's Disease and the Role of the Central Executive

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papagno, Costanza; Allegra, Adele; Cardaci, Maurizio

2004-01-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of short-term memory and attention in time estimation. For this purpose we studied prospective time verbal estimation in 21 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and compared their performance with that of 21 matched normal controls in two different conditions: during a digit span task and during an…

Low working memory capacity is only spuriously related to poor reading comprehension.

PubMed

Van Dyke, Julie A; Johns, Clinton L; Kukona, Anuenue

2014-06-01

Accounts of comprehension failure, whether in the case of readers with poor skill or when syntactic complexity is high, have overwhelmingly implicated working memory capacity as the key causal factor. However, extant research suggests that this position is not well supported by evidence on the span of active memory during online sentence processing, nor is it well motivated by models that make explicit claims about the memory mechanisms that support language processing. The current study suggests that sensitivity to interference from similar items in memory may provide a better explanation of comprehension failure. Through administration of a comprehensive skill battery, we found that the previously observed association of working memory with comprehension is likely due to the collinearity of working memory with many other reading-related skills, especially IQ. In analyses which removed variance shared with IQ, we found that receptive vocabulary knowledge was the only significant predictor of comprehension performance in our task out of a battery of 24 skill measures. In addition, receptive vocabulary and non-verbal memory for serial order-but not simple verbal memory or working memory-were the only predictors of reading times in the region where interference had its primary affect. We interpret these results in light of a model that emphasizes retrieval interference and the quality of lexical representations as key determinants of successful comprehension. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Self-Regulated Reading in Adulthood

PubMed Central

Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A. L.; Soederberg Miller, Lisa M.; Gagne, Danielle D.; Hertzog, Christopher

2008-01-01

Younger and older adults read a series of passages of three different genres for an immediate assessment of text memory (measured by recall and true-false questions). Word-by-word reading times were measured and decomposed into components reflecting resource allocation to particular linguistic processes using regression. Allocation to word and textbase processes showed some consistency across the three text types and was predictive of memory performance. Older adults allocated more time to word and textbase processes than the young did, but showed enhanced contextual facilitation. Structural equation modeling showed that greater resource allocation to word processes was required among readers with relatively low working memory spans and poorer verbal ability, and that greater resource allocation to textbase processes was engendered by higher verbal ability. Results are discussed in terms of a model of self-regulated language processing suggesting that older readers may compensate for processing deficiencies through greater reliance on discourse context and on increases in resource allocation that are enabled through growth in crystallized ability. PMID:18361662

[Spanish normative studies in a young adult population (NEURONORMA young adults Project): norms for the verbal span, visuospatial span, Letter-Number Sequencing, Trail Making Test and Symbol Digit Modalities Test].

PubMed

Tamayo, F; Casals-Coll, M; Sánchez-Benavides, G; Quintana, M; Manero, R M; Rognoni, T; Calvo, L; Palomo, R; Aranciva, F; Peña-Casanova, J

2012-01-01

Verbal and visuospatial span, Letter-Number Sequencing, Trail Making Test, and Symbol Digit Modalities Test are frequently used in clinical practice to assess attention, executive functions and memory. In the present study, as part of the Spanish normative studies of NEURONORMA young adults Project, normative data adjusted by age and education are provided for digits, Corsi Block-Tapping Task, Letter-Number Sequencing, Trail Making Test, and Symbol Digit Modalities Test. The sample consisted of 179 participants from 18 to 49 years old, who were cognitively normal. Tables to convert raw scores to scaled scores are provided. Age and education adjusted scores are provided by applying linear regressions. Education affected scores in most of the attention tests; age was found to be related to the visuospatial span and to speed of visuomotor tracking, and there was no relationship as regards sex. The data obtained will be useful in the clinical evaluation of young Spanish adults. Copyright © 2011 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Effects on Cognition of Stereotactic Lesional Surgery For the Treatment of Tremor in Multiple Sclerosis

PubMed Central

Jahanshahi, Marjan; Pieter, Socorro; Alusi, Sundus H.; Jones, Catherine R. G.; Glickman, Scott; Stein, John; Aziz, Tipu; Bain, Peter G.

2008-01-01

Objective: To assess the effect of stereotactic lesional surgery for treatment of tremor in multiple sclerosis on cognition. Methods: Eleven patients (3 males, 8 females) with multiple sclerosis participated in the study. Six subjects comprised the surgical group and five the matched control group. All patients were assessed at baseline and three months using a neuropsychological test battery that included measures of intellectual ability, memory, language, perception and executive function. Results: There were no significant differences between the surgical and control groups and no change from pre to post testing except for a decline in scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), WAIS-R Digit Span and Verbal Fluency in the surgical group. Conclusions: The results indicate that stereotactic lesional surgery does not result in major cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis. However, the decline in MMSE scores, digit span and verbal fluency require further investigation in a larger sample. PMID:19491469

Development of verbal short-term memory and working memory in children with epilepsy: Developmental delay and impact of time-related variables. A cross-sectional study.

PubMed

van Iterson, Loretta; de Jong, Peter F

2018-01-01

While short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) are understood as being crucial for learning, and children with epilepsy often experience learning difficulties, little is known about the age-related development of memory span tasks in children with epilepsy. Short-term memory and WM, operationalized as digit span forwards (DSF) or digit span backwards (DSB), respectively, were studied. Participants were 314 children with epilepsy and 327 typically developing children in ages between 5 and 15years and full scale intelligence quotient (FS-IQ)≥75. Cross-sectional analyses of the data were done with analyses of variance and analyses of covariance ((M)ANCOVAs) and generalized linear analyses. The analyses revealed that STM problems in epilepsy were mediated by age-related gains in WM as well as by differences in IQ. Working memory developed at a quick pace in the younger children, the pace slowed down to some extent in the later primary school years and resumed again later on. Working memory problems prevailed in epilepsy, independent of IQ and development of STM. Timing of the epilepsy in terms of age at onset and duration determined memory development. The youngest children with epilepsy showed age-appropriate development in STM but were the most vulnerable in terms of WM development. Later in the course of the epilepsy, the WM problems of the young children attenuated. In later onset epilepsy, WM problems were smaller but persisted over time. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Association between early attention-deficit/hyperactivity symptoms and current verbal and visuo-spatial short-term memory.

PubMed

Gau, Susan Shur-Fen; Chiang, Huey-Ling

2013-01-01

Deficits in short-term memory are common in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but their current ADHD symptoms cannot well predict their short-term performance. Taking a developmental perspective, we wanted to clarify the association between ADHD symptoms at early childhood and short-term memory in late childhood and adolescence. The participants included 401 patients with a clinical diagnosis of DSM-IV ADHD, 213 siblings, and 176 unaffected controls aged 8-17 years (mean age, 12.02 ± 2.24). All participants and their mothers were interviewed using the Chinese Kiddie Epidemiologic version of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia to obtain information about ADHD symptoms and other psychiatric disorders retrospectively, at an earlier age first, then currently. The participants were assessed with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--3rd edition, including Digit Span, and the Spatial working memory task of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Multi-level regression models were used for data analysis. Although crude analyses revealed that inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity symptoms significantly predicted deficits in short-term memory, only inattention symptoms had significant effects (all p<0.001) in a model that included all three ADHD symptoms. After further controlling for comorbidity, age of assessment, treatment with methylphenidate, and Full-scale IQ, the severity of childhood inattention symptoms was still significantly associated with worse verbal (p = 0.008) and spatial (p ranging from 0.017 to 0.002) short-term memory at the current assessment. Therefore, our findings suggest that earlier inattention symptoms are associated with impaired verbal and visuo-spatial short-term memory at a later development stage. Impaired short-term memory in adolescence can be detected earlier by screening for the severity of inattention in childhood. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hemispatial neglect and serial order in verbal working memory.

PubMed

Antoine, Sophie; Ranzini, Mariagrazia; van Dijck, Jean-Philippe; Slama, Hichem; Bonato, Mario; Tousch, Ann; Dewulf, Myrtille; Bier, Jean-Christophe; Gevers, Wim

2018-01-09

Working memory refers to our ability to actively maintain and process a limited amount of information during a brief period of time. Often, not only the information itself but also its serial order is crucial for good task performance. It was recently proposed that serial order is grounded in spatial cognition. Here, we compared performance of a group of right hemisphere-damaged patients with hemispatial neglect to healthy controls in verbal working memory tasks. Participants memorized sequences of consonants at span level and had to judge whether a target consonant belonged to the memorized sequence (item task) or whether a pair of consonants were presented in the same order as in the memorized sequence (order task). In line with this idea that serial order is grounded in spatial cognition, we found that neglect patients made significantly more errors in the order task than in the item task compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, this deficit seemed functionally related to neglect severity and was more frequently observed following right posterior brain damage. Interestingly, this specific impairment for serial order in verbal working memory was not lateralized. We advance the hypotheses of a potential contribution to the deficit of serial order in neglect patients of either or both (1) reduced spatial working memory capacity that enables to keep track of the spatial codes that provide memorized items with a positional context, (2) a spatial compression of these codes in the intact representational space. © 2018 The British Psychological Society.

Verbal and memory skills in males with Duchenne muscular dystrophy

PubMed Central

Hinton, V J; BA, R J Fee; Goldstein, E M; De Vivo, D C

2007-01-01

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive pediatric disorder that affects both muscle and brain. Children with DMD have mean IQ scores that are about one standard deviation lower than population means, with lower Verbal IQ than Performance IQ scores. For the present study, verbal skills and verbal memory skills were examined in males with DMD with the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, 3rd edition, and the California Verbal Learning Test for Children. Performance of 50 males with DMD (age range 6–14y, mean 9y 4mo [SD 2y 1mo]) was compared to normative values. Two subsets of the probands were also compared with two comparison groups: unaffected siblings (n=24; DMD group age range 6–12y, mean 9y 1mo [SD 1y 8mo]; sibling age range 6–15y, mean 9y 11mo [SD 2y 4mo]) and males with cerebral palsy (CP); (n=23; DMD group age range 6–9y, mean 7y 8mo [SD 1y 2mo]; CP age range 6–8y, mean 6y 8mo [SD 0y 8mo]). Results demonstrated that although males with DMD performed slightly more poorly than normative values, they performed comparably to the controls on most measures. Consistent deficits were observed only on tests requiring immediate repetition for verbal material (Recalling Sentences, and Concepts and Directions). On other language tasks, including tests of understanding and use of grammar, and understanding of semantic relationships, the males with DMD performed well. Moreover, the males with DMD performed well on multiple indices of verbal recall, and there was no evidence of declarative memory deficits. DMD is a single-gene disorder that is selectively associated with decreased verbal span capacity, but not impaired recall. PMID:17254000

Low working memory capacity is only spuriously related to poor reading comprehension

PubMed Central

Van Dyke, Julie A.; Johns, Clinton L.; Kukona, Anuenue

2014-01-01

Accounts of comprehension failure, whether in the case of readers with poor skill or when syntactic complexity is high, have overwhelmingly implicated working memory capacity as the key causal factor. However, extant research suggests that this position is not well supported by evidence on the span of active memory during online sentence processing, nor is it well motivated by models that make explicit claims about the memory mechanisms that support language processing. The current study suggests that sensitivity to interference from similar items in memory may provide a better explanation of comprehension failure. Through administration of a comprehensive skill battery, we found that the previously observed association of working memory with comprehension is likely due to the collinearity of working memory with many other reading-related skills, especially IQ. In analyses which removed variance shared with IQ, we found that receptive vocabulary knowledge was the only significant predictor of comprehension performance in our task out of a battery of 24 skill measures. In addition, receptive vocabulary and non-verbal memory for serial order—but not simple verbal memory or working memory—were the only predictors of reading times in the region where interference had its primary affect. We interpret these results in light of a model that emphasizes retrieval interference and the quality of lexical representations as key determinants of successful comprehension. PMID:24657820

Enhancing cognition with video games: a multiple game training study.

PubMed

Oei, Adam C; Patterson, Michael D

2013-01-01

Previous evidence points to a causal link between playing action video games and enhanced cognition and perception. However, benefits of playing other video games are under-investigated. We examined whether playing non-action games also improves cognition. Hence, we compared transfer effects of an action and other non-action types that required different cognitive demands. We instructed 5 groups of non-gamer participants to play one game each on a mobile device (iPhone/iPod Touch) for one hour a day/five days a week over four weeks (20 hours). Games included action, spatial memory, match-3, hidden- object, and an agent-based life simulation. Participants performed four behavioral tasks before and after video game training to assess for transfer effects. Tasks included an attentional blink task, a spatial memory and visual search dual task, a visual filter memory task to assess for multiple object tracking and cognitive control, as well as a complex verbal span task. Action game playing eliminated attentional blink and improved cognitive control and multiple-object tracking. Match-3, spatial memory and hidden object games improved visual search performance while the latter two also improved spatial working memory. Complex verbal span improved after match-3 and action game training. Cognitive improvements were not limited to action game training alone and different games enhanced different aspects of cognition. We conclude that training specific cognitive abilities frequently in a video game improves performance in tasks that share common underlying demands. Overall, these results suggest that many video game-related cognitive improvements may not be due to training of general broad cognitive systems such as executive attentional control, but instead due to frequent utilization of specific cognitive processes during game play. Thus, many video game training related improvements to cognition may be attributed to near-transfer effects.

Is the superior verbal memory span of Mandarin speakers due to faster rehearsal?

PubMed

Mattys, Sven L; Baddeley, Alan; Trenkic, Danijela

2018-04-01

It is well established that digit span in native Chinese speakers is atypically high. This is commonly attributed to a capacity for more rapid subvocal rehearsal for that group. We explored this hypothesis by testing a group of English-speaking native Mandarin speakers on digit span and word span in both Mandarin and English, together with a measure of speed of articulation for each. When compared to the performance of native English speakers, the Mandarin group proved to be superior on both digit and word spans while predictably having lower spans in English. This suggests that the Mandarin advantage is not limited to digits. Speed of rehearsal correlated with span performance across materials. However, this correlation was more pronounced for English speakers than for any of the Chinese measures. Further analysis suggested that speed of rehearsal did not provide an adequate account of differences between Mandarin and English spans or for the advantage of digits over words. Possible alternative explanations are discussed.

Verbal overshadowing of visual memories: some things are better left unsaid.

PubMed

Schooler, J W; Engstler-Schooler, T Y

1990-01-01

It is widely believed that verbal processing generally improves memory performance. However, in a series of six experiments, verbalizing the appearance of previously seen visual stimuli impaired subsequent recognition performance. In Experiment 1, subjects viewed a videotape including a salient individual. Later, some subjects described the individual's face. Subjects who verbalized the face performed less well on a subsequent recognition test than control subjects who did not engage in memory verbalization. The results of Experiment 2 replicated those of Experiment 1 and further clarified the effect of memory verbalization by demonstrating that visualization does not impair face recognition. In Experiments 3 and 4 we explored the hypothesis that memory verbalization impairs memory for stimuli that are difficult to put into words. In Experiment 3 memory impairment followed the verbalization of a different visual stimulus: color. In Experiment 4 marginal memory improvement followed the verbalization of a verbal stimulus: a brief spoken statement. In Experiments 5 and 6 the source of verbally induced memory impairment was explored. The results of Experiment 5 suggested that the impairment does not reflect a temporary verbal set, but rather indicates relatively long-lasting memory interference. Finally, Experiment 6 demonstrated that limiting subjects' time to make recognition decisions alleviates the impairment, suggesting that memory verbalization overshadows but does not eradicate the original visual memory. This collection of results is consistent with a recording interference hypothesis: verbalizing a visual memory may produce a verbally biased memory representation that can interfere with the application of the original visual memory.

What Does It Take to Search Organized? The Cognitive Correlates of Search Organization During Cancellation After Stroke.

PubMed

Ten Brink, Antonia F; Visser-Meily, Johanna M A; Nijboer, Tanja C W

2018-05-01

Stroke could lead to deficits in organization of visual search. Cancellation tests are frequently used in standard neuropsychological assessment and appear suitable to measure search organization. The current aim was to evaluate which cognitive functions are associated with cancellation organization measures after stroke. Stroke patients admitted to inpatient rehabilitation were included in this retrospective study. We performed exploratory factor analyses to explore cognitive domains. A digital shape cancellation test (SC) was administered, and measures of search organization (intersections rate and best r) were computed. The following cognitive functions were measured by neuropsychological testing: neglect (SC, line bisection; LB, Catherine Bergego Scale; CBS, and Balloons Test), visuospatial perception and construction (Rey Complex Figure Test, RCFT), psychomotor speed (Trail Making Test; TMT-A), executive functioning/working memory (TMT-B), spatial planning (Tower Test), rule learning (Brixton Test), short-term auditory memory (Digit Span Forward; DSF), and verbal working memory (Digit Span Backward; DSB). In total, 439 stroke patients were included in our analyses. Four clusters were separated: "Executive functioning" (TMT-A, TMT-B, Brixton Test, and Tower Test), "Verbal memory" (DSF and DSB), "Search organization" (intersections rate and best r), and "Neglect" (CBS, RCFT copy, Balloons Test, SC, and LB). Search organization during cancellation, as measured with intersections rate and best r, seems a distinct cognitive construct compared to existing cognitive domains that are tested during neuropsychological assessment. Administering cancellation tests and analyzing measures of search organization could provide useful additional insights into the visuospatial processes of stroke patients. (JINS, 2018, 24, 424-436).

Can verbal working memory training improve reading?

PubMed

Banales, Erin; Kohnen, Saskia; McArthur, Genevieve

2015-01-01

The aim of the current study was to determine whether poor verbal working memory is associated with poor word reading accuracy because the former causes the latter, or the latter causes the former. To this end, we tested whether (a) verbal working memory training improves poor verbal working memory or poor word reading accuracy, and whether (b) reading training improves poor reading accuracy or verbal working memory in a case series of four children with poor word reading accuracy and verbal working memory. Each child completed 8 weeks of verbal working memory training and 8 weeks of reading training. Verbal working memory training improved verbal working memory in two of the four children, but did not improve their reading accuracy. Similarly, reading training improved word reading accuracy in all children, but did not improve their verbal working memory. These results suggest that the causal links between verbal working memory and reading accuracy may not be as direct as has been assumed.

The influence of shift work on cognitive functions and oxidative stress.

PubMed

Özdemir, Pınar Güzel; Selvi, Yavuz; Özkol, Halil; Aydın, Adem; Tülüce, Yasin; Boysan, Murat; Beşiroğlu, Lütfullah

2013-12-30

Shift work influences health, performance, activity, and social relationships, and it causes impairment in cognitive functions. In this study, we investigated the effects of shift work on participants' cognitive functions in terms of memory, attention, and learning, and we measured the effects on oxidative stress. Additionally, we investigated whether there were significant relationships between cognitive functions and whole blood oxidant/antioxidant status of participants. A total of 90 health care workers participated in the study, of whom 45 subjects were night-shift workers. Neuropsychological tests were administered to the participants to assess cognitive function, and blood samples were taken to detect total antioxidant capacity and total oxidant status at 08:00. Differences in anxiety, depression, and chronotype characteristics between shift work groups were not significant. Shift workers achieved significantly lower scores on verbal memory, attention-concentration, and the digit span forward sub-scales of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R), as well as on the immediate memory and total learning sub-scales of the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT). Oxidative stress parameters were significantly associated with some types of cognitive function, including attention-concentration, recognition, and long-term memory. These findings suggest that night shift work may result in significantly poorer cognitive performance, particularly working memory. © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Verbal short-term memory as an articulatory system: evidence from an alternative paradigm.

PubMed

Cheung, Him; Wooltorton, Lana

2002-01-01

In a series of experiments, the role of articulatory rehearsal in verbal [corrected] short-term memory was examined via a shadowing-plus-recall paradigm. In this paradigm, subjects shadowed a word target presented closely after an auditory memory list before they recalled the list. The phonological relationship between the shadowing target and the final item on the memory list was manipulated. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that targets sounding similar to the list-final memory item generally took longer to shadow than unrelated targets. This inhibitory effect of phonological relatedness was more pronounced with tense- than lax-vowel pseudoword recall lists. The interaction between vowel tenseness and phonological relatedness was replicated in Experiment 3 using shorter lists of real words. In Experiment 4, concurrent articulation was applied during list learning to block rehearsal; consequently, neither the phonological relatedness effect nor its interaction with vowel tenseness emerged. Experiments 5 and 6 manipulated the occurrence frequencies and lexicality of the recall items, respectively, instead of vowel tenseness. Unlike vowel tenseness, these non-articulatory memory factors failed to interact with the phonological relatedness effect. Experiment 7 orthogonally manipulated the vowel tenseness and frequencies of the recall items; slowing in shadowing times due to phonological relatedness was modulated by vowel tenseness but not frequency. Taken together, these results suggest that under the present paradigm, the modifying effect of vowel tenseness on the magnitude of slowing in shadowing due to phonological relatedness is indicative of a prominent articulatory component in verbal short-term retention. The shadowing-plus-recall approach avoids confounding overt recall into internal memory processing, which is an inherent problem of the traditional immediate serial recall and span tasks.

The effects of environmental support and secondary tasks on visuospatial working memory.

PubMed

Lilienthal, Lindsey; Hale, Sandra; Myerson, Joel

2014-10-01

In the present experiments, we examined the effects of environmental support on participants' ability to rehearse locations and the role of such support in the effects of secondary tasks on memory span. In Experiment 1, the duration of interitem intervals and the presence of environmental support for visuospatial rehearsal (i.e., the array of possible memory locations) during the interitem intervals were both manipulated across four tasks. When support was provided, memory spans increased as the interitem interval durations increased, consistent with the hypothesis that environmental support facilitates rehearsal. In contrast, when environmental support was not provided, spans decreased as the duration of the interitem intervals increased, consistent with the hypothesis that visuospatial memory representations decay when rehearsal is impeded. In Experiment 2, the ratio of interitem interval duration to intertrial interval duration was kept the same on all four tasks, in order to hold temporal distinctiveness constant, yet forgetting was still observed in the absence of environmental support, consistent with the decay hypothesis. In Experiment 3, the effects of impeding rehearsal were compared to the effects of verbal and visuospatial secondary processing tasks. Forgetting of locations was greater when presentation of to-be-remembered locations alternated with the performance of a secondary task than when rehearsal was impeded by the absence of environmental support. The greatest forgetting occurred when a secondary task required the processing visuospatial information, suggesting that in addition to decay, both domain-specific and domain-general effects contribute to forgetting on visuospatial working memory tasks.

The Effects of Environmental Support and Secondary Tasks on Visuospatial Working Memory

PubMed Central

Lilienthal, Lindsey; Hale, Sandra; Myerson, Joel

2014-01-01

The present experiments examined the effects of environmental support on participants’ ability to rehearse locations and its role in the effects of secondary tasks on memory span. In Experiment 1, the duration of inter-item intervals and the presence of environmental support for visuospatial rehearsal (i.e., the array of possible memory locations) during the inter-item intervals were both manipulated across four tasks. When support was provided, memory spans increased as the inter-item interval durations increased, consistent with the hypothesis that environmental support facilitates rehearsal. In contrast, when environmental support was not provided, spans decreased as the duration of the inter-item intervals increased, consistent with the hypothesis that visuospatial memory representations decay when rehearsal is impeded. In Experiment 2, the ratio of inter-item interval duration to inter-trial interval duration was kept the same on all four tasks in order to hold temporal distinctiveness constant, yet forgetting was still observed in the absence of environmental support, consistent with the decay hypothesis. In Experiment 3, the effects of impeding rehearsal were compared to the effects of verbal and visuospatial secondary processing tasks. Forgetting of locations was greater when presentation of to-be-remembered locations alternated with performance of a secondary task than when rehearsal was impeded by the absence of environmental support. The greatest forgetting occurred when a secondary task required processing visuospatial information, suggesting that in addition to decay, both domain-specific and domain-general effects contribute to forgetting on visuospatial working memory tasks. PMID:24874509

Adaptive choice between articulatory rehearsal and attentional refreshing in verbal working memory.

PubMed

Camos, Valérie; Mora, Gerome; Oberauer, Klaus

2011-02-01

Because both articulatory rehearsal and attentional refreshing aid in the maintenance of verbal information in the short term, the present study evaluated the adaptive use of these mechanisms, using a complex span paradigm. In Experiment 1, the phonological similarity of memory list words and the attentional demand of concurrent processing were manipulated. As was predicted, a phonological similarity effect (PSE) appeared only when the concurrent task was attention demanding, thus impairing the use of refreshing and encouraging rehearsal. To verify that PSE indicates the use of rehearsal, participants were instructed to use one of the two mechanisms in Experiments 2 and 3. In accordance wih Experiment 1, the PSE was observed only under rehearsal. Thus, adults could adaptively choose between the two mechanisms. When remembering phonologically confusable materials, they prefer refreshing in order to reduce the impact of phonological characteristics. When available attention is reduced, they favor a less attention-demanding mechanism, rehearsal.

High-level language ability in healthy individuals and its relationship with verbal working memory.

PubMed

Antonsson, Malin; Longoni, Francesca; Einald, Christina; Hallberg, Lina; Kurt, Gabriella; Larsson, Kajsa; Nilsson, Tina; Hartelius, Lena

2016-01-01

The aims of the study were to investigate healthy subjects' performance on a clinical test of high-level language (HLL) and how it is related to demographic characteristics and verbal working memory (VWM). One hundred healthy subjects (20-79 years old) were assessed with the Swedish BeSS test (Laakso, Brunnegård, Hartelius, & Ahlsén, 2000) and two digit span tasks. Relationships between the demographic variables, VWM and BeSS were investigated both with bivariate correlations and multiple regression analysis. The results present the norms for BeSS. The correlations and multiple regression analysis show that demographic variables had limited influence on test performance. Measures of VWM were moderately related to total BeSS score and weakly to moderately correlated with five of the seven subtests. To conclude, education has an influence on the test as a whole but measures of VWM stood out as the most robust predictor of HLL.

Learning and memory performance in a cohort of clinically referred breast cancer survivors: the role of attention versus forgetting in patient-reported memory complaints.

PubMed

Root, James C; Ryan, Elizabeth; Barnett, Gregory; Andreotti, Charissa; Bolutayo, Kemi; Ahles, Tim

2015-05-01

While forgetfulness is widely reported by breast cancer survivors, studies documenting objective memory performance yield mixed, largely inconsistent, results. Failure to find consistent, objective memory issues may be due to the possibility that cancer survivors misattribute their experience of forgetfulness to primary memory issues rather than to difficulties in attention at the time of learning. To clarify potential attention issues, factor scores for Attention Span, Learning Efficiency, Delayed Memory, and Inaccurate Memory were analyzed for the California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition (CVLT-II) in 64 clinically referred breast cancer survivors with self-reported cognitive complaints; item analysis was conducted to clarify specific contributors to observed effects, and contrasts between learning and recall trials were compared with normative data. Performance on broader cognitive domains is also reported. The Attention Span factor, but not Learning Efficiency, Delayed Memory, or Inaccurate Memory factors, was significantly affected in this clinical sample. Contrasts between trials were consistent with normative data and did not indicate greater loss of information over time than in the normative sample. Results of this analysis suggest that attentional dysfunction may contribute to subjective and objective memory complaints in breast cancer survivors. These results are discussed in the context of broader cognitive effects following treatment for clinicians who may see cancer survivors for assessment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Spatial working memory function in twins with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Pirkola, Tiia; Tuulio-Henriksson, Annamari; Glahn, David; Kieseppä, Tuula; Haukka, Jari; Kaprio, Jaakko; Lönnqvist, Jouko; Cannon, Tyrone D

2005-12-15

Family studies are in conflict as to whether schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have independent genetic etiologies. Given the relatively low prevalence (approximately 1%) of these disorders, the use of quantitative endophenotypic markers of genetic liability might provide a more sensitive strategy for evaluating their genetic overlap. We have previously demonstrated that spatial working memory deficits increase in a dose-dependent fashion with increasing genetic proximity to a proband among the unaffected co-twins of schizophrenic patients. Here, we evaluated whether such deficits might also mark genetic susceptibility to bipolar disorder. The Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised Visual Memory Span and Digit Span subtests were administered to 46 schizophrenic patients, 32 of their unaffected co-twins, 22 bipolar patients, 16 of their unaffected co-twins, and 100 control twins, representing unselectively nationwide twin samples. Schizophrenic patients and their unaffected co-twins performed significantly worse than control subjects on the spatial working memory task, whereas only the schizophrenic patients performed significantly below the control subjects on the verbal working memory task. Neither bipolar patients nor their unaffected co-twins differed from control subjects on these measures. Our findings support the hypothesis that impairment in spatial working memory might effectively reflect an expression of genetic liability to schizophrenia but less clearly to bipolar disorder.

Systematic Review of Cognitive Function in Euthymic Bipolar Disorder and Pre-Surgical Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

PubMed

Bostock, Emmanuelle C S; Kirkby, Kenneth C; Garry, Michael I; Taylor, Bruce V M

2017-01-01

Bipolar disorder (BD) and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) overlap in domains including epidemiology, treatment response, shared neurotransmitter involvement and temporal lobe pathology. Comparison of cognitive function in both disorders may indicate temporal lobe mediated processes relevant to BD. This systematic review examines neuropsychological test profiles in euthymic bipolar disorder type I (BD-I) and pre-surgical TLE and compares experimental designs used. A search of PubMed, PsychINFO, and Scopus using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines was conducted. Inclusion criteria were comparison group or pre- to post-surgical patients; reported neuropsychological tests; participants aged 18-60 years. Fifty six studies met criteria: 27 BD-I; 29 TLE. Deficits in BD-I compared to healthy controls (HC) were in executive function, attention span and verbal memory. Deficits in TLE compared to HC were in executive function and memory. In the pre- to post-surgical comparisons, verbal memory in left temporal lobe (LTL) and, less consistently, visuospatial memory in right temporal lobe (RTL) epilepsy declined following surgery. BD-I studies used comprehensive test batteries in well-defined euthymic patients compared to matched HC groups. TLE studies used convenience samples pre- to post-surgery, comparing LTL and RTL subgroups, few included comparisons to HC (5 studies). TLE studies typically examined a narrow range of known temporal lobe-mediated neuropsychological functions, particularly verbal and visuospatial memory. Both disorders exhibit deficits in executive function and verbal memory suggestive of both frontal and temporal lobe involvement. However, deficits in TLE are measured pre- to post-surgery and not controlled at baseline pre-surgery. Further research involving a head-to-head comparison of the two disorders on a broad range of neuropsychological tests is needed to clarify the nature and extent of cognitive deficits and potential overlaps.

The visual attention span deficit in dyslexia is visual and not verbal.

PubMed

Lobier, Muriel; Zoubrinetzky, Rachel; Valdois, Sylviane

2012-06-01

The visual attention (VA) span deficit hypothesis of dyslexia posits that letter string deficits are a consequence of impaired visual processing. Alternatively, some have interpreted this deficit as resulting from a visual-to-phonology code mapping impairment. This study aims to disambiguate between the two interpretations by investigating performance in a non-verbal character string visual categorization task with verbal and non-verbal stimuli. Results show that VA span ability predicts performance for the non-verbal visual processing task in normal reading children. Furthermore, VA span impaired dyslexic children are also impaired for the categorization task independently of stimuli type. This supports the hypothesis that the underlying impairment responsible for the VA span deficit is visual, not verbal. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Srl. All rights reserved.

Differential recall of derived and inflected word forms in working memory: examining the role of morphological information in simple and complex working memory tasks

PubMed Central

Service, Elisabet; Maury, Sini

2015-01-01

Working memory (WM) has been described as an interface between cognition and action, or a system for access to a limited amount of information needed in complex cognition. Access to morphological information is needed for comprehending and producing sentences. The present study probed WM for morphologically complex word forms in Finnish, a morphologically rich language. We studied monomorphemic (boy), inflected (boy+’s), and derived (boy+hood) words in three tasks. Simple span, immediate serial recall of words, in Experiment 1, is assumed to mainly rely on information in the focus of attention. Sentence span, a dual task combining sentence reading with recall of the last word (Experiment 2) or of a word not included in the sentence (Experiment 3) is assumed to involve establishment of a search set in long-term memory for fast activation into the focus of attention. Recall was best for monomorphemic and worst for inflected word forms with performance on derived words in between. However, there was an interaction between word type and experiment, suggesting that complex span is more sensitive to morphological complexity in derivations than simple span. This was explored in a within-subjects Experiment 4 combining all three tasks. An interaction between morphological complexity and task was replicated. Both inflected and derived forms increased load in WM. In simple span, recall of inflectional forms resulted in form errors. Complex span tasks were more sensitive to morphological load in derived words, possibly resulting from interference from morphological neighbors in the mental lexicon. The results are best understood as involving competition among inflectional forms when binding words from input into an output structure, and competition from morphological neighbors in secondary memory during cumulative retrieval-encoding cycles. Models of verbal recall need to be able to represent morphological as well as phonological and semantic information. PMID:25642181

Role of working memory and lexical knowledge in perceptual restoration of interrupted speech.

PubMed

Nagaraj, Naveen K; Magimairaj, Beula M

2017-12-01

The role of working memory (WM) capacity and lexical knowledge in perceptual restoration (PR) of missing speech was investigated using the interrupted speech perception paradigm. Speech identification ability, which indexed PR, was measured using low-context sentences periodically interrupted at 1.5 Hz. PR was measured for silent gated, low-frequency speech noise filled, and low-frequency fine-structure and envelope filled interrupted conditions. WM capacity was measured using verbal and visuospatial span tasks. Lexical knowledge was assessed using both receptive vocabulary and meaning from context tests. Results showed that PR was better for speech noise filled condition than other conditions tested. Both receptive vocabulary and verbal WM capacity explained unique variance in PR for the speech noise filled condition, but were unrelated to performance in the silent gated condition. It was only receptive vocabulary that uniquely predicted PR for fine-structure and envelope filled conditions. These findings suggest that the contribution of lexical knowledge and verbal WM during PR depends crucially on the information content that replaced the silent intervals. When perceptual continuity was partially restored by filler speech noise, both lexical knowledge and verbal WM capacity facilitated PR. Importantly, for fine-structure and envelope filled interrupted conditions, lexical knowledge was crucial for PR.

Superior Self-Paced Memorization of Digits in Spite of a Normal Digit Span: The Structure of a Memorist's Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Yi; Ericsson, K. Anders; Yang, Dan; Lu, Chao

2009-01-01

Over the last century many individuals with exceptional memory have been studied and tested in the laboratory. This article studies Chao Lu, who set a Guinness World Record by memorizing 67,890 decimals of pi. Chao Lu's superior self-paced memorization of digits is shown through analyses of study times and verbal reports to be mediated by mnemonic…

Beyond Capacity Limitations II: Effects of Lexical Processes on Word Recall in Verbal Working Memory Tasks in Children with and without Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mainela-Arnold, Elina; Evans, Julia L.; Coady, Jeffry

2010-01-01

Purpose: This study investigated the impact of lexical processes on target word recall in sentence span tasks in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). Method: Participants were 42 children (ages 8;2-12;3 [years;months]): 21 with SLI and 21 typically developing peers matched on age and nonverbal IQ. Children completed a…

Family influences on the cognitive development of profoundly deaf children: exploring the effects of socioeconomic status and siblings.

PubMed

Macaulay, Catrin E; Ford, Ruth M

2013-10-01

We evaluated the cognitive development of 48 profoundly deaf children from hearing families (born 1994-2002, mean age M = 8.0 years at time of test, none of whom had received early auditory-verbal therapy) as a function of family socioeconomic status and number of siblings. Overall, the deaf children matched a younger group of 47 hearing controls (M = 4.6 years) on verbal ability, theory of mind, and cognitive inhibition. Partial correlations (controlling for age) revealed positive relations in the hearing group between maternal education and inhibition, between number of younger siblings and references to emotions, and between number of close-in-age siblings and references to desires and false beliefs. In the deaf group, there were positive relations between household income and memory span, between maternal education and references to false beliefs, and between number of younger siblings and nonverbal ability. In contrast, deaf children with a greater number of older siblings aged ≤12 years showed inferior memory span, inhibition, belief understanding, picture-sequencing accuracy, and mental-state language, suggesting that they failed to compete successfully with older siblings for their parents' attention and material resources. We consider the implications of the findings for understanding birth-order effects on deaf and language-impaired children.

Persistence of Gender Related-Effects on Visuo-Spatial and Verbal Working Memory in Right Brain-Damaged Patients.

PubMed

Piccardi, Laura; Matano, Alessandro; D'Antuono, Giovanni; Marin, Dario; Ciurli, Paola; Incoccia, Chiara; Verde, Paola; Guariglia, Paola

2016-01-01

The aim of the present study was to verify if gender differences in verbal and visuo-spatial working memory would persist following right cerebral lesions. To pursue our aim we investigated a large sample (n. 346) of right brain-damaged patients and healthy participants (n. 272) for the presence of gender effects in performing Corsi and Digit Test. We also assessed a subgroup of patients (n. 109) for the nature (active vs. passive) of working memory tasks. We tested working memory (WM) administering the Corsi Test (CBT) and the Digit Span (DS) using two different versions: forward (fCBT and fDS), subjects were required to repeat stimuli in the same order that they were presented; and backward (bCBT and bDS), subjects were required to repeat stimuli in the opposite order of presentation. In this way, passive storage and active processing of working memory were assessed. Our results showed the persistence of gender-related effects in spite of the presence of right brain lesions. We found that men outperformed women both in CBT and DS, regardless of active and passive processing of verbal and visuo-spatial stimuli. The presence of visuo-spatial disorders (i.e., hemineglect) can affect the performance on Corsi Test. In our sample, men and women were equally affected by hemineglect, therefore it did not mask the gender effect. Generally speaking, the persistence of the men's superiority in visuo-spatial tasks may be interpreted as a protective factor, at least for men, within other life factors such as level of education or kind of profession before retirement.

Cognitive Predictors of Verbal Memory in a Mixed Clinical Pediatric Sample

PubMed Central

Jordan, Lizabeth L.; Tyner, Callie E.; Heaton, Shelley C.

2013-01-01

Verbal memory problems, along with other cognitive difficulties, are common in children diagnosed with neurological and/or psychological disorders. Historically, these “memory problems” have been poorly characterized and often present with a heterogeneous pattern of performance across memory processes, even within a specific diagnostic group. The current study examined archival neuropsychological data from a large mixed clinical pediatric sample in order to understand whether functioning in other cognitive areas (i.e., verbal knowledge, attention, working memory, executive functioning) may explain some of the performance variability seen across verbal memory tasks of the Children’s Memory Scale (CMS). Multivariate analyses revealed that among the cognitive functions examined, only verbal knowledge explained a significant amount of variance in overall verbal memory performance. Further univariate analyses examining the component processes of verbal memory indicated that verbal knowledge is specifically related to encoding, but not the retention or retrieval stages. Future research is needed to replicate these findings in other clinical samples, to examine whether verbal knowledge predicts performance on other verbal memory tasks and to explore whether these findings also hold true for visual memory tasks. Successful replication of the current study findings would indicate that interventions targeting verbal encoding deficits should include efforts to improve verbal knowledge. PMID:25379253

Cognitive stimulation therapy (CST): neuropsychological mechanisms of change.

PubMed

Hall, Louise; Orrell, Martin; Stott, Joshua; Spector, Aimee

2013-03-01

Cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) is an evidence-based psychosocial intervention for people with dementia consisting of 14 group sessions aiming to stimulate various areas of cognition. This study examined the effects of CST on specific cognitive domains and explored the neuropsychological processes underpinning any effects. A total of 34 participants with mild to moderate dementia were included. A one-group pretest-posttest design was used. Participants completed a battery of neuropsychological tests in the week before and after the manualised seven-week CST programme. There were significant improvement pre- to post-CST group on measures of delayed verbal recall (WMS III logical memory subtest - delayed), visual memory (WMS III visual reproduction subtest - delayed), orientation (WMS III information and orientation subscale), and auditory comprehension (Token Test). There were no significant changes on measures of naming (Boston Naming Test-2), attention (Trail Making Test A/Digit Span), executive function (DKEFS verbal fluency/Trail Making Test B), praxis (WMS III visual reproduction - immediate) or on a general cognitive screen (MMSE). Memory, comprehension of syntax, and orientation appear to be the cognitive domains most impacted by CST. One hypothesis is that the language-based nature of CST enhances neural pathways responsible for processing of syntax, possibly also aiding verbal recall. Another is that the reduction in negative self-stereotypes due to the de-stigmatising effect of CST may impact on language and memory, domains that are the primary focus of CST. Further research is required to substantiate these hypotheses.

Language and memory abilities of internationally adopted children from China: evidence for early age effects.

PubMed

Delcenserie, Audrey; Genesee, Fred

2014-11-01

The goal of the present study was to examine if internationally adopted (IA) children from China (M = 10;8) adopted by French-speaking families exhibit lags in verbal memory in addition to lags in verbal abilities documented in previous studies (Gauthier & Genesee, 2011). Tests assessing verbal and non-verbal memory, language, non-verbal cognitive ability, and socio-emotional development were administered to thirty adoptees. Their results were compared to those of thirty non-adopted monolingual French-speaking children matched on age, gender, and socioeconomic status. The IA children scored significantly lower than the controls on language, verbal short-term memory, verbal working memory, and verbal long-term memory. No group differences were found on non-verbal memory, non-verbal cognitive ability, and socio-emotional development, suggesting language-specific difficulties. Despite extended exposure to French, adoptees may experience language difficulties due to limitations in verbal memory, possibly as a result of their delayed exposure to that language and/or attrition of the birth language.

Verbal short-term memory development and spoken language outcomes in deaf children with cochlear implants.

PubMed

Harris, Michael S; Kronenberger, William G; Gao, Sujuan; Hoen, Helena M; Miyamoto, Richard T; Pisoni, David B

2013-01-01

Cochlear implants (CIs) help many deaf children achieve near-normal speech and language (S/L) milestones. Nevertheless, high levels of unexplained variability in S/L outcomes are limiting factors in improving the effectiveness of CIs in deaf children. The objective of this study was to longitudinally assess the role of verbal short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) capacity as a progress-limiting source of variability in S/L outcomes after CI in children. Longitudinal study of 66 children with CIs for prelingual severe-to-profound hearing loss. Outcome measures included performance on digit span forward (DSF), digit span backward (DSB), and four conventional S/L measures that examined spoken-word recognition (Phonetically Balanced Kindergarten word test), receptive vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test ), sentence-recognition skills (Hearing in Noise Test), and receptive and expressive language functioning (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Fourth Edition Core Language Score; CELF). Growth curves for DSF and DSB in the CI sample over time were comparable in slope, but consistently lagged in magnitude relative to norms for normal-hearing peers of the same age. For DSF and DSB, 50.5% and 44.0%, respectively, of the CI sample scored more than 1 SD below the normative mean for raw scores across all ages. The first (baseline) DSF score significantly predicted all endpoint scores for the four S/L measures, and DSF slope (growth) over time predicted CELF scores. DSF baseline and slope accounted for an additional 13 to 31% of variance in S/L scores after controlling for conventional predictor variables such as: chronological age at time of testing, age at time of implantation, communication mode (auditory-oral communication versus total communication), and maternal education. Only DSB baseline scores predicted endpoint language scores on Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and CELF. DSB slopes were not significantly related to any endpoint S/L measures. DSB baseline scores and slopes taken together accounted for an additional 4 to 19% of variance in S/L endpoint measures after controlling for the conventional predictor variables. Verbal STM/WM scores, process measures of information capacity, develop at an average rate in the years after cochlear implantation, but were found to consistently lag in absolute magnitude behind those reported for normal-hearing peers. Baseline verbal STM/WM predicted long-term endpoint S/L outcomes, but verbal STM slopes predicted only endpoint language outcomes. Verbal STM/WM processing skills reflect important underlying core elementary neurocognitive functions and represent potential intervention targets for improving endpoint S/L outcomes in pediatric CI users.

Different effects of anterior temporal lobectomy and selective amygdalohippocampectomy on verbal memory performance of patients with epilepsy.

PubMed

Boucher, Olivier; Dagenais, Emmanuelle; Bouthillier, Alain; Nguyen, Dang Khoa; Rouleau, Isabelle

2015-11-01

The advantage of selective amygdalohippocampectomy (SAH) over anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) for the treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) remains controversial. Because ATL is more extensive and involves the lateral and medial parts of the temporal lobe, it may be predicted that its impact on memory is more important than SAH, which involves resection of medial temporal structures only. However, several studies do not support this assumption. Possible explanations include task-specific factors such as the extent of semantic and syntactic information to be memorized and failure to control for main confounders. We compared preoperative vs. postoperative memory performance in 13 patients with SAH with 26 patients who underwent ATL matched on side of surgery, IQ, age at seizure onset, and age at surgery. Memory function was assessed using the Logical Memory subtest from the Wechsler Memory Scales - 3rd edition (LM-WMS), the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), the Digit Span subtest from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, and the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test. Repeated measures analyses of variance revealed opposite effects of SAH and ATL on the two verbal learning memory tests. On the immediate recall trial of the LM-WMS, performance deteriorated after ATL in comparison with that after SAH. By contrast, on the delayed recognition trial of the RAVLT, performance deteriorated after SAH compared with that after ATL. However, additional analyses revealed that the latter finding was only observed when surgery was conducted in the right hemisphere. No interaction effects were found on other memory outcomes. The results are congruent with the view that tasks involving rich semantic content and syntactical structure are more sensitive to the effects of lateral temporal cortex resection as compared with mesiotemporal resection. The findings highlight the importance of task selection in the assessment of memory in patients undergoing TLE surgery. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effect of rehearsal training on working memory span of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Loomes, Carly; Rasmussen, Carmen; Pei, Jacqueline; Manji, Shazeen; Andrew, Gail

2008-01-01

A key area of weakness in individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is working memory, thus the goal of this study was to determine whether teaching children (aged 4-11) with FASD verbal rehearsal would increase their memory. Rehearsal training has been effective in other populations with working memory difficulties, so we hypothesized that children with FASD would also benefit from rehearsal training. Children were divided into an Experimental group, who received rehearsal training and a Control group, who did not receive training. All children were tested on digit span tasks over three sessions: a pretest (baseline) and then post-test 1 and post-test 2 (where only the Experimental group received rehearsal training). The Experimental group showed a significant increase in performance across session but the Control group did not. Children in the Experimental group performed significantly higher than the Control group on post-test 2 but not on the pretest or post-test 1. More children in the Experimental group showed behavioral evidence and self-report of rehearsal after training. Rehearsal training was successful at increasing the memory for numbers among children with FASD and may help to ameliorate working memory difficulties in FASD, ultimately supporting academic and developmental growth of children with FASD.

Verbal memory after temporal lobe epilepsy surgery in children: Do only mesial structures matter?

PubMed

Law, Nicole; Benifla, Mony; Rutka, James; Smith, Mary Lou

2017-02-01

Previous findings have been mixed regarding verbal memory outcome after left temporal lobectomy in children, and there are few studies comparing verbal memory change after lateral versus mesial temporal lobe resections. We compared verbal memory outcome associated with sparing or including the mesial structures in children who underwent left or right temporal lobe resection. We also investigated predictors of postsurgical verbal memory change. We retrospectively assessed verbal memory change approximately 1 year after unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy surgery using a list learning task. Participants included 23 children who underwent temporal lobe surgery with sparing of the mesial structures (13 left), and 40 children who had a temporal lobectomy that included resection of mesial structures (22 left). Children who underwent resection from the left lateral and mesial temporal lobe were the only group to show decline in verbal memory. Furthermore, when we considered language representation in the left temporal resection group, patients with left language representation and spared mesial structures showed essentially no change in verbal memory from preoperative to follow-up, whereas those with left language representation and excised mesial structures showed a decline. Postoperative seizure status had no effect on verbal memory change in children after left temporal lobe surgery. Finally, we found that patients with intact preoperative verbal memory experienced a significant decline compared to those with below average preoperative verbal memory. Our findings provide evidence of significant risk factors for verbal memory decline in children, specific to left mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Children who undergo left temporal lobe surgery that includes mesial structures may be most vulnerable for verbal memory decline, especially when language representation is localized to the left hemisphere and when preoperative verbal memory is intact. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 International League Against Epilepsy.

Short-term memory in autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Poirier, Marie; Martin, Jonathan S; Gaigg, Sebastian B; Bowler, Dermot M

2011-02-01

Three experiments examined verbal short-term memory in comparison and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) participants. Experiment 1 involved forward and backward digit recall. Experiment 2 used a standard immediate serial recall task where, contrary to the digit-span task, items (words) were not repeated from list to list. Hence, this task called more heavily on item memory. Experiment 3 tested short-term order memory with an order recognition test: Each word list was repeated with or without the position of 2 adjacent items swapped. The ASD group showed poorer performance in all 3 experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that group differences were due to memory for the order of the items, not to memory for the items themselves. Confirming these findings, the results of Experiment 3 showed that the ASD group had more difficulty detecting a change in the temporal sequence of the items. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Strategic verbal rehearsal in adolescents with mild intellectual disabilities: A multi-centre European study.

PubMed

Poloczek, Sebastian; Henry, Lucy A; Danielson, Henrik; Büttner, Gerhard; Mähler, Claudia; Messer, David J; Schuchardt, Kirsten; Molen, Mariët J van der

2016-11-01

There is a long-held view that verbal short-term memory problems of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) might be due to a deficit in verbal rehearsal. However, the evidence is inconclusive and word length effects as indicator of rehearsal have been criticised. The aim of this multi-site European study was to investigate verbal rehearsal in adolescents with mild ID (n=90) and a comparison group of typically developing children matched individually for mental age (MA, n=90). The investigation involved: (1) a word length experiment with non-verbal recall using pointing and (2) 'self-paced' inspection times to infer whether verbal strategies were utilised when memorising a set of pictorial items. The word length effect on recall did not interact with group, suggesting that adolescents with ID and MA comparisons used similar verbal strategies, possibly phonological recoding of picture names. The inspection time data suggested that high span individuals in both groups used verbal labelling or single item rehearsal on more demanding lists, as long named items had longer inspection times. The findings suggest that verbal strategy use is not specifically impaired in adolescents with mild ID and is mental age appropriate, supporting a developmental perspective. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Memory dysfunction and autonomic neuropathy in non-insulin-dependent (type 2) diabetic patients.

PubMed

Zaslavsky, L M; Gross, J L; Chaves, M L; Machado, R

1995-11-01

Considering the nervous system as a unit, it might be expected that diabetic patients with autonomic neuropathy could have a central abnormality expressed as cognitive dysfunction. To determine whether autonomic neuropathy is independently associated with cognitive dysfunction, we studied a cross-section of 20 non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients with autonomic neuropathy (14 males and six females; age (mean) = 60 + or - 1 years); 29 non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients without autonomic neuropathy (14 males and 15 females; age = 59 + or - 1 years) and 34 non-diabetic patients (10 males and 24 females; age = 58 + or - 1 years), matched by age, education and duration of disease. Cognitive function was evaluated by tests of immediate, recent and remote memory: verbal (digit span; word span) and visual (recognition of towers and famous faces). Diabetic patients with autonomic neuropathy scored (median) lower in visual memory tests than diabetic patients without autonomic neuropathy and controls (towers immediate = 5 versus 7 and 6; towers recent = 4 versus 6 and 6; faces = 16 versus 18 and 18; respectively; Kruskal-Wallis; P < 0.05). There was no difference in verbal memory performance (Kruskal-Wallis; P > 0.05). Entering age, education, duration of disease and fasting plasma glucose in a stepwise multiple regression, the performance in these tests remained associated with autonomic neuropathy (towers immediate, P = 0.0054, partial r2 = 0.166; towers recent, P = 0.0076, partial r2 = 0.163). Scores in visual tests correlated negatively with the number of abnormal cardiovascular tests (faces, r = -0.25; towers recent, r = -0.24; Spearman; P < 0.05). Decreased visual cognitive function in non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients is associated with the presence and degree of autonomic neuropathy.

Verbal memory outcome in patients with normal preoperative verbal memory and left mesial temporal sclerosis.

PubMed

LoGalbo, Anthony; Sawrie, Stephen; Roth, David L; Kuzniecky, Ruben; Knowlton, Robert; Faught, Edward; Martin, Roy

2005-05-01

Previous studies have shown that structural integrity (i.e., presence/absence of mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS)) of the left mesial temporal lobe is associated with verbal memory outcome following left anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL). However, the functional integrity of the left temporal lobe, as exemplified by preoperative verbal memory performance, has also been associated with verbal memory outcome following surgery. We investigated the risk of verbal memory loss in patients with known structural abnormality (i.e., left mesial temporal sclerosis by MRI) and normal preoperative verbal memory performance who undergo left ATL. Seventeen patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy, MRI-based exclusive left MTS, and normal preoperative verbal memory were identified. Normal verbal memory was defined as performance on both Acquisition (learning across trials 1-5) and Retrieval (long delayed free recall) portions of the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) above a T score of 40 (>16%ile). Postoperative verbal memory outcome was established by incorporating standardized regression-based (SRB) change scores. Postoperative declines across both CVLT Retrieval T scores and Acquisition T scores (average 20% and average 15% declines from baseline scores, respectively) were measured for the group. The average CVLT Retrieval SRB change score was -2.5, and the average CVLT Acquisition SRB change score was -1.0. A larger proportion of patients demonstrated postoperative declines on Retrieval scores than Acquisition scores (64.7% vs 17.6%, respectively). Even in the presence of left MTS, patients exhibiting normal presurgical verbal memory are at risk for verbal memory declines following ATL. These results suggest that the functional integrity of the left mesial temporal lobe may play an important role in the verbal memory outcome in this patient group.

Sensitivity of cognitive tests in four cognitive domains in discriminating MDD patients from healthy controls: a meta-analysis.

PubMed

Lim, JaeHyoung; Oh, In Kyung; Han, Changsu; Huh, Yu Jeong; Jung, In-Kwa; Patkar, Ashwin A; Steffens, David C; Jang, Bo-Hyoung

2013-09-01

We performed a meta-analysis in order to determine which neuropsychological domains and tasks would be most sensitive for discriminating between patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls. Relevant articles were identified through a literature search of the PubMed and Cochrane Library databases for the period between January 1997 and May 2011. A meta-analysis was conducted using the standardized means of individual cognitive tests in each domain. The heterogeneity was assessed, and subgroup analyses according to age and medication status were performed to explore the sources of heterogeneity. A total of 22 trials involving 955 MDD patients and 7,664 healthy participants were selected for our meta-analysis. MDD patients showed significantly impaired results compared with healthy participants on the Digit Span and Continuous Performance Test in the attention domain; the Trail Making Test A (TMT-A) and the Digit Symbol Test in the processing speed domain; the Stroop Test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and Verbal Fluency in the executive function domain; and immediate verbal memory in the memory domain. The Finger Tapping Task, TMT-B, delayed verbal memory, and immediate and delayed visual memory failed to separate MDD patients from healthy controls. The results of subgroup analysis showed that performance of Verbal Fluency was significantly impaired in younger depressed patients (<60 years), and immediate visual memory was significantly reduced in depressed patients using antidepressants. Our findings have inevitable limitations arising from methodological issues inherent in the meta-analysis and we could not explain high heterogeneity between studies. Despite such limitations, current study has the strength of being the first meta-analysis which tried to specify cognitive function of depressed patients compared with healthy participants. And our findings may provide clinicians with further evidences that some cognitive tests in specific cognitive domains have sensitivity to discriminate MDD patients from healthy controls.

Differential learning and memory performance in OEF/OIF veterans for verbal and visual material.

PubMed

Sozda, Christopher N; Muir, James J; Springer, Utaka S; Partovi, Diana; Cole, Michael A

2014-05-01

Memory complaints are particularly salient among veterans who experience combat-related mild traumatic brain injuries and/or trauma exposure, and represent a primary barrier to successful societal reintegration and everyday functioning. Anecdotally within clinical practice, verbal learning and memory performance frequently appears differentially reduced versus visual learning and memory scores. We sought to empirically investigate the robustness of a verbal versus visual learning and memory discrepancy and to explore potential mechanisms for a verbal/visual performance split. Participants consisted of 103 veterans with reported history of mild traumatic brain injuries returning home from U.S. military Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom referred for outpatient neuropsychological evaluation. Findings indicate that visual learning and memory abilities were largely intact while verbal learning and memory performance was significantly reduced in comparison, residing at approximately 1.1 SD below the mean for verbal learning and approximately 1.4 SD below the mean for verbal memory. This difference was not observed in verbal versus visual fluency performance, nor was it associated with estimated premorbid verbal abilities or traumatic brain injury history. In our sample, symptoms of depression, but not posttraumatic stress disorder, were significantly associated with reduced composite verbal learning and memory performance. Verbal learning and memory performance may benefit from targeted treatment of depressive symptomatology. Also, because visual learning and memory functions may remain intact, these might be emphasized when applying neurocognitive rehabilitation interventions to compensate for observed verbal learning and memory difficulties.

Cognitive features of psychotic states arising in late life (late paraphrenia).

PubMed

Almeida, O P; Howard, R J; Levy, R; David, A S; Morris, R G; Sahakian, B J

1995-07-01

The cognitive performance of 47 elderly psychotic patients with onset of symptoms in late life (late paraphrenia) was compared to that of 33 controls matched for age, sex, ethnic origin, number of years of education, and pre-morbid IQ as measured by the NART. Neuropsychological indices of general cognitive functioning (MMSE, CAMCOG, WAIS-R verbal and performance scores) showed that patients were performing the tasks at a significantly lower level than controls. Patients also showed a trend to have a lower span capacity than controls, particularly at the spatial span subtest. There was no obvious impairment of learning as measured by the digit and spatial recurring span tasks nor of simultaneous matching-to-sample ability. However, patients' performance on a delayed-matching-to-sample procedure was significantly worse than that of controls. In addition, patients performed worse than controls on the Recognition Memory Test for Faces, but not for Words. Finally, the performance of patients on tests assessing executive functioning (Verbal Fluency Test, Computerized Extra and Intra-Dimensional Shift Task, Computerized Spatial Working Memory Task, and Computerized Tower of London Task) was consistently worse than that of controls. These results suggest that psychotic states arising in late life are predominantly associated with a decline on measures of general cognitive ability and executive functioning. The neuropsychological meaning of these findings is discussed in the light of cognitive models of psychotic symptoms, as well as of schizophrenia and dementia research. We concluded that the lack of a clear pattern of impairment among these patients may be the result of their clinical and cognitive diversity.

[Effects of temporal lobe epilepsy and idiopathic epilepsy on cognitive function and emotion in children].

PubMed

Yang, Xiao-Yan; Long, Li-Li; Xiao, Bo

2016-07-01

To investigate the effects of temporal lobe epilepsy and idiopathic epilepsy on cognitive function and emotion in children and the risk factors for cognitive impairment. A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 38 children with temporal lobe epilepsy and 40 children with idiopathic epilepsy. The controls were 42 healthy children. All subjects received the following neuropsychological tests: Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scale, verbal fluency test, digit span test, block design test, Social Anxiety Scale for Children (SASC), and Depression Self-rating Scale for Children (DSRSC). Compared with the control group, the temporal lobe epilepsy and idiopathic epilepsy groups showed significantly lower scores of MoCA, verbal fluency, digit span, and block design (P<0.05) and significantly higher scores on SASC and DSRSC (P<0.05). Compared with the idiopathic epilepsy group, the temporal lobe epilepsy group showed significantly lower scores of MoCA, verbal fluency, digit span, and block design (P<0.05) and significantly higher scores on SASC and DSRSC (P<0.05). In the temporal lobe epilepsy group, MoCA score was negatively correlated with SASC score, DSRSC score, and seizure frequency (r=-0.571, -0.529, and -0.545 respectively; P<0.01). In the idiopathic epilepsy group, MoCA score was also negatively correlated with SASC score, DSRSC score, and seizure frequency (r=-0.542, -0.487, and -0.555 respectively; P<0.01). Children with temporal lobe epilepsy and idiopathic epilepsy show impaired whole cognition, verbal fluency, memory, and executive function and have anxiety and depression, which are more significant in children with temporal lobe epilepsy. High levels of anxiety, depression, and seizure frequency are risk factors for impaired cognitive function.

Contributions of Language and Memory Demands to Verbal Memory Performance in Language-Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Isaki, Emi; Spaulding, Tammie J.; Plante, Elena

2008-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of adults with language-based learning disorders (L/LD) and normal language controls on verbal short-term and verbal working memory tasks. Eighteen adults with L/LD and 18 normal language controls were compared on verbal short-term memory and verbal working memory tasks under low,…

Binge drinking during adolescence and young adulthood is associated with deficits in verbal episodic memory

PubMed Central

Cadaveira, Fernando; Caamaño-Isorna, Francisco; Rodríguez-Holguín, Socorro

2017-01-01

Binge drinking (BD), a harmful pattern of alcohol consumption, is common during adolescence. Young adults with alcohol use disorders exhibit hippocampal alterations and episodic memory deficits. However, it is not known how these difficulties progress in community BD adolescents. Our objective was to analyze the relationship between BD trajectory and verbal episodic memory during the developmental period spanning from adolescence and to early adulthood. An initial sample of 155 male and female first-year university students with no other risk factors were followed over six years. Participants were classified as stable non-BDs, stable BDs and ex-BDs according to the third AUDIT item. At baseline, participants comprised 36 ♂/ 40 ♀ non-BDs (18.58 years), 40 ♂/ 39 ♀ BDs (18.87 years), and at the third follow-up, they comprised 8 ♂/ 8 ♀ stable non-BDs (25.49 years), 2 ♂/ 2 ♀ stable BDs (25.40) and 8 ♂/ 12 ♀ ex-BDs (24.97 years). Episodic memory was assessed four times with the Logical Memory subtest (WMS-III) and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). Generalized linear mixed models were applied. The results showed that, relative to non-BDs, stable BDs presented difficulties in immediate and delayed recall in the Logical Memory subtest. These difficulties remained stable over time. The short-term ex-BDs continued to display difficulties in immediate and delayed recall in the Logical Memory subtest, but long-term ex-BDs did not. The effects were not influenced by age of alcohol onset, frequency of cannabis use, tobacco use or psychopathological distress. In conclusion, BD during adolescence and young adulthood is associated with episodic memory deficits. Abandoning the BD pattern may lead to partial recovery. These findings are consistent with the vulnerability of the adolescent hippocampus to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol. PMID:28152062

Cognitive impairments in poly-drug ketamine users.

PubMed

Liang, H J; Lau, C G; Tang, A; Chan, F; Ungvari, G S; Tang, W K

2013-11-01

Cognitive impairment has been found to be reversible in people with substance abuse, particularly those using ketamine. Ketamine users are often poly-substance users. This study compared the cognitive functions of current and former ketamine users who were also abusing other psychoactive substances with those of non-users of illicit drugs as controls. One hundred ketamine poly-drug users and 100 controls were recruited. Drug users were divided into current (n = 32) and ex-users (n = 64) according to the duration of abstinence from ketamine (>30 days). The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADSA) and the Severity of Dependence Scale (SDS) were used to evaluate depression and anxiety symptoms and the severity of drug use, respectively. The cognitive test battery comprised verbal memory (Wechsler Memory Scale III: Logic Memory and Word List), visual memory (Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure, ROCF), executive function (Stroop, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and Modified Verbal Fluency Test), working memory (Digit Span Backward), and general intelligence (Information, Arithmetic and Digit-Symbol Coding) tests. Current users had higher BDI and HADSA scores than ex-users (p < 0.001 for BDI and p = 0.022 for HADSA) and controls (p < 0.001 for BDI and p = 0.002 for HADSA). Ex-users had higher BDI (p = 0.006) but equal HADSA scores (p = 1.000) compared to controls. Both current and ex-users had lower scores on Logical Memory delayed recall (p = 0.038 for current users and p = 0.032 for ex-users) and ROCF delayed recall (p = 0.033 for current users and p = 0.014 for ex-users) than controls. Current users also performed worse on ROCF recognition than controls (p = 0.002). No difference was found between the cognitive functions of current and ex-users. Ketamine poly-drug users displayed predominantly verbal and visual memory impairments, which persisted in ex-users. The interactive effect of ketamine and poly-drug use on memory needs further investigation. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Binge drinking during adolescence and young adulthood is associated with deficits in verbal episodic memory.

PubMed

Carbia, Carina; Cadaveira, Fernando; Caamaño-Isorna, Francisco; Rodríguez-Holguín, Socorro; Corral, Montse

2017-01-01

Binge drinking (BD), a harmful pattern of alcohol consumption, is common during adolescence. Young adults with alcohol use disorders exhibit hippocampal alterations and episodic memory deficits. However, it is not known how these difficulties progress in community BD adolescents. Our objective was to analyze the relationship between BD trajectory and verbal episodic memory during the developmental period spanning from adolescence and to early adulthood. An initial sample of 155 male and female first-year university students with no other risk factors were followed over six years. Participants were classified as stable non-BDs, stable BDs and ex-BDs according to the third AUDIT item. At baseline, participants comprised 36 ♂/ 40 ♀ non-BDs (18.58 years), 40 ♂/ 39 ♀ BDs (18.87 years), and at the third follow-up, they comprised 8 ♂/ 8 ♀ stable non-BDs (25.49 years), 2 ♂/ 2 ♀ stable BDs (25.40) and 8 ♂/ 12 ♀ ex-BDs (24.97 years). Episodic memory was assessed four times with the Logical Memory subtest (WMS-III) and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). Generalized linear mixed models were applied. The results showed that, relative to non-BDs, stable BDs presented difficulties in immediate and delayed recall in the Logical Memory subtest. These difficulties remained stable over time. The short-term ex-BDs continued to display difficulties in immediate and delayed recall in the Logical Memory subtest, but long-term ex-BDs did not. The effects were not influenced by age of alcohol onset, frequency of cannabis use, tobacco use or psychopathological distress. In conclusion, BD during adolescence and young adulthood is associated with episodic memory deficits. Abandoning the BD pattern may lead to partial recovery. These findings are consistent with the vulnerability of the adolescent hippocampus to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol.

Visuospatial and verbal memory in mental arithmetic.

PubMed

Clearman, Jack; Klinger, Vojtěch; Szűcs, Dénes

2017-09-01

Working memory allows complex information to be remembered and manipulated over short periods of time. Correlations between working memory and mathematics achievement have been shown across the lifespan. However, only a few studies have examined the potentially distinct contributions of domain-specific visuospatial and verbal working memory resources in mental arithmetic computation. Here we aimed to fill this gap in a series of six experiments pairing addition and subtraction tasks with verbal and visuospatial working memory and interference tasks. In general, we found higher levels of interference between mental arithmetic and visuospatial working memory tasks than between mental arithmetic and verbal working memory tasks. Additionally, we found that interference that matched the working memory domain of the task (e.g., verbal task with verbal interference) lowered working memory performance more than mismatched interference (verbal task with visuospatial interference). Findings suggest that mental arithmetic relies on domain-specific working memory resources.

Influence of seasonal variation in mood and behavior on cognitive test performance among young adults.

PubMed

Merikanto, Ilona; Lahti, Tuuli; Castaneda, Anu E; Tuulio-Henriksson, Annamari; Aalto-Setälä, Terhi; Suvisaari, Jaana; Partonen, Timo

2012-10-01

Seasonal variations in mood and behavior are common among the general population and may have a deteriorating effect on cognitive functions. In this study the effect of seasonal affective disorder (SAD-like symptoms) on cognitive test performance were evaluated in more detail. The data were derived from the study Mental Health in Early Adulthood in Finland. Participants (n = 481) filled in a modified Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ) and performed cognitive tests in verbal and visual skills, attention and general intelligence. SAD-like symptoms, especially regarding the seasonal variations in weight and appetite, had a significant effect on working memory (Digit Span Backward, P = 0.008) and auditory attention and short-term memory (Digit Span Forward, P = 0.004). The seasonal variations in sleep duration and mood had an effect on auditory attention and short-term memory (Digit Span Forward, P = 0.02 and P = 0.0002, respectively). The seasonal variations in social activity and energy level had no effect. Seasonal changes in mood, appetite and weight have an impairing effect on auditory attention and processing speed. If performance tests are not to repeated in different seasons, attention needs to be given to the most appropriate season in which to test.

Measuring working memory capacity in children using adaptive tasks: Example validation of an adaptive complex span.

PubMed

Gonthier, Corentin; Aubry, Alexandre; Bourdin, Béatrice

2018-06-01

Working memory tasks designed for children usually present trials in order of ascending difficulty, with testing discontinued when the child fails a particular level. Unfortunately, this procedure comes with a number of issues, such as decreased engagement from high-ability children, vulnerability of the scores to temporary mind-wandering, and large between-subjects variations in number of trials, testing time, and proactive interference. To circumvent these problems, the goal of the present study was to demonstrate the feasibility of assessing working memory using an adaptive testing procedure. The principle of adaptive testing is to dynamically adjust the level of difficulty as the task progresses to match the participant's ability. We used this method to develop an adaptive complex span task (the ACCES) comprising verbal and visuo-spatial subtests. The task presents a fixed number of trials to all participants, allows for partial credit scoring, and can be used with children regardless of ability level. The ACCES demonstrated satisfying psychometric properties in a sample of 268 children aged 8-13 years, confirming the feasibility of using adaptive tasks to measure working memory capacity in children. A free-to-use implementation of the ACCES is provided.

Phonological, visual, and semantic coding strategies and children's short-term picture memory span.

PubMed

Henry, Lucy A; Messer, David; Luger-Klein, Scarlett; Crane, Laura

2012-01-01

Three experiments addressed controversies in the previous literature on the development of phonological and other forms of short-term memory coding in children, using assessments of picture memory span that ruled out potentially confounding effects of verbal input and output. Picture materials were varied in terms of phonological similarity, visual similarity, semantic similarity, and word length. Older children (6/8-year-olds), but not younger children (4/5-year-olds), demonstrated robust and consistent phonological similarity and word length effects, indicating that they were using phonological coding strategies. This confirmed findings initially reported by Conrad (1971), but subsequently questioned by other authors. However, in contrast to some previous research, little evidence was found for a distinct visual coding stage at 4 years, casting doubt on assumptions that this is a developmental stage that consistently precedes phonological coding. There was some evidence for a dual visual and phonological coding stage prior to exclusive use of phonological coding at around 5-6 years. Evidence for semantic similarity effects was limited, suggesting that semantic coding is not a key method by which young children recall lists of pictures.

Comparison of Cognitive Parameters Between Bilateral and Unilateral Hippocampal Sclerosis.

PubMed

Vanli Yavuz, Ebru Nur; Bilgiç, Başar; Matur, Zeliha; Bebek, Nerses; Gürses, Candan; Gökyiğit, Ayşen; Öktem, Öget; Baykan, Betül

2016-09-01

Recent studies showed that hippocampal sclerosis (HS) patients with unilateral involvement had more diffuse cognitive impairment than expected. Therefore, we aimed to compare the cognitive profiles of bilateral HS (BHS) patients with unilateral HS (UHS) patients. Consecutive patients, diagnosed with epilepsy, who fulfilled two major magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) criteria (T1 atrophy and T2-FLAIR hyperintensity) for HS were included. Standard neuro-psychological test (NPT) battery consisted of the Turkish version of 15-word verbal memory processes test, Wechsler memory scale visual reproduction subtest, forward and backward digit span, phonemic and semantic fluency, and Stroop test were applied; and the groups with right HS, left HS, and bilateral HS were compared statistically. Ninety-one patients, completing the NPT (34 males, 57 females)-16 with BHS, 36 with right HS, and 39 with left HS-were included. Six out of 43 operated patients had BHS. There were no significant differences in education and handedness of the groups. Even though NPT performances of the BHS group were found to be poor compared to UHS subgroups, this was beyond statistical significance. Comparison of BHS with the right HS group showed a significant difference in the learning score of the Verbal Memory Processes Test, but recognition scores were found to be similar in all groups. Compared to the BHS group, both right and left HS groups revealed a significant difference in delayed recall score of the Verbal Memory Processes Test. Although there were no significant differences in the postoperative parameters of the BHS group, UHS subgroups had deficits in many postoperative parameters. Our study revealed that bilateral involvement of the hippocampi was correlated with a poor cognitive performance. Retrieval failure, rather than a total recall problem, in the memory of the patients resembles a more diffuse involvement not only limited to limbic structures.

Persistence of Gender Related-Effects on Visuo-Spatial and Verbal Working Memory in Right Brain-Damaged Patients

PubMed Central

Piccardi, Laura; Matano, Alessandro; D’Antuono, Giovanni; Marin, Dario; Ciurli, Paola; Incoccia, Chiara; Verde, Paola; Guariglia, Paola

2016-01-01

The aim of the present study was to verify if gender differences in verbal and visuo-spatial working memory would persist following right cerebral lesions. To pursue our aim we investigated a large sample (n. 346) of right brain-damaged patients and healthy participants (n. 272) for the presence of gender effects in performing Corsi and Digit Test. We also assessed a subgroup of patients (n. 109) for the nature (active vs. passive) of working memory tasks. We tested working memory (WM) administering the Corsi Test (CBT) and the Digit Span (DS) using two different versions: forward (fCBT and fDS), subjects were required to repeat stimuli in the same order that they were presented; and backward (bCBT and bDS), subjects were required to repeat stimuli in the opposite order of presentation. In this way, passive storage and active processing of working memory were assessed. Our results showed the persistence of gender-related effects in spite of the presence of right brain lesions. We found that men outperformed women both in CBT and DS, regardless of active and passive processing of verbal and visuo-spatial stimuli. The presence of visuo-spatial disorders (i.e., hemineglect) can affect the performance on Corsi Test. In our sample, men and women were equally affected by hemineglect, therefore it did not mask the gender effect. Generally speaking, the persistence of the men’s superiority in visuo-spatial tasks may be interpreted as a protective factor, at least for men, within other life factors such as level of education or kind of profession before retirement. PMID:27445734

Comprehensive neurocognitive assessment of patients with anorexia nervosa.

PubMed

Phillipou, Andrea; Gurvich, Caroline; Castle, David Jonathan; Abel, Larry Allen; Rossell, Susan Lee

2015-12-22

To utilise a comprehensive cognitive battery to gain a better understanding of cognitive performance in anorexia nervosa (AN). Twenty-six individuals with AN and 27 healthy control participants matched for age, gender and premorbid intelligence, participated in the study. A standard cognitive battery, the Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia Consensus Cognitive Battery, was used to investigate performance on seven cognitive domains with the use of 10 different tasks: speed of processing [Brief Assessment Of Cognition In Schizophrenia: Symbol Coding, Category Fluency: Animal Naming (Fluency) and Trail Making Test: Part A], attention/vigilance [Continuous Performance Test - Identical Pairs (CPT-IP)], working memory [Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS(®)-III): Spatial Span, and Letter-Number Span (LNS)], verbal learning [Hopkins Verbal Learning Test - Revised], visual learning [Brief Visuospatial Memory Test - Revised], reasoning and problem solving [Neuropsychological Assessment Battery: Mazes], and social cognition [Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test: Managing Emotions]. Statistical analyses involved the use of multivariate and univariate analyses of variance. Analyses conducted on the cognitive domain scores revealed no overall significant difference between groups nor any interaction between group and domain score [F(1,45) = 0.73, P = 0.649]. Analyses conducted on each of the specific tasks within the cognitive domains revealed significantly slower reaction times for false alarm responses on the CPT-IP task in AN [F(1,51) = 12.80, P < 0.01, Cohen's d = 0.982] and a trend towards poorer performance in AN on the backward component of the WMS(®)-III Spatial Span task [F(1,51) = 5.88, P = 0.02, Cohen's d = -0.665]. The finding of slower reaction times of false alarm responses is, however, limited due to the small number of false alarm responses for either group. The findings are discussed in terms of poorer capacity to manipulate and process visuospatial material in AN.

Similar verbal memory impairments in schizophrenia and healthy aging. Implications for understanding of neural mechanisms.

PubMed

Silver, Henry; Bilker, Warren B

2015-03-30

Memory is impaired in schizophrenia patients but it is not clear whether this is specific to the illness and whether different types of memory (verbal and nonverbal) or memories in different cognitive domains (executive, object recognition) are similarly affected. To study relationships between memory impairments and schizophrenia we compared memory functions in 77 schizophrenia patients, 58 elderly healthy individuals and 41 young healthy individuals. Tests included verbal associative and logical memory and memory in executive and object recognition domains. We compared relationships of memory functions to each other and to other cognitive functions including psychomotor speed and verbal and spatial working memory. Compared to the young healthy group, schizophrenia patients and elderly healthy individuals showed similar severe impairment in logical memory and in the ability to learn new associations (NAL), and similar but less severe impairment in spatial working memory and executive and object memory. Verbal working memory was significantly more impaired in schizophrenia patients than in the healthy elderly. Verbal episodic memory impairment in schizophrenia may share common mechanisms with similar impairment in healthy aging. Impairment in verbal working memory in contrast may reflect mechanisms specific to schizophrenia. Study of verbal explicit memory impairment tapped by the NAL index may advance understanding of abnormal hippocampus dependent mechanisms common to schizophrenia and aging. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sustained attention failures are primarily due to sustained cognitive load not task monotony.

PubMed

Head, James; Helton, William S

2014-11-01

We conducted two studies using a modified sustained attention to response task (SART) to investigate the developmental process of SART performance and the role of cognitive load on performance when the speed-accuracy trade-off is controlled experimentally. In study 1, 23 participants completed the modified SART (target stimuli location was not predictable) and a subjective thought content questionnaire 4 times over the span of 4 weeks. As predicted, the influence of speed-accuracy trade-off was significantly mitigated on the modified SART by having target stimuli occur in unpredictable locations. In study 2, 21 of the 23 participants completed an abridged version of the modified SART with a verbal free-recall memory task. Participants performed significantly worse when completing the verbal memory task and SART concurrently. Overall, the results support a resource theory perspective with concern to errors being a result of limited mental resources and not simply mindlessness per se. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Enhancing Cognition with Video Games: A Multiple Game Training Study

PubMed Central

Oei, Adam C.; Patterson, Michael D.

2013-01-01

Background Previous evidence points to a causal link between playing action video games and enhanced cognition and perception. However, benefits of playing other video games are under-investigated. We examined whether playing non-action games also improves cognition. Hence, we compared transfer effects of an action and other non-action types that required different cognitive demands. Methodology/Principal Findings We instructed 5 groups of non-gamer participants to play one game each on a mobile device (iPhone/iPod Touch) for one hour a day/five days a week over four weeks (20 hours). Games included action, spatial memory, match-3, hidden- object, and an agent-based life simulation. Participants performed four behavioral tasks before and after video game training to assess for transfer effects. Tasks included an attentional blink task, a spatial memory and visual search dual task, a visual filter memory task to assess for multiple object tracking and cognitive control, as well as a complex verbal span task. Action game playing eliminated attentional blink and improved cognitive control and multiple-object tracking. Match-3, spatial memory and hidden object games improved visual search performance while the latter two also improved spatial working memory. Complex verbal span improved after match-3 and action game training. Conclusion/Significance Cognitive improvements were not limited to action game training alone and different games enhanced different aspects of cognition. We conclude that training specific cognitive abilities frequently in a video game improves performance in tasks that share common underlying demands. Overall, these results suggest that many video game-related cognitive improvements may not be due to training of general broad cognitive systems such as executive attentional control, but instead due to frequent utilization of specific cognitive processes during game play. Thus, many video game training related improvements to cognition may be attributed to near-transfer effects. PMID:23516504

Gender differences in post-temporal lobectomy verbal memory and relationships between MRI hippocampal volumes and preoperative verbal memory.

PubMed

Trenerry, M R; Jack, C R; Cascino, G D; Sharbrough, F W; Ivnik, R J

1995-01-01

Thirty-three men and 42 women who underwent left, and 26 men and 24 women who underwent right temporal lobectomy (TL) were studied retrospectively to determine if there were sex differences in (1) verbal memory outcome, and (2) relationships between verbal memory and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) hippocampal volumes. All patients were left hemisphere language dominant. The surgical specimen and MRI were consistent only with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS). Verbal memory was evaluated by Logical Memory percent retention (LMPER) from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R). Women experienced a significant improvement while men experienced a significant decline in postoperative LMPER. The difference between right and left hippocampal volumes predicted verbal memory outcome in both men and women. Preoperative LMPER was positively correlated with both the left and right hippocampal volumes in left TL women only. No verbal memory sex differences or correlations between LMPER and MRI data were found in the right TL group. The data support the presence of human neurocognitive sexual dimorphism. Verbal memory abilities supported by the hippocampus are less lateralized in women with left temporal lobe epilepsy and mesial temporal sclerosis. Women appear to have greater verbal memory plasticity following early left mesial temporal lobe insult.

Dissociable brain biomarkers of fluid intelligence.

PubMed

Paul, Erick J; Larsen, Ryan J; Nikolaidis, Aki; Ward, Nathan; Hillman, Charles H; Cohen, Neal J; Kramer, Arthur F; Barbey, Aron K

2016-08-15

Cognitive neuroscience has long sought to understand the biological foundations of human intelligence. Decades of research have revealed that general intelligence is correlated with two brain-based biomarkers: the concentration of the brain biochemical N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) measured by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and total brain volume measured using structural MR imaging (MRI). However, the relative contribution of these biomarkers in predicting performance on core facets of human intelligence remains to be well characterized. In the present study, we sought to elucidate the role of NAA and brain volume in predicting fluid intelligence (Gf). Three canonical tests of Gf (BOMAT, Number Series, and Letter Sets) and three working memory tasks (Reading, Rotation, and Symmetry span tasks) were administered to a large sample of healthy adults (n=211). We conducted exploratory factor analysis to investigate the factor structure underlying Gf independent from working memory and observed two Gf components (verbal/spatial and quantitative reasoning) and one working memory component. Our findings revealed a dissociation between two brain biomarkers of Gf (controlling for age and sex): NAA concentration correlated with verbal/spatial reasoning, whereas brain volume correlated with quantitative reasoning and working memory. A follow-up analysis revealed that this pattern of findings is observed for males and females when analyzed separately. Our results provide novel evidence that distinct brain biomarkers are associated with specific facets of human intelligence, demonstrating that NAA and brain volume are independent predictors of verbal/spatial and quantitative facets of Gf. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of Working Memory Capacity on Metacognitive Monitoring: A Study of Group Differences Using a Listening Span Test.

PubMed

Komori, Mie

2016-01-01

Monitoring is an executive function of working memory that serves to update novel information, focusing attention on task-relevant targets, and eliminating task-irrelevant noise. The present research used a verbal working memory task to examine how working memory capacity limits affect monitoring. Participants performed a Japanese listening span test that included maintenance of target words and listening comprehension. On each trial, participants responded to the target word and then immediately estimated confidence in recall performance for that word (metacognitive judgment). The results confirmed significant differences in monitoring accuracy between high and low capacity groups in a multi-task situation. That is, confidence judgments were superior in high vs. low capacity participants in terms of absolute accuracy and discrimination. The present research further investigated how memory load and interference affect underestimation of successful recall. The results indicated that the level of memory load that reduced word recall performance and led to an underconfidence bias varied according to participants' memory capacity. In addition, irrelevant information associated with incorrect true/ false decisions (secondary task) and word recall within the current trial impaired monitoring accuracy in both participant groups. These findings suggest that interference from unsuccessful decisions only influences low, but not high, capacity participants. Therefore, monitoring accuracy, which requires high working memory capacity, improves metacognitive abilities by inhibiting task-irrelevant noise and focusing attention on detecting task-relevant targets or useful retrieval cues, which could improve actual cognitive performance.

WISC-III cognitive profiles in children with developmental dyslexia: specific cognitive disability and diagnostic utility.

PubMed

Moura, Octávio; Simões, Mário R; Pereira, Marcelino

2014-02-01

This study analysed the usefulness of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition in identifying specific cognitive impairments that are linked to developmental dyslexia (DD) and the diagnostic utility of the most common profiles in a sample of 100 Portuguese children (50 dyslexic and 50 normal readers) between the ages of 8 and 12 years. Children with DD exhibited significantly lower scores in the Verbal Comprehension Index (except the Vocabulary subtest), Freedom from Distractibility Index (FDI) and Processing Speed Index subtests, with larger effect sizes than normal readers in Information, Arithmetic and Digit Span. The Verbal-Performance IQs discrepancies, Bannatyne pattern and the presence of FDI; Arithmetic, Coding, Information and Digit Span subtests (ACID) and Symbol Search, Coding, Arithmetic and Digit Span subtests (SCAD) profiles (full or partial) in the lowest subtests revealed a low diagnostic utility. However, the receiver operating characteristic curve and the optimal cut-off score analyses of the composite ACID; FDI and SCAD profiles scores showed moderate accuracy in correctly discriminating dyslexic readers from normal ones. These results suggested that in the context of a comprehensive assessment, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition provides some useful information about the presence of specific cognitive disabilities in DD. Practitioner Points. Children with developmental dyslexia revealed significant deficits in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition subtests that rely on verbal abilities, processing speed and working memory. The composite Arithmetic, Coding, Information and Digit Span subtests (ACID); Freedom from Distractibility Index and Symbol Search, Coding, Arithmetic and Digit Span subtests (SCAD) profile scores showed moderate accuracy in correctly discriminating dyslexics from normal readers. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition may provide some useful information about the presence of specific cognitive disabilities in developmental dyslexia. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Vitamin D and executive functioning: Are higher levels better?

PubMed

Pettersen, Jacqueline A

2016-01-01

Insufficiency of 25-hydroxyvitamin D has been associated with cognitive impairment, particularly worse executive functioning. However, it remains unclear whether supratherapeutic levels (≥100 nmol L(-1)) are associated with even better performance than sufficient levels (defined as ≥50 nmol L(-1) or even ≥75 nmol L(-1)). The current investigation sought to examine this question. Healthy adults (n = 142) were tested on four measures of executive functioning, including verbal fluency, digit span backward, CANTAB® Spatial Working Memory, and One Touch Stockings of Cambridge. A measure of attention (digit span forward) and memory (CANTAB® Verbal Recognition) were also assessed. Based on blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels, participants were divided into four groups: insufficient (<50 nmol L(-1)), low sufficient (50 to <75 nmol L(-1)), high sufficient (75 to <100 nmol L(-1)), and supratherapeutic (≥100 nmol L(-1)). Relationships between vitamin D status and cognition were assessed by analyses of covariance and hierarchical multiple regression, adjusted for age, education, sex, body mass index, mood, and physical activity level. Multivariate regression spline analyses were utilized to investigate nonlinearity. Performance on verbal fluency, but not other measures, differed by vitamin D status, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), F(3, 127) = 2.70, p = .048; d = 0.50. Specifically, participants with supratherapeutic levels provided a greater number of words (M = 16.1, SE = 1.0) than those with insufficient (M = 12.0, SE = 1.0; p = .007, d = 0.78), low (M = 13.4, SE = 0.7; p = .026, d = 0.51), and high sufficient levels (M = 13.9, SE = 0.9; p = .080, d = 0.42). Similarly, vitamin D status was a significant independent predictor of verbal fluency (p = .025, d = 0.40). Spline analyses revealed that there is a positive, near-linear association between verbal fluency and 25(OH)D levels up to and exceeding 100 nmol L(-1). Supratherapeutic levels of vitamin D were associated with significantly better performance on verbal fluency. Importantly, commonly used cutoff levels and sufficiency categories have been based on bone health and optimal levels for cognition are unknown. These findings suggest that levels exceeding 100 nmol L(-1) may be optimal for at least some aspects of executive functioning.

Assessing neurocognitive function in psychiatric disorders: A roadmap for enhancing consensus

PubMed Central

Ahmari, Susanne E.; Eich, Teal; Cebenoyan, Deniz; Smith, Edward E.; Simpson, H. Blair

2014-01-01

It has been challenging to identify core neurocognitive deficits that are consistent across multiple studies in patients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). In turn, this leads to difficulty in translating findings from human studies into animal models to dissect pathophysiology. In this article, we use primary data from a working memory task in OCD patients to illustrate this issue. Working memory deficiencies have been proposed as an explanatory model for the evolution of checking compulsions in a subset of OCD patients. However, findings have been mixed due to variability in task design, examination of spatial vs. verbal working memory, and heterogeneity in patient populations. Two major questions therefore remain: first, do OCD patients have disturbances in working memory? Second, if there are working memory deficits in OCD, do they cause checking compulsions?. In order to investigate these questions, we tested 19 unmedicated OCD patients and 23 matched healthy controls using a verbal working memory task that has increased difficulty/task-load compared to classic digit-span tasks. OCD patients did not significantly differ in their performance on this task compared to healthy controls, regardless of the outcome measure used (i.e. reaction time or accuracy). Exploratory analyses suggest that a subset of patients with predominant doubt/checking symptoms may have decreased memory confidence despite normal performance on trials with the highest working memory load. These results suggest that other etiologic factors for checking compulsions should be considered. In addition, they serve as a touchstone for discussion, and therefore help us to generate a roadmap for increasing consensus in the assessment of neurocognitive function in psychiatric disorders. PMID:24994503

Processing speed and visuospatial executive function predict visual working memory ability in older adults.

PubMed

Brown, Louise A; Brockmole, James R; Gow, Alan J; Deary, Ian J

2012-01-01

BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Visual working memory (VWM) has been shown to be particularly age sensitive. Determining which measures share variance with this cognitive ability in older adults may help to elucidate the key factors underlying the effects of aging. Predictors of VWM (measured by a modified Visual Patterns Test) were investigated in a subsample (N = 44, mean age = 73) of older adults from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936; Deary et al., 2007 , BMC Geriatrics, 7, 28). Childhood intelligence (Moray House Test) and contemporaneous measures of processing speed (four-choice reaction time), executive function (verbal fluency; block design), and spatial working memory (backward spatial span), were assessed as potential predictors. All contemporaneous measures except verbal fluency were significantly associated with VWM, and processing speed had the largest effect size (r = -.53, p < .001). In linear regression analysis, even after adjusting for childhood intelligence, processing speed and the executive measure associated with visuospatial organization accounted for 35% of the variance in VWM. Processing speed may affect VWM performance in older adults via speed of encoding and/or rate of rehearsal, while executive resources specifically associated with visuospatial material are also important.

Role of sleep continuity and total sleep time in executive function across the adult lifespan.

PubMed

Wilckens, Kristine A; Woo, Sarah G; Kirk, Afton R; Erickson, Kirk I; Wheeler, Mark E

2014-09-01

The importance of sleep for cognition in young adults is well established, but the role of habitual sleep behavior in cognition across the adult life span remains unknown. We examined the relationship between sleep continuity and total sleep time as assessed with a sleep-detection device, and cognitive performance using a battery of tasks in young (n = 59, mean age = 23.05) and older (n = 53, mean age = 62.68) adults. Across age groups, higher sleep continuity was associated with better cognitive performance. In the younger group, higher sleep continuity was associated with better working memory and inhibitory control. In the older group, higher sleep continuity was associated with better inhibitory control, memory recall, and verbal fluency. Very short and very long total sleep time was associated with poorer working memory and verbal fluency, specifically in the younger group. Total sleep time was not associated with cognitive performance in any domains for the older group. These findings reveal that sleep continuity is important for executive function in both young and older adults, but total sleep time may be more important for cognition in young adults. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Correlation of MRI Visual Scales with Neuropsychological Profile in Mild Cognitive Impairment of Parkinson's Disease.

PubMed

Vasconcellos, Luiz Felipe; Pereira, João Santos; Adachi, Marcelo; Greca, Denise; Cruz, Manuela; Malak, Ana Lara; Charchat-Fichman, Helenice; Spitz, Mariana

2017-01-01

Few studies have evaluated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) visual scales in Parkinson's disease-Mild Cognitive Impairment (PD-MCI). We selected 79 PD patients and 92 controls (CO) to perform neurologic and neuropsychological evaluation. Brain MRI was performed to evaluate the following scales: Global Cortical Atrophy (GCA), Fazekas, and medial temporal atrophy (MTA). The analysis revealed that both PD groups (amnestic and nonamnestic) showed worse performance on several tests when compared to CO. Memory, executive function, and attention impairment were more severe in amnestic PD-MCI group. Overall analysis of frequency of MRI visual scales by MCI subtype did not reveal any statistically significant result. Statistically significant inverse correlation was observed between GCA scale and Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), semantic verbal fluency, Stroop test, figure memory test, trail making test (TMT) B, and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). The MTA scale correlated with Stroop test and Fazekas scale with figure memory test, digit span, and Stroop test according to the subgroup evaluated. Visual scales by MRI in MCI should be evaluated by cognitive domain and might be more useful in more severely impaired MCI or dementia patients.

Discriminant cognitive factors in responder and non-responder patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Stip, E; Lussier, I; Ngan, E; Mendrek, A; Liddle, P

1999-12-01

To identify which improvements in cognitive function are associated with symptom resolution in schizophrenic patients treated with atypical antipsychotics. a prospective open trial with atypical neuroleptics (risperidone, clozapine, quetiapine). Inpatient and outpatient units, Institute of Psychiatry. Thirty-nine patients with schizophrenia according to DSM-IV criteria were included. Clinical and cognitive assessment were done at baseline (T0) and again after six months of treatment (T2). Twenty-five patients completed the trial. New-generation antipsychotics during six months. Patients were considered as responders if their PANSS score decreased at least 20% (n = 15) and non-responders if it did not (n = 10). a computerized cognitive assessment comprised tests of short-term-memory (digit span), explicit long-term memory (word pair learning), divided attention, selective attention and verbal fluency (orthographic and semantic). Clinical assessment included PANSS and ESRS. A discriminant function analysis was performed to determine which changes in cognitive performance predicted symptomatic response status. Semantic fluency and orthographic fluency were significant predictors. Together they correctly predicted responder status in 88% of cases. Memory was not a significant predictor of symptomatic response. Verbal fluency discriminated the responder from the non-responder group during a pharmacological treatment.

Content-specificity in verbal recall: a randomized controlled study.

PubMed

Zirk-Sadowski, Jan; Szucs, Denes; Holmes, Joni

2013-01-01

In this controlled experiment we examined whether there are content effects in verbal short-term memory and working memory for verbal stimuli. Thirty-seven participants completed forward and backward digit and letter recall tasks, which were constructed to control for distance effects between stimuli. A maximum-likelihood mixed-effects logistic regression revealed main effects of direction of recall (forward vs backward) and content (digits vs letters). There was an interaction between type of recall and content, in which the recall of digits was superior to the recall of letters in verbal short-term memory but not in verbal working memory. These results demonstrate that the recall of information from verbal short-term memory is content-specific, whilst the recall of information from verbal working memory is content-general.

Comparison of adult age differences in verbal and visuo-spatial memory: the importance of 'pure', parallel and validated measures.

PubMed

Kemps, Eva; Newson, Rachel

2006-04-01

The study compared age-related decrements in verbal and visuo-spatial memory across a broad elderly adult age range. Twenty-four young (18-25 years), 24 young-old (65-74 years), 24 middle-old (75-84 years) and 24 old-old (85-93 years) adults completed parallel recall and recognition measures of verbal and visuo-spatial memory from the Doors and People Test (Baddeley, Emslie & Nimmo-Smith, 1994). These constituted 'pure' and validated indices of either verbal or visuo-spatial memory. Verbal and visuo-spatial memory declined similarly with age, with a steeper decline in recall than recognition. Unlike recognition memory, recall performance also showed a heightened decline after the age of 85. Age-associated memory loss in both modalities was largely due to working memory and executive function. Processing speed and sensory functioning (vision, hearing) made minor contributions to memory performance and age differences in it. Together, these findings demonstrate common, rather than differential, age-related effects on verbal and visuo-spatial memory. They also emphasize the importance of using 'pure', parallel and validated measures of verbal and visuo-spatial memory in memory ageing research.

A Comparison of Two FMRI Methods for Predicting Verbal Memory Decline After Left Temporal Lobectomy: Language Lateralization vs. Hippocampal Activation Asymmetry

PubMed Central

Binder, Jeffrey R.; Swanson, Sara J.; Sabsevitz, David S.; Hammeke, Thomas A.; Raghavan, Manoj; Mueller, Wade M.

2010-01-01

Purpose Language lateralization measured by preoperative fMRI was shown recently to be predictive of verbal memory outcome in patients undergoing left anterior temporal lobe (L-ATL) resection. The aim of this study was to determine whether language lateralization or hippocampal activation asymmetry is a better predictor of memory outcome in this setting. Methods Thirty L-ATL patients underwent preoperative language fMRI, preoperative hippocampal fMRI using a scene encoding task, and pre- and postoperative neuropsychological testing. A group of 37 right ATL surgery patients who underwent the same testing procedures was included for comparison. Results Verbal memory decline occurred in roughly half of the L-ATL patients. Preoperative language lateralization was correlated with postoperative verbal memory change. Hippocampal activation asymmetry was strongly related to side of seizure focus and to Wada memory asymmetry but was unrelated to verbal memory outcome. Discussion Preoperative hippocampal activation asymmetry elicited by a scene encoding task is not predictive of verbal memory outcome. Risk of verbal memory decline is likely to be related to lateralization of material-specific verbal memory networks, which are more closely correlated with language lateralization than with overall asymmetry of episodic memory processes. PMID:19817807

Verbal and non-verbal memory and hippocampal volumes in a memory clinic population.

PubMed

Bonner-Jackson, Aaron; Mahmoud, Shamseldeen; Miller, Justin; Banks, Sarah J

2015-10-15

Better characterization of the relationship between episodic memory and hippocampal volumes is crucial in early detection of neurodegenerative disease. We examined these relationships in a memory clinic population. Participants (n = 226) underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging and tests of verbal (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised, HVLT-R) and non-verbal (Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised, BVMT-R) memory. Correlational analyses were performed, and analyses on clinical subgroups (i.e., amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment, non-amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment, probable Alzheimer's disease, intact memory) were conducted. Positive associations were identified between bilateral hippocampal volumes and both memory measures, and BVMT-R learning slope was more strongly positively associated with hippocampal volumes than HVLT-R learning slope. Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) participants showed specific positive associations between BVMT-R performance and hippocampal volumes bilaterally. Additionally, analyses of the aMCI group showed trend-level evidence of material-specific lateralization, such that retention of verbal information was positively associated with left hippocampal volume, whereas learning curve and retention of non-verbal information was positively associated with right hippocampal volume. Findings support the link between episodic memory and hippocampal volumes in a memory clinic population. Non-verbal memory measures also may have higher diagnostic value, particularly in individuals at elevated risk for Alzheimer's disease.

Sex differences in episodic memory: the impact of verbal and visuospatial ability.

PubMed

Herlitz, A; Airaksinen, E; Nordström, E

1999-10-01

The impact of verbal and visuospatial ability on sex differences in episodic memory was investigated. One hundred men and 100 women, 2040 years old, participated in a series of verbal and visuospatial tasks. Episodic memory was assessed in tasks that, to a greater or lesser extent, were verbal or visuospatial in nature. Results showed that women excelled in verbal production tasks and that men performed at a superior level on a mental rotation task. In addition, women tended to perform at a higher level than men on most episodic memory tasks. Taken together, the results demonstrated that (a) women perform at a higher level than men on most verbal episodic memory tasks and on some episodic memory tasks with a visuospatial component, and (b) women's higher performance on episodic memory tasks cannot fully be explained by their superior performance on verbal production tasks.

Cognitive adverse events of topiramate in patients with epilepsy and intellectual disability.

PubMed

Brandt, Christian; Lahr, Denise; May, Theodor W

2015-04-01

Topiramate (TPM) is an effective antiepileptic drug (AED). A high proportion of patients, however, experiences cognitive adverse events (CAEs), especially in verbal fluency, memory spans, and working memory. To our knowledge, CAEs of TPM have not been studied systematically in patients with intellectual disability (ID). This may be due to the fact that many of those patients are not able to follow test instructions properly and that neuropsychological instruments are not validated for that group. Cognitive deterioration in patients with ID may thus easily be overlooked. Topiramate is in frequent use in persons with ID. We included 26 consecutive patients with epilepsy and ID in this observational study who had undergone neuropsychological examinations as part of clinical routine before and after the introduction of TPM into the therapeutic regimen (n=4) or before and after the withdrawal of TPM (n=22). Examinations under TPM showed reduced cognitive speed, reduced verbal memory, reduced verbal fluency, and reduced flexibility compared to examinations without TPM. Despite some limitations (especially small sample size, high interindividual variation of the results dependent on the degree of ID, effects of other - limited - changes in the therapeutic regimen), our study indicates that TPM in persons with epilepsy and ID may lead to CAEs comparable to those in persons with normal intelligence. Neuropsychological testing is mandatory in order not to miss CAEs that might severely impair quality of life. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Predictors of verbal memory decline following temporal lobe surgery].

PubMed

de Vanssay-Maigne, A; Boutin, M; Baudoin-Chial, S

2008-05-01

Verbal memory decline can occur after temporal lobe surgery, especially when the left dominant hemisphere is involved. This potential functional risk must be evaluated before surgery. Among all factors that have been identified by several studies, the side of surgery (left dominant) and high baseline memory performance have been found to be predictive of verbal memory decline. Other factors such as etiology, sex, age at surgery, age at seizure onset, and duration may influence memory decline, but the results are not clear. Our purpose was to identify, in our population of patients and among all risk factors, those that may be predictive of verbal memory decline. Logistic regression was used to examine the effect of each factor on the postoperative verbal memory index (WMS-R) in 101 patients who underwent a right (n=49) or left (n=52) anterior temporal lobe resection. In the group as a whole, 22 % of the patients demonstrated verbal memory decline of more than one standard deviation. The verbal memory decline was significantly related to surgery on the left side and a high level of verbal memory performance. These factors were significant predictors of decline. The other factors (etiology, sex, age at surgery, age at seizure onset, and duration) were not found to be predictive of this decline. Our analysis demonstrates that the patients who are most at risk of undergoing verbal memory deterioration are those who undergo left-sided temporal resection and have good memory scores preoperatively. The contradictions found in the literature about the other factors could be explained by the diversity of the tests and criteria used to assess memory decline.

How linguistic closure and verbal working memory relate to speech recognition in noise--a review.

PubMed

Besser, Jana; Koelewijn, Thomas; Zekveld, Adriana A; Kramer, Sophia E; Festen, Joost M

2013-06-01

The ability to recognize masked speech, commonly measured with a speech reception threshold (SRT) test, is associated with cognitive processing abilities. Two cognitive factors frequently assessed in speech recognition research are the capacity of working memory (WM), measured by means of a reading span (Rspan) or listening span (Lspan) test, and the ability to read masked text (linguistic closure), measured by the text reception threshold (TRT). The current article provides a review of recent hearing research that examined the relationship of TRT and WM span to SRTs in various maskers. Furthermore, modality differences in WM capacity assessed with the Rspan compared to the Lspan test were examined and related to speech recognition abilities in an experimental study with young adults with normal hearing (NH). Span scores were strongly associated with each other, but were higher in the auditory modality. The results of the reviewed studies suggest that TRT and WM span are related to each other, but differ in their relationships with SRT performance. In NH adults of middle age or older, both TRT and Rspan were associated with SRTs in speech maskers, whereas TRT better predicted speech recognition in fluctuating nonspeech maskers. The associations with SRTs in steady-state noise were inconclusive for both measures. WM span was positively related to benefit from contextual information in speech recognition, but better TRTs related to less interference from unrelated cues. Data for individuals with impaired hearing are limited, but larger WM span seems to give a general advantage in various listening situations.

How Linguistic Closure and Verbal Working Memory Relate to Speech Recognition in Noise—A Review

PubMed Central

Koelewijn, Thomas; Zekveld, Adriana A.; Kramer, Sophia E.; Festen, Joost M.

2013-01-01

The ability to recognize masked speech, commonly measured with a speech reception threshold (SRT) test, is associated with cognitive processing abilities. Two cognitive factors frequently assessed in speech recognition research are the capacity of working memory (WM), measured by means of a reading span (Rspan) or listening span (Lspan) test, and the ability to read masked text (linguistic closure), measured by the text reception threshold (TRT). The current article provides a review of recent hearing research that examined the relationship of TRT and WM span to SRTs in various maskers. Furthermore, modality differences in WM capacity assessed with the Rspan compared to the Lspan test were examined and related to speech recognition abilities in an experimental study with young adults with normal hearing (NH). Span scores were strongly associated with each other, but were higher in the auditory modality. The results of the reviewed studies suggest that TRT and WM span are related to each other, but differ in their relationships with SRT performance. In NH adults of middle age or older, both TRT and Rspan were associated with SRTs in speech maskers, whereas TRT better predicted speech recognition in fluctuating nonspeech maskers. The associations with SRTs in steady-state noise were inconclusive for both measures. WM span was positively related to benefit from contextual information in speech recognition, but better TRTs related to less interference from unrelated cues. Data for individuals with impaired hearing are limited, but larger WM span seems to give a general advantage in various listening situations. PMID:23945955

Negative attitude towards medication is associated with working memory impairment in schizophrenia patients.

PubMed

Goodman, Craig; Knoll, Gabriella; Isakov, Victoria; Silver, Henry

2005-03-01

A lack of insight into illness and negative attitudes towards medication are common among individuals with schizophrenia and impact clinical outcomes. This study aimed to examine the relationships between attitudes towards medication and cognitive function in schizophrenia patients. Thirty-five male forensic inpatients who were suffering from chronic schizophrenia participated in the study. A drug attitude inventory was used to evaluate the attitudes of the patients towards medication. Neuropsychological function was assessed with a comprehensive battery of tests. Patients with positive attitudes towards medication performed significantly better than those with negative attitudes on tests of verbal working memory (digit span forwards and backwards), inhibition and set shifting (Penn Inhibition test), delayed object memory and overall mental status (Mini Mental State Examination). There were no differences in age, education, hospitalizations or clinical symptoms between the groups. Our findings support an association between negative attitudes towards medication and poor cognitive performance, particularly of working memory.

Differences in Memory Functioning between Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and/or Focal Epilepsy

PubMed Central

Lee, Sylvia E.; Kibby, Michelle Y.; Cohen, Morris J.; Stanford, Lisa; Park, Yong; Strickland, Suzanne

2016-01-01

Prior research has shown that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and epilepsy are frequently comorbid and that both disorders are associated with various attention and memory problems. Nonetheless, limited research has been conducted comparing the two disorders in one sample to determine unique versus shared deficits. Hence, we investigated differences in working memory and short-term and delayed recall between children with ADHD, focal epilepsy of mixed foci, comorbid ADHD/epilepsy and controls. Participants were compared on the Core subtests and the Picture Locations subtest of the Children’s Memory Scale (CMS). Results indicated that children with ADHD displayed intact verbal working memory and long-term memory (LTM), as well as intact performance on most aspects of short-term memory (STM). They performed worse than controls on Numbers Forward and Picture Locations, suggesting problems with focused attention and simple span for visual-spatial material. Conversely, children with epilepsy displayed poor focused attention and STM regardless of modality assessed, which affected encoding into LTM. The only loss over time was found for passages (Stories). Working memory was intact. Children with comorbid ADHD/epilepsy displayed focused attention and STM/LTM problems consistent with both disorders, having the lowest scores across the four groups. Hence, focused attention and visual-spatial span appear to be affected in both disorders, whereas additional STM/encoding problems are specific to epilepsy. Children with comorbid ADHD/epilepsy have deficits consistent with both disorders, with slight additive effects. This study suggests that attention and memory testing should be a regular part of the evaluation of children with epilepsy and ADHD. PMID:26156331

Verbal memory impairment after left insular cortex infarction

PubMed Central

Manes, F.; Springer, J.; Jorge, R.; Robinson, R.

1999-01-01

PET studies have shown an association between changes in blood flow in the insular cortex and verbal memory. This study compared verbal memory profiles between a group of four right handed patients with right insular infarction and a group of six right handed patients with left insular infarction. Patient groups were comparable in age, education, and sex. Patients were administered memory tests about 4-8 weeks poststroke. Patients with left insular lesions showed significantly poorer immediate and delayed verbal memory as measured by story A of the WMS-R logical memory I (t=−2.73, p<0.03) and logical memory II (t=−4.1, p<0.004) subtests as well as the CERAD word list memory (delayed recall) (t=−2.4, p<0.05). These findings indicate that left insular damage is associated with poorer performance on verbal memory tasks. The findings suggest that the insula may be part of a functional network that mediates verbal memory.

 PMID:10486407

Narrative abilities, memory and attention in children with a specific language impairment.

PubMed

Duinmeijer, Iris; de Jong, Jan; Scheper, Annette

2012-01-01

While narrative tasks have proven to be valid measures for detecting language disorders, measuring communicative skills and predicting future academic performance, research into the comparability of different narrative tasks has shown that outcomes are dependent on the type of task used. Although many of the studies detecting task differences touch upon the fact that tasks place differential demands on cognitive abilities like auditory attention and memory, few studies have related specific narrative tasks to these cognitive abilities. Examining this relation is especially warranted for children with specific language impairment (SLI), who are characterized by language problems, but often have problems in other cognitive domains as well. In the current research, a comparison was made between a story retelling task (The Bus Story) and a story generation task (The Frog Story) in a group of children with SLI (n= 34) and a typically developing group (n= 38) from the same age range. In addition to the two narrative tasks, sustained auditory attention (TEA-Ch) and verbal working memory (WISC digit span and the Dutch version of the CVLT-C word list recall) were measured. Correlations were computed between the narrative, the memory and the attention scores. A group comparison showed that the children with SLI scored significantly worse than the typically developing children on several narrative measures as well as on sustained auditory attention and verbal working memory. A within-subjects comparison of the scores on the two narrative tasks showed a contrast between the tasks on several narrative measures. Furthermore, correlational analyses showed that, on the level of plot structure, the story generation task correlated with sustained auditory attention, while the story retelling task correlated with word list recall. Mean length of utterance (MLU) on the other hand correlated with digit span but not with sustained auditory attention. While children with SLI have problems with narratives in general, their performance is also dependent on the specific elicitation task used for research or diagnostics. Various narrative tasks generate different scores and are differentially correlated to cognitive skills like attention and memory, making the selection of a given task crucial in the clinical setting. © 2012 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

The irrelevant speech effect and working memory load.

PubMed

Gisselgård, Jens; Petersson, Karl Magnus; Ingvar, Martin

2004-07-01

Irrelevant speech impairs the immediate serial recall of visually presented material. Previously, we have shown that the irrelevant speech effect (ISE) was associated with a relative decrease of regional blood flow in cortical regions subserving the verbal working memory, in particular the superior temporal cortex. In this extension of the previous study, the working memory load was increased and an increased activity as a response to irrelevant speech was noted in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. We suggest that the two studies together provide some basic insights as to the nature of the irrelevant speech effect. Firstly, no area in the brain can be ascribed as the single locus of the irrelevant speech effect. Instead, the functional neuroanatomical substrate to the effect can be characterized in terms of changes in networks of functionally interrelated areas. Secondly, the areas that are sensitive to the irrelevant speech effect are also generically activated by the verbal working memory task itself. Finally, the impact of irrelevant speech and related brain activity depends on working memory load as indicated by the differences between the present and the previous study. From a brain perspective, the irrelevant speech effect may represent a complex phenomenon that is a composite of several underlying mechanisms, which depending on the working memory load, include top-down inhibition as well as recruitment of compensatory support and control processes. We suggest that, in the low-load condition, a selection process by an inhibitory top-down modulation is sufficient, whereas in the high-load condition, at or above working memory span, auxiliary adaptive cognitive resources are recruited as compensation. Copyright 2004 Elsevier Inc.

The Contributions of Memory and Vocabulary to Non-Verbal Ability Scores in Adolescents with Intellectual Disability

PubMed Central

Mungkhetklang, Chantanee; Bavin, Edith L.; Crewther, Sheila G.; Goharpey, Nahal; Parsons, Carl

2016-01-01

It is usually assumed that performance on non-verbal intelligence tests reflects visual cognitive processing and that aspects of working memory (WM) will be involved. However, the unique contribution of memory to non-verbal scores is not clear, nor is the unique contribution of vocabulary. Thus, we aimed to investigate these contributions. Non-verbal test scores for 17 individuals with intellectual disability (ID) and 39 children with typical development (TD) of similar mental age were compared to determine the unique contribution of visual and verbal short-term memory (STM) and WM and the additional variance contributed by vocabulary scores. No significant group differences were found in the non-verbal test scores or receptive vocabulary scores, but there was a significant difference in expressive vocabulary. Regression analyses indicate that for the TD group STM and WM (both visual and verbal) contributed similar variance to the non-verbal scores. For the ID group, visual STM and verbal WM contributed most of the variance to the non-verbal test scores. The addition of vocabulary scores to the model contributed greater variance for both groups. More unique variance was contributed by vocabulary than memory for the TD group, whereas for the ID group memory contributed more than vocabulary. Visual and auditory memory and vocabulary contributed significantly to solving visual non-verbal problems for both the TD group and the ID group. However, for each group, there were different weightings of these variables. Our findings indicate that for individuals with TD, vocabulary is the major factor in solving non-verbal problems, not memory, whereas for adolescents with ID, visual STM, and verbal WM are more influential than vocabulary, suggesting different pathways to achieve solutions to non-verbal problems. PMID:28082922

The effect of shunt surgery on neuropsychological performance in normal pressure hydrocephalus: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Peterson, Katie A; Savulich, George; Jackson, Dan; Killikelly, Clare; Pickard, John D; Sahakian, Barbara J

2016-08-01

We conducted a systematic review of the literature and used meta-analytic techniques to evaluate the impact of shunt surgery on neuropsychological performance in patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). Twenty-three studies with 1059 patients were identified for review using PubMed, Web of Science, Google scholar and manual searching. Inclusion criteria were prospective, within-subject investigations of cognitive outcome using neuropsychological assessment before and after shunt surgery in patients with NPH. There were statistically significant effects of shunt surgery on cognition (Mini-Mental State Examination; MMSE), learning and memory (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test; RAVLT, total and delayed subtests), executive function (backwards digit span, phonemic verbal fluency, trail making test B) and psychomotor speed (trail making test A) all in the direction of improvement following shunt surgery, but with considerable heterogeneity across all measures. A more detailed examination of the data suggested robust evidence for improved MMSE, RAVLT total, RAVLT delayed, phonemic verbal fluency and trail making test A only. Meta-regressions revealed no statistically significant effect of age, sex or follow-up interval on improvement in the MMSE. Our results suggest that shunt surgery is most sensitive for improving global cognition, learning and memory and psychomotor speed in patients with NPH.

Intelligence or years of education: which is better correlated with memory function in normal elderly Japanese subjects?

PubMed

Murayama, Norio; Iseki, Eizo; Tagaya, Hirokuni; Ota, Kazumi; Kasanuki, Koji; Fujishiro, Hiroshige; Arai, Heii; Sato, Kiyoshi

2013-03-01

We compared differences in intelligence and memory function between normal elderly Japanese subjects with more years of education and those with fewer years of education. We also investigated clinical and neuropsychological factors that are strongly correlated with memory function. There were 118 normal elderly subjects who underwent the Mini-Mental State Examination, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 3rd edition (WAIS-III), and Wechsler Memory Scale Revised. Subjects with at least 13 years of education were categorized as the H group, and those with 12 years of education or less were categorized as the L group. Age and Mini-Mental State Examination scores were not significantly different between the two groups. On the WAIS-III, there were significant differences between the two groups in Verbal IQ and Full Scale IQ. On the Wechsler Memory Scale Revised, there were significant differences between the two groups in Visual Memory, General Memory, and Delayed Recall. Correlation coefficients between memory function and the other factors demonstrated significant but weak correlations between years of education and General Memory (R = 0.22) and between years of education and Delayed Recall (R = 0.20). Strong correlations were found between Verbal IQ and Verbal Memory (R = 0.45), between Verbal IQ and General Memory (R = 0.49), between Full Scale IQ and General Memory (R = 0.50) and between Full Scale IQ and Delayed Recall (R = 0.48). In normal elderly Japanese subjects, years of education weakly correlated with memory function while Verbal IQ, Full Scale IQ and Verbal Comprehension on WAIS-III had stronger correlations with memory function. Verbal IQ and Verbal Comprehension on WAIS-III were found to be insusceptible to the cognitive decline characteristic of Alzheimer's disease or amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Therefore, verbal intelligence, as measured by Verbal IQ and Verbal Comprehension, may be the most useful factor for inferring premorbid memory function in Alzheimer's disease or amnestic mild cognitive impairment patients. © 2013 The Authors. Psychogeriatrics © 2013 Japanese Psychogeriatric Society.

Cognitive changes in people with temporal lobe epilepsy over a 13-year period.

PubMed

Mameniškienė, Rūta; Rimšienė, Justė; Puronaitė, Roma

2016-10-01

The aims of our study were to evaluate cognitive decline in people with temporal lobe epilepsy over a period of 13years and to determine what clinical and treatment characteristics may have been associated with these. Thirty-three individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy underwent the same neuropsychological assessment of verbal and nonverbal memory, attention, and executive functions using the same cognitive test battery as one used 13years ago. Long-term verbal and nonverbal memory was tested four weeks later. Results were compared with those carried out 13years earlier. There was no significant change in verbal and verbal-logical memory tests; however, nonverbal memory worsened significantly. Long-term verbal memory declined for 21.9% of participants, long-term verbal-logical memory for 34.4%, and long-term nonverbal memory for 56.3%. Worsening of working verbal and verbal-logical memory was associated with longer epilepsy duration and lower levels of patients' education; worsening of verbal delayed recall and long-term verbal-logical memory was associated with higher seizure frequency. Decline in long-term nonverbal memory had significant association with a longer duration of epilepsy. The worsening of reaction and attention inversely correlated with the symptoms of depression. Over a 13-year period, cognitive functions did not change significantly. Good seizure control and reduced symptoms of depression in this sample of people with temporal lobe epilepsy were associated with better cognitive functioning. The predictors of change of cognitive functions could be complex and require further study. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Verbal Memory in Parkinson’s Disease: A Combined DTI and fMRI Study

PubMed Central

Lucas-Jiménez, Olaia; Díez-Cirarda, María; Ojeda, Natalia; Peña, Javier; Cabrera-Zubizarreta, Alberto; Ibarretxe-Bilbao, Naroa

2015-01-01

Background: While significant progress has been made to determine the functional role of specific gray matter areas underlying verbal memory in Parkinson’s disease (PD), very little is known about the relationship between these regions and their underlying white matter structures. Objective: The objectives of this study were (1) to investigate verbal memory, fractional anisotropy and brain activation differences between PD patients and healthy controls (HC), (2) to explore the neuroanatomical and neurofunctional correlates of verbal memory in PD, and (3) to investigate the relationship between these neuroanatomical and neurofunctional verbal memory correlates in PD. Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a verbal memory paradigm and diffusion tensor imaging data (DTI), were acquired in 37 PD patients and 15 age-, sex-, and education-matched HC. Results: PD patients showed verbal recognition memory impairment, lower fractional anisotropy in the anterior cingulate tract, and lower brain activation in the inferior orbitofrontal cortex compared to HC. Brain activation in the inferior orbitofrontal cortex correlated significantly with verbal recognition memory impairment in PD patients. In addition, a relationship between brain activation in the inferior orbitofrontal cortex and fractional anisotropy of the uncinate fasciculus was found in PD. Conclusions: These results reveal that deficits in verbal memory in PD are accompanied by functional brain activation changes, but also have specific structural correlates related to white matter microstructural integrity. PMID:27070003

Improving working memory in children with low language abilities

PubMed Central

Holmes, Joni; Butterfield, Sally; Cormack, Francesca; van Loenhoud, Anita; Ruggero, Leanne; Kashikar, Linda; Gathercole, Susan

2015-01-01

This study investigated whether working memory training is effective in enhancing verbal memory in children with low language abilities (LLA). Cogmed Working Memory Training was completed by a community sample of children aged 8–11 years with LLA and a comparison group with matched non-verbal abilities and age-typical language performance. Short-term memory (STM), working memory, language, and IQ were assessed before and after training. Significant and equivalent post-training gains were found in visuo-spatial short-term memory in both groups. Exploratory analyses across the sample established that low verbal IQ scores were strongly and highly specifically associated with greater gains in verbal STM, and that children with higher verbal IQs made greater gains in visuo-spatial short-term memory following training. This provides preliminary evidence that intensive working memory training may be effective for enhancing the weakest aspects of STM in children with low verbal abilities, and may also be of value in developing compensatory strategies. PMID:25983703

Music training is associated with cortical synchronization reflected in EEG coherence during verbal memory encoding.

PubMed

Cheung, Mei-Chun; Chan, Agnes S; Liu, Ying; Law, Derry; Wong, Christina W Y

2017-01-01

Music training can improve cognitive functions. Previous studies have shown that children and adults with music training demonstrate better verbal learning and memory performance than those without such training. Although prior studies have shown an association between music training and changes in the structural and functional organization of the brain, there is no concrete evidence of the underlying neural correlates of the verbal memory encoding phase involved in such enhanced memory performance. Therefore, we carried out an electroencephalography (EEG) study to investigate how music training was associated with brain activity during the verbal memory encoding phase. Sixty participants were recruited, 30 of whom had received music training for at least one year (the MT group) and 30 of whom had never received music training (the NMT group). The participants in the two groups were matched for age, education, gender distribution, and cognitive capability. Their verbal and visual memory functions were assessed using standardized neuropsychological tests and EEG was used to record their brain activity during the verbal memory encoding phase. Consistent with previous studies, the MT group demonstrated better verbal memory than the NMT group during both the learning and the delayed recall trials in the paper-and-pencil tests. The MT group also exhibited greater learning capacity during the learning trials. Compared with the NMT group, the MT group showed an increase in long-range left and right intrahemispheric EEG coherence in the theta frequency band during the verbal memory encoding phase. In addition, their event-related left intrahemispheric theta coherence was positively associated with subsequent verbal memory performance as measured by discrimination scores. These results suggest that music training may modulate the cortical synchronization of the neural networks involved in verbal memory formation.

Music training is associated with cortical synchronization reflected in EEG coherence during verbal memory encoding

PubMed Central

Cheung, Mei-chun; Chan, Agnes S.; Liu, Ying; Law, Derry; Wong, Christina W. Y.

2017-01-01

Music training can improve cognitive functions. Previous studies have shown that children and adults with music training demonstrate better verbal learning and memory performance than those without such training. Although prior studies have shown an association between music training and changes in the structural and functional organization of the brain, there is no concrete evidence of the underlying neural correlates of the verbal memory encoding phase involved in such enhanced memory performance. Therefore, we carried out an electroencephalography (EEG) study to investigate how music training was associated with brain activity during the verbal memory encoding phase. Sixty participants were recruited, 30 of whom had received music training for at least one year (the MT group) and 30 of whom had never received music training (the NMT group). The participants in the two groups were matched for age, education, gender distribution, and cognitive capability. Their verbal and visual memory functions were assessed using standardized neuropsychological tests and EEG was used to record their brain activity during the verbal memory encoding phase. Consistent with previous studies, the MT group demonstrated better verbal memory than the NMT group during both the learning and the delayed recall trials in the paper-and-pencil tests. The MT group also exhibited greater learning capacity during the learning trials. Compared with the NMT group, the MT group showed an increase in long-range left and right intrahemispheric EEG coherence in the theta frequency band during the verbal memory encoding phase. In addition, their event-related left intrahemispheric theta coherence was positively associated with subsequent verbal memory performance as measured by discrimination scores. These results suggest that music training may modulate the cortical synchronization of the neural networks involved in verbal memory formation. PMID:28358852

Nonspecific verbal cues alleviate forgetting by young children.

PubMed

Morgan, Kirstie; Hayne, Harlene

2007-11-01

Verbal reminders play a pervasive role in memory retrieval by human adults. In fact, relatively nonspecific verbal information (e.g. 'Remember the last time we ate at that restaurant?') will often cue vivid recollections of a past event even when presented outside the original encoding context. Although research has shown that memory retrieval by young children can be initiated by physical cues and by highly specific verbal cues, the effect of less specific verbal cues is not known. Using a Visual Recognition Memory (VRM) procedure, we examined the effect of nonspecific verbal cues on memory retrieval by 4-year-old children. Our findings showed that nonspecific verbal cues were as effective as highly specific nonverbal cues in facilitating memory retrieval after a 2-week delay. We conclude that, at least by 4 years of age, children are able to use nonspecific verbal reminders to cue memory retrieval, and that the VRM paradigm may be particularly valuable in examining the age at which this initially occurs.

Early 'visual' cortex activation correlates with superior verbal memory performance in the blind.

PubMed

Amedi, Amir; Raz, Noa; Pianka, Pazit; Malach, Rafael; Zohary, Ehud

2003-07-01

The visual cortex may be more modifiable than previously considered. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in ten congenitally blind human participants, we found robust occipital activation during a verbal-memory task (in the absence of any sensory input), as well as during verb generation and Braille reading. We also found evidence for reorganization and specialization of the occipital cortex, along the anterior-posterior axis. Whereas anterior regions showed preference for Braille, posterior regions (including V1) showed preference for verbal-memory and verb generation (which both require memory of verbal material). No such occipital activation was found in sighted subjects. This difference between the groups was mirrored by superior performance of the blind in various verbal-memory tasks. Moreover, the magnitude of V1 activation during the verbal-memory condition was highly correlated with the blind individual's abilities in a variety of verbal-memory tests, suggesting that the additional occipital activation may have a functional role.

Intellectual Profile of Adolescents with Headache: A Case–Control Study Using the WISC-IV

PubMed Central

Chiappedi, Matteo; Mensi, Martina; Antonaci, Eliana; Zavani, Elena; Tronconi, Livio; Termine, Cristiano; Balottin, Umberto

2018-01-01

There are few literature evidences about the intellectual profile of adolescents with headache and no study has used the fourth edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV) in patients with a diagnosis of headache according to the ICHD-III-beta. We recruited 30 patients (age 11–14 years; male:female = 1:2) seen for headache in a tertiary center in Northern Italy and 30 healthy controls matched for age and sex, recruited in a public school from the same geographic area. The diagnosis of headache was done according to the ICHD-III criteria (beta version): the case group was composed of 16 patients with migraine and 14 with tension-type headache. Cognitive functioning was assessed using the WISC-IV. Recruited patients with idiopathic headache diagnosis had on average a cognitive function within the normal range. We found no statistically significant differences in the total Intellective Quotient comparing patients with headache and controls; the Working Memory Index was, however, lower in patients with headache (p = 0.012), and in particular, we found a lower Digit Span (p < 0.001). We also found a borderline statistical difference (p = 0.051) between case and controls Verbal Comprehension Index (CVI), which was due to a lower score in the Similarities subtest (p < 0.001). Our results suggest that, although within normal limits, cognitive functioning of adolescents with headache differs from that of healthy peers regarding memory and verbal skills. The Working Memory Index is related to the subject’s ability to store new information and keep them in short-term memory, to maintain focused attention and to manipulate them to find solutions. The difference in Similarities is also important because it provides a measure of the level of verbal reasoning and concept formation; it is also a measure of verbal abstract thinking skills relevant for language development, lexical knowledge, auditory comprehension, memory, and ability to discriminate between essential and non-essential characteristics. Our data, in keep with previous findings, suggest the need for further researches to better understand the pathogenesis of these difficulties and obtain ideas for an adequate rehabilitative treatment. PMID:29559952

Use of Preoperative Functional MRI to Predict Verbal Memory Decline After Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Surgery

PubMed Central

Binder, Jeffrey R.; Sabsevitz, David S.; Swanson, Sara J.; Hammeke, Thomas A.; Raghavan, Manoj; Mueller, Wade M.

2010-01-01

Purpose Verbal memory decline is a frequent complication of left anterior temporal lobectomy (L-ATL). The goal of this study was to determine whether preoperative language mapping using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is useful for predicting which patients are likely to experience verbal memory decline after L-ATL. Methods Sixty L-ATL patients underwent preoperative language mapping with fMRI, preoperative intracarotid amobarbital (Wada) testing for language and memory lateralization, and pre- and postoperative neuropsychological testing. Demographic, historical, neuropsychological, and imaging variables were examined for their ability to predict pre- to postoperative memory change. Results Verbal memory decline occurred in over 30% of patients. Good preoperative performance, late age at onset of epilepsy, left dominance on fMRI, and left dominance on the Wada test were each predictive of memory decline. Preoperative performance and age at onset together accounted for roughly 50% of the variance in memory outcome (p < .001), and fMRI explained an additional 10% of this variance (p ≤ .003). Neither Wada memory asymmetry nor Wada language asymmetry added additional predictive power beyond these noninvasive measures. Discussion Preoperative fMRI is useful for identifying patients at high risk for verbal memory decline prior to L-ATL surgery. Lateralization of language is correlated with lateralization of verbal memory, whereas Wada memory testing is either insufficiently reliable or insufficiently material-specific to accurately localize verbal memory processes. PMID:18435753

Verbal Memory Performance and Reduced Cortical Thickness of Brain Regions Along the Uncinate Fasciculus in Young Adult Cannabis Users

PubMed Central

Levar, Nina; Francis, Alan N.; Smith, Matthew J.; Ho, Wilson C.; Gilman, Jodi M.

2018-01-01

Abstract Introduction: Memory impairment is one of the most commonly reported effects of cannabis use, especially among those who initiate use earlier, perhaps due to the effects of delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol on cannabinoid (CB1) receptors in the brain. Studies have increasingly investigated whether cannabis use is associated with impairments in verbal memory, and with alterations in brain structures underlying verbal memory. The uncinate fasciculus (UF), a long-range white matter tract, connects regions with densely localized CB1 receptors that are important in verbal memory. This study investigated the impact of cannabis use on UF structures and its association with memory performance in young adult cannabis users (CU) and non-using controls (CON). Materials and Methods: Nineteen CU and 22 CON completed a verbal memory task and a neuroimaging protocol, in which diffusion tensor imaging and structural scans were collected. We compared memory performance, diffusion and tractography measures of the UF, and cortical thickness of regions connected by the UF, between CU and CON. In regions showing a significant group effect, we also examined associations between verbal memory performance, cortical thickness, and age of onset of cannabis use. Results: Compared to non-users, CU had worse memory performance, decreased fiber bundle length in the UF, and decreased cortical thickness of brain regions along the UF such as the entorhinal cortex and fusiform gyrus. Verbal memory performance was significantly associated with age of onset of cannabis use, indicating that those who initiated cannabis use at an earlier age performed worse. Cortical thickness of the entorhinal cortex was significantly correlated with age of first use and memory performance. Conclusion: This study provides evidence that cannabis use, especially when initiated at a young age, may be associated with worse verbal memory and altered neural development along the UF. Reductions in cortical thickness in regions implicated in memory processes may underlie weaknesses in verbal memory performance. PMID:29607411

Visuospatial declarative learning despite profound verbal declarative amnesia in Korsakoff's syndrome.

PubMed

Oudman, Erik; Postma, Albert; Nijboer, Tanja C W; Wijnia, Jan W; Van der Stigchel, Stefan

2017-03-20

Korsakoff's syndrome (KS) is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterised by severe amnesia. Although the presence of impairments in memory has long been acknowledged, there is a lack of knowledge about the precise characteristics of declarative memory capacities in order to implement memory rehabilitation. In this study, we investigated the extent to which patients diagnosed with KS have preserved declarative memory capacities in working memory, long-term memory encoding or long-term memory recall operations, and whether these capacities are most preserved for verbal or visuospatial content. The results of this study demonstrate that patients with KS have compromised declarative memory functioning on all memory indices. Performance was lowest for the encoding operation compared to the working memory and delayed recall operation. With respect to the content, visuospatial memory was relatively better preserved than verbal memory. All memory operations functioned suboptimally, although the most pronounced disturbance was found in verbal memory encoding. Based on the preserved declarative memory capacities in patients, visuospatial memory can form a more promising target for compensatory memory rehabilitation than verbal memory. It is therefore relevant to increase the number of spatial cues in memory rehabilitation for KS patients.

Risk to verbal memory following anterior temporal lobectomy in patients with severe left-sided hippocampal sclerosis.

PubMed

Martin, Roy C; Kretzmer, Tracy; Palmer, Cheryl; Sawrie, Stephen; Knowlton, Robert; Faught, Edward; Morawetz, Richard; Kuzniecky, Ruben

2002-12-01

Previous investigations indicate low risk for memory loss following anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) in patients with severe hippocampal sclerosis (HS) compared with patients with mild HS. However, these conclusions have been established primarily with group-level analyses. To investigate individual base rate risk for verbal memory loss following ATL in patients who have pathologically verified mild, moderate, or severe HS. One hundred fifteen patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy (68 with left-sided and 47 with right-sided epilepsy) were included. Acquisition, retrieval, and recognition components of verbal memory, as measured by the California Verbal Learning Test, were assessed before and after ATL. Postoperatively, the degree of neuronal loss and reactive gliosis of the hippocampus was assessed via a 3-tiered rating system establishing mild, moderate, and severe pathologic features. Patients with preoperative magnetic resonance imaging-based evidence of lesions outside the mesial temporal area (side of surgical resection) were excluded. Neither seizure laterality nor severity of HS was associated with preoperative verbal memory performance. Postoperatively, the left-sided ATL group demonstrated significant decline across the acquisition (P<.01), retrival (P<.001), and recognition (P<.001) verbal memory components compared with the right-sided ATL group. Patients who underwent left-sided ATL and had mild HS displayed the largest magnitude and percentage proportion of postoperative decline across all verbal memory components. However, 28 (48%) of the 58 patients who underwent left-sided ATL and who had moderate and severe HS displayed statistically reliable declines on retrieval aspects of verbal memory. Most patients undergoing right-sided ATL, regardless of the extent of hippocampal pathologic features, displayed no postoperative memory change. Substantial individual heterogeneity of memory outcome exists across groups of patients undergoing ATL, with various degrees of pathologically verified HS. Patients undergoing left-sided ATL who have mild HS seem at greatest risk for broad-spectrum verbal memory decline. However, when examining outcome on a patient-by-patient basis, many patients undergoing left-sided ATL who have moderate to severe HS were also vulnerable to verbal memory loss. This risk seems selective to a retrieval-based aspect of verbal memory.

Long-term memory: A review and meta-analysis of studies of declarative and procedural memory in specific language impairment

PubMed Central

Lum, Jarrad A. G.; Conti-Ramsden, Gina

2014-01-01

This review examined the status of long-term memory systems in specific language impairment (SLI), in particular declarative memory and aspects of procedural memory. Studies included in the review were identified following a systematic search of the literature and findings combined using meta-analysis. This review showed individuals with SLI are poorer than age matched controls in the learning and retrieval of verbal information from the declarative memory. However, there is evidence to suggest that the problems with declarative learning and memory for verbal information in SLI might be due to difficulties with verbal working memory and language. The learning and retrieval of non-verbal information from declarative memory appears relatively intact. In relation to procedural learning and memory, evidence indicates poor implicit learning of verbal information. Findings pertaining to nonverbal information have been mixed. This review of the literature indicates there are now substantial grounds for suspecting that multiple memory systems may be implicated in the impairment. PMID:24748707

Using Neuroplasticity-Based Auditory Training to Improve Verbal Memory in Schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Fisher, Melissa; Holland, Christine; Merzenich, Michael M.; Vinogradov, Sophia

2009-01-01

Objective Impaired verbal memory in schizophrenia is a key rate-limiting factor for functional outcome, does not respond to currently available medications, and shows only modest improvement after conventional behavioral remediation. The authors investigated an innovative approach to the remediation of verbal memory in schizophrenia, based on principles derived from the basic neuroscience of learning-induced neuroplasticity. The authors report interim findings in this ongoing study. Method Fifty-five clinically stable schizophrenia subjects were randomly assigned to either 50 hours of computerized auditory training or a control condition using computer games. Those receiving auditory training engaged in daily computerized exercises that placed implicit, increasing demands on auditory perception through progressively more difficult auditory-verbal working memory and verbal learning tasks. Results Relative to the control group, subjects who received active training showed significant gains in global cognition, verbal working memory, and verbal learning and memory. They also showed reliable and significant improvement in auditory psychophysical performance; this improvement was significantly correlated with gains in verbal working memory and global cognition. Conclusions Intensive training in early auditory processes and auditory-verbal learning results in substantial gains in verbal cognitive processes relevant to psychosocial functioning in schizophrenia. These gains may be due to a training method that addresses the early perceptual impairments in the illness, that exploits intact mechanisms of repetitive practice in schizophrenia, and that uses an intensive, adaptive training approach. PMID:19448187

Music training improves verbal but not visual memory: cross-sectional and longitudinal explorations in children.

PubMed

Ho, Yim-Chi; Cheung, Mei-Chun; Chan, Agnes S

2003-07-01

The hypothesis that music training can improve verbal memory was tested in children. The results showed that children with music training demonstrated better verbal but not visual memory than did their counterparts without such training. When these children were followed up after a year, those who had begun or continued music training demonstrated significant verbal memory improvement. Students who discontinued the training did not show any improvement. Contrary to the differences in verbal memory between the groups, their changes in visual memory were not significantly different. Consistent with previous findings for adults (A. S. Chan, Y. Ho, & M. Cheung, 1998), the results suggest that music training systematically affects memory processing in accordance with possible neuroanatomical modifications in the left temporal lobe.

Elevated airborne manganese and low executive function in school-aged children in Brazil.

PubMed

Carvalho, Chrissie F; Menezes-Filho, José A; de Matos, Vitor P; Bessa, Jonatas Reis; Coelho-Santos, Juliana; Viana, Gustavo F S; Argollo, Nayara; Abreu, Neander

2014-12-01

Exposure to airborne manganese (Mn) has been associated with neurotoxic effects, including motor and cognitive deficits. The main deficits related to excessive exposure to Mn are predominantly the dysfunction of fronto-striatal and dopaminergic circuits observed in animal experimental studies, which are involved in attention, working memory and motor function. The present study aims to assess the association between elevated Mn exposure and performance on executive function and attention neuropsychological tests in children living in two communities near a ferro-manganese alloy plant. Seventy children aged between 7 and 12 years with no history of neurologic disease and an estimated IQ >68 (Vocabulary and Block Design subtests) that had lived near the iron-Mn production alloy plant for at least 1.5 years were included. Participants were assessed for cognitive functioning with neuropsychological measures for sustained attention (Test of Visual Attention - TAVIS-3R), cognitive flexibility (WCST), and verbal and visual working memory (WISC-III Digit Span subtest and Corsi Block). Manganese hair (MnH) levels were used as a biomarker of exposure. Mean scores among study participants were lower than general population norms/averages for block design, digit span, reaction time and commission errors. The median MnH level was 11.48 (range 0.52-55.74) μg/g, and no difference between sexes was observed. Spearman's correlation analysis showed a significant inverse correlation between MnH levels and estimated IQ (rho=-0.448, p=0.0001), Vocabulary (rho=-0.272, p=0.02), Block Design (rho=-0.485, p=0.00002) and Digit Span (rho=-0.410, p=0.0004). Multiple regression analyses detected inverse associations between log MnH and scores on estimated IQ (β=-9.67; 95%CI=-16.97 to -2.37), Block Design (β=-2.50; 95%CI=-3.91 to -1.10) and Digit Span Total (β=-2.59; 95%CI=-4.13 to -1.05) standardized scores and the number of correct answers in forward and backward Digit Span methods, after adjusting for covariates (β=-1.32=95%CI=-2.23 to -0.40; β=-1.09 95%CI=-2.02 to -0.16, respectively). The results suggest that airborne Mn exposure may be associated with lower IQ and neuropsychological performance in tests of executive function of inhibition responses, strategic visual formation and verbal working memory. Executive function is dependent on the fronto-striatal circuit, which may be disrupted by Mn accumulation in the brain. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Musical and verbal semantic memory: two distinct neural networks?

PubMed

Groussard, M; Viader, F; Hubert, V; Landeau, B; Abbas, A; Desgranges, B; Eustache, F; Platel, H

2010-02-01

Semantic memory has been investigated in numerous neuroimaging and clinical studies, most of which have used verbal or visual, but only very seldom, musical material. Clinical studies have suggested that there is a relative neural independence between verbal and musical semantic memory. In the present study, "musical semantic memory" is defined as memory for "well-known" melodies without any knowledge of the spatial or temporal circumstances of learning, while "verbal semantic memory" corresponds to general knowledge about concepts, again without any knowledge of the spatial or temporal circumstances of learning. Our aim was to compare the neural substrates of musical and verbal semantic memory by administering the same type of task in each modality. We used high-resolution PET H(2)O(15) to observe 11 young subjects performing two main tasks: (1) a musical semantic memory task, where the subjects heard the first part of familiar melodies and had to decide whether the second part they heard matched the first, and (2) a verbal semantic memory task with the same design, but where the material consisted of well-known expressions or proverbs. The musical semantic memory condition activated the superior temporal area and inferior and middle frontal areas in the left hemisphere and the inferior frontal area in the right hemisphere. The verbal semantic memory condition activated the middle temporal region in the left hemisphere and the cerebellum in the right hemisphere. We found that the verbal and musical semantic processes activated a common network extending throughout the left temporal neocortex. In addition, there was a material-dependent topographical preference within this network, with predominantly anterior activation during musical tasks and predominantly posterior activation during semantic verbal tasks. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Verbal Overshadowing: Disrupting Memory in Postsecondary Adult Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Guin, Jerold C.

2010-01-01

Verbal overshadowing is the later disruption of recognition memory resulting from prior verbal recall of the memory. Cognitive psychologists in the field of criminal justice have studied the effect since 1990 due to its ramifications in eyewitness testimony. Because of its short history of research, the effects of verbal overshadowing in the…

Differences in visual vs. verbal memory impairments as a result of focal temporal lobe damage in patients with traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Ariza, Mar; Pueyo, Roser; Junqué, Carme; Mataró, María; Poca, María Antonia; Mena, Maria Pau; Sahuquillo, Juan

2006-09-01

The aim of the present study was to determine whether the type of lesion in a sample of moderate and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) was related to material-specific memory impairment. Fifty-nine patients with TBI were classified into three groups according to whether the site of the lesion was right temporal, left temporal or diffuse. Six-months post-injury, visual (Warrington's Facial Recognition Memory Test and Rey's Complex Figure Test) and verbal (Rey's Auditory Verbal Learning Test) memories were assessed. Visual memory deficits assessed by facial memory were associated with right temporal lobe lesion, whereas verbal memory performance assessed with a list of words was related to left temporal lobe lesion. The group with diffuse injury showed both verbal and visual memory impairment. These results suggest a material-specific memory impairment in moderate and severe TBI after focal temporal lesions and a non-specific memory impairment after diffuse damage.

Capturing specific abilities as a window into human individuality: the example of face recognition.

PubMed

Wilmer, Jeremy B; Germine, Laura; Chabris, Christopher F; Chatterjee, Garga; Gerbasi, Margaret; Nakayama, Ken

2012-01-01

Proper characterization of each individual's unique pattern of strengths and weaknesses requires good measures of diverse abilities. Here, we advocate combining our growing understanding of neural and cognitive mechanisms with modern psychometric methods in a renewed effort to capture human individuality through a consideration of specific abilities. We articulate five criteria for the isolation and measurement of specific abilities, then apply these criteria to face recognition. We cleanly dissociate face recognition from more general visual and verbal recognition. This dissociation stretches across ability as well as disability, suggesting that specific developmental face recognition deficits are a special case of a broader specificity that spans the entire spectrum of human face recognition performance. Item-by-item results from 1,471 web-tested participants, included as supplementary information, fuel item analyses, validation, norming, and item response theory (IRT) analyses of our three tests: (a) the widely used Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT); (b) an Abstract Art Memory Test (AAMT), and (c) a Verbal Paired-Associates Memory Test (VPMT). The availability of this data set provides a solid foundation for interpreting future scores on these tests. We argue that the allied fields of experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and vision science could fuel the discovery of additional specific abilities to add to face recognition, thereby providing new perspectives on human individuality.

[Formula: see text]Differences in memory functioning between children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and/or focal epilepsy.

PubMed

Lee, Sylvia E; Kibby, Michelle Y; Cohen, Morris J; Stanford, Lisa; Park, Yong; Strickland, Suzanne

2016-01-01

Prior research has shown that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and epilepsy are frequently comorbid and that both disorders are associated with various attention and memory problems. Nonetheless, limited research has been conducted comparing the two disorders in one sample to determine unique versus shared deficits. Hence, we investigated differences in working memory (WM) and short-term and delayed recall between children with ADHD, focal epilepsy of mixed foci, comorbid ADHD/epilepsy and controls. Participants were compared on the Core subtests and the Picture Locations subtest of the Children's Memory Scale (CMS). Results indicated that children with ADHD displayed intact verbal WM and long-term memory (LTM), as well as intact performance on most aspects of short-term memory (STM). They performed worse than controls on Numbers Forward and Picture Locations, suggesting problems with focused attention and simple span for visual-spatial material. Conversely, children with epilepsy displayed poor focused attention and STM regardless of the modality assessed, which affected encoding into LTM. The only loss over time was found for passages (Stories). WM was intact. Children with comorbid ADHD/epilepsy displayed focused attention and STM/LTM problems consistent with both disorders, having the lowest scores across the four groups. Hence, focused attention and visual-spatial span appear to be affected in both disorders, whereas additional STM/encoding problems are specific to epilepsy. Children with comorbid ADHD/epilepsy have deficits consistent with both disorders, with slight additive effects. This study suggests that attention and memory testing should be a regular part of the evaluation of children with epilepsy and ADHD.

The association of perceived stress and verbal memory is greater in HIV-infected versus HIV-uninfected women.

PubMed

Rubin, Leah H; Cook, Judith A; Weber, Kathleen M; Cohen, Mardge H; Martin, Eileen; Valcour, Victor; Milam, Joel; Anastos, Kathryn; Young, Mary A; Alden, Christine; Gustafson, Deborah R; Maki, Pauline M

2015-08-01

In contrast to findings from cohorts comprised primarily of HIV-infected men, verbal memory deficits are the largest cognitive deficit found in HIV-infected women from the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS), and this deficit is not explained by depressive symptoms or substance abuse. HIV-infected women may be at greater risk for verbal memory deficits due to a higher prevalence of cognitive risk factors such as high psychosocial stress and lower socioeconomic status. Here, we investigate the association between perceived stress using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and verbal memory performance using the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT) in 1009 HIV-infected and 496 at-risk HIV-uninfected WIHS participants. Participants completed a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery which yielded seven cognitive domain scores, including a primary outcome of verbal memory. HIV infection was not associated with a higher prevalence of high perceived stress (i.e., PSS-10 score in the top tertile) but was associated with worse performance on verbal learning (p < 0.01) and memory (p < 0.001), as well as attention (p = 0.02). Regardless of HIV status, high stress was associated with poorer performance in those cognitive domains (p's < 0.05) as well as processing speed (p = 0.01) and executive function (p < 0.01). A significant HIV by stress interaction was found only for the verbal memory domain (p = 0.02); among HIV-infected women only, high stress was associated with lower performance (p's < 0.001). That association was driven by the delayed verbal memory measure in particular. These findings suggest that high levels of perceived stress contribute to the deficits in verbal memory observed in WIHS women.

Abnormal interactions of verbal- and spatial-memory networks in young people at familial high-risk for schizophrenia.

PubMed

Li, Xiaobo; Thermenos, Heidi W; Wu, Ziyan; Momura, Yoko; Wu, Kai; Keshavan, Matcheri; Seidman, Lawrence; DeLisi, Lynn E

2016-10-01

Working memory impairment (especially in verbal and spatial domains) is the core neurocognitive impairment in schizophrenia and the familial high-risk (FHR) population. Inconsistent results have been reported in clinical and neuroimaging studies examining the verbal- and spatial-memory deficits in the FHR subjects, due to sample differences and lack of understanding on interactions of the brain regions for processing verbal- and spatial-working memory. Functional MRI data acquired during a verbal- vs. spatial-memory task were included from 51 young adults [26 FHR and 25 controls]. Group comparisons were conducted in brain activation patterns responding to 1) verbal-memory condition (A), 2) spatial-memory condition (B), 3) verbal higher than spatial (A-B), 4) spatial higher than verbal (B-A), 5) conjunction of brain regions that were activated during both A and B (A∧B). Group difference of the laterality index (LI) in inferior frontal lobe for condition A was also assessed. Compared to controls, the FHR group exhibited significantly decreased brain activity in left inferior frontal during A, and significantly stronger involvement of ACC, PCC, paracentral gyrus for the contrast of A-B. The LI showed a trend of reduced left-higher-than-right pattern for verbal-memory processing in the HR group. Our findings suggest that in the entire functional brain network for working-memory processing, verbal information processing associated brain pathways are significantly altered in people at familial high risk for developing schizophrenia. Future studies will need to examine whether these alterations may indicate vulnerability for predicting the onset of Schizophrenia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Depressive Mood and Testosterone Related to Declarative Verbal Memory Decline in Middle-Aged Caregivers of Children with Eating Disorders.

PubMed

Romero-Martínez, Ángel; Ruiz-Robledillo, Nicolás; Moya-Albiol, Luis

2016-03-04

Caring for children diagnosed with a chronic psychological disorder such as an eating disorder (ED) can be used as a model of chronic stress. This kind of stress has been reported to have deleterious effects on caregivers' cognition, particularly in verbal declarative memory of women caregivers. Moreover, high depressive mood and variations in testosterone (T) levels moderate this cognitive decline. The purpose of this study was to characterize whether caregivers of individuals with EDs (n = 27) show declarative memory impairments compared to non-caregivers caregivers (n = 27), using for this purpose a standardized memory test (Rey's Auditory Verbal Learning Test). Its purpose was also to examine the role of depressive mood and T in memory decline. Results showed that ED caregivers presented high depressive mood, which was associated to worse verbal memory performance, especially in the case of women. In addition, all caregivers showed high T levels. Nonetheless, only in the case of women caregivers did T show a curvilinear relationship with verbal memory performance, meaning that the increases of T were associated to the improvement in verbal memory performance, but only up to a certain point, as after such point T continued to increase and memory performance decreased. Thus, chronic stress due to caregiving was associated to disturbances in mood and T levels, which in turn was associated to verbal memory decline. These findings should be taken into account in the implementation of intervention programs for helping ED caregivers cope with caregiving situations and to prevent the risk of a pronounced verbal memory decline.

Story retelling and language ability in school-aged children with cerebral palsy and speech impairment.

PubMed

Nordberg, Ann; Dahlgren Sandberg, Annika; Miniscalco, Carmela

2015-01-01

Research on retelling ability and cognition is limited in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and speech impairment. To explore the impact of expressive and receptive language, narrative discourse dimensions (Narrative Assessment Profile measures), auditory and visual memory, theory of mind (ToM) and non-verbal cognition on the retelling ability of children with CP and speech impairment. Fifteen speaking children with speech impairment (seven girls, eight boys) (mean age = 11 years, SD = 1;4 years), and different types of CP and different levels of gross motor and cognitive function participated in the present study. Story retelling skills were tested and analysed with the Bus Story Test (BST) and the Narrative Assessment Profile (NAP). Receptive language ability was tested with the Test for Reception of Grammar-2 (TROG-2) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - IV (PPVT-IV). Non-verbal cognitive level was tested with the Raven's coloured progressive matrices (RCPM), memory functions assessed with the Corsi block-tapping task (CB) and the Digit Span from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III. ToM was assessed with the false belief items of the two story tests "Kiki and the Cat" and "Birthday Puppy". The children had severe problems with retelling ability corresponding to an age-equivalent of 5;2-6;9 years. Receptive and expressive language, visuo-spatial and auditory memory, non-verbal cognitive level and ToM varied widely within and among the children. Both expressive and receptive language correlated significantly with narrative ability in terms of NAP total scores, so did auditory memory. The results suggest that retelling ability in the children with CP in the present study is dependent on language comprehension and production, and memory functions. Consequently, it is important to examine retelling ability together with language and cognitive abilities in these children in order to provide appropriate support. © 2015 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Temporal Lobe and Frontal-Subcortical Dissociations in Non-Demented Parkinson's Disease with Verbal Memory Impairment.

PubMed

Tanner, Jared J; Mareci, Thomas H; Okun, Michael S; Bowers, Dawn; Libon, David J; Price, Catherine C

2015-01-01

The current investigation examined verbal memory in idiopathic non-dementia Parkinson's disease and the significance of the left entorhinal cortex and left entorhinal-retrosplenial region connections (via temporal cingulum) on memory impairment in Parkinson's disease. Forty non-demented Parkinson's disease patients and forty non-Parkinson's disease controls completed two verbal memory tests--a wordlist measure (Philadelphia repeatable Verbal Memory Test) and a story measure (Logical Memory). All participants received T1-weighted and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (3T; Siemens) sequences. Left entorhinal volume and left entorhinal-retrosplenial connectivity (temporal cingulum edge weight) were the primary imaging variables of interest with frontal lobe thickness and subcortical structure volumes as dissociating variables. Individuals with Parkinson's disease showed worse verbal memory, smaller entorhinal volumes, but did not differ in entorhinal-retrosplenial connectivity. For Parkinson's disease entorhinal-retrosplenial edge weight had the strongest associations with verbal memory. A subset of Parkinson's disease patients (23%) had deficits (z-scores < -1.5) across both memory measures. Relative to non-impaired Parkinson's peers, this memory-impaired group had smaller entorhinal volumes. Although entorhinal cortex volume was significantly reduced in Parkinson's disease patients relative to non-Parkinson's peers, only white matter connections associated with the entorhinal cortex were significantly associated with verbal memory performance in our sample. There was also no suggestion of contribution from frontal-subcortical gray or frontal white matter regions. These findings argue for additional investigation into medial temporal lobe gray and white matter connectivity for understanding memory in Parkinson's disease.

Dissociating rehearsal and refreshing in the maintenance of verbal information in 8-year-old children

PubMed Central

Mora, Gérome; Camos, Valérie

2015-01-01

Recent models of working memory suggest that two systems are involved in verbal working memory: one is dedicated to the maintenance of phonological representations through verbal rehearsal, while the other would maintain multimodal representations through attentional refreshing (Camos et al., 2009; Baddeley, 2012). Previous studies provided evidence on the existence of these two maintenance systems, on their independence, and how they affect recall performance in adults. However, only one study had already explored the relationships between these two systems in children ( Tam et al., 2010). The aim of the present study was to further examine how the two systems account for working memory performance in children. Eight-year-old children performed complex span tasks in which the availability of either the rehearsal or the refreshing was impeded by a concurrent articulation or an attention-demanding task, respectively. Moreover, the phonological similarity of the memoranda was manipulated. Congruently with studies showing that older children can used these maintenance systems, impeding any of the two systems reduced recall performance. Moreover, the manipulation of the two mechanisms did not interact, as previously observed in adults. This suggests that the two maintenance mechanisms are independent in 8-year-old children as they are in adults. However, the results concerning the phonological similarity effect (PSE) differed from what is observed in adults. Whereas the PSE relies only on the availability of rehearsal in adults, a more complex pattern appeared in children: the concurrent articulation as well as the concurrent task modulated the emergence of the PSE. PMID:25667577

Dissociating rehearsal and refreshing in the maintenance of verbal information in 8-year-old children.

PubMed

Mora, Gérome; Camos, Valérie

2015-01-01

Recent models of working memory suggest that two systems are involved in verbal working memory: one is dedicated to the maintenance of phonological representations through verbal rehearsal, while the other would maintain multimodal representations through attentional refreshing (Camos et al., 2009; Baddeley, 2012). Previous studies provided evidence on the existence of these two maintenance systems, on their independence, and how they affect recall performance in adults. However, only one study had already explored the relationships between these two systems in children ( Tam et al., 2010). The aim of the present study was to further examine how the two systems account for working memory performance in children. Eight-year-old children performed complex span tasks in which the availability of either the rehearsal or the refreshing was impeded by a concurrent articulation or an attention-demanding task, respectively. Moreover, the phonological similarity of the memoranda was manipulated. Congruently with studies showing that older children can used these maintenance systems, impeding any of the two systems reduced recall performance. Moreover, the manipulation of the two mechanisms did not interact, as previously observed in adults. This suggests that the two maintenance mechanisms are independent in 8-year-old children as they are in adults. However, the results concerning the phonological similarity effect (PSE) differed from what is observed in adults. Whereas the PSE relies only on the availability of rehearsal in adults, a more complex pattern appeared in children: the concurrent articulation as well as the concurrent task modulated the emergence of the PSE.

Role of Verbal Memory in Reading Text Comprehension of Individuals with Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levorato, Maria Chiara; Roch, Maja; Florit, Elena

2011-01-01

This study analyzed the relationship between verbal memory and reading text comprehension in individuals with Down syndrome. The hypothesis that verbal memory provides unique contribution to reading text comprehension after controlling for verbal skills was tested. Twenty-three individuals with Down syndrome (ages 11 years, 2 months-18 years, 1…

Dissociation of long-term verbal memory and fronto-executive impairment in first-episode psychosis

PubMed Central

Leeson, V. C.; Robbins, T. W.; Franklin, C.; Harrison, M.; Harrison, I.; Ron, M. A.; Barnes, T. R. E.; Joyce, E. M.

2009-01-01

Background Verbal memory is frequently and severely affected in schizophrenia and has been implicated as a mediator of poor clinical outcome. Whereas encoding deficits are well demonstrated, it is unclear whether retention is impaired. This distinction is important because accelerated forgetting implies impaired consolidation attributable to medial temporal lobe (MTL) dysfunction whereas impaired encoding and retrieval implicates involvement of prefrontal cortex. Method We assessed a group of healthy volunteers (n=97) and pre-morbid IQ- and sex-matched first-episode psychosis patients (n=97), the majority of whom developed schizophrenia. We compared performance of verbal learning and recall with measures of visuospatial working memory, planning and attentional set-shifting, and also current IQ. Results All measures of performance, including verbal memory retention, a memory savings score that accounted for learning impairments, were significantly impaired in the schizophrenia group. The difference between groups for delayed recall remained even after the influence of learning and recall was accounted for. Factor analyses showed that, in patients, all variables except verbal memory retention loaded on a single factor, whereas in controls verbal memory and fronto-executive measures were separable. Conclusions The results suggest that IQ, executive function and verbal learning deficits in schizophrenia may reflect a common abnormality of information processing in prefrontal cortex rather than specific impairments in different cognitive domains. Verbal memory retention impairments, however, may have a different aetiology. PMID:19419594

Neurocognitive Models of Medical Decision-Making Capacity in Traumatic Brain Injury Across Injury Severity.

PubMed

Triebel, Kristen L; Novack, Thomas A; Kennedy, Richard; Martin, Roy C; Dreer, Laura E; Raman, Rema; Marson, Daniel C

2016-01-01

To identify neurocognitive predictors of medical decision-making capacity (MDC) in participants with mild and moderate/severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Academic medical center. Sixty adult controls and 104 adults with TBI (49 mild, 55 moderate/severe) evaluated within 6 weeks of injury. Prospective cross-sectional study. Participants completed the Capacity to Consent to Treatment Instrument to assess MDC and a neuropsychological test battery. We used factor analysis to reduce the battery test measures into 4 cognitive composite scores (verbal memory, verbal fluency, academic skills, and processing speed/executive function). We identified cognitive predictors of the 3 most clinically relevant Capacity to Consent to Treatment Instrument consent standards (appreciation, reasoning, and understanding). In controls, academic skills (word reading, arithmetic) and verbal memory predicted understanding; verbal fluency predicted reasoning; and no predictors emerged for appreciation. In the mild TBI group, verbal memory predicted understanding and reasoning, whereas academic skills predicted appreciation. In the moderate/severe TBI group, verbal memory and academic skills predicted understanding; academic skills predicted reasoning; and academic skills and verbal fluency predicted appreciation. Verbal memory was a predictor of MDC in controls and persons with mild and moderate/severe TBI. In clinical practice, impaired verbal memory could serve as a "red flag" for diminished consent capacity in persons with recent TBI.

Ictal mnemestic aura and verbal memory function.

PubMed

Vederman, Aaron C; Holtzer, Roee; Zimmerman, Molly E; Devinsky, Orrin; Barr, William B

2010-04-01

Déjà vu aura is a well-known phenomenon experienced by some patients with epilepsy. This study sought to explore the relationship between verbal memory and the experience of déjà vu or other types of mnemestic auras in 42 individuals with intractable seizures and 42 age- and education-matched patient controls. Verbal memory was assessed with indices of learning, long delay recall, and recognition from the California Verbal Learning Test. Results indicated that auras of any type were not associated with memory performance on the California Verbal Learning Test. As expected, age and education were related to verbal memory performance. Mnemestic auras were associated with clinical indices of illness, suggesting that the presence of these auras may be regarded as a risk factor for greater chronicity and severity in epilepsy. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How Does the Linguistic Distance between Spoken and Standard Language in Arabic Affect Recall and Recognition Performances during Verbal Memory Examination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taha, Haitham

2017-01-01

The current research examined how Arabic diglossia affects verbal learning memory. Thirty native Arab college students were tested using auditory verbal memory test that was adapted according to the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test and developed in three versions: Pure spoken language version (SL), pure standard language version (SA), and…

Cognitive findings after transient global amnesia: role of prefrontal cortex.

PubMed

Le Pira, Francesco; Giuffrida, Salvatore; Maci, Tiziana; Reggio, Ester; Zappalà, Giuseppe; Perciavalle, Vincenzo

2005-01-01

The aim of this study is to verify, after recovery, the presence of specific patterns of cognitive dysfunctions in Transient Global Amnesia (TGA). Fourteen patients with the diagnosis of TGA were submitted to a battery of neuropsychological tests and compared to a matched control group. We found significant qualitative and quantitative differences between TGA patients and controls in the California Verbal Learning Test (CLVT) and Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test. Our data support the presence of selective cognitive dysfunctions after the clinical recovery. Moreover, for Verbal Fluency, Digit Span Backward, and Number of Clusters in the CVLT short-term memory test, the relation resulted as positively related with the temporal interval from the TGA episode. Reduction of categorical learning, attention, and qualitative alterations of spatial strategy seem to postulate a planning defect due to a prefrontal impairment.

Accuracy of prospective memory tests in mild Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Martins, Sergilaine Pereira; Damasceno, Benito Pereira

2012-01-01

To verify the accuracy of prospective memory (ProM) tests in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Twenty mild AD patients (CDR 1), and 20 controls underwent Digit Span (DS), Trail Making (TM) A and B, visual perception, Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning tests, and Cornell Scale for Depression. AD diagnosis was based on DSM-IV and NINCDS-ADRDA criteria. ProM was assessed with the appointment and belonging subtests of Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test (RBMT); and with two new tests (the clock and animal tests). AD patients had a worse performance than controls on the majority of tests, except DS forward and TM-A. There was no correlation between RBMT and the new ProM tests. As for accuracy, the only significant difference concerned the higher sensitivity of our animal test versus the RBMT belonging test. The clock and the animal tests showed similar specificity, but higher sensitivity than the RBMT subtests.

Predictors of Verbal Working Memory in Children with Cerebral Palsy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peeters, Marieke; Verhoeven, Ludo; de Moor, Jan

2009-01-01

The goal of the present study was to examine the precursors of verbal working memory in 52 children with cerebral palsy with varying degrees of speech impairments in the first grade of special education. Following Baddeley's model of working memory, children's verbal working memory was measured by means of a forced-recognition task. As precursors…

The Memory Fitness Program: Cognitive Effects of a Healthy Aging Intervention

PubMed Central

Miller, Karen J.; Siddarth, Prabha; Gaines, Jean M.; Parrish, John M.; Ercoli, Linda M.; Marx, Katherine; Ronch, Judah; Pilgram, Barbara; Burke, Kasey; Barczak, Nancy; Babcock, Bridget; Small, Gary W.

2014-01-01

Context Age-related memory decline affects a large proportion of older adults. Cognitive training, physical exercise, and other lifestyle habits may help to minimize self-perception of memory loss and a decline in objective memory performance. Objective The purpose of this study was to determine whether a 6-week educational program on memory training, physical activity, stress reduction, and healthy diet led to improved memory performance in older adults. Design A convenience sample of 115 participants (mean age: 80.9 [SD: 6.0 years]) was recruited from two continuing care retirement communities. The intervention consisted of 60-minute classes held twice weekly with 15–20 participants per class. Testing of both objective and subjective cognitive performance occurred at baseline, preintervention, and postintervention. Objective cognitive measures evaluated changes in five domains: immediate verbal memory, delayed verbal memory, retention of verbal information, memory recognition, and verbal fluency. A standardized metamemory instrument assessed four domains of memory self-awareness: frequency and severity of forgetting, retrospective functioning, and mnemonics use. Results The intervention program resulted in significant improvements on objective measures of memory, including recognition of word pairs (t[114] = 3.62, p < 0.001) and retention of verbal information from list learning (t[114] = 2.98, p < 0.01). No improvement was found for verbal fluency. Regarding subjective memory measures, the retrospective functioning score increased significantly following the intervention (t[114] = 4.54, p < 0.0001), indicating perception of a better memory. Conclusions These findings indicate that a 6-week healthy lifestyle program can improve both encoding and recalling of new verbal information, as well as self-perception of memory ability in older adults residing in continuing care retirement communities. PMID:21765343

The contribution of short-term memory capacity to reading ability in adolescents with cochlear implants.

PubMed

Edwards, Lindsey; Aitkenhead, Lynne; Langdon, Dawn

2016-11-01

This study aimed to establish the relationship between short-term memory capacity and reading skills in adolescents with cochlear implants. A between-groups design compared a group of young people with cochlear implants with a group of hearing peers on measures of reading, and auditory and visual short-term memory capacity. The groups were matched for non-verbal IQ and age. The adolescents with cochlear implants were recruited from the Cochlear Implant Programme at a specialist children's hospital. The hearing participants were recruited from the same schools as those attended by the implanted adolescents. Participants were 18 cochlear implant users and 14 hearing controls, aged between 12 and 18 years. All used English as their main language and had no significant learning disability or neuro-developmental disorder. Short-term memory capacity was assessed in the auditory modality using Forward and Reverse Digit Span from the WISC IV UK, and visually using Forward and Reverse Memory from the Leiter-R. Individual word reading, reading comprehension and pseudoword decoding were assessed using the WIAT II UK. A series of ANOVAs revealed that the adolescents with cochlear implants had significantly poorer auditory short-term memory capacity and reading skills (on all measures) compared with their hearing peers. However, when Forward Digit Span was entered into the analyses as a covariate, none of the differences remained statistically significant. Deficits in immediate auditory memory persist into adolescence in deaf children with cochlear implants. Short-term auditory memory capacity is an important neurocognitive process in the development of reading skills after cochlear implantation in childhood that remains evident in later adolescence. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The role of working memory and divided attention in metaphor interpretation.

PubMed

Iskandar, Sam; Baird, Anne D

2014-10-01

Although several types of figurative language exist, neuropsychological tests of non-literal language have focused on proverbs. Metaphors in the form X is (a) Y (e.g., The body's immunological response is a battle against disease.) place a lower demand on language skills and are more easily manipulated for novelty than proverbs. Forty healthy participants completed the Metaphor Interpretation Test (developed by the authors). The task includes 20 items chosen from a list of metaphors that were rated on several scales (e.g. imagery, aptness) in a study by Katz et al. (Metaphor Symb Act 3(4):191-214, 1988). Participants were asked to rate the familiarity and provide an explanation of each metaphor. A scoring system was developed to categorize answers into: abstract complete (AC), abstract partial (AP), concrete (CT), and other/unrelated (OT) types. Participants also completed short-term memory and divided attention tests. Overall, participants produced 56 % AC, 25.38 % AP, 7.88 % CT, and 10.88 % OT responses. It was found that a measure of verbal short-term memory span was the best predictor of performance on this task (adjusted R(2) = .369). It appears that short-term memory span, not working memory or divided attention, contributes most to providing abstract responses in explaining metaphors. This is in line with the idea that when one accesses the semantic network associated with a novel metaphor, one must hold this information in mind long enough to search for and link similar cognitive networks.

Spelling difficulties in school-aged girls with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: behavioral, psycholinguistic, cognitive, and graphomotor correlates.

PubMed

Åsberg Johnels, Jakob; Kopp, Svenny; Gillberg, Christopher

2014-01-01

Writing difficulties are common among children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but the nature of these difficulties has not been well studied. Here we relate behavioral, psycholinguistic, cognitive (memory/executive), and graphomotor measures to spelling skills in school-age girls with ADHD (n = 30) and an age-matched group of typically developed spellers (TYPSP, n = 35). When subdividing the ADHD group into those with poor (ADHDPSP, n = 19) and typical spelling (ADHDTYPSP, n = 11), the two subgroups did not differ with regard to inattentive or hyperactive-impulsive symptom severity according to parent or teacher ratings. Both ADHD subgroups also had equally severe difficulties in graphomotor control-handwriting and (parent ratings of) written expression as compared to the TYPSP group. In contrast, ADHDPSP had problems relative to ADHDTYPSP and TYPSP on phonological and orthographic recoding (choice tasks) and verbal memory (digit span) and were more likely to make commissions on a continuous performance task (CPT). Further analyses using the collapsed ADHD group showed that both digit span and the presence of CPT commissions predicted spelling performance independently of each other. Finally, results showed that phonological recoding skills mediated the association between digit span and spelling performance in ADHD. Theoretical and educational implications are discussed. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2012.

Verbal memory and verbal fluency tasks used for language localization and lateralization during magnetoencephalography.

PubMed

Pirmoradi, Mona; Jemel, Boutheina; Gallagher, Anne; Tremblay, Julie; D'Hondt, Fabien; Nguyen, Dang Khoa; Béland, Renée; Lassonde, Maryse

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to develop a presurgical magnetoencephalography (MEG) protocol to localize and lateralize expressive and receptive language function as well as verbal memory in patients with epilepsy. Two simple language tasks and a different analytical procedure were developed. Ten healthy participants and 13 epileptic patients completed two language tasks during MEG recording: a verbal memory task and a verbal fluency task. As a first step, principal component analyses (PCA) were performed on source data from the group of healthy participants to identify spatiotemporal factors that were relevant to these paradigms. Averaged source data were used to localize areas activated during each task and a laterality index (LI) was computed on an individual basis for both groups, healthy participants and patients, using sensor data. PCA revealed activation in the left temporal lobe (300 ms) during the verbal memory task, and from the frontal lobe (210 ms) to the temporal lobe (500 ms) during the verbal fluency task in healthy participants. Averaged source data showed activity in the left hemisphere (250-750 ms), in Wernicke's area, for all participants. Left hemisphere dominance was demonstrated better using the verbal memory task than the verbal fluency task (F1,19=4.41, p=0.049). Cohen's kappa statistic revealed 93% agreement (k=0.67, p=0.002) between LIs obtained from MEG sensor data and fMRI, the IAT, electrical cortical stimulation or handedness with the verbal memory task for all participants. At 74%, agreement results for the verbal fluency task did not reach statistical significance. Analysis procedures yielded interesting findings with both tasks and localized language-related activation. However, based on source localization and laterality indices, the verbal memory task yielded better results in the context of the presurgical evaluation of epileptic patients. The verbal fluency task did not add any further information to the verbal memory task as regards language localization and lateralization for most patients and healthy participants that would facilitate decision making prior to surgery. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Short-Term Memory and Aphasia: From Theory to Treatment.

PubMed

Minkina, Irene; Rosenberg, Samantha; Kalinyak-Fliszar, Michelene; Martin, Nadine

2017-02-01

This article reviews existing research on the interactions between verbal short-term memory and language processing impairments in aphasia. Theoretical models of short-term memory are reviewed, starting with a model assuming a separation between short-term memory and language, and progressing to models that view verbal short-term memory as a cognitive requirement of language processing. The review highlights a verbal short-term memory model derived from an interactive activation model of word retrieval. This model holds that verbal short-term memory encompasses the temporary activation of linguistic knowledge (e.g., semantic, lexical, and phonological features) during language production and comprehension tasks. Empirical evidence supporting this model, which views short-term memory in the context of the processes it subserves, is outlined. Studies that use a classic measure of verbal short-term memory (i.e., number of words/digits correctly recalled in immediate serial recall) as well as those that use more intricate measures (e.g., serial position effects in immediate serial recall) are discussed. Treatment research that uses verbal short-term memory tasks in an attempt to improve language processing is then summarized, with a particular focus on word retrieval. A discussion of the limitations of current research and possible future directions concludes the review. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Short-Term Memory and Aphasia: From Theory to Treatment

PubMed Central

Minkina, Irene; Rosenberg, Samantha; Kalinyak-Fliszar, Michelene; Martin, Nadine

2018-01-01

This article reviews existing research on the interactions between verbal short-term memory and language processing impairments in aphasia. Theoretical models of short-term memory are reviewed, starting with a model assuming a separation between short-term memory and language, and progressing to models that view verbal short-term memory as a cognitive requirement of language processing. The review highlights a verbal short-term memory model derived from an interactive activation model of word retrieval. This model holds that verbal short-term memory encompasses the temporary activation of linguistic knowledge (e.g., semantic, lexical, and phonological features) during language production and comprehension tasks. Empirical evidence supporting this model, which views short-term memory in the context of the processes it subserves, is outlined. Studies that use a classic measure of verbal short-term memory (i.e., number of words/digits correctly recalled in immediate serial recall) as well as those that use more intricate measures (e.g., serial position effects in immediate serial recall) are discussed. Treatment research that uses verbal short-term memory tasks in an attempt to improve language processing is then summarized, with a particular focus on word retrieval. A discussion of the limitations of current research and possible future directions concludes the review. PMID:28201834

Attention allocation: Relationships to general working memory or specific language processing.

PubMed

Archibald, Lisa M D; Levee, Tyler; Olino, Thomas

2015-11-01

Attention allocation, updating working memory, and language processing are interdependent cognitive tasks related to the focused direction of limited resources, refreshing and substituting information in the current focus of attention, and receiving/sending verbal communication, respectively. The current study systematically examined the relationship among executive attention, working memory executive skills, and language abilities while adjusting for individual differences in short-term memory. School-age children completed a selective attention task requiring them to recall whether a presented shape was in the same place as a previous target shape shown in an array imposing a low or high working memory load. Results revealed a selective attention cost when working above but not within memory span capacity. Measures of general working memory were positively related to overall task performance, whereas language abilities were related to response time. In particular, higher language skills were associated with faster responses under low load conditions. These findings suggest that attentional control and storage demands have an additive impact on working memory resources but provide only limited evidence for a domain-general mechanism in language learning. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Resisting attraction: Individual differences in executive control are associated with subject-verb agreement errors in production.

PubMed

Veenstra, Alma; Antoniou, Kyriakos; Katsos, Napoleon; Kissine, Mikhail

2018-04-19

We propose that attraction errors in agreement production (e.g., the key to the cabinets are missing) are related to two components of executive control: working memory and inhibitory control. We tested 138 children aged 10 to 12, an age when children are expected to produce high rates of errors. To increase the potential of individual variation in executive control skills, participants came from monolingual, bilingual, and bidialectal language backgrounds. Attraction errors were elicited with a picture description task in Dutch and executive control was measured with a digit span task, Corsi blocks task, switching task, and attentional networks task. Overall, higher rates of attraction errors were negatively associated with higher verbal working memory and, independently, with higher inhibitory control. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the role of both working memory and inhibitory control in attraction errors in production. Implications for memory- and grammar-based models are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Cerebrocerebellar networks during articulatory rehearsal and verbal working memory tasks.

PubMed

Chen, S H Annabel; Desmond, John E

2005-01-15

Converging evidence has implicated the cerebellum in verbal working memory. The current fMRI study sought to further characterize cerebrocerebellar participation in this cognitive process by revealing regions of activation common to a verbal working task and an articulatory control task, as well as regions that are uniquely activated by working memory. Consistent with our model's predictions, load-dependent activations were observed in Broca's area (BA 44/6) and the superior cerebellar hemisphere (VI/CrusI) for both working memory and motoric rehearsal. In contrast, activations unique to verbal working memory were found in the inferior parietal lobule (BA 40) and the right inferior cerebellum hemisphere (VIIB). These findings provide evidence for two cerebrocerebellar networks for verbal working memory: a frontal/superior cerebellar articulatory control system and a parietal/inferior cerebellar phonological storage system.

Liar, liar, working memory on fire: Investigating the role of working memory in childhood verbal deception.

PubMed

Alloway, Tracy Packiam; McCallum, Fiona; Alloway, Ross G; Hoicka, Elena

2015-09-01

The aim of the current study was to investigate the role of working memory in verbal deception in children. We presented 6- and 7-year-olds with a temptation resistance paradigm; they played a trivia game and were then given an opportunity to peek at the final answers on the back of a card. Measures of both verbal and visuospatial working memory were included. The good liars performed better on the verbal working memory test in both processing and recall compared with the bad liars. However, there was no difference in visuospatial working scores between good liars and bad liars. This pattern suggests that verbal working memory plays a role in processing and manipulating the multiple pieces of information involved in lie-telling. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Face-name association task reveals memory networks in patients with left and right hippocampal sclerosis.

PubMed

Klamer, Silke; Milian, Monika; Erb, Michael; Rona, Sabine; Lerche, Holger; Ethofer, Thomas

2017-01-01

We aimed to identify reorganization processes of episodic memory networks in patients with left and right temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) due to hippocampal sclerosis as well as their relations to neuropsychological memory performance. We investigated 28 healthy subjects, 12 patients with left TLE (LTLE) and 9 patients with right TLE (RTLE) with hippocampal sclerosis by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using a face-name association task, which combines verbal and non-verbal memory functions. Regions-of-interest (ROIs) were defined based on the group results of the healthy subjects. In each ROI, fMRI activations were compared across groups and correlated with verbal and non-verbal memory scores. The face-name association task yielded activations in bilateral hippocampus (HC), left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left superior frontal gyrus (SFG), left superior temporal gyrus, bilateral angular gyrus (AG), bilateral medial prefrontal cortex and right anterior temporal lobe (ATL). LTLE patients demonstrated significantly less activation in the left HC and left SFG, whereas RTLE patients showed significantly less activation in the HC bilaterally, the left SFG and right AG. Verbal memory scores correlated with activations in the left and right HC, left SFG and right ATL and non-verbal memory scores with fMRI activations in the left and right HC and left SFG. The face-name association task can be employed to examine functional alterations of hippocampal activation during encoding of both verbal and non-verbal material in one fMRI paradigm. Further, the left SFG seems to be a convergence region for encoding of verbal and non-verbal material.

A meta-analysis of working memory impairments in survivors of moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Dunning, Darren L; Westgate, Briony; Adlam, Anna-Lynne R

2016-10-01

To establish the magnitude of deficits in working memory (WM) and short-term memory (STM) in those with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) relative to age-matched, healthy controls and to explore the moderating effects of time since injury and age at injury on these impairments. Twenty-one studies that compared the WM and/or STM abilities of individuals with at least a moderate TBI relative to healthy controls were included in a random effects meta-analysis. Measures used to examine memory performance were categorized by modality (visuospatial, verbal) and memory system (WM, STM). Individuals with TBI had significant deficits in verbal STM (Cohen's d = .41), visuospatial WM (Cohen's d = .69), and verbal WM (Cohen's d = .37) relative to controls. Greater decrements in verbal STM and verbal WM skills were associated with longer time postinjury. Larger deficits were observed in verbal WM abilities in individuals with older age at injury. Evidence for WM impairments following TBI is consistent with previous research. Larger verbal STM and verbal WM deficits were related to a longer time postinjury, suggesting that these aspects of memory do not "recover" over time and instead, individuals might show increased rates of cognitive decline. Age at injury was associated with the severity of verbal WM impairments, with larger deficits evident for injuries that occurred later in life. Further research needs to chart the long-term effects of TBI on WM and to compare the effects of injury on verbal relative to visuospatial memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Pathways to functional outcomes following a first episode of psychosis: The roles of premorbid adjustment, verbal memory and symptom remission.

PubMed

Jordan, Gerald; Veru, Franz; Lepage, Martin; Joober, Ridha; Malla, Ashok; Iyer, Srividya N

2017-12-01

Most studies have investigated either the singular or relative contributions of premorbid adjustment, verbal memory and symptom remission to functional outcomes in first-episode psychosis. Fewer studies have examined the pathways of these factors in impacting functioning. Our study addresses this gap. The objective was to determine whether the relationship between premorbid adjustment and functional outcomes was mediated by verbal memory and symptom remission. A total of 334 first-episode psychosis participants (aged 14-35 years) were assessed on premorbid adjustment, verbal memory upon entry, and positive and negative symptom remission and functioning at multiple time points over a 2-year follow-up. Mediation analyses showed that over the first year, the relationship between premorbid adjustment and functioning was mediated by verbal memory and positive symptom remission (β = -0.18; 95% confidence interval = [-0.51, -0.04]), as well as by verbal memory and negative symptom remission (β = -0.41; 95% confidence interval = [-1.11, -1.03]). Over 2 years, the relationship between premorbid adjustment and functioning was mediated by verbal memory and only negative symptom remission (β = -0.38; 95% confidence interval = [-1.46, -0.02]). Comparatively less malleable factors (premorbid adjustment and verbal memory) may contribute to functional outcomes through more malleable factors (symptoms). Promoting remission may be an important parsimonious means to achieving better functional outcomes.

Verbal Working Memory Is Related to the Acquisition of Cross-Linguistic Phonological Regularities.

PubMed

Bosma, Evelyn; Heeringa, Wilbert; Hoekstra, Eric; Versloot, Arjen; Blom, Elma

2017-01-01

Closely related languages share cross-linguistic phonological regularities, such as Frisian -âld [ͻ:t] and Dutch -oud [ʱut], as in the cognate pairs kâld [kͻ:t] - koud [kʱut] 'cold' and wâld [wͻ:t] - woud [wʱut] 'forest'. Within Bybee's (1995, 2001, 2008, 2010) network model, these regularities are, just like grammatical rules within a language, generalizations that emerge from schemas of phonologically and semantically related words. Previous research has shown that verbal working memory is related to the acquisition of grammar, but not vocabulary. This suggests that verbal working memory supports the acquisition of linguistic regularities. In order to test this hypothesis we investigated whether verbal working memory is also related to the acquisition of cross-linguistic phonological regularities. For three consecutive years, 5- to 8-year-old Frisian-Dutch bilingual children ( n = 120) were tested annually on verbal working memory and a Frisian receptive vocabulary task that comprised four cognate categories: (1) identical cognates, (2) non-identical cognates that either do or (3) do not exhibit a phonological regularity between Frisian and Dutch, and (4) non-cognates. The results showed that verbal working memory had a significantly stronger effect on cognate category (2) than on the other three cognate categories. This suggests that verbal working memory is related to the acquisition of cross-linguistic phonological regularities. More generally, it confirms the hypothesis that verbal working memory plays a role in the acquisition of linguistic regularities.

Improved Digit Span in Children after a 6-Week Intervention of Playing a Musical Instrument: An Exploratory Randomized Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Guo, Xia; Ohsawa, Chie; Suzuki, Akiko; Sekiyama, Kaoru

2018-01-01

Previous studies have reported that music training not only improves children's musical skills, but also enhances their cognitive functions. However, there is a disagreement about what domain(s) might be affected. Moreover, effects of short-term (

Improved Digit Span in Children after a 6-Week Intervention of Playing a Musical Instrument: An Exploratory Randomized Controlled Trial.

PubMed

Guo, Xia; Ohsawa, Chie; Suzuki, Akiko; Sekiyama, Kaoru

2017-01-01

Previous studies have reported that music training not only improves children's musical skills, but also enhances their cognitive functions. However, there is a disagreement about what domain(s) might be affected. Moreover, effects of short-term (

Changes in verbal learning and memory in schizophrenia and non-psychotic controls in midlife: A nine-year follow-up in the Northern Finland Birth Cohort study 1966.

PubMed

Rannikko, Irina; Haapea, Marianne; Miettunen, Jouko; Veijola, Juha; Murray, Graham K; Barnett, Jennifer H; Husa, Anja P; Jones, Peter B; Isohanni, Matti; Jääskeläinen, Erika

2015-08-30

Findings on longitudinal change of cognitive performance in schizophrenia are extremely variable in the case of verbal learning and memory, and it is still unclear which dimensions of verbal learning and memory exhibit possible deterioration over the long-term. Our aim was to compare the change in verbal learning and memory in individuals with schizophrenia 10-20 years after the illness onset and healthy controls during a nine-year follow-up in a general population sample. Our sample included 41 schizophrenia spectrum subjects and 73 controls from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort study 1966. The California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) was used to estimate the degree of change in verbal learning and memory during a nine-year follow-up from age 34-years to 43- years. Both cases and controls deteriorated. There was statistically significant decline in two out of 20 CVLT items among cases and in 13 out of 20 CVLT items among controls. With the exception of two variables, the decline in verbal learning and memory over nine years was not significantly larger in cases. We conclude that during midlife verbal learning and memory in schizophrenia mostly declines in a normative fashion with aging at the same rate as the general population. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Effects of Concurrent Verbal and Visual Tasks on Category Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miles, Sarah J.; Minda, John Paul

2011-01-01

Current theories of category learning posit separate verbal and nonverbal learning systems. Past research suggests that the verbal system relies on verbal working memory and executive functioning and learns rule-defined categories; the nonverbal system does not rely on verbal working memory and learns non-rule-defined categories (E. M. Waldron…

Diet quality and cognitive function in an urban sample: findings from the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study.

PubMed

Wright, Regina S; Waldstein, Shari R; Kuczmarski, Marie Fanelli; Pohlig, Ryan T; Gerassimakis, Constance S; Gaynor, Beatrice; Evans, Michele K; Zonderman, Alan B

2017-01-01

Poor diet quality contributes to morbidity, including poor brain health outcomes such as cognitive decline and dementia. African Americans and individuals living in poverty may be at greater risk for cognitive decrements from poor diet quality. Cross-sectional. Baltimore, MD, USA. Participants were 2090 African Americans and Whites (57 % female, mean age=47·9 years) who completed two 24 h dietary recalls. We examined cognitive performance and potential interactions of diet quality with race and poverty status using baseline data from the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study. Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010) scores were calculated and interpreted using federal guidelines. A neurocognitive test battery was administered to evaluate cognitive function over several domains. Linear regression analyses showed that lower HEI-2010 scores were associated with poorer verbal learning and memory (P<0·05) after adjustment for covariates. Diet quality within the sample was poor. Significant interactions of HEI-2010 and poverty status (all P<0·05) indicated that higher diet quality was associated with higher performance on tests of attention and cognitive flexibility, visuospatial ability and perceptual speed among those below the poverty line. No significant race interactions emerged. Higher diet quality was associated with better performance on two measures of verbal learning and memory, irrespective of race and poverty status. Findings suggest that diet quality and cognitive function are likely related at the population level. Future research is needed to determine whether the association is clinically significant.

Declarative verbal memory impairments in middle-aged women who are caregivers of offspring with autism spectrum disorders: The role of negative affect and testosterone.

PubMed

Romero-Martínez, A; González-Bono, E; Salvador, A; Moya-Albiol, L

2016-01-01

Caring for offspring diagnosed with a chronic psychological disorder such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is used in research as a model of chronic stress. This chronic stress has been reported to have deleterious effects on caregivers' cognition, particularly in verbal declarative memory. Moreover, such cognitive decline may be mediated by testosterone (T) levels and negative affect, understood as depressive mood together with high anxiety and anger. This study aimed to compare declarative memory function in middle-aged women who were caregivers for individuals with ASD (n = 24; mean age = 45) and female controls (n = 22; mean age = 45), using a standardised memory test (Rey's Auditory Verbal Learning Test). It also sought to examine the role of care recipient characteristics, negative mood and T levels in memory impairments. ASD caregivers were highly sensitive to proactive interference and verbal forgetting. In addition, they had higher negative affect and T levels, both of which have been associated with poorer verbal memory performance. Moreover, the number of years of caregiving affected memory performance and negative affect, especially, in terms of anger feelings. On the other hand, T levels in caregivers had a curvilinear relationship with verbal memory performance; that is, increases in T were associated with improvements in verbal memory performance up to a certain point, but subsequently, memory performance decreased with increasing T. Chronic stress may produce disturbances in mood and hormonal levels, which in turn might increase the likelihood of developing declarative memory impairments although caregivers do not show a generalised decline in memory. These findings should be taken into account for understanding the impact of cognitive impairments on the ability to provide optimal caregiving.

Specific Verbal Memory Measures May Distinguish Alzheimer's Disease from Dementia with Lewy Bodies.

PubMed

Bussè, Cinzia; Anselmi, Pasquale; Pompanin, Sara; Zorzi, Giovanni; Fragiacomo, Federica; Camporese, Giulia; Di Bernardo, Gian Antonio; Semenza, Carlo; Caffarra, Paolo; Cagnin, Annachiara

2017-01-01

Standard measures of commonly used memory tests may not be appropriate to distinguish different neurodegenerative diseases affecting memory. To study whether specific measures of verbal memory obtained with the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning test (RAVLT) could help distinguish dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) from Alzheimer's disease (AD). Twenty-nine DLB and 32 AD patients participated in the study and were followed longitudinally for 3 years until the diagnosis was confirmed according to standard clinical criteria. Twenty-eight healthy elderly subjects served as controls. The following verbal memory measures were evaluated: verbal learning (VL), verbal forgetting (VF), percentage of verbal forgetting (VF%), and serial position effects of the immediate recall performance. DLB and AD groups have comparable performances at the RAVLT immediate and delayed recall tasks. However, VL was higher in DLB than AD while VF% was greater in AD. With a VF% cut-off ≥75%, AD and DLB patients were differently distributed, with 58% of AD versus 21% of DLB above this cut-off. The recency effect was significant higher in AD than DLB. DLB patients had a better performance in VL than AD, but worse VF and recency effect. These specific measures of verbal memory could be used as cognitive markers in the differential diagnosis between these two conditions.

Verbal Learning and Memory Functions in Adolescents with Reading Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oyler, James D.; Obrzut, John E.; Asbjornsen, Arve E.

2012-01-01

The authors of this current study compared the memory performance of adolescent students with specific reading disabilities (RD) with that of typical adolescent readers on a newly developed verbal learning test, the "Bergen-Tucson Verbal Learning Test" (BTVLT). This multiple trial test was designed to measure memory acquisition,…

The Interaction of Concreteness and Phonological Similarity in Verbal Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Acheson, Daniel J.; Postle, Bradley R.; MacDonald, Maryellen C.

2010-01-01

Although phonological representations have been a primary focus of verbal working memory research, lexical-semantic manipulations also influence performance. In the present study, the authors investigated whether a classic phenomenon in verbal working memory, the phonological similarity effect (PSE), is modulated by a lexical-semantic variable,…

A Memory-Based Theory of Verbal Cognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dennis, Simon

2005-01-01

The syntagmatic paradigmatic model is a distributed, memory-based account of verbal processing. Built on a Bayesian interpretation of string edit theory, it characterizes the control of verbal cognition as the retrieval of sets of syntagmatic and paradigmatic constraints from sequential and relational long-term memory and the resolution of these…

Memory and linguistic/executive functions of children with borderline intellectual functioning.

PubMed

Água Dias, Andrea B; Albuquerque, Cristina P; Simões, Mário R

2017-11-08

Children with Borderline Intellectual Functioning (BIF) have received a minimal amount of research attention and have been studied in conjunction with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. The present study intends to broaden the knowledge of BIF, by analyzing domains such as verbal memory and visual memory, as well as tasks that rely simultaneously on memory, executive functions, and language. A cross-sectional, comparison study was carried out between a group of 40 children with BIF (mean age = 10.03; 24 male and 16 female), and a control group of 40 normal children of the same age, gender, and socioeconomic level as the BIF group. The WISC-III Full Scale IQs of the BIF group ranged from 71 to 84. The following instruments were used: Word List, Narrative Memory, Rey Complex Figure, Face Memory, Rapid Naming (both RAN and RAS tests), and Verbal Fluency. The results showed deficits in children with BIF in verbal short-term memory, rapid naming, phonemic verbal fluency, and visual short-term memory, specifically in a visual recognition task, when compared with the control group. Long-term verbal memory was impaired only in older children with BIF and long-term visual memory showed no deficit. Verbal short-term memory stands out as a limitation and visual long-term memory as a strength. Correlations between the WISC-III and neuropsychological tests scores were predominantly low. The study expands the neuropsychological characterization of children with BIF and the implications of the deficits and strengths are stressed.

[Executive dysfunction in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in childhood].

PubMed

Romero-Ayuso, D M; Maestú, F; González-Marqués, J; Romo-Barrientos, C; Andrade, J M

The principal problem of ADHD is the difficulty to execute inhibitory control. The inhibition is an executive function that is develop during childhood. To know if other executive functions shower a lower performance in ADHD versus control group and these were different between ADHD-I and ADHD-C. Fifty three children, between 7 to 10 years old, participated and were assess with EMIC and Simon task. The results showed similar profile in working memory and verbal span. In contrast, ADHD-C showed lower performance in Simon task and more impulsively. On an other hand, ADHD-I showed lower performance in memory working tasks and planning. These results suggest differences in the executive profile between ADHD-I and ADHD-C and these support the hypothesis of Barkley about the necessity to differ both clinical subtypes.

The Role of Anterior Nuclei of the Thalamus: A Subcortical Gate in Memory Processing: An Intracerebral Recording Study.

PubMed

Štillová, Klára; Jurák, Pavel; Chládek, Jan; Chrastina, Jan; Halámek, Josef; Bočková, Martina; Goldemundová, Sabina; Říha, Ivo; Rektor, Ivan

2015-01-01

To study the involvement of the anterior nuclei of the thalamus (ANT) as compared to the involvement of the hippocampus in the processes of encoding and recognition during visual and verbal memory tasks. We studied intracerebral recordings in patients with pharmacoresistent epilepsy who underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the ANT with depth electrodes implanted bilaterally in the ANT and compared the results with epilepsy surgery candidates with depth electrodes implanted bilaterally in the hippocampus. We recorded the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by the visual and verbal memory encoding and recognition tasks. P300-like potentials were recorded in the hippocampus by visual and verbal memory encoding and recognition tasks and in the ANT by the visual encoding and visual and verbal recognition tasks. No significant ERPs were recorded during the verbal encoding task in the ANT. In the visual and verbal recognition tasks, the P300-like potentials in the ANT preceded the P300-like potentials in the hippocampus. The ANT is a structure in the memory pathway that processes memory information before the hippocampus. We suggest that the ANT has a specific role in memory processes, especially memory recognition, and that memory disturbance should be considered in patients with ANT-DBS and in patients with ANT lesions. ANT is well positioned to serve as a subcortical gate for memory processing in cortical structures.

Cerebral Glucose Metabolism is Associated with Verbal but not Visual Memory Performance in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

PubMed

Gardener, Samantha L; Sohrabi, Hamid R; Shen, Kai-Kai; Rainey-Smith, Stephanie R; Weinborn, Michael; Bates, Kristyn A; Shah, Tejal; Foster, Jonathan K; Lenzo, Nat; Salvado, Olivier; Laske, Christoph; Laws, Simon M; Taddei, Kevin; Verdile, Giuseppe; Martins, Ralph N

2016-03-31

Increasing evidence suggests that Alzheimer's disease (AD) sufferers show region-specific reductions in cerebral glucose metabolism, as measured by [18F]-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET). We investigated preclinical disease stage by cross-sectionally examining the association between global cognition, verbal and visual memory, and 18F-FDG PET standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) in 43 healthy control individuals, subsequently focusing on differences between subjective memory complainers and non-memory complainers. The 18F-FDG PET regions of interest investigated include the hippocampus, amygdala, posterior cingulate, superior parietal, entorhinal cortices, frontal cortex, temporal cortex, and inferior parietal region. In the cohort as a whole, verbal logical memory immediate recall was positively associated with 18F-FDG PET SUVR in both the left hippocampus and right amygdala. There were no associations observed between global cognition, delayed recall in logical memory, or visual reproduction and 18F-FDG PET SUVR. Following stratification of the cohort into subjective memory complainers and non-complainers, verbal logical memory immediate recall was positively associated with 18F-FDG PET SUVR in the right amygdala in those with subjective memory complaints. There were no significant associations observed in non-memory complainers between 18F-FDG PET SUVR in regions of interest and cognitive performance. We observed subjective memory complaint-specific associations between 18F-FDG PET SUVR and immediate verbal memory performance in our cohort, however found no associations between delayed recall of verbal memory performance or visual memory performance. It is here argued that the neural mechanisms underlying verbal and visual memory performance may in fact differ in their pathways, and the characteristic reduction of 18F-FDG PET SUVR observed in this and previous studies likely reflects the pathophysiological changes in specific brain regions that occur in preclinical AD.

Inhibitory Processes in Young Children and Individual Variation in Short-Term Memory

PubMed Central

Espy, Kimberly Andrews; Bull, Rebecca

2009-01-01

A precise definition of executive control remains elusive, related in part to the variations among executive tasks in the nature of the task demands, which complicate the identification of test-specific versus construct-specific performance. In this study, tasks were chosen that varied in the nature of the stimulus (verbal, nonverbal), response (naming, somatic motor), conflict type (proactive interference, distraction), and inhibitory process (attention control, response suppression) required. Then performance differences were examined in 184 young children (age range = 3 years 6 months to 6 years 1 month), comparing those with high (5 or more digits) and low (3 or fewer digits) spans to determine the dependence on short-term memory. Results indicated that there was communality in inhibitory task demands across instruments, although the specific pattern of task intercorrelations varied in children with high and low spans. Furthermore, only performance on attention control tasks—that is, that require cognitive engagement/disengagement among an internally represented rule or response set that was previously active versus those currently active—differed between children of high and low spans. In contrast, there were differences neither between children with high and low spans on response suppression tasks nor on tasks when considered by type of stimulus, response, or conflict. Individual differences in well-regulated thought may rest in variations in the ability to maintain information in an active, quickly retrievable state that subserve controlling attention in a goal-relevant fashion. PMID:16144432

Verbal memory decline from hippocampal depth electrodes in temporal lobe surgery for epilepsy.

PubMed

Ljung, Hanna; Nordlund, Arto; Strandberg, Maria; Bengzon, Johan; Källén, Kristina

2017-12-01

To explore whether patients with refractory mesial temporal lobe epilepsy risk aggravated verbal memory loss from intracranial electroencephalography (EEG) recording with longitudinal hippocampal electrodes in the language-dominant hemisphere. A long-term neuropsychological follow-up (mean 61.5 months, range 22-111 months) was performed in 40 patients after ictal registration with left hippocampal depth electrodes (study group, n = 16) or no invasive EEG, only extracranial registration (reference group, n = 24). The groups were equal with respect to education, age at seizure onset, epilepsy duration, and prevalence of pharmacoresistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE; 75%) versus seizure freedom (25%). Retrospective neuropsychological data from preoperative surgical workup (T1) and prospective follow-up neuropsychological data (T2) were compared. A ≥1 SD intrapatient decline was considered as clinically relevant deterioration of verbal memory. Significant decline in verbal memory was seen in 56% of the patients in the study group compared to 21% in the reference group. At T1, there were no statistical between-group differences in memory performance. At T2, between-group comparison showed significantly greater verbal memory decline for the study group (Claeson Dahl Learning and Retention Test, Verbal Learning: p = 0.05; Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Total Learning: p = 0.04; Claeson Dahl Learning and Retention Test, Verbal Retention: p = 0.04). An odds ratio (OR) of 7.1 (90% confidence interval [CI] 1.3-37.7) for verbal memory decline was seen if right temporal lobe resection (R TLR) had been performed between T1 and T2. The difference between groups remained unchanged when patients who had undergone R TLR were excluded from the analysis, with a remaining aggravated significant decline in verbal memory performance for the study group compared to the reference group. Our results suggest a risk of verbal memory deterioration after the use of depth electrodes along the longitudinal axis of the hippocampus. Until this issue is further investigated, caution regarding depth electrodes in the language-dominant hemisphere hippocampus seems advisable. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 International League Against Epilepsy.

The effect of rehearsal rate and memory load on verbal working memory.

PubMed

Fegen, David; Buchsbaum, Bradley R; D'Esposito, Mark

2015-01-15

While many neuroimaging studies have investigated verbal working memory (WM) by manipulating memory load, the subvocal rehearsal rate at these various memory loads has generally been left uncontrolled. Therefore, the goal of this study was to investigate how mnemonic load and the rate of subvocal rehearsal modulate patterns of activity in the core neural circuits underlying verbal working memory. Using fMRI in healthy subjects, we orthogonally manipulated subvocal rehearsal rate and memory load in a verbal WM task with long 45-s delay periods. We found that middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and superior parietal lobule (SPL) exhibited memory load effects primarily early in the delay period and did not exhibit rehearsal rate effects. In contrast, we found that inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), premotor cortex (PM) and Sylvian-parietal-temporal region (area Spt) exhibited approximately linear memory load and rehearsal rate effects, with rehearsal rate effects lasting through the entire delay period. These results indicate that IFG, PM and area Spt comprise the core articulatory rehearsal areas involved in verbal WM, while MFG and SPL are recruited in a general supervisory role once a memory load threshold in the core rehearsal network has been exceeded. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Rehearsal Rate and Memory Load on Verbal Working Memory

PubMed Central

Fegen, David; Buchsbaum, Bradley R.; D’Esposito, Mark

2014-01-01

While many neuroimaging studies have investigated verbal working memory (WM) by manipulating memory load, the subvocal rehearsal rate at these various memory loads has generally been left uncontrolled. Therefore, the goal of this study was to investigate how mnemonic load and the rate of subvocal rehearsal modulate patterns of activity in the core neural circuits underlying verbal working memory. Using fMRI in healthy subjects, we orthogonally manipulated subvocal rehearsal rate and memory load in a verbal WM task with long 45-second delay periods. We found that middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and superior parietal lobule (SPL) exhibited memory load effects primarily early in the delay period and did not exhibit rehearsal rate effects. In contrast, we found that inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), premotor cortex (PM) and Sylvian-parietal-temporal region (area Spt) exhibited approximately linear memory load and rehearsal rate effects, with rehearsal rate effects lasting through the entire delay period. These results indicate that IFG, PM and area Spt comprise the core articulatory rehearsal areas involved in verbal WM, while MFG and SPL are recruited in a general supervisory role once a memory load threshold in the core rehearsal network has been exceeded. PMID:25467303

Verbal Working Memory and Language Production: Common Approaches to the Serial Ordering of Verbal Information

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Acheson, Daniel J.; MacDonald, Maryellen C.

2009-01-01

Verbal working memory (WM) tasks typically involve the language production architecture for recall; however, language production processes have had a minimal role in theorizing about WM. A framework for understanding verbal WM results is presented here. In this framework, domain-specific mechanisms for serial ordering in verbal WM are provided by…

Dyslexic children show short-term memory deficits in phonological storage and serial rehearsal: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Beneventi, Harald; Tønnessen, Finn Egil; Ersland, Lars

2009-01-01

Dyslexia is primarily associated with a phonological processing deficit. However, the clinical manifestation also includes a reduced verbal working memory (WM) span. It is unclear whether this WM impairment is caused by the phonological deficit or a distinct WM deficit. The main aim of this study was to investigate neuronal activation related to phonological storage and rehearsal of serial order in WM in a sample of 13-year-old dyslexic children compared with age-matched nondyslexic children. A sequential verbal WM task with two tasks was used. In the Letter Probe task, the probe consisted of a single letter and the judgment was for the presence or absence of that letter in the prior sequence of six letters. In the Sequence Probe (SP) task, the probe consisted of all six letters and the judgment was for a match of their serial order with the temporal order in the prior sequence. Group analyses as well as single-subject analysis were performed with the statistical parametric mapping software SPM2. In the Letter Probe task, the dyslexic readers showed reduced activation in the left precentral gyrus (BA6) compared to control group. In the Sequence Probe task, the dyslexic readers showed reduced activation in the prefrontal cortex and the superior parietal cortex (BA7) compared to the control subjects. Our findings suggest that a verbal WM impairment in dyslexia involves an extended neural network including the prefrontal cortex and the superior parietal cortex. Reduced activation in the left BA6 in both the Letter Probe and Sequence Probe tasks may be caused by a deficit in phonological processing. However, reduced bilateral activation in the BA7 in the Sequence Probe task only could indicate a distinct working memory deficit in dyslexia associated with temporal order processing.

Sleep Shelters Verbal Memory from Different Kinds of Interference

PubMed Central

Sheth, Bhavin R.; Varghese, Reni; Truong, Thuy

2012-01-01

Study Objectives: Studies have shown that sleep shelters old verbal memories from associative interference arising from new, more recently acquired memories. Our objective is to extend the forms of interference for which sleep provides a sheltering benefit to non-associative and prospective interference, and to examine experimental conditions and memory strengths for which sleep before or after learning particularly affects verbal memory consolidation. Design: Acquiring paired word associates, retention across intervening sleep and wake, training on new, interfering word associates, and test recall of both sets. Setting: University laboratory. Participants: Healthy volunteers. Interventions: N/A. Measurements and Results: Comparing recall before and after intervening periods of sleep versus wake, we found that: (i) Sleep preferentially shields weakly encoded verbal memories from retroactive interference. (ii) Sleep immediately following learning helps shelter memory from associative and non-associative forms of retroactive interference. (iii) Sleep protects new verbal memories from prospective interference. (iv) Word associations acquired for the first time in the evening after a day spent in the wake state are encoded more strongly than word associations acquired in the morning following a night of sleep. Conclusions: The findings extend the known sleep protection from interference to non-associative as well as prospective interference, and limit the protection to weakly encoded word associations. Combined, our results suggest that sleep immediately after verbal learning isolates newly formed memory traces and renders them inaccessible, except by specific contextual cues. Memory isolation in sleep is a passive mechanism that can reasonably account for several experimental findings. Citation: Sheth BR; Varghese R; Truong T. Sleep shelters verbal memory from different kinds of interference. SLEEP 2012;35(7):985-996. PMID:22754045

Specific memory impairment following neonatal encephalopathy in term-born children.

PubMed

van Handel, Mariëlle; de Sonneville, Leo; de Vries, Linda S; Jongmans, Marian J; Swaab, Hanna

2012-01-01

This study examines short-term memory, verbal working memory, episodic long-term memory, and intelligence in 32 children with mild neonatal encephalopathy (NE), 39 children with moderate NE, 10 children with NE who developed cerebral palsy (CP), and 53 comparison children, at the age of 9 to 10 years. in addition to a global effect on intelligence, NE had a specific effect on verbal working memory, verbal and visuo-spatial long-term memory, and learning, which was associated with degree of NE. Although these memory problems occurred in children without CP, they were more pronounced when children had also developed CP.

Verbal makes it positive, spatial makes it negative: working memory biases judgments, attention, and moods.

PubMed

Storbeck, Justin; Watson, Philip

2014-12-01

Prior research has suggested that emotion and working memory domains are integrated, such that positive affect enhances verbal working memory, whereas negative affect enhances spatial working memory (Gray, 2004; Storbeck, 2012). Simon (1967) postulated that one feature of emotion and cognition integration would be reciprocal connectedness (i.e., emotion influences cognition and cognition influences emotion). We explored whether affective judgments and attention to affective qualities are biased by the activation of verbal and spatial working memory mind-sets. For all experiments, participants completed a 2-back verbal or spatial working memory task followed by an endorsement task (Experiments 1 & 2), word-pair selection task (Exp. 3), or attentional dot-probe task (Exp. 4). Participants who had an activated verbal, compared with spatial, working memory mind-set were more likely to endorse pictures (Exp. 1) and words (Exp. 2) as being more positive and to select the more positive word pair out of a set of word pairs that went 'together best' (Exp. 3). Additionally, people who completed the verbal working memory task took longer to disengage from positive stimuli, whereas those who completed the spatial working memory task took longer to disengage from negative stimuli (Exp. 4). Interestingly, across the 4 experiments, we observed higher levels of self-reported negative affect for people who completed the spatial working memory task, which was consistent with their endorsement and attentional bias toward negative stimuli. Therefore, emotion and working memory may have a reciprocal connectedness allowing for bidirectional influence.

Verbal Mediation and Memory for Novel Figural Designs: A Dual Interference Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silverberg, N.; Buchanan, L.

2005-01-01

To the extent that all types of visual stimuli can be verbalized to some degree, verbal mediation is intrinsic in so-called ''visual'' memory processing. This impurity complicates the interpretation of visual memory performance, particularly in certain neurologically impaired populations (e.g., aphasia). The purpose of this study was to…

Verbal Dominant Memory Impairment and Low Risk for Post-operative Memory Worsening in Both Left and Right Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Associated with Hippocampal Sclerosis.

PubMed

Khalil, Amr Farid; Iwasaki, Masaki; Nishio, Yoshiyuki; Jin, Kazutaka; Nakasato, Nobukazu; Tominaga, Teiji

2016-11-15

Post-operative memory changes after temporal lobe surgery have been established mainly by group analysis of cognitive outcome. This study investigated individual patient-based memory outcome in surgically-treated patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). This study included 84 consecutive patients with intractable TLE caused by unilateral hippocampal sclerosis (HS) who underwent epilepsy surgery (47 females, 41 left [Lt] TLE). Memory functions were evaluated with the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised before and at 1 year after surgery. Pre-operative memory function was classified into three patterns: verbal dominant memory impairment (Verb-D), visual dominant impairment (Vis-D), and no material-specific impairment. Post-operative changes in verbal and visual memory indices were classified into meaningful improvement, worsening, or no significant changes. Pre-operative patterns and post-operative changes in verbal and visual memory function were compared between the Lt and right (Rt) TLE groups. Pre-operatively, Verb-D was the most common type of impairment in both the Lt and Rt TLE groups (65.9 and 48.8%), and verbal memory indices were lower than visual memory indices, especially in the Lt compared with Rt TLE group. Vis-D was observed only in 11.6% of Rt and 7.3% of Lt TLE patients. Post-operatively, meaningful improvement of memory indices was observed in 23.3-36.6% of the patients, and the memory improvement was equivalent between Lt and Rt TLE groups and between verbal and visual materials. In conclusion, Verb-D is most commonly observed in patients with both the Lt and Rt TLE associated with HS. Hippocampectomy can improve memory indices in such patients regardless of the side of surgery and the function impaired.

Effects of prenatal methamphetamine exposure on verbal memory revealed with fMRI

PubMed Central

Lu, Lisa H.; Johnson, Arianne; O’Hare, Elizabeth D.; Bookheimer, Susan Y.; Smith, Lynne M.; O’Connor, Mary J.; Sowell, Elizabeth R.

2009-01-01

Objective Efforts to understand specific effects of prenatal methamphetamine exposure on cognitive processing are hampered by high rates of concomitant alcohol use during pregnancy. We examined whether neurocognitive systems differed among children with differing prenatal teratogenic exposures when they engaged in a verbal memory task. Patients and Methods Participants (7-15 years old) engaged in a verbal paired associate learning task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The MA group included 14 children with prenatal methamphetamine exposure, 12 of whom had concomitant alcohol exposure. They were compared to 9 children with prenatal alcohol but not methamphetamine exposure (ALC) and 20 unexposed controls (CON). Groups did not differ in age, gender, or socioeconomic status. Participants’ IQ and verbal learning performance were measured using standardized instruments. Results The MA group activated more diffuse brain regions, including bilateral medial temporal structures known to be important for memory, than both the ALC and the CON groups. These group differences remained after IQ was covaried. More activation in medial temporal structures by the MA group compared to the ALC group cannot be explained by performance differences because both groups performed at similar levels on the verbal memory task. Conclusions More diffuse activation in the MA group during verbal memory may reflect recruitment of compensatory systems to support a weak verbal memory network. Differences in activation patterns between the MA and ALC groups suggest that prenatal MA exposure influences the development of the verbal memory system above and beyond effects of prenatal alcohol exposure. PMID:19525715

The effects of concurrent cannabis use among ecstasy users: neuroprotective or neurotoxic?

PubMed

Fisk, John E; Montgomery, Catharine; Wareing, Michelle; Murphy, Philip N

2006-08-01

The research evidence regarding the potential effects of ecstasy suggests that it may be neurotoxic and that its use is associated with cognitive impairment. In recent years evidence has emerged suggesting that cannabinoids, the active ingredients in cannabis, can be neuroprotective under certain conditions. Given that many ecstasy users also consume cannabis at the same time, the possibility emerges that these individuals might be less susceptible to ecstasy-related impairment. The present paper reanalyses the data from a number of previous studies, contrasting the performance of those individuals who generally consume cannabis and ecstasy at the same time with those who generally consume ecstasy on its own. The two ecstasy-using groups are compared with non-ecstasy users on a range of measures including processing speed, random letter generation, verbal and visuo-spatial working memory span, reasoning and associative learning. The two ecstasy user groups did not differ significantly from each other on any of the measures. Both user groups were significantly worse than non-ecstasy users on measures of associative learning, verbal and visuo-spatial working memory and reasoning. The results suggest that consuming cannabis at the same time as ecstasy does not reduce the likelihood of cognitive impairment.

Developmental delays in phonological recoding among children and adolescents with Down syndrome and Williams syndrome.

PubMed

Danielsson, Henrik; Henry, Lucy; Messer, David; Carney, Daniel P J; Rönnberg, Jerker

2016-08-01

This study examined the development of phonological recoding in short-term memory (STM) span tasks among two clinical groups with contrasting STM and language profiles: those with Down syndrome (DS) and Williams syndrome (WS). Phonological recoding was assessed by comparing: (1) performance on phonologically similar and dissimilar items (phonological similarity effects, PSE); and (2) items with short and long names (word length effects, WLE). Participant groups included children and adolescents with DS (n=29), WS (n=25) and typical development (n=51), all with average mental ages around 6 years. The group with WS, contrary to predictions based on their relatively strong verbal STM and language abilities, showed no evidence for phonological recoding. Those in the group with DS, with weaker verbal STM and language abilities, showed positive evidence for phonological recoding (PSE), but to a lesser degree than the typical group (who showed PSE and WLE). These findings provide new information about the memory systems of these groups of children and adolescents, and suggest that STM processes involving phonological recoding do not fit with the usual expectations of the abilities of children and adolescents with WS and DS. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The advantage of reading over listening text comprehension in Down syndrome: what is the role of verbal memory?

PubMed

Roch, Maja; Florit, Elena; Levorato, M Chiara

2012-01-01

The current study was designed to investigate the role played by verbal memory in the advantage shown by individuals with Down syndrome in reading over listening text comprehension (Roch & Levorato, 2009). Two different aspects of verbal memory were analyzed: processing load and coding modality. Participants were 20 individuals with Down syndrome, aged between 11 and 26 years who were matched for reading comprehension with a group of 20 typically developing children aged between 6;3 and 7;3 years. The two groups were presented with a listening comprehension test and four verbal memory tasks in which the degree of processing load and the coding modality were manipulated. The results of the study confirmed the advantage of reading over listening comprehension for individuals with Down syndrome. Furthermore, it emerged that different aspects of verbal memory were related respectively to reading and to listening comprehension: visual memory with low processing load was related to the former and oral memory with high processing load to the latter. Finally, it was demonstrated that verbal memory contributed to explain the advantage of reading over listening comprehension in Down syndrome. The results are discussed in light of their theoretical relevance and practical implications. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Capturing specific abilities as a window into human individuality: The example of face recognition

PubMed Central

Wilmer, Jeremy B.; Germine, Laura; Chabris, Christopher F.; Chatterjee, Garga; Gerbasi, Margaret; Nakayama, Ken

2013-01-01

Proper characterization of each individual's unique pattern of strengths and weaknesses requires good measures of diverse abilities. Here, we advocate combining our growing understanding of neural and cognitive mechanisms with modern psychometric methods in a renewed effort to capture human individuality through a consideration of specific abilities. We articulate five criteria for the isolation and measurement of specific abilities, then apply these criteria to face recognition. We cleanly dissociate face recognition from more general visual and verbal recognition. This dissociation stretches across ability as well as disability, suggesting that specific developmental face recognition deficits are a special case of a broader specificity that spans the entire spectrum of human face recognition performance. Item-by-item results from 1,471 web-tested participants, included as supplementary information, fuel item analyses, validation, norming, and item response theory (IRT) analyses of our three tests: (a) the widely used Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT); (b) an Abstract Art Memory Test (AAMT), and (c) a Verbal Paired-Associates Memory Test (VPMT). The availability of this data set provides a solid foundation for interpreting future scores on these tests. We argue that the allied fields of experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and vision science could fuel the discovery of additional specific abilities to add to face recognition, thereby providing new perspectives on human individuality. PMID:23428079

Attention and memory deficits in crack-cocaine users persist over four weeks of abstinence.

PubMed

Almeida, Priscila P; de Araujo Filho, Gerardo M; Malta, Stella M; Laranjeira, Ronaldo R; Marques, Ana Cecilia R P; Bressan, Rodrigo A; Lacerda, Acioly L T

2017-10-01

Crack-cocaine addiction is an important public health problem worldwide. Although there is not a consensus, preliminary evidence has suggested that cognitive impairments in patients with crack-cocaine dependence persist during abstinence, affecting different neuropsychological domains. However, few studies have prospectively evaluated those deficits in different phases of abstinence. The main aim of present study was to examine neuropsychological performance of patients with crack-cocaine dependence during early abstinence and after four weeks, comparing with matched controls. Thirty-five males with crack-cocaine dependence, aged 18 to 50years, who met DSM-IV criteria for cocaine dependence and a control group of 33 healthy men were enrolled. They were assessed through Block Design, Digit Span and Vocabulary of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III), the Rey Auditory Learning Test (RAVLT) and the Verbal Fluency (FAS) between 3 and 10days (mean of 6.1±2.0days) and after 4weeks of abstinence. Compared to controls, the crack-cocaine dependent group exhibited deficits in cognitive performance affecting attention, verbal memory and learning tasks in early withdrawal. Most of the cognitive deficits persisted after four weeks of abstinence. Present results observed that the group of patients with crack-cocaine dependence presented persistent deficits affecting memory and attention even after four weeks of abstinence, confirming previous studies that had disclosed such cognitive impairments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The relation between working memory components and ADHD symptoms from a developmental perspective.

PubMed

Tillman, Carin; Eninger, Lilianne; Forssman, Linda; Bohlin, Gunilla

2011-01-01

The objective was to examine the relations between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and four working memory (WM) components (short-term memory and central executive in verbal and visuospatial domains) in 284 6-16-year-old children from the general population. The results showed that verbal and visuospatial short-term memory and verbal central executive uniquely contributed to inattention symptoms. Age interacted with verbal short-term memory in predicting inattention, with the relation being stronger in older children. These findings support the notion of ADHD as a developmental disorder, with changes in associated neuropsychological deficits across time. The results further indicate ADHD-related deficits in several specific WM components.

Effects of classroom bilingualism on task-shifting, verbal memory, and word learning in children.

PubMed

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Gross, Megan; Buac, Milijana

2014-07-01

We examined the effects of classroom bilingual experience in children on an array of cognitive skills. Monolingual English-speaking children were compared with children who spoke English as the native language and who had been exposed to Spanish in the context of dual-immersion schooling for an average of 2 years. The groups were compared on a measure of non-linguistic task-shifting; measures of verbal short-term and working memory; and measures of word learning. The two groups of children did not differ on measures of non-linguistic task-shifting and verbal short-term memory. However, the classroom-exposure bilingual group outperformed the monolingual group on the measure of verbal working memory and a measure of word learning. Together, these findings indicate that while exposure to a second language in a classroom setting may not be sufficient to engender changes in cognitive control, it can facilitate verbal memory and verbal learning. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Effects of Classroom Bilingualism on Task Shifting, Verbal Memory, and Word Learning in Children

PubMed Central

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Gross, Megan; Buac, Milijana

2014-01-01

We examined the effects of classroom bilingual experience in children on an array of cognitive skills. Monolingual English-speaking children were compared with children who spoke English as the native language and who had been exposed to Spanish in the context of dual-immersion schooling for an average of two years. The groups were compared on a measure of non-linguistic task-shifting; measures of verbal short-term and working memory; and measures of word-learning. The two groups of children did not differ on measures of non-linguistic task-shifting and verbal short-term memory. However, the classroom-exposure bilingual group outperformed the monolingual group on the measure of verbal working memory and a measure of word-learning. Together, these findings indicate that while exposure to a second language in a classroom setting may not be sufficient to engender changes in cognitive control, it can facilitate verbal memory and verbal learning. PMID:24576079

Cognitive correlates of verbal memory and verbal fluency in schizophrenia, and differential effects of various clinical symptoms between male and female patients.

PubMed

Brébion, Gildas; Villalta-Gil, Victoria; Autonell, Jaume; Cervilla, Jorge; Dolz, Montserrat; Foix, Alexandrina; Haro, Josep Maria; Usall, Judith; Vilaplana, Miriam; Ochoa, Susana

2013-06-01

Impairment of higher cognitive functions in patients with schizophrenia might stem from perturbation of more basic functions, such as processing speed. Various clinical symptoms might affect cognitive efficiency as well. Notably, previous research has revealed the role of affective symptoms on memory performance in this population, and suggested sex-specific effects. We conducted a post-hoc analysis of an extensive neuropsychological study of 88 patients with schizophrenia. Regression analyses were conducted on verbal memory and verbal fluency data to investigate the contribution of semantic organisation and processing speed to performance. The role of negative and affective symptoms and of attention disorders in verbal memory and verbal fluency was investigated separately in male and female patients. Semantic clustering contributed to verbal recall, and a measure of reading speed contributed to verbal recall as well as to phonological and semantic fluency. Negative symptoms affected verbal recall and verbal fluency in the male patients, whereas attention disorders affected these abilities in the female patients. Furthermore, depression affected verbal recall in women, whereas anxiety affected it in men. These results confirm the association of processing speed with cognitive efficiency in patients with schizophrenia. They also confirm the previously observed sex-specific associations of depression and anxiety with memory performance in these patients, and suggest that negative symptoms and attention disorders likewise are related to cognitive efficiency differently in men and women. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Auditory verbal memory and psychosocial symptoms are related in children with idiopathic epilepsy.

PubMed

Schaffer, Yael; Ben Zeev, Bruria; Cohen, Roni; Shuper, Avinoam; Geva, Ronny

2015-07-01

Idiopathic epilepsies are considered to have relatively good prognoses and normal or near normal developmental outcomes. Nevertheless, accumulating studies demonstrate memory and psychosocial deficits in this population, and the prevalence, severity and relationships between these domains are still not well defined. We aimed to assess memory, psychosocial function, and the relationships between these two domains among children with idiopathic epilepsy syndromes using an extended neuropsychological battery and psychosocial questionnaires. Cognitive abilities, neuropsychological performance, and socioemotional behavior of 33 early adolescent children, diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy, ages 9-14years, were assessed and compared with 27 age- and education-matched healthy controls. Compared to controls, patients with stabilized idiopathic epilepsy exhibited higher risks for short-term memory deficits (auditory verbal and visual) (p<0.0001), working memory deficits (p<0.003), auditory verbal long-term memory deficits (p<0.0021), and more frequent psychosocial symptoms (p<0.0001). The severity of auditory verbal memory deficits was related to severity of psychosocial symptoms among the children with epilepsy but not in the healthy controls. Results suggest that deficient auditory verbal memory may be compromising psychosocial functioning in children with idiopathic epilepsy, possibly underscoring that cognitive variables, such as auditory verbal memory, should be assessed and treated in this population to prevent secondary symptoms. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Verbal Fluency and Verbal Short-Term Memory in Adults with Down Syndrome and Unspecified Intellectual Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stavroussi, Panayiota; Andreou, Georgia; Karagiannopoulou, Dimitra

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine verbal fluency and verbal short-term memory in 12 adults with Down syndrome (DS) and 12 adults with Intellectual Disability (ID) of unspecified origin, matched for receptive vocabulary and chronological age. Participants' performance was assessed on two conditions of a verbal fluency test, namely, semantic…

Toward a Model of Cognitive Insight in First-Episode Psychosis: Verbal Memory and Hippocampal Structure

PubMed Central

Buchy, L.; Czechowska, Y.; Chochol, C.; Malla, A.; Joober, R.; Pruessner, J.; Lepage, M.

2010-01-01

Our previous work has linked verbal learning and memory with cognitive insight, but not clinical insight, in individuals with a first-episode psychosis (FEP). The current study reassessed the neurocognitive basis of cognitive and clinical insight and explored their neural basis in 61 FEP patients. Cognitive insight was measured with the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale (BCIS) and clinical insight with the Scale to assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD). Global measures for 7 domains of cognition were examined. Hippocampi were manually segmented in to 3 parts: the body, head, and tail. Verbal learning and memory significantly correlated with the BCIS composite index. Composite index scores were significantly associated with total left hippocampal (HC) volume; partial correlations, however, revealed that this relationship was attributable largely to verbal memory performance. The BCIS self-certainty subscale significantly and inversely correlated with bilateral HC volumes, and these associations were independent of verbal learning and memory performance. The BCIS self-reflectiveness subscale significantly correlated with verbal learning and memory but not with HC volume. No significant correlations emerged between the SUMD and verbal memory or HC volume. These results strengthen our previous assertion that in individuals with an FEP cognitive insight may rely on memory whereby current experiences are appraised based on previous ones. The HC may be a viable location among others for the brain system that underlies aspects of cognitive insight in individuals with an FEP. PMID:19346315

Rethinking a Negative Event: The Affective Impact of Ruminative versus Imagery-Based Processing of Aversive Autobiographical Memories.

PubMed

Slofstra, Christien; Eisma, Maarten C; Holmes, Emily A; Bockting, Claudi L H; Nauta, Maaike H

2017-01-01

Ruminative (abstract verbal) processing during recall of aversive autobiographical memories may serve to dampen their short-term affective impact. Experimental studies indeed demonstrate that verbal processing of non-autobiographical material and positive autobiographical memories evokes weaker affective responses than imagery-based processing. In the current study, we hypothesized that abstract verbal or concrete verbal processing of an aversive autobiographical memory would result in weaker affective responses than imagery-based processing. The affective impact of abstract verbal versus concrete verbal versus imagery-based processing during recall of an aversive autobiographical memory was investigated in a non-clinical sample ( n  = 99) using both an observational and an experimental design. Observationally, it was examined whether spontaneous use of processing modes (both state and trait measures) was associated with impact of aversive autobiographical memory recall on negative and positive affect. Experimentally, the causal relation between processing modes and affective impact was investigated by manipulating the processing mode during retrieval of the same aversive autobiographical memory. Main findings were that higher levels of trait (but not state) measures of both ruminative and imagery-based processing and depressive symptomatology were positively correlated with higher levels of negative affective impact in the observational part of the study. In the experimental part, no main effect of processing modes on affective impact of autobiographical memories was found. However, a significant moderating effect of depressive symptomatology was found. Only for individuals with low levels of depressive symptomatology, concrete verbal (but not abstract verbal) processing of the aversive autobiographical memory did result in weaker affective responses, compared to imagery-based processing. These results cast doubt on the hypothesis that ruminative processing of aversive autobiographical memories serves to avoid the negative emotions evoked by such memories. Furthermore, findings suggest that depressive symptomatology is associated with the spontaneous use and the affective impact of processing modes during recall of aversive autobiographical memories. Clinical studies are needed that examine the role of processing modes during aversive autobiographical memory recall in depression, including the potential effectiveness of targeting processing modes in therapy.

The Impact of Visual Memory Deficits on Academic Achievement in Children and Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larsen, Jessica Maria

2011-01-01

Memory assessment can often alert practitioners and educators to learning problems children may be experiencing. Results of a memory assessment may indicate that a child has a specific memory deficit in verbal memory, visual memory, or both. Deficits in visual or verbal modes of memory could potentially have adverse effects on academic…

Memory integration in amnesia: prior knowledge supports verbal short-term memory.

PubMed

Race, Elizabeth; Palombo, Daniela J; Cadden, Margaret; Burke, Keely; Verfaellie, Mieke

2015-04-01

Short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) have traditionally been considered cognitively distinct. However, it is known that STM can improve when to-be-remembered information appears in contexts that make contact with prior knowledge, suggesting a more interactive relationship between STM and LTM. The current study investigated whether the ability to leverage LTM in support of STM critically depends on the integrity of the hippocampus. Specifically, we investigated whether the hippocampus differentially supports between-domain versus within-domain STM-LTM integration given prior evidence that the representational domain of the elements being integrated in memory is a critical determinant of whether memory performance depends on the hippocampus. In Experiment 1, we investigated hippocampal contributions to within-domain STM-LTM integration by testing whether immediate verbal recall of words improves in MTL amnesic patients when words are presented in familiar verbal contexts (meaningful sentences) compared to unfamiliar verbal contexts (random word lists). Patients demonstrated a robust sentence superiority effect, whereby verbal STM performance improved in familiar compared to unfamiliar verbal contexts, and the magnitude of this effect did not differ from that in controls. In Experiment 2, we investigated hippocampal contributions to between-domain STM-LTM integration by testing whether immediate verbal recall of digits improves in MTL amnesic patients when digits are presented in a familiar visuospatial context (a typical keypad layout) compared to an unfamiliar visuospatial context (a random keypad layout). Immediate verbal recall improved in both patients and controls when digits were presented in the familiar compared to the unfamiliar keypad array, indicating a preserved ability to integrate activated verbal information with stored visuospatial knowledge. Together, these results demonstrate that immediate verbal recall in amnesia can benefit from two distinct types of semantic support, verbal and visuospatial, and that the hippocampus is not critical for leveraging stored semantic knowledge to improve memory performance. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Memory integration in amnesia: Prior knowledge supports verbal short-term memory

PubMed Central

Race, Elizabeth; Palombo, Daniela J.; Cadden, Margaret; Burke, Keely; Verfaellie, Mieke

2015-01-01

Short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) have traditionally been considered cognitively distinct. However, it is known that STM can improve when to-be-remembered information appears in contexts that make contact with prior knowledge, suggesting a more interactive relationship between STM and LTM. The current study investigated whether the ability to leverage LTM in support of STM critically depends on the integrity of the hippocampus. Specifically, we investigated whether the hippocampus differentially supports between-domain versus within-domain STM–LTM integration given prior evidence that the representational domain of the elements being integrated in memory is a critical determinant of whether memory performance depends on the hippocampus. In Experiment 1, we investigated hippocampal contributions to within-domain STM–LTM integration by testing whether immediate verbal recall of words improves in MTL amnesic patients when words are presented in familiar verbal contexts (meaningful sentences) compared to unfamiliar verbal contexts (random word lists). Patients demonstrated a robust sentence superiority effect, whereby verbal STM performance improved in familiar compared to unfamiliar verbal contexts, and the magnitude of this effect did not differ from that in controls. In Experiment 2, we investigated hippocampal contributions to between-domain STM–LTM integration by testing whether immediate verbal recall of digits improves in MTL amnesic patients when digits are presented in a familiar visuospatial context (a typical keypad layout) compared to an unfamiliar visuospatial context (a random keypad layout). Immediate verbal recall improved in both patients and controls when digits were presented in the familiar compared to the unfamiliar keypad array, indicating a preserved ability to integrate activated verbal information with stored visuospatial knowledge. Together, these results demonstrate that immediate verbal recall in amnesia can benefit from two distinct types of semantic support, verbal and visuospatial, and that the hippocampus is not critical for leveraging stored semantic knowledge to improve memory performance. PMID:25752585

Persistent non-verbal memory impairment in remitted major depression - caused by encoding deficits?

PubMed

Behnken, Andreas; Schöning, Sonja; Gerss, Joachim; Konrad, Carsten; de Jong-Meyer, Renate; Zwanzger, Peter; Arolt, Volker

2010-04-01

While neuropsychological impairments are well described in acute phases of major depressive disorders (MDD), little is known about the neuropsychological profile in remission. There is evidence for episodic memory impairments in both acute depressed and remitted patients with MDD. Learning and memory depend on individuals' ability to organize information during learning. This study investigates non-verbal memory functions in remitted MDD and whether nonverbal memory performance is mediated by organizational strategies whilst learning. 30 well-characterized fully remitted individuals with unipolar MDD and 30 healthy controls matching in age, sex and education were investigated. Non-verbal learning and memory were measured by the Rey-Osterrieth-Complex-Figure-Test (RCFT). The RCFT provides measures of planning, organizational skills, perceptual and non-verbal memory functions. For assessing the mediating effects of organizational strategies, we used the Savage Organizational Score. Compared to healthy controls, participants with remitted MDD showed more deficits in their non-verbal memory function. Moreover, participants with remitted MDD demonstrated difficulties in organizing non-verbal information appropriately during learning. In contrast, no impairments regarding visual-spatial functions in remitted MDD were observed. Except for one patient, all the others were taking psychopharmacological medication. The neuropsychological function was solely investigated in the remitted phase of MDD. Individuals with MDD in remission showed persistent non-verbal memory impairments, modulated by a deficient use of organizational strategies during encoding. Therefore, our results strongly argue for additional therapeutic interventions in order to improve these remaining deficits in cognitive function. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Verbal Memory Decline following DBS for Parkinson's Disease: Structural Volumetric MRI Relationships.

PubMed

Geevarghese, Ruben; Lumsden, Daniel E; Costello, Angela; Hulse, Natasha; Ayis, Salma; Samuel, Michael; Ashkan, Keyoumars

2016-01-01

Parkinson's disease is a chronic degenerative movement disorder. The mainstay of treatment is medical. In certain patients Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) may be offered. However, DBS has been associated with post-operative neuropsychology changes, especially in verbal memory. Firstly, to determine if pre-surgical thalamic and hippocampal volumes were related to verbal memory changes following DBS. Secondly, to determine if clinical factors such as age, duration of symptoms or motor severity (UPDRS Part III score) were related to verbal memory changes. A consecutive group of 40 patients undergoing bilateral Subthalamic Nucleus (STN)-DBS for PD were selected. Brain MRI data was acquired, pre-processed and structural volumetric data was extracted using FSL. Verbal memory test scores for pre- and post-STN-DBS surgery were recorded. Linear regression was used to investigate the relationship between score change and structural volumetric data. A significant relationship was demonstrated between change in List Learning test score and thalamic (left, p = 0.02) and hippocampal (left, p = 0.02 and right p = 0.03) volumes. Duration of symptoms was also associated with List Learning score change (p = 0.02 to 0.03). Verbal memory score changes appear to have a relationship to pre-surgical MRI structural volumetric data. The findings of this study provide a basis for further research into the use of pre-surgical MRI to counsel PD patients regarding post-surgical verbal memory changes.

Early memories come in small packages: episodic memory in young children and adults.

PubMed

Tustin, Karen; Hayne, Harlene

2016-11-01

In two experiments, 3-year-old children were tested using an operant train procedure based on one originally developed by Carolyn Rovee-Collier. Children's behavioral and verbal recall of the event was assessed after a 24 hr (Experiment 1) and a 1-year delay (Experiment 2). After the 1-year delay, their mothers' verbal recall of the same event was also assessed. After both delays, children exhibited excellent nonverbal memory. Children also exhibited verbal, episodic memory of the same event, but their verbal reports were lean relative to those of their mothers, suggesting that the memories may be more vulnerable to forgetting over the long term. These data have important implications for memory development and childhood amnesia. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Differential associations between types of verbal memory and prefrontal brain structure in healthy aging and late life depression.

PubMed

Lamar, Melissa; Charlton, Rebecca; Zhang, Aifeng; Kumar, Anand

2012-07-01

Verbal memory deficits attributed to late life depression (LLD) may result from executive dysfunction that is more detrimental to list-learning than story-based recall when compared to healthy aging. Despite these behavioral dissociations, little work has been done investigating related neuroanatomical dissociations across types of verbal memory performance in LLD. We compared list-learning to story-based memory performance in 24 non-demented individuals with LLD (age ~ 66.1 ± 7.8) and 41 non-demented/non-depressed healthy controls (HC; age ~ 67.6 ± 5.3). We correlated significant results of between-group analyses across memory performance variables with brain volumes of frontal, temporal and parietal regions known to be involved with verbal learning and memory. When compared to the HC group, the LLD group showed significantly lower verbal memory performance for spontaneous recall after repeated exposure and after a long-delay but only for the list-learning task; groups did not differ on story-based memory performance. Despite equivalent brain volumes across regions, only the LLD group showed brain associations with verbal memory performance and only for the list-learning task. Specifically, frontal volumes important for subjective organization and response monitoring correlated with list-learning performance in the LLD group. This study is the first to demonstrate neuroanatomical dissociations across types of verbal memory performance in individuals with LLD. Results provide structural evidence for the behavioral dissociations between list-learning and story-based recall in LLD when compared to healthy aging. More specifically, it points toward a network of predominantly anterior brain regions that may underlie the executive contribution to list-learning in older adults with depression. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Role of Anterior Nuclei of the Thalamus: A Subcortical Gate in Memory Processing: An Intracerebral Recording Study

PubMed Central

Štillová, Klára; Jurák, Pavel; Chládek, Jan; Chrastina, Jan; Halámek, Josef; Bočková, Martina; Goldemundová, Sabina; Říha, Ivo; Rektor, Ivan

2015-01-01

Objective To study the involvement of the anterior nuclei of the thalamus (ANT) as compared to the involvement of the hippocampus in the processes of encoding and recognition during visual and verbal memory tasks. Methods We studied intracerebral recordings in patients with pharmacoresistent epilepsy who underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the ANT with depth electrodes implanted bilaterally in the ANT and compared the results with epilepsy surgery candidates with depth electrodes implanted bilaterally in the hippocampus. We recorded the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by the visual and verbal memory encoding and recognition tasks. Results P300-like potentials were recorded in the hippocampus by visual and verbal memory encoding and recognition tasks and in the ANT by the visual encoding and visual and verbal recognition tasks. No significant ERPs were recorded during the verbal encoding task in the ANT. In the visual and verbal recognition tasks, the P300-like potentials in the ANT preceded the P300-like potentials in the hippocampus. Conclusions The ANT is a structure in the memory pathway that processes memory information before the hippocampus. We suggest that the ANT has a specific role in memory processes, especially memory recognition, and that memory disturbance should be considered in patients with ANT-DBS and in patients with ANT lesions. ANT is well positioned to serve as a subcortical gate for memory processing in cortical structures. PMID:26529407

Spatial Sequences, but Not Verbal Sequences, Are Vulnerable to General Interference during Retention in Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morey, Candice C.; Miron, Monica D.

2016-01-01

Among models of working memory, there is not yet a consensus about how to describe functions specific to storing verbal or visual-spatial memories. We presented aural-verbal and visual-spatial lists simultaneously and sometimes cued one type of information after presentation, comparing accuracy in conditions with and without informative…

The Genetic Components of Verbal Divergent Thinking and Short Term Memory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pezzullo, Thomas R.; Madaus, George F.

A study of twins was conducted to determine the presence of an hereditary component in short term memory and in three aspects of verbal divergent thinking--flexibility, fluency, and originality. Results showed the existence of a significant genetic component in the trait of short term memory, while none was found in verbal divergent thinking. (AG)

Poor Phonemic Discrimination Does Not Underlie Poor Verbal Short-Term Memory in Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Purser, Harry R. M.; Jarrold, Christopher

2013-01-01

Individuals with Down syndrome tend to have a marked impairment of verbal short-term memory. The chief aim of this study was to investigate whether phonemic discrimination contributes to this deficit. The secondary aim was to investigate whether phonological representations are degraded in verbal short-term memory in people with Down syndrome…

Developmental Changes in the Effect of Verbal, Non-verbal, and Spatial-Positional Cues for Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Derevensky, Jeffrey

1976-01-01

Sixty kindergarten, sixty second grade, and sixty fourth grade students performed several memory tasks under one of six conditions. The conditions differed as to the method of presentation of information. The study focused on developmental changes in children's use of verbal, nonverbal, and spatial-positional cues for memory. (Editor)

Automatic Guidance of Visual Attention from Verbal Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soto, David; Humphreys, Glyn W.

2007-01-01

Previous studies have shown that visual attention can be captured by stimuli matching the contents of working memory (WM). Here, the authors assessed the nature of the representation that mediates the guidance of visual attention from WM. Observers were presented with either verbal or visual primes (to hold in memory, Experiment 1; to verbalize,…

Predictors of memory performance among Taiwanese postmenopausal women with heart failure.

PubMed

Chou, Cheng-Chen; Pressler, Susan J; Giordani, Bruno

2014-09-01

There are no studies describing the nature of memory deficits among women with heart failure (HF). The aims of this study were to examine memory performance among Taiwanese women with HF compared with age- and education-matched healthy women, and to evaluate factors that explain memory performance in women with HF. Seventy-six women with HF and 64 healthy women were recruited in Taiwan. Women completed working, verbal, and visual memory tests; HF severity was collected from the medical records. Women with HF performed significantly worse than healthy women on tests of working memory and verbal memory. Among women with HF, older age explained poorer working memory, and older age, higher HF severity, more comorbidities, and systolic HF explained poorer verbal memory. Menopausal symptoms were not associated with memory performance. Results of the study validate findings of memory loss in HF patients from the United States and Europe in a culturally different sample of women. Working memory and verbal memory were worse in Taiwanese women with HF compared with healthy participants. Studies are needed to determine mechanisms of memory deficits in these women and develop interventions to improve memory. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of a School-Based Instrumental Music Program on Verbal and Visual Memory in Primary School Children: A Longitudinal Study

PubMed Central

Roden, Ingo; Kreutz, Gunter; Bongard, Stephan

2012-01-01

This study examined the effects of a school-based instrumental training program on the development of verbal and visual memory skills in primary school children. Participants either took part in a music program with weekly 45 min sessions of instrumental lessons in small groups at school, or they received extended natural science training. A third group of children did not receive additional training. Each child completed verbal and visual memory tests three times over a period of 18 months. Significant Group by Time interactions were found in the measures of verbal memory. Children in the music group showed greater improvements than children in the control groups after controlling for children’s socio-economic background, age, and IQ. No differences between groups were found in the visual memory tests. These findings are consistent with and extend previous research by suggesting that children receiving music training may benefit from improvements in their verbal memory skills. PMID:23267341

Spatial sequences, but not verbal sequences, are vulnerable to general interference during retention in working memory.

PubMed

Morey, Candice C; Miron, Monica D

2016-12-01

Among models of working memory, there is not yet a consensus about how to describe functions specific to storing verbal or visual-spatial memories. We presented aural-verbal and visual-spatial lists simultaneously and sometimes cued one type of information after presentation, comparing accuracy in conditions with and without informative retro-cues. This design isolates interference due specifically to maintenance, which appears most clearly in the uncued trials, from interference due to encoding, which occurs in all dual-task trials. When recall accuracy was comparable between tasks, we found that spatial memory was worse in uncued than in retro-cued trials, whereas verbal memory was not. Our findings bolster proposals that maintenance of spatial serial order, like maintenance of visual materials more broadly, relies on general rather than specialized resources, while maintenance of verbal sequences may rely on domain-specific resources. We argue that this asymmetry should be explicitly incorporated into models of working memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Cognitive performance in transient global hypoxic brain injury due to moderate drowning.

PubMed

Nucci, Mariana Penteado; Lukasova, Katerina; Vieira, Gilson; Sato, João Ricardo; Amaro Júnior, Edson

2018-06-01

Drowning is a serious and frequently neglected public health threat. Primary respiratory impairment after submersion often leads to brain dysfunction. Depending on the period of global hypoxia (respiratory failure), clinical aspects of neurological dysfunction are evident on the first evaluation after the water rescue. Nowadays, many neuropsychological assessments after drowning are inconclusive, with some studies reporting only minor neurological or cognitive impairments. The aim of this study is to identify measures in neuropsychological tests that most contribute to classify volunteers as moderate drowning subjects or healthy controls. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first neuropsychological prospective case-control study of moderate drowning in a country with large coastal cities. Fifteen moderate drowning patients (DP), who met the inclusion criteria, were compared with 18 healthy controls (HC). All subjects were assessed on memory, learning, visual spatial ability, executive function, attention, and general intellectual functioning and underwent structural magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the brain at 3.0 T, in order to exclude subjects with anatomic abnormalities. Neuropsychological tests assessing learning, execution function, and verbal fluency-Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) general learning ability, Digit Span total, Phonological Verbal Fluency (total FAS correct), and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test Revised (BVMT) correct recognition-have the strongest discriminating ability, using predictive models via the partial least squares (PLS) approach for data classification, while the other tests have shown similar predictive values between groups. Learning, execution function, and verbal fluency domains were the most critically affected domains. Serious impairments in the same domains have already been reported in severe drowning cases, and we hypothesize that subtle alterations found in moderate drowning cases, although not sufficient to be detected in daily routine, may possibly have a negative impact on cognitive reserve.

Differential association of left and right hippocampal volumes with verbal episodic and spatial memory in older adults.

PubMed

Ezzati, Ali; Katz, Mindy J; Zammit, Andrea R; Lipton, Michael L; Zimmerman, Molly E; Sliwinski, Martin J; Lipton, Richard B

2016-12-01

The hippocampus plays a critical role in verbal and spatial memory, thus any pathological damage to this formation may lead to cognitive impairment. It is suggested that right and left hippocampi are affected differentially in healthy or pathologic aging. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that verbal episodic memory performance is associated with left hippocampal volume (HV) while spatial memory is associated with right HV. 115 non-demented adults over age 70 were drawn from the Einstein Aging Study. Verbal memory was measured using the free recall score from the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test - immediate recall (FCSRT-IR), logical memory immediate and delayed subtests (LM-I and LM-II) from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R). Spatial Memory was measured using a computerized dot memory paradigm that has been validated for use in older adults. All participants underwent 3T MRI with subsequent automatized measurement of the volume of each hippocampus. The sample had a mean age of 78.7 years (SD=5.0); 57% were women, and 52% were white. Participants had a mean of 14.3 years (SD=3.5) of education. In regression models, two tests of verbal memory (FCSRT-IR free recall and LM-II) were positively associated with left HV, but not with right HV. Performance on the spatial memory task was associated with right HV, but not left HV. Our findings support the hypothesis that the left hippocampus plays a critical role in episodic verbal memory, while right hippocampus might be more important for spatial memory processing among non-demented older adults. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The rise and fall of immediate and delayed memory for verbal and visuospatial information from late childhood to late adulthood.

PubMed

Murre, Jaap M J; Janssen, Steve M J; Rouw, Romke; Meeter, Martijn

2013-01-01

Over 100,000 verbal and visuospatial immediate and delayed memory tests were presented via the Internet to over 28,000 participants in the age range of 11 to 80. Structural equation modeling pointed to the verbal versus visuospatial dimension as an important factor in individual differences, but not the immediate versus delayed dimension. We found a linear decrease of 1% to 3% per year in overall memory performance past the age of 25. For visuospatial tests, this decrease started at age 18 and was twice as fast as the decrease of verbal memory. There were strong effects of education, with the highest educated group sometimes scoring one full standard deviation above the lowest educated group. Gender effects were small but as expected: women outperformed men on the verbal memory tasks; men outperformed women on the visuospatial tasks. We also found evidence of increasing proneness to false memory with age. Memory for recent news events did not show a decrease with age. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Distinctiveness as a function of spatial expansion in verbal working memory: comment on Kreitz, Furley, Memmert, and Simons (2015).

PubMed

Guida, Alessandro; van Dijck, Jean-Philippe; Abrahamse, Elger

2017-05-01

In a recent study, Kreitz et al. (Psychological Research 79:1034-1041, 2015) reported on a relationship between verbal working memory capacity and visuo-spatial attentional breadth. The authors hinted at attentional control to be the major link underlying this relationship. We put forward an alternative explanation by framing it within the context of a recent theory on serial order in memory: verbal item sequences entering in working memory are coded by adding a spatial context that can be derived from reading/writing habits. The observation by Kreitz et al. (Psychological Research 79:1034-1041, 2015) enriches this framework by suggesting that a larger visuo-spatial attentional breadth allows for internal coding of the verbal items in a more (spatially) distinct manner-thereby increasing working memory performance. As such, Kreitz et al. (Psychological Research 79:1034-1041, 2015) is the first study revealing a functional link between visuo-spatial attentional breadth and verbal working memory size, which strengthens spatial accounts of serial order coding in working memory.

Selective verbal and spatial memory impairment after 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptor blockade in healthy volunteers pre-treated with an SSRI.

PubMed

Wingen, M; Kuypers, K P C; Ramaekers, J G

2007-07-01

Serotonergic neurotransmission has been implicated in memory impairment. It is unclear however if memory performance is mediated through general 5-HT availability, through specific 5-HT receptors or both. The aim of the present study was to assess the contribution of 5-HT reuptake inhibition and specific blockade of 5-HT(1A) and 5-HT(2A) receptors to memory impairment. The study was conducted according to a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, four-way cross-over design including 16 healthy volunteers. The treatment consisted of oral administration of escitalopram 20 mg + placebo, escitalopram 20 mg + ketanserin 50 mg, escitalopram 20 mg + pindolol 10 mg and placebo on 4 separate days with a washout period of minimum 7 days. Different memory tasks were performed including verbal memory, spatial working memory and reversal learning. Escitalopram showed an impairing effect on immediate verbal recall which nearly reached statistical significance. No effects of escitalopram were found on other types of memory. In combination with pindolol, immediate verbal recall was significantly impaired. Escitalopram in combination with ketanserin impaired spatial working memory significantly. No effects were found on reversal learning. Selective impairment of immediate verbal recall after a 5-HT(1A) partial agonist and selective impairment of spatial working memory performance after 5-HT(2A) receptor antagonist, both in combination with a selective serotonergic reuptake inhibitor (escitalopram), suggests that 5-HT(1A) and 5-HT(2A) receptors are distinctly involved in verbal and spatial memory.

Focalised stimulation using high definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) to investigate declarative verbal learning and memory functioning.

PubMed

Nikolin, Stevan; Loo, Colleen K; Bai, Siwei; Dokos, Socrates; Martin, Donel M

2015-08-15

Declarative verbal learning and memory are known to be lateralised to the dominant hemisphere and to be subserved by a network of structures, including those located in frontal and temporal regions. These structures support critical components of verbal memory, including working memory, encoding, and retrieval. Their relative functional importance in facilitating declarative verbal learning and memory, however, remains unclear. To investigate the different functional roles of these structures in subserving declarative verbal learning and memory performance by applying a more focal form of transcranial direct current stimulation, "High Definition tDCS" (HD-tDCS). Additionally, we sought to examine HD-tDCS effects and electrical field intensity distributions using computer modelling. HD-tDCS was administered to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (LDLPFC), planum temporale (PT), and left medial temporal lobe (LMTL) to stimulate the hippocampus, during learning on a declarative verbal memory task. Sixteen healthy participants completed a single blind, intra-individual cross-over, sham-controlled study which used a Latin Square experimental design. Cognitive effects on working memory and sustained attention were additionally examined. HD-tDCS to the LDLPFC significantly improved the rate of verbal learning (p=0.03, η(2)=0.29) and speed of responding during working memory performance (p=0.02, η(2)=0.35), but not accuracy (p=0.12, η(2)=0.16). No effect of tDCS on verbal learning, retention, or retrieval was found for stimulation targeted to the LMTL or the PT. Secondary analyses revealed that LMTL stimulation resulted in increased recency (p=0.02, η(2)=0.31) and reduced mid-list learning effects (p=0.01, η(2)=0.39), suggesting an inhibitory effect on learning. HD-tDCS to the LDLPFC facilitates the rate of verbal learning and improved efficiency of working memory may underlie performance effects. This focal method of administrating tDCS has potential for probing and enhancing cognitive functioning. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cognitive contributions to theory of mind ability in children with a traumatic head injury.

PubMed

Levy, Naomi Kahana; Milgram, Noach

2016-01-01

The objective of the current study is to examine the contribution of intellectual abilities, executive functions (EF), and facial emotion recognition to difficulties in Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities in children with a traumatic head injury. Israeli children with a traumatic head injury were compared with their non-injured counterparts. Each group included 18 children (12 males) ages 7-13. Measurements included reading the mind in the eyes, facial emotion recognition, reasoning the other's characteristics based on motive and outcome, Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices, similarities and digit span (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Revised 95 subscales), verbal fluency, and the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Functions. Non-injured children performed significantly better on ToM, abstract reasoning, and EF measures compared with children with a traumatic head injury. However, differences in ToM abilities between the groups were no longer significant after controlling for abstract reasoning, working memory, verbal fluency, or facial emotion recognition. Impaired ToM recognition and reasoning abilities after a head injury may result from other cognitive impairments. In children with mild and moderate head injury, poorer performance on ToM tasks may reflect poorer abstract reasoning, a general tendency to concretize stimuli, working memory and verbal fluency deficits, and difficulties in facial emotion recognition, rather than deficits in the ability to understand the other's thoughts and emotions. ToM impairments may be secondary to a range of cognitive deficits in determining social outcomes in this population.

The Two Sides of Sensory-Cognitive Interactions: Effects of Age, Hearing Acuity, and Working Memory Span on Sentence Comprehension.

PubMed

DeCaro, Renee; Peelle, Jonathan E; Grossman, Murray; Wingfield, Arthur

2016-01-01

Reduced hearing acuity is among the most prevalent of chronic medical conditions among older adults. An experiment is reported in which comprehension of spoken sentences was tested for older adults with good hearing acuity or with a mild-to-moderate hearing loss, and young adults with age-normal hearing. Comprehension was measured by participants' ability to determine the agent of an action in sentences that expressed this relation with a syntactically less complex subject-relative construction or a syntactically more complex object-relative construction. Agency determination was further challenged by inserting a prepositional phrase into sentences between the person performing an action and the action being performed. As a control, prepositional phrases of equivalent length were also inserted into sentences in a non-disruptive position. Effects on sentence comprehension of age, hearing acuity, prepositional phrase placement and sound level of stimulus presentations appeared only for comprehension of sentences with the more syntactically complex object-relative structures. Working memory as tested by reading span scores accounted for a significant amount of the variance in comprehension accuracy. Once working memory capacity and hearing acuity were taken into account, chronological age among the older adults contributed no further variance to comprehension accuracy. Results are discussed in terms of the positive and negative effects of sensory-cognitive interactions in comprehension of spoken sentences and lend support to a framework in which domain-general executive resources, notably verbal working memory, play a role in both linguistic and perceptual processing.

Effects of Verbal Shadowing on the Recognition of Visually Presented Verbal and Nonverbal Information.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orwig, Gary W.

1979-01-01

The first experiment determined that verbal interference (shadowing) was detrimental to the subjects' memory of words and high similarity pictures; the second, designed to minimize the possibility that students would sort through the pictures, indicated that verbal interference did not decrease memory of high similarity pictures. (Author/JEG)

When Do Words Hurt? A Multiprocess View of the Effects of Verbalization on Visual Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Charity; Brandimonte, Maria A.; Wickham, Lee H. V.; Bosco, Andrea; Schooler, Jonathan W.

2014-01-01

Verbal overshadowing reflects the impairment in memory performance following verbalization of nonverbal stimuli. However, it is not clear whether the same mechanisms are responsible for verbal overshadowing effects observed with different stimuli and task demands. In the present article, we propose a multiprocess view that reconciles the main…

Factors Influencing the Accuracy of Verbal Reports of Conversational Behavior.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benoit, William L.; Benoit, Pamela J.

1989-01-01

Investigates (1) whether subjects consult their memory or relevant implicit theories when making verbal reports, and (2) the effect of recognition criterion on verbal report performance. Finds that subjects occasionally employ implicit theories to develop their verbal reports, but that memory is much more important in determining the reports. (MM)

Effects of Proactive Interference on Non-Verbal Working Memory

PubMed Central

Cyr, Marilyn; Nee, Derek E.; Nelson, Eric; Senger, Thea; Jonides, John; Malapani, Chara

2016-01-01

Working memory (WM) is a cognitive system responsible for actively maintaining and processing relevant information and is central to successful cognition. A process critical to WM is the resolution of proactive interference (PI), which involves suppressing memory intrusions from prior memories that are no longer relevant. Most studies that have examined resistance to PI in a process-pure fashion used verbal material. By contrast, studies using non-verbal material are scarce, and it remains unclear whether the effect of PI is domain-general or whether it applies solely to the verbal domain. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of PI in visual working memory using both objects with high and low nameability. Using a Directed-Forgetting paradigm, we varied discriminability between WM items on two dimensions, one verbal (high-nameability vs. low-nameability objects) and one perceptual (colored vs. gray objects). As in previous studies using verbal material, effects of PI were found with object stimuli, even after controlling for verbal labels being used (i.e., Low-Nameability condition). We also found that the addition of distinctive features (color, verbal label) increased performance in rejecting intrusion probes, most likely through an increase in discriminability between content-context bindings in WM. PMID:27838866

The effect of verbal reminders on memory reactivation in 2-, 3-, and 4-year-old children.

PubMed

Imuta, Kana; Scarf, Damian; Hayne, Harlene

2013-06-01

For adults, verbal reminders provide a powerful key to unlock our memories. For example, a simple question, such as "Do you remember your wedding day?" can reactivate rich memories of the past, allowing us to recall experiences that may have occurred days, weeks, and even decades earlier. The ability to use another person's language to access our memory of a prior experience is considered to be one of the hallmarks in human memory development, but surprisingly, little is known about the ontogeny of this fundamental ability. Prior research has shown that by 4 years of age, children can use a simple verbal reminder (e.g., "Do you remember coming here before?") to reactivate an otherwise inaccessible memory of a unique visual stimulus. Given that language comprehension precedes production, it has been hypothesized that the ability to use verbal reminders may emerge well before 4 years of age. In the present experiment, we tested this hypothesis by examining whether a verbal reminder reactivated memory in 2-, 3-, and 4-year-old children who were tested using the visual-paired comparison (VPC) paradigm. Our findings showed that the ability to exploit a simple verbal reminder emerges by at least 2 years of age. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved

Effect of musical experience on verbal memory in Williams syndrome: evidence from a novel word learning task.

PubMed

Martens, Marilee A; Jungers, Melissa K; Steele, Anita L

2011-09-01

Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurogenetic developmental disorder characterized by an increased affinity for music, deficits in verbal memory, and atypical brain development. Music has been shown to improve verbal memory in typical individuals as well as those with learning difficulties, but no studies have examined this relationship in WS. The aim of our two studies was to examine whether music can enhance verbal memory in individuals with WS. In Study 1, we presented a memory task of eight spoken or sung sentences that described an animal and identified its group name to 38 individuals with WS. Study 2, involving another group of individuals with WS (n=38), included six spoken or sung sentences that identified an animal group name. In both studies, those who had participated in formal music lessons scored significantly better on the verbal memory task when the sentences were sung than when they were spoken. Those who had not taken formal lessons showed no such benefit. We also found that increased enjoyment of music and heightened emotional reactions to music did not impact performance on the memory task. These compelling findings provide the first evidence that musical experience may enhance verbal memory in individuals with WS and shed more light on the complex relationship between aspects of cognition and altered neurodevelopment in this unique disorder. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Self-awareness of memory function in Parkinson's disease in relation to mood and symptom severity.

PubMed

Sitek, Emilia J; Sołtan, Witold; Wieczorek, Dariusz; Robowski, Piotr; Sławek, Jarosław

2011-03-01

In clinical practice, discrepancies are observed between self and proxy reports of various aspects of Parkinson's disease (PD). This study aimed at assessing self-awareness of memory function in PD both by comparing patients' and caregivers' questionnaire ratings of the patients' memory and by correlating subjective ratings with verbal learning results. Forty-five patient-proxy pairs participated in the study. Self-Rating Scale of Memory Functions was used as a questionnaire subjective measure. Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) was applied to assess verbal memory, Stroop test to assess cognitive control and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) for global cognitive assessment. Patient self-reports did not diverge appreciably from proxy reports when global scores were considered, but patient-proxy consistency was low for individual items with the exception of those referring to verbal recall. Both patient and proxy ratings were moderately correlated with the objective measures. Patient-proxy discrepancies were associated with lower verbal learning, poor cognitive control and more severe PD symptomatology. Moreover, depression was associated with patients' overestimation of symptoms. Self-awareness of memory function is relatively well preserved in PD, but is negatively affected by depressive symptoms. Patient-proxy discrepancies increase also with disease severity, degree of memory problems and cognitive control deficits. Caregivers seem to be unaware of the specificity of memory problems in PD and report only some of them, mainly those related to verbal recall.

Reading Ability and Memory Span: Long-Term Memory Contributions to Span for Good and Poor Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDougall, Sine J. P.; Donohoe, Rachael

2002-01-01

Investigates the extent to which differences in memory span for good and poor readers can be explained by differences in a long-term memory component to span as well as by differences in short-term memory processes. Discusses the nature of the interrelationships between memory span, reading and measures of phonological awareness. (SG)

Influence of anxiety on memory performance in temporal lobe epilepsy

PubMed Central

Brown, Franklin C.; Westerveld, Michael; Langfitt, John T.; Hamberger, Marla; Hamid, Hamada; Shinnar, Shlomo; Sperling, Michael R.; Devinsky, Orrin; Barr, William; Tracy, Joseph; Masur, David; Bazil, Carl W.; Spencer, Susan S.

2013-01-01

This study examined the degree to which anxiety contributed to inconsistent material-specific memory difficulties among 243 temporal lobe epilepsy patients from the Multisite Epilepsy Study. Visual memory performance on the Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT) was lower for those with high versus low level of anxiety, but was not found to be related to side of TLE. Verbal memory on the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) was significantly lower for left than right TLE patients with low anxiety, but equally impaired for those with high anxiety. These results suggest that we can place more confidence in the ability of verbal memory tests like the CVLT to lateralize to left TLE for those with low anxiety, but that verbal memory will be less likely to produce lateralizing information for those with high anxiety. This suggests that more caution is needed when interpreting verbal memory tests for those with high anxiety. These results indicated that RCFT performance was significantly affected by anxiety and did not lateralize to either side, regardless of anxiety level. This study adds to the existing literature which suggests that drawing-based visual memory tests do not lateralize among TLE patients, regardless of anxiety level. PMID:24291525

Memory reorganization following anterior temporal lobe resection: a longitudinal functional MRI study

PubMed Central

Bonelli, Silvia B.; Thompson, Pamela J.; Yogarajah, Mahinda; Powell, Robert H. W.; Samson, Rebecca S.; McEvoy, Andrew W.; Symms, Mark R.; Koepp, Matthias J.

2013-01-01

Anterior temporal lobe resection controls seizures in 50–60% of patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy but may impair memory function, typically verbal memory following left, and visual memory following right anterior temporal lobe resection. Functional reorganization can occur within the ipsilateral and contralateral hemispheres. We investigated the reorganization of memory function in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy before and after left or right anterior temporal lobe resection and the efficiency of postoperative memory networks. We studied 46 patients with unilateral medial temporal lobe epilepsy (25/26 left hippocampal sclerosis, 16/20 right hippocampal sclerosis) before and after anterior temporal lobe resection on a 3 T General Electric magnetic resonance imaging scanner. All subjects had neuropsychological testing and performed a functional magnetic resonance imaging memory encoding paradigm for words, pictures and faces, testing verbal and visual memory in a single scanning session, preoperatively and again 4 months after surgery. Event-related analysis revealed that patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy had greater activation in the left posterior medial temporal lobe when successfully encoding words postoperatively than preoperatively. Greater pre- than postoperative activation in the ipsilateral posterior medial temporal lobe for encoding words correlated with better verbal memory outcome after left anterior temporal lobe resection. In contrast, greater postoperative than preoperative activation in the ipsilateral posterior medial temporal lobe correlated with worse postoperative verbal memory performance. These postoperative effects were not observed for visual memory function after right anterior temporal lobe resection. Our findings provide evidence for effective preoperative reorganization of verbal memory function to the ipsilateral posterior medial temporal lobe due to the underlying disease, suggesting that it is the capacity of the posterior remnant of the ipsilateral hippocampus rather than the functional reserve of the contralateral hippocampus that is important for maintaining verbal memory function after anterior temporal lobe resection. Early postoperative reorganization to ipsilateral posterior or contralateral medial temporal lobe structures does not underpin better performance. Additionally our results suggest that visual memory function in right temporal lobe epilepsy is affected differently by right anterior temporal lobe resection than verbal memory in left temporal lobe epilepsy. PMID:23715092

Transcranial direct current stimulation enhances verbal working memory training performance over time and near transfer outcomes.

PubMed

Richmond, Lauren L; Wolk, David; Chein, Jason; Olson, Ingrid R

2014-11-01

Studies attempting to increase working memory (WM) capacity show promise in enhancing related cognitive functions but have also raised criticism in the broader scientific community given the inconsistent findings produced by these studies. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to enhance WM performance in a single session [Fregni, F., Boggio, P., Nitsche, M., Bermpohl, F., Anatal, A., Feredoes, E., et al. Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation of prefrontal cortex enhances working memory. Experimental Brain Research, 166, 23-30, 2005]; however, the extent to which tDCS might enhance learning on a WM training regime and the extent to which learning gains might transfer outside the training task remains largely unknown. To this end, participants engaged in an adaptive WM training task [previously utilized in Richmond, L., Morrison, A., Chein, J., & Olson, I. Working memory training and transfer in older adults. Psychology & Aging, 26, 813-822, 2011; Chein, J., & Morrison, A. Expanding the mind's workspace: Training and transfer effects with a complex working memory span task. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17, 193-199, 2010] for 10 sessions over 2 weeks, concurrent with either active or sham stimulation of dorsolateral pFC. Before and after training, a battery of tests tapping domains known to relate to WM abilities was administered. Results show that tDCS enhanced learning on the verbal portion of the training task by 3.65 items. Furthermore, tDCS was shown to enhance near transfer to other untrained WM tasks in comparison with a no-contact control group. These results lend support to the idea that tDCS might bolster training and transfer gains in populations with compromised WM abilities.

A new modified listening span task to enhance validity of working memory assessment for people with and without aphasia.

PubMed

Ivanova, Maria V; Hallowell, Brooke

2014-01-01

Deficits in working memory (WM) are an important subset of cognitive processing deficits associated with aphasia. However, there are serious limitations to research on WM in aphasia largely due to the lack of an established valid measure of WM impairment for this population. The aim of the current study was to address shortcomings of previous measures by developing and empirically evaluating a novel WM task with a sentence-picture matching processing component designed to circumvent confounds inherent in existing measures of WM in aphasia. The novel WM task was presented to persons with (n=27) and without (n=33) aphasia. Results demonstrated high concurrent validity of a novel WM task. Individuals with aphasia performed significantly worse on all conditions of the WM task compared to individuals without aphasia. Different patterns of performance across conditions were observed for the two groups. Additionally, WM capacity was significantly related to auditory comprehension abilities in individuals with mild aphasia but not those with moderate aphasia. Strengths of the novel WM task are that it allows for differential control for length versus complexity of verbal stimuli and indexing of the relative influence of each, minimizes metalinguistic requirements, enables control for complexity of processing components, allows participants to respond with simple gestures or verbally, and eliminates reading requirements. Results support the feasibility and validity of using a novel task to assess WM in individuals with and without aphasia. Readers will be able to (1) discuss the limitations of current working memory measures for individuals with aphasia; (2) describe how task design features of a new working memory task for people with aphasia address shortcomings of existing measures; (3) summarize the evidence supporting the validity of the novel working memory task. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effect of Musical Experience on Verbal Memory in Williams Syndrome: Evidence from a Novel Word Learning Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martens, Marilee A.; Jungers, Melissa K.; Steele, Anita L.

2011-01-01

Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurogenetic developmental disorder characterized by an increased affinity for music, deficits in verbal memory, and atypical brain development. Music has been shown to improve verbal memory in typical individuals as well as those with learning difficulties, but no studies have examined this relationship in WS. The aim…

The Differential Contributions of Auditory-Verbal and Visuospatial Working Memory on Decoding Skills in Children Who Are Poor Decoders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Squires, Katie Ellen

2013-01-01

This study investigated the differential contribution of auditory-verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM) on decoding skills in second- and fifth-grade children identified with poor decoding. Thirty-two second-grade students and 22 fifth-grade students completed measures that assessed simple and complex auditory-verbal and visuospatial memory,…

Neuropsychological assessment of memory in child and adolescent first episode psychosis: cannabis and «the paradox effect».

PubMed

Moreno-Granados, Josefa María; Ferrín, Maite; Salcedo-Marín, Dolores M; Ruiz-Veguilla, Miguel

2014-01-01

The importance of neuropsychological functioning in First-Episode Psychosis (FEP) has led to the publication of a growing number of studies in this area of research. The present study pursued three goals: First, to examine verbal and visual memory in a sample of Child and Adolescent FEP, second, to evaluate the effect of other cognitive domains on verbal and visual memory, and finally, to examine the relationship between performance in this cognitive dimension and the use of cannabis at this age. A sample of 41 FEPs and 39 healthy subjects were evaluated. The variables assessed were verbal and visual memory, attention, working memory, processing speed, mental flexibility, verbal fluency, motor coordination, planning ability and intelligence. Our results found impairment of short and long-term recall of verbal memory, and short-term visual memory in early psychosis. They also found relationships between cognitive dimensions, such as visual memory and intelligence and motor coordination. Finally, a «paradoxical» effect was found in patients who used cannabis, as the FEP consumers performed the visual memory test better than those who had not used it. Patients showed impairment of short and long-term recall of verbal information and short-term visual reproduction. In the second place, motor coordination and intelligence influenced short-term visual memory in patients in the early stages of the illness. Third, use of cannabis in patients with FEP was associated with better performance in the test that evaluated the short-term visual memory, as measured by task completion time, that is, efficiency in performing the test. However, when measured by task execution accuracy, their visual memory was no better than the controls. Copyright © 2012 SEP y SEPB. Published by Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

Long-term memory for verbal and visual information in Down syndrome and Williams syndrome: performance on the Doors and People test.

PubMed

Jarrold, Christopher; Baddeley, Alan D; Phillips, Caroline

2007-02-01

Previous studies have suggested that Williams syndrome and Down syndrome may be associated with specific short-term memory deficits. Individuals with Williams syndrome perform relatively poorly on tests of visuo-spatial short-term memory and individuals with Down syndrome show a relative deficit on verbal short-term memory tasks. However, these patterns of impairments may reflect the impact of generally impaired visuo-spatial processing skills in Williams syndrome, and verbal abilities in Down syndrome. The current study explored this possibility by assessing long-term memory among 15 individuals with Williams syndrome and 20 individuals with Down syndrome using the Doors and People test, a battery which assesses recall and recognition of verbal and visual information. Individuals' performance was standardised for age and level of intellectual ability with reference to that shown by a sample of 110 typically developing children. The results showed that individuals with Down syndrome have no differential deficits in long-term memory for verbal information, implying that verbal short-term memory deficits in this population are relatively selective. Instead both individuals with Down syndrome and with Williams syndrome showed some evidence of relatively poor performance on tests of long-term memory for visual information. It is therefore possible that visuo-spatial short-term memory deficits that have previously been demonstrated in Williams syndrome may be secondary to more general problems in visuo-spatial processing in this population.

Contributions of volumetrics of the hippocampus and thalamus to verbal memory in temporal lobe epilepsy patients.

PubMed

Stewart, Christopher C; Griffith, H Randall; Okonkwo, Ozioma C; Martin, Roy C; Knowlton, Robert K; Richardson, Elizabeth J; Hermann, Bruce P; Seidenberg, Michael

2009-02-01

Recent theories have posited that the hippocampus and thalamus serve distinct, yet related, roles in episodic memory. Whereas the hippocampus has been implicated in long-term memory encoding and storage, the thalamus, as a whole, has been implicated in the selection of items for subsequent encoding and the use of retrieval strategies. However, dissociating the memory impairment that occurs following thalamic injury as distinguished from that following hippocampal injury has proven difficult. This study examined relationships between MRI volumetric measures of the hippocampus and thalamus and their contributions to prose and rote verbal memory functioning in 18 patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Results revealed that bilateral hippocampal and thalamic volume independently predicted delayed prose verbal memory functioning. However, bilateral hippocampal, but not thalamic, volume predicted delayed rote verbal memory functioning. Follow-up analyses indicated that bilateral thalamic volume independently predicted immediate prose, but not immediate rote, verbal recall, whereas bilateral hippocampal volume was not associated with any of these immediate memory measures. These findings underscore the cognitive significance of thalamic atrophy in chronic TLE, demonstrating that hippocampal and thalamic volume make quantitatively, and perhaps qualitatively, distinct contributions to episodic memory functioning in TLE patients. They are also consistent with theories proposing that the hippocampus supports long-term memory encoding and storage, whereas the thalamus is implicated in the executive aspects of episodic memory.

Changes in verbal and visuospatial working memory from Grade 1 to Grade 3 of primary school: Population longitudinal study.

PubMed

Nicolaou, E; Quach, J; Lum, J; Roberts, G; Spencer-Smith, M; Gathercole, S; Anderson, P J; Mensah, F K; Wake, M

2018-05-01

Adaptive working memory training is being implemented without an adequate understanding of developmental trajectories of working memory. We aimed to quantify from Grade 1 to Grade 3 of primary school (1) changes in verbal and visuospatial working memory and (2) whether low verbal and visuospatial working memory in Grade 1 predicts low working memory in Grade 3. The study design includes a population-based longitudinal study of 1,802 children (66% uptake from all 2,747 Grade 1 students) at 44 randomly selected primary schools in Melbourne, Australia. Backwards Digit Recall (verbal working memory) and Mister X (visuospatial working memory) screening measures from the Automated Working Memory Assessment (M = 100; SD = 15) were used to assess Grades 1 and 3 (ages 6-7 and 8-9 years) students. Low working memory was defined as ≥1 standard deviation below the standard score mean. Descriptive statistics addressed Aim 1, and predictive parameters addressed Aim 2. One thousand seventy (59%) of 1802 Grade 1 participants were reassessed in Grade 3. As expected for typically developing children, group mean standard scores were similar in Grades 1 and 3 for verbal, visuospatial, and overall working memory, but group mean raw scores increased markedly. Compared to "not low" children, those classified as having low working memory in Grade 1 showed much larger increases in both standard and raw scores across verbal, visuospatial, and overall working memory. Sensitivity was very low for Grade 1 low working memory predicting Grade 3 low classifications. Although mean changes in working memory standard scores between Grades 1 and 3 were minimal, we found that individual development varied widely, with marked natural resolution by Grade 3 in children who initially had low working memory. This may render brain-training interventions ineffective in the early school year ages, particularly if (as population-based programmes usually mandate) selection occurs within a screening paradigm. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Elevated stress is associated with prefrontal cortex dysfunction during a verbal memory task in women with HIV

PubMed Central

Rubin, Leah H.; Wu, Minjie; Sundermann, Erin E.; Meyer, Vanessa J.; Smith, Rachael; Weber, Kathleen M.; Cohen, Mardge H.; Little, Deborah M.; Maki, Pauline M.

2016-01-01

HIV-infected women may be particularly vulnerable to verbal learning and memory deficits. One factor contributing to these deficits is high perceived stress, which is associated with prefrontal cortical (PFC) atrophy and memory outcomes sensitive to PFC function, including retrieval and semantic clustering. We examined the association between stress and PFC activation during a verbal memory task in 36 HIV-infected women from the Chicago Consortium of the Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) to better understand the role of the PFC in this stress-related impairment. Participants completed standardized measures of verbal learning and memory and stress (Perceived Stress Scale-10). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess brain function while participants completed encoding and recognition phases of a verbal memory task. HIV-infected women with higher stress (scores in top tertile) performed worse on all verbal memory outcomes including strategic encoding (p’s<0.05) compared to HIV-infected women with lower stress (scores in lower two tertiles). Patterns of brain activation during recognition (but not encoding) differed between women with higher versus lower stress. During recognition, women with higher stress demonstrated greater deactivation in medial PFC and posterior cingulate cortex compared to women with lower stress (p’s<0.05). Greater deactivation in medial PFC marginally related to less efficient strategic retrieval (p=0.06). Similar results were found in analyses focusing on PTSD symptoms. Results suggest that stress might alter the function of the medial PFC in HIV-infected women resulting in less efficient strategic retrieval and deficits in verbal memory. PMID:27094924

Elevated stress is associated with prefrontal cortex dysfunction during a verbal memory task in women with HIV.

PubMed

Rubin, Leah H; Wu, Minjie; Sundermann, Erin E; Meyer, Vanessa J; Smith, Rachael; Weber, Kathleen M; Cohen, Mardge H; Little, Deborah M; Maki, Pauline M

2016-12-01

HIV-infected women may be particularly vulnerable to verbal learning and memory deficits. One factor contributing to these deficits is high perceived stress, which is associated with prefrontal cortical (PFC) atrophy and memory outcomes sensitive to PFC function, including retrieval and semantic clustering. We examined the association between stress and PFC activation during a verbal memory task in 36 HIV-infected women from the Chicago Consortium of the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) to better understand the role of the PFC in this stress-related impairment. Participants completed standardized measures of verbal learning and memory and stress (perceived stress scale-10). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess brain function while participants completed encoding and recognition phases of a verbal memory task. HIV-infected women with higher stress (scores in top tertile) performed worse on all verbal memory outcomes including strategic encoding (p < 0.05) compared to HIV-infected women with lower stress (scores in lower two tertiles). Patterns of brain activation during recognition (but not encoding) differed between women with higher vs. lower stress. During recognition, women with higher stress demonstrated greater deactivation in medial PFC and posterior cingulate cortex compared to women with lower stress (p < 0.05). Greater deactivation in medial PFC marginally related to less efficient strategic retrieval (p = 0.06). Similar results were found in analyses focusing on PTSD symptoms. Results suggest that stress might alter the function of the medial PFC in HIV-infected women resulting in less efficient strategic retrieval and deficits in verbal memory.

Associations between speech understanding and auditory and visual tests of verbal working memory: effects of linguistic complexity, task, age, and hearing loss

PubMed Central

Smith, Sherri L.; Pichora-Fuller, M. Kathleen

2015-01-01

Listeners with hearing loss commonly report having difficulty understanding speech, particularly in noisy environments. Their difficulties could be due to auditory and cognitive processing problems. Performance on speech-in-noise tests has been correlated with reading working memory span (RWMS), a measure often chosen to avoid the effects of hearing loss. If the goal is to assess the cognitive consequences of listeners’ auditory processing abilities, however, then listening working memory span (LWMS) could be a more informative measure. Some studies have examined the effects of different degrees and types of masking on working memory, but less is known about the demands placed on working memory depending on the linguistic complexity of the target speech or the task used to measure speech understanding in listeners with hearing loss. Compared to RWMS, LWMS measures using different speech targets and maskers may provide a more ecologically valid approach. To examine the contributions of RWMS and LWMS to speech understanding, we administered two working memory measures (a traditional RWMS measure and a new LWMS measure), and a battery of tests varying in the linguistic complexity of the speech materials, the presence of babble masking, and the task. Participants were a group of younger listeners with normal hearing and two groups of older listeners with hearing loss (n = 24 per group). There was a significant group difference and a wider range in performance on LWMS than on RWMS. There was a significant correlation between both working memory measures only for the oldest listeners with hearing loss. Notably, there were only few significant correlations among the working memory and speech understanding measures. These findings suggest that working memory measures reflect individual differences that are distinct from those tapped by these measures of speech understanding. PMID:26441769

Fractionation of memory in medial temporal lobe amnesia.

PubMed

Bird, Chris M; Shallice, Tim; Cipolotti, Lisa

2007-03-25

We report a comprehensive investigation of the anterograde memory functions of two patients with memory impairments (RH and JC). RH had neuroradiological evidence of apparently selective right-sided hippocampal damage and an intact cognitive profile apart from selective memory impairments. JC, had neuroradiological evidence of bilateral hippocampal damage following anoxia due to cardiac arrest. He had anomic and "executive" difficulties in addition to a global amnesia, suggesting atrophy extending beyond hippocampal regions. Their performance is compared with that of a previously reported hippocampal amnesic patient who showed preserved recollection and familiarity for faces in the context of severe verbal and topographical memory impairment [VC; Cipolotti, L., Bird, C., Good, T., Macmanus, D., Rudge, P., & Shallice, T. (2006). Recollection and familiarity in dense hippocampal amnesia: A case study. Neuropsychologia, 44, 489-506.] The patients were administered experimental tests using verbal (words) and two types of non-verbal materials (faces and buildings). Receiver operating characteristic analyses were used to estimate the contribution of recollection and familiarity to recognition performance on the experimental tests. RH had preserved verbal recognition memory. Interestingly, her face recognition memory was also spared, whilst topographical recognition memory was impaired. JC was impaired for all types of verbal and non-verbal materials. In both patients, deficits in recollection were invariably associated with deficits in familiarity. JC's data demonstrate the need for a comprehensive cognitive investigation in patients with apparently selective hippocampal damage following anoxia. The data from RH suggest that the right hippocampus is necessary for recollection and familiarity for topographical materials, whilst the left hippocampus is sufficient to underpin these processes for at least some types of verbal materials. Face recognition memory may be adequately subserved by areas outside of the hippocampus.

Prefrontal cortical volume loss is associated with stress-related deficits in verbal learning and memory in HIV-infected women.

PubMed

Rubin, Leah H; Meyer, Vanessa J; J Conant, Rhoda; Sundermann, Erin E; Wu, Minjie; Weber, Kathleen M; Cohen, Mardge H; Little, Deborah M; Maki, Pauline M

2016-08-01

Deficits in verbal learning and memory are a prominent feature of neurocognitive function in HIV-infected women, and are associated with high levels of perceived stress. To understand the neurobiological factors contributing to this stress-related memory impairment, we examined the association between stress, verbal memory, and brain volumes in HIV-infected women. Participants included 38 HIV-infected women (Mean age=43.9years) from the Chicago Consortium of the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS). Participants underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and completed standardized measures of verbal learning and memory and stress (Perceived Stress Scale-10; PSS-10). Brain volumes were evaluated in a priori regions of interest, including the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Compared to HIV-infected women with lower stress (PSS-10 scores in lower two tertiles), HIV-infected women with higher stress (scores in the top tertile), performed worse on measures of verbal learning and memory and showed smaller volumes bilaterally in the parahippocampal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and inferior frontal gyrus (p's<0.05). Reduced volumes in the inferior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and superior frontal gyrus (all right hemisphere) were negatively associated with verbal learning and memory performance. Prefrontal cortical atrophy is associated with stress-related deficits in verbal learning and memory in HIV-infected women. The time course of these volume losses in relation to memory deficits has yet to be elucidated, but the magnitude of the volumetric differences between women with higher versus lower stress suggests a prolonged vulnerability due to chronic stress and/or early life trauma. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Verbal Memory Decline following DBS for Parkinson’s Disease: Structural Volumetric MRI Relationships

PubMed Central

Geevarghese, Ruben; Lumsden, Daniel E.; Costello, Angela; Hulse, Natasha; Ayis, Salma; Samuel, Michael; Ashkan, Keyoumars

2016-01-01

Background Parkinson’s disease is a chronic degenerative movement disorder. The mainstay of treatment is medical. In certain patients Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) may be offered. However, DBS has been associated with post-operative neuropsychology changes, especially in verbal memory. Objectives Firstly, to determine if pre-surgical thalamic and hippocampal volumes were related to verbal memory changes following DBS. Secondly, to determine if clinical factors such as age, duration of symptoms or motor severity (UPDRS Part III score) were related to verbal memory changes. Methods A consecutive group of 40 patients undergoing bilateral Subthalamic Nucleus (STN)-DBS for PD were selected. Brain MRI data was acquired, pre-processed and structural volumetric data was extracted using FSL. Verbal memory test scores for pre- and post-STN-DBS surgery were recorded. Linear regression was used to investigate the relationship between score change and structural volumetric data. Results A significant relationship was demonstrated between change in List Learning test score and thalamic (left, p = 0.02) and hippocampal (left, p = 0.02 and right p = 0.03) volumes. Duration of symptoms was also associated with List Learning score change (p = 0.02 to 0.03). Conclusion Verbal memory score changes appear to have a relationship to pre-surgical MRI structural volumetric data. The findings of this study provide a basis for further research into the use of pre-surgical MRI to counsel PD patients regarding post-surgical verbal memory changes. PMID:27557088

Crystallized verbal skills in schizophrenia: relationship to neurocognition, symptoms, and functional status.

PubMed

Kurtz, Matthew M; Donato, Jad; Rose, Jennifer

2011-11-01

To study the relationship of superior (i.e., ≥ 90th percentile), average (11th-89th percentile) or extremely low (i.e., ≤ 10th percentile) crystallized verbal skills to neurocognitive profiles, symptoms and everyday life function in schizophrenia. Crystallized verbal skill was derived from Vocabulary subtest scores from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). Out of a sample of 165 stable outpatients with schizophrenia we identified 25 participants with superior crystallized verbal skill, 104 participants with average verbal skill, and 36 participants with extremely low crystallized verbal skill. Each participant was administered measures of attention, working memory, verbal learning and memory, problem-solving and processing speed, as well as symptom and performance-based adaptive life skill assessments. The magnitude of neuropsychological impairment across the three groups was different, after adjusting for group differences in education and duration of illness. Working memory, and verbal learning and memory skills were different across all three groups, while processing speed differentiated the extremely low verbal skill group from the other two groups and problem-solving differentiated the very low verbal skill group from the superior verbal skill group. There were no group differences in sustained attention. Capacity measures of everyday life skills were different across each of the three groups. Crystallized verbal skill in schizophrenia is related to the magnitude of impairment in neurocognitive function and performance-based skills in everyday life function. Patterns of neuropsychological impairment were similar across different levels of crystallized verbal skill.

Working memory training using mental calculation impacts regional gray matter of the frontal and parietal regions.

PubMed

Takeuchi, Hikaru; Taki, Yasuyuki; Sassa, Yuko; Hashizume, Hiroshi; Sekiguchi, Atsushi; Fukushima, Ai; Kawashima, Ryuta

2011-01-01

Training working memory (WM) improves performance on untrained cognitive tasks and alters functional activity. However, WM training's effects on gray matter morphology and a wide range of cognitive tasks are still unknown. We investigated this issue using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), various psychological measures, such as non-trained WM tasks and a creativity task, and intensive adaptive training of WM using mental calculations (IATWMMC), all of which are typical WM tasks. IATWMMC was associated with reduced regional gray matter volume in the bilateral fronto-parietal regions and the left superior temporal gyrus. It improved verbal letter span and complex arithmetic ability, but deteriorated creativity. These results confirm the training-induced plasticity in psychological mechanisms and the plasticity of gray matter structures in regions that have been assumed to be under strong genetic control.

Impaired verbal short-term memory in Down syndrome reflects a capacity limitation rather than atypically rapid forgetting.

PubMed

M Purser, Harry R; Jarrold, Christopher

2005-05-01

Individuals with Down syndrome suffer from relatively poor verbal short-term memory. Recent work has indicated that this deficit is not caused by problems of audition, speech, or articulatory rehearsal within the phonological loop component of Baddeley and Hitch's working memory model. Given this, two experiments were conducted to investigate whether abnormally rapid decay underlies the deficit. In a first experiment, we attempted to vary the time available for decay using a modified serial recall procedure that had both verbal and visuospatial conditions. No evidence was found to suggest that forgetting is abnormally rapid in phonological memory in Down syndrome, but a selective phonological memory deficit was indicated. A second experiment further investigated possible problems of decay in phonological memory, restricted to item information. The results indicated that individuals with Down syndrome do not show atypically rapid item forgetting from phonological memory but may have a limited-capacity verbal short-term memory system.

Listen up, eye movements play a role in verbal memory retrieval.

PubMed

Scholz, Agnes; Mehlhorn, Katja; Krems, Josef F

2016-01-01

People fixate on blank spaces if visual stimuli previously occupied these regions of space. This so-called "looking at nothing" (LAN) phenomenon is said to be a part of information retrieval from internal memory representations, but the exact nature of the relationship between LAN and memory retrieval is unclear. While evidence exists for an influence of LAN on memory retrieval for visuospatial stimuli, evidence for verbal information is mixed. Here, we tested the relationship between LAN behavior and memory retrieval in an episodic retrieval task where verbal information was presented auditorily during encoding. When participants were allowed to gaze freely during subsequent memory retrieval, LAN occurred, and it was stronger for correct than for incorrect responses. When eye movements were manipulated during memory retrieval, retrieval performance was higher when participants fixated on the area associated with to-be-retrieved information than when fixating on another area. Our results provide evidence for a functional relationship between LAN and memory retrieval that extends to verbal information.

Aging and Individual Differences in Binding During Sentence Understanding: Evidence from Temporary and Global Syntactic Attachment Ambiguities

PubMed Central

Payne, Brennan R.; Grison, Sarah; Gao, Xuefei; Christianson, Kiel; Morrow, Daniel G.; Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A. L.

2013-01-01

We report an investigation of aging and individual differences in binding information during sentence understanding. An age-continuous sample of adults (N = 91), ranging from 18 to 81 years of age, read sentences in which a relative clause could be attached high to a head noun NP1, attached low to its modifying prepositional phrase NP2 (e.g., The son of the princess who scratched himself / herself in public was humiliated), or in which the attachment site of the relative clause was ultimately indeterminate (e.g., The maid of the princess who scratched herself in public was humiliated). Word-by-word reading times and comprehension (e.g., who scratched?) were measured. A series of mixed-effects models were fit to the data, revealing: (1) that, on average, NP1-attached sentences were harder to process and comprehend than NP2-attached sentences; (2) that these average effects were independently moderated by verbal working memory capacity and reading experience, with effects that were most pronounced in the oldest participants and; (3) that readers on average did not allocate extra time to resolve global ambiguities, though older adults with higher working memory span did. Findings are discussed in relation to current models of lifespan cognitive development, working memory, language experience, and the role of prosodic segmentation strategies in reading. Collectively, these data suggest that aging brings differences in sentence understanding, and these differences may depend on independent influences of verbal working memory capacity and reading experience. PMID:24291806

Aging and individual differences in binding during sentence understanding: evidence from temporary and global syntactic attachment ambiguities.

PubMed

Payne, Brennan R; Grison, Sarah; Gao, Xuefei; Christianson, Kiel; Morrow, Daniel G; Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A L

2014-02-01

We report an investigation of aging and individual differences in binding information during sentence understanding. An age-continuous sample of adults (N=91), ranging from 18 to 81 years of age, read sentences in which a relative clause could be attached high to a head noun NP1, attached low to its modifying prepositional phrase NP2 (e.g., The son of the princess who scratched himself/herself in public was humiliated), or in which the attachment site of the relative clause was ultimately indeterminate (e.g., The maid of the princess who scratched herself in public was humiliated). Word-by-word reading times and comprehension (e.g., who scratched?) were measured. A series of mixed-effects models were fit to the data, revealing: (1) that, on average, NP1-attached sentences were harder to process and comprehend than NP2-attached sentences; (2) that these average effects were independently moderated by verbal working memory capacity and reading experience, with effects that were most pronounced in the oldest participants and; (3) that readers on average did not allocate extra time to resolve global ambiguities, though older adults with higher working memory span did. Findings are discussed in relation to current models of lifespan cognitive development, working memory, language experience, and the role of prosodic segmentation strategies in reading. Collectively, these data suggest that aging brings differences in sentence understanding, and these differences may depend on independent influences of verbal working memory capacity and reading experience. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Intensity of recreational physical activity throughout life and later life cognitive functioning in women.

PubMed

Tierney, Mary C; Moineddin, Rahim; Morra, Angela; Manson, Judith; Blake, Jennifer

2010-01-01

Long-term physical activity may affect risk of cognitive impairment but few studies have examined later life cognition in relation to intensity of life-long physical activity. We examined the associations between the intensity of long-term recreational physical activity and neuropsychological functioning in 90 healthy postmenopausal women on tests found to be useful in the early identification of dementia. Information was collected about their participation in strenuous and moderate activities between high school and menopause. Summary measures of long-term strenuous and moderate activity were constructed for each participant. All analyses were adjusted for relevant covariates. The six linear regression analyses showed significant positive associations between moderate activity and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Revised (WAIS-R), Digit Span backward, WAIS-R Digit Symbol, and Trail Making Test Part B. Significant negative relationships were found between strenuous activity and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test delayed verbal recall, Complex Figure Test delayed visual memory, WAIS-R Digit Span backward, category fluency, and WAIS-R Digit Symbol. The associations found in the present study suggest that while moderate activity may be protective, long-term strenuous activity before menopause may lower cognitive performance later in life. These results support further investigation of the effects of life-long exercise intensity on cognition in later life.

Standardization and validation of a parallel form of the verbal and non-verbal recognition memory test in an Italian population sample.

PubMed

Smirni, Daniela; Smirni, Pietro; Di Martino, Giovanni; Cipolotti, Lisa; Oliveri, Massimiliano; Turriziani, Patrizia

2018-05-04

In the neuropsychological assessment of several neurological conditions, recognition memory evaluation is requested. Recognition seems to be more appropriate than recall to study verbal and non-verbal memory, because interferences of psychological and emotional disorders are less relevant in the recognition than they are in recall memory paradigms. In many neurological disorders, longitudinal repeated assessments are needed to monitor the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs or pharmacological treatments on the recovery of memory. In order to contain the practice effect in repeated neuropsychological evaluations, it is necessary the use of parallel forms of the tests. Having two parallel forms of the same test, that kept administration procedures and scoring constant, is a great advantage in both clinical practice, for the monitoring of memory disorder, and in experimental practice, to allow the repeated evaluation of memory on healthy and neurological subjects. First aim of the present study was to provide normative values in an Italian sample (n = 160) for a parallel form of a verbal and non-verbal recognition memory battery. Multiple regression analysis revealed significant effects of age and education on recognition memory performance, whereas sex did not reach a significant probability level. Inferential cutoffs have been determined and equivalent scores computed. Secondly, the study aimed to validate the equivalence of the two parallel forms of the Recognition Memory Test. The correlations analyses between the total scores of the two versions of the test and correlation between the three subtasks revealed that the two forms are parallel and the subtasks are equivalent for difficulty.

What you say matters: exploring visual-verbal interactions in visual working memory.

PubMed

Mate, Judit; Allen, Richard J; Baqués, Josep

2012-01-01

The aim of this study was to explore whether the content of a simple concurrent verbal load task determines the extent of its interference on memory for coloured shapes. The task consisted of remembering four visual items while repeating aloud a pair of words that varied in terms of imageability and relatedness to the task set. At test, a cue appeared that was either the colour or the shape of one of the previously seen objects, with participants required to select the object's other feature from a visual array. During encoding and retention, there were four verbal load conditions: (a) a related, shape-colour pair (from outside the experimental set, i.e., "pink square"); (b) a pair of unrelated but visually imageable, concrete, words (i.e., "big elephant"); (c) a pair of unrelated and abstract words (i.e., "critical event"); and (d) no verbal load. Results showed differential effects of these verbal load conditions. In particular, imageable words (concrete and related conditions) interfered to a greater degree than abstract words. Possible implications for how visual working memory interacts with verbal memory and long-term memory are discussed.

Cognitive and psychomotor effects of risperidone in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

PubMed

Houthoofd, Sofie A M K; Morrens, Manuel; Sabbe, Bernard G C

2008-09-01

The aim of this review was to discuss data from double-blind, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that have investigated the effects of oral and long-acting injectable risperidone on cognitive and psychomotor functioning in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. PubMed/MEDLINE and the Institute of Scientific Information Web of Science database were searched for relevant English-language double-blind RCTs published between March 2000 and July 2008, using the terms schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, cognition, risperidone, psychomotor, processing speed, attention, vigilance, working memory, verbal learning, visual learning, reasoning, problem solving, social cognition, MATRICS, and long-acting. Relevant studies included patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Cognitive domains were delineated at the Consensus Conferences of the National Institute of Mental Health-Measurement And Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (NIMH-MATRICS). The tests employed to assess each domain and psychomotor functioning, and the within-group and between-group comparisons of risperidone with haloperidol and other atypical antipsychotics, are presented. The results of individual tests were included when they were individually presented and interpretable for either drug; outcomes that were presented as cluster scores or factor structures were excluded. A total of 12 articles were included in this review. Results suggested that the use of oral risperidone appeared to be associated with within-group improvements on the cognitive domains of processing speed, attention/vigilance, verbal and visual learning and memory, and reasoning and problem solving in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Risperidone and haloperidol seemed to generate similar beneficial effects (on the domains of processing speed, attention/vigilance, [verbal and nonverbal] working memory, and visual learning and memory, as well as psychomotor functioning), although the results for verbal fluency, verbal learning and memory, and reasoning and problem solving were not unanimous, and no comparative data on social cognition were available. Similar cognitive effects were found with risperidone, olanzapine, and quetiapine on the domains of verbal working memory and reasoning and problem solving, as well as verbal fluency. More research is needed on the domains in which study results were contradictory. For olanzapine versus risperidone, these were verbal and visual learning and memory and psychomotor functioning. No comparative data for olanzapine and risperidone were available for the social cognition domain. For quetiapine versus risperidone, the domains in which no unanimity was found were processing speed, attention/vigilance, nonverbal working memory, and verbal learning and memory. The limited available reports on risperidone versus clozapine suggest that: risperidone was associated with improved, and clozapine with worsened, performance on the nonverbal working memory domain; risperidone improved and clozapine did not improve reasoning and problem-solving performance; clozapine improved, and risperidone did not improve, social cognition performance. Use of long-acting injectable risperidone seemed to be associated with improved performance in the domains of attention/vigilance, verbal learning and memory, and reasoning and problem solving, as well as psychomotor functioning. The results for the nonverbal working memory domain were indeterminate, and no clear improvement was seen in the social cognition domain. The domains of processing speed, verbal working memory, and visual learning and memory, as well as verbal fluency, were not assessed. The results of this review of within-group comparisons of oral risperidone suggest that the agent appeared to be associated with improved functioning in the cognitive domains of processing speed, attention/vigilance, verbal and visual learning and memory, and reasoning and problem solving in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Long-acting injectable risperidone seemed to be associated with improved functioning in the domains of attention/vigilance, verbal learning and memory, and reasoning and problem solving, as well as psychomotor functioning, in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Sex-based memory advantages and cognitive aging: a challenge to the cognitive reserve construct?

PubMed

Caselli, Richard J; Dueck, Amylou C; Locke, Dona E C; Baxter, Leslie C; Woodruff, Bryan K; Geda, Yonas E

2015-02-01

Education and related proxies for cognitive reserve (CR) are confounded by associations with environmental factors that correlate with cerebrovascular disease possibly explaining discrepancies between studies examining their relationships to cognitive aging and dementia. In contrast, sex-related memory differences may be a better proxy. Since they arise developmentally, they are less likely to reflect environmental confounds. Women outperform men on verbal and men generally outperform women on visuospatial memory tasks. Furthermore, memory declines during the preclinical stage of AD, when it is clinically indistinguishable from normal aging. To determine whether CR mitigates age-related memory decline, we examined the effects of gender and APOE genotype on longitudinal memory performances. Memory decline was assessed in a cohort of healthy men and women enriched for APOE ɛ4 who completed two verbal [Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), Buschke Selective Reminding Test (SRT)] and two visuospatial [Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (CFT), and Benton Visual Retention Test (VRT)] memory tests, as well as in a separate larger and older cohort [National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC)] who completed a verbal memory test (Logical Memory). Age-related memory decline was accelerated in APOE ɛ4 carriers on all verbal memory measures (AVLT, p=.03; SRT p<.001; logical memory p<.001) and on the VRT p=.006. Baseline sex associated differences were retained over time, but no sex differences in rate of decline were found for any measure in either cohort. Sex-based memory advantage does not mitigate age-related memory decline in either APOE ɛ4 carriers or non-carriers.

Spatial attention interacts with serial-order retrieval from verbal working memory.

PubMed

van Dijck, Jean-Philippe; Abrahamse, Elger L; Majerus, Steve; Fias, Wim

2013-09-01

The ability to maintain the serial order of events is recognized as a major function of working memory. Although general models of working memory postulate a close link between working memory and attention, such a link has so far not been proposed specifically for serial-order working memory. The present study provided the first empirical demonstration of a direct link between serial order in verbal working memory and spatial selective attention. We show that the retrieval of later items of a sequence stored in working memory-compared with that of earlier items-produces covert attentional shifts toward the right. This observation suggests the conceptually surprising notion that serial-order working memory, even for nonspatially defined verbal items, draws on spatial attention.

Sex-Related Differences in the Effects of Sleep Habits on Verbal and Visuospatial Working Memory

PubMed Central

Nakagawa, Seishu; Takeuchi, Hikaru; Taki, Yasuyuki; Nouchi, Rui; Sekiguchi, Atsushi; Kotozaki, Yuka; Miyauchi, Carlos M.; Iizuka, Kunio; Yokoyama, Ryoichi; Shinada, Takamitsu; Yamamoto, Yuki; Hanawa, Sugiko; Araki, Tsuyoshi; Kunitoki, Keiko; Sassa, Yuko; Kawashima, Ryuta

2016-01-01

Poor sleep quality negatively affects memory performance, and working memory in particular. We investigated sleep habits related to sleep quality including sleep duration, daytime nap duration, nap frequency, and dream content recall frequency (DCRF). Declarative working memory can be subdivided into verbal working memory (VWM) and visuospatial working memory (VSWM). We hypothesized that sleep habits would have different effects on VWM and VSWM. To our knowledge, our study is the first to investigate differences between VWM and VSWM related to daytime nap duration, nap frequency, and DCRF. Furthermore, we tested the hypothesis that the effects of duration and frequency of daytime naps and DCRF on VWM and VSWM differed according to sex. We assessed 779 healthy right-handed individuals (434 males and 345 females; mean age: 20.7 ± 1.8 years) using a digit span forward and backward VWM task, a forward and backward VSWM task, and sleep habits scales. A correlation analysis was used to test the relationships between VWM capacity (VWMC) and VSWM capacity (VSWMC) scores and sleep duration, nap duration, nap frequency, and DCRF. Furthermore, multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with VWMC and VSWMC scores and to identify sex-related differences. We found significant positive correlations between VSWMC and nap duration and DCRF, and between VWMC and sleep duration in all subjects. Furthermore, we found that working memory capacity (WMC) was positively correlated with nap duration in males and with sleep duration in females, and DCRF was positively correlated with VSWMC in females. Our finding of sex-related differences in the effects of sleep habits on WMC has not been reported previously. The associations between WMC and sleep habits differed according to sex because of differences in the underlying neural correlates of VWM and VSWM, and effectiveness of the sleep habits in males and females. PMID:27516751

Sex-Related Differences in the Effects of Sleep Habits on Verbal and Visuospatial Working Memory.

PubMed

Nakagawa, Seishu; Takeuchi, Hikaru; Taki, Yasuyuki; Nouchi, Rui; Sekiguchi, Atsushi; Kotozaki, Yuka; Miyauchi, Carlos M; Iizuka, Kunio; Yokoyama, Ryoichi; Shinada, Takamitsu; Yamamoto, Yuki; Hanawa, Sugiko; Araki, Tsuyoshi; Kunitoki, Keiko; Sassa, Yuko; Kawashima, Ryuta

2016-01-01

Poor sleep quality negatively affects memory performance, and working memory in particular. We investigated sleep habits related to sleep quality including sleep duration, daytime nap duration, nap frequency, and dream content recall frequency (DCRF). Declarative working memory can be subdivided into verbal working memory (VWM) and visuospatial working memory (VSWM). We hypothesized that sleep habits would have different effects on VWM and VSWM. To our knowledge, our study is the first to investigate differences between VWM and VSWM related to daytime nap duration, nap frequency, and DCRF. Furthermore, we tested the hypothesis that the effects of duration and frequency of daytime naps and DCRF on VWM and VSWM differed according to sex. We assessed 779 healthy right-handed individuals (434 males and 345 females; mean age: 20.7 ± 1.8 years) using a digit span forward and backward VWM task, a forward and backward VSWM task, and sleep habits scales. A correlation analysis was used to test the relationships between VWM capacity (VWMC) and VSWM capacity (VSWMC) scores and sleep duration, nap duration, nap frequency, and DCRF. Furthermore, multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with VWMC and VSWMC scores and to identify sex-related differences. We found significant positive correlations between VSWMC and nap duration and DCRF, and between VWMC and sleep duration in all subjects. Furthermore, we found that working memory capacity (WMC) was positively correlated with nap duration in males and with sleep duration in females, and DCRF was positively correlated with VSWMC in females. Our finding of sex-related differences in the effects of sleep habits on WMC has not been reported previously. The associations between WMC and sleep habits differed according to sex because of differences in the underlying neural correlates of VWM and VSWM, and effectiveness of the sleep habits in males and females.

Intellectual factors in false memories of patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Zhu, Bi; Chen, Chuansheng; Loftus, Elizabeth F; Dong, Qi; Lin, Chongde; Li, Jun

2018-07-01

The current study explored the intellectual factors in false memories of 139 patients with schizophrenia, using a recognition task and an IQ test. The full-scale IQ score of the participants ranged from 57 to 144 (M = 100, SD = 14). The full IQ score had a negative correlation with false recognition in patients with schizophrenia, and positive correlations with high-confidence true recognition and discrimination rates. Further analyses with the subtests' scores revealed that false recognition was negatively correlated with scores of performance IQ (and one of its subtests: picture arrangement), whereas true recognition was positively correlated with scores of verbal IQ (and two of its subtests: information and digit span). High-IQ patients had less false recognition (overall or high-confidence false recognition), more high-confidence true recognition, and higher discrimination abilities than those with low IQ. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the cognitive mechanism in false memory of patients with schizophrenia, and are of practical relevance to the evaluation of memory reliability in patients with different intellectual levels. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Aberrant prefrontal beta oscillations predict episodic memory encoding deficits in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Meconi, Federica; Anderl-Straub, Sarah; Raum, Heidelore; Landgrebe, Michael; Langguth, Berthold; Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T; Hanslmayr, Simon

Verbal episodic memory is one of the core cognitive functions affected in patients with schizophrenia (SZ). Although this verbal memory impairment in SZ is a well-known finding, our understanding about its underlying neurophysiological mechanisms is rather scarce. Here we address this issue by recording brain oscillations during a memory task in a sample of healthy controls and patients with SZ. Brain oscillations represent spectral fingerprints of specific neurocognitive operations and are therefore a promising tool to identify neurocognitive mechanisms that are affected by SZ. Healthy controls showed a prominent suppression of left prefrontal beta oscillatory activity during successful memory formation, which replicates several previous oscillatory memory studies. In contrast, patients failed to exhibit such a left prefrontal beta power suppression. Utilizing a new topographical pattern similarity approach, we further demonstrate that the degree of similarity between a patient's beta power decrease to that of the controls reliably predicted memory performance. This relationship between beta power decreases and memory was such that the patients' memory performance improved as they showed a more similar topographical beta desynchronization pattern compared to that of healthy controls. Together, these findings support left prefrontal beta desynchronization as the spectral fingerprint of verbal episodic memory formation, likely indicating deep semantic processing of verbal material. These findings also demonstrate that left prefrontal beta power suppression (or lack thereof) during memory encoding are a reliable biomarker for the observed encoding impairments in SZ in verbal memory.

Does dual-task coordination performance decline in later life?

PubMed

Sebastián, María V; Mediavilla, Roberto

2017-05-01

This cross-sectional study examined whether changes occur in people’s capacity to coordinate two simultaneous tasks (dual-task) when transitioning from adulthood to later life. The central executive, Baddeley’s working memory model component, is responsible for this coordination. Contradictory results have been reported regarding the relationship between ageing and dual-task performance; but these seem to be related to methodological issues that have been addressed in this study. Nine hundred and seventy-two participants, aged between 35 and 90 years old, volunteered to carry out a verbal digit span task, followed by single and concurrent (dual-task) tests: first, a box crossing task, then, the digit recall task in relation to their memory span, and finally, both these tests simultaneously. We found no difference in people’s capacity to coordinate their attention when doing two tasks in adulthood or healthy later life, including those in the oldest age groups. Furthermore, gender and educational level were not related to dual-task performance. The results support the normal functioning of the central executive in very old people. These data contrast with research with patients suffering from different types of dementia, which show a decrease in their dual-task performance.

Distinguishing neurocognitive deficits in adult patients with NP-C from early onset Alzheimer's dementia.

PubMed

Johnen, Andreas; Pawlowski, Matthias; Duning, Thomas

2018-06-05

Niemann-Pick disease type C (NP-C) is a rare, progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by mutations in the NPC1 or the NPC2 gene. Neurocognitive deficits are common in NP-C, particularly in patients with the adolescent/adult-onset form. As a disease-specific therapy is available, it is important to distinguish clinically between the cognitive profiles in NP-C and primary dementia (e.g., early Alzheimer's disease; eAD). In a prospective observational study, we directly compared the neurocognitive profiles of patients with confirmed NP-C (n = 7) and eAD (n = 15). All patients underwent neurocognitive assessment using dementia screening tests (mini-mental status examination [MMSE] and frontal assessment battery [FAB]) and an extensive battery of tests assessing verbal memory, visuoconstructive abilities, visual memory, executive functions and verbal fluency. Overall cognitive impairment (MMSE) was significantly greater in eAD vs. NP-C (p = 0.010). The frequency of patients classified as cognitively 'impaired' was also significantly greater in eAD vs. NP-C (p = 0.025). Patients with NP-C showed relatively preserved verbal memory, but frequent impairment in visual memory, visuoconstruction, executive functions and in particular, verbal fluency. In the eAD group, a wider profile of more frequent and more severe neurocognitive deficits was seen, primarily featuring severe verbal and visual memory deficits along with major executive impairment. Delayed verbal memory recall was a particularly strong distinguishing factor between the two groups. A combination of detailed yet easy-to-apply neurocognitive tests assessing verbal memory, executive functions and verbal fluency may help distinguish NP-C cases from those with primary dementia due to eAD.

How Does the Linguistic Distance Between Spoken and Standard Language in Arabic Affect Recall and Recognition Performances During Verbal Memory Examination.

PubMed

Taha, Haitham

2017-06-01

The current research examined how Arabic diglossia affects verbal learning memory. Thirty native Arab college students were tested using auditory verbal memory test that was adapted according to the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test and developed in three versions: Pure spoken language version (SL), pure standard language version (SA), and phonologically similar version (PS). The result showed that for immediate free-recall, the performances were better for the SL and the PS conditions compared to the SA one. However, for the parts of delayed recall and recognition, the results did not reveal any significant consistent effect of diglossia. Accordingly, it was suggested that diglossia has a significant effect on the storage and short term memory functions but not on long term memory functions. The results were discussed in light of different approaches in the field of bilingual memory.

Differential verbal, visual, and spatial working memory in written language production.

PubMed

Raulerson, Bascom A; Donovan, Michael J; Whiteford, Alison P; Kellogg, Ronald T

2010-02-01

The contributions of verbal, visual, and spatial working memory to written language production were investigated. Participants composed definitions for nouns while concurrently performing a task which required updating, storing, and retrieving information coded either verbally, visually, or spatially. The present study extended past findings by showing the linguistic encoding of planned conceptual content makes its largest demand on verbal working memory for both low and high frequency nouns. Kellogg, Olive, and Piolat in 2007 found that concrete nouns place substantial demands on visual working memory when imaging the nouns' referents during planning, whereas abstract nouns make no demand. The current study further showed that this pattern was not an artifact of visual working memory being sensitive to manipulation of just any lexical property of the noun prompts. In contrast to past results, writing made a small but detectible demand on spatial working memory.

Interference with olfactory memory by visual and verbal tasks.

PubMed

Annett, J M; Cook, N M; Leslie, J C

1995-06-01

It has been claimed that olfactory memory is distinct from memory in other modalities. This study investigated the effectiveness of visual and verbal tasks in interfering with olfactory memory and included methodological changes from other recent studies. Subjects were allocated to one of four experimental conditions involving interference tasks [no interference task; visual task; verbal task; visual-plus-verbal task] and presented 15 target odours. Either recognition of the odours or free recall of the odour names was tested on one occasion, either within 15 minutes of presentation or one week later. Recognition and recall performance both showed effects of interference of visual and verbal tasks but there was no effect for time of testing. While the results may be accommodated within a dual coding framework, further work is indicated to resolve theoretical issues relating to task complexity.

Verbal Working Memory in Children With Cochlear Implants

PubMed Central

Caldwell-Tarr, Amanda; Low, Keri E.; Lowenstein, Joanna H.

2017-01-01

Purpose Verbal working memory in children with cochlear implants and children with normal hearing was examined. Participants Ninety-three fourth graders (47 with normal hearing, 46 with cochlear implants) participated, all of whom were in a longitudinal study and had working memory assessed 2 years earlier. Method A dual-component model of working memory was adopted, and a serial recall task measured storage and processing. Potential predictor variables were phonological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, nonverbal IQ, and several treatment variables. Potential dependent functions were literacy, expressive language, and speech-in-noise recognition. Results Children with cochlear implants showed deficits in storage and processing, similar in size to those at second grade. Predictors of verbal working memory differed across groups: Phonological awareness explained the most variance in children with normal hearing; vocabulary explained the most variance in children with cochlear implants. Treatment variables explained little of the variance. Where potentially dependent functions were concerned, verbal working memory accounted for little variance once the variance explained by other predictors was removed. Conclusions The verbal working memory deficits of children with cochlear implants arise due to signal degradation, which limits their abilities to acquire phonological awareness. That hinders their abilities to store items using a phonological code. PMID:29075747

Recognition memory, self-other source memory, and theory-of-mind in children with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Lind, Sophie E; Bowler, Dermot M

2009-09-01

This study investigated semantic and episodic memory in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), using a task which assessed recognition and self-other source memory. Children with ASD showed undiminished recognition memory but significantly diminished source memory, relative to age- and verbal ability-matched comparison children. Both children with and without ASD showed an "enactment effect", demonstrating significantly better recognition and source memory for self-performed actions than other-person-performed actions. Within the comparison group, theory-of-mind (ToM) task performance was significantly correlated with source memory, specifically for other-person-performed actions (after statistically controlling for verbal ability). Within the ASD group, ToM task performance was not significantly correlated with source memory (after controlling for verbal ability). Possible explanations for these relations between source memory and ToM are considered.

The effect of white matter hyperintensities on verbal memory: Mediation by temporal lobe atrophy.

PubMed

Swardfager, Walter; Cogo-Moreira, Hugo; Masellis, Mario; Ramirez, Joel; Herrmann, Nathan; Edwards, Jodi D; Saleem, Mahwesh; Chan, Parco; Yu, Di; Nestor, Sean M; Scott, Christopher J M; Holmes, Melissa F; Sahlas, Demetrios J; Kiss, Alexander; Oh, Paul I; Strother, Stephen C; Gao, Fuqiang; Stefanovic, Bojana; Keith, Julia; Symons, Sean; Swartz, Richard H; Lanctôt, Krista L; Stuss, Donald T; Black, Sandra E

2018-02-20

To determine the relationship between white matter hyperintensities (WMH) presumed to indicate disease of the cerebral small vessels, temporal lobe atrophy, and verbal memory deficits in Alzheimer disease (AD) and other dementias. We recruited groups of participants with and without AD, including strata with extensive WMH and minimal WMH, into a cross-sectional proof-of-principle study (n = 118). A consecutive case series from a memory clinic was used as an independent validation sample (n = 702; Sunnybrook Dementia Study; NCT01800214). We assessed WMH volume and left temporal lobe atrophy (measured as the brain parenchymal fraction) using structural MRI and verbal memory using the California Verbal Learning Test. Using path modeling with an inferential bootstrapping procedure, we tested an indirect effect of WMH on verbal recall that depends sequentially on temporal lobe atrophy and verbal learning. In both samples, WMH predicted poorer verbal recall, specifically due to temporal lobe atrophy and poorer verbal learning (proof-of-principle -1.53, 95% bootstrap confidence interval [CI] -2.45 to -0.88; and confirmation -0.66, 95% CI [-0.95 to -0.41] words). This pathway was significant in subgroups with (-0.20, 95% CI [-0.38 to -0.07] words, n = 363) and without (-0.71, 95% CI [-1.12 to -0.37] words, n = 339) AD. Via the identical pathway, WMH contributed to deficits in recognition memory (-1.82%, 95% CI [-2.64% to -1.11%]), a sensitive and specific sign of AD. Across dementia syndromes, WMH contribute indirectly to verbal memory deficits considered pathognomonic of Alzheimer disease, specifically by contributing to temporal lobe atrophy. © 2018 American Academy of Neurology.

Exploring Expressive Vocabulary Variability in Two-Year-Olds: The Role of Working Memory.

PubMed

Newbury, Jayne; Klee, Thomas; Stokes, Stephanie F; Moran, Catherine

2015-12-01

This study explored whether measures of working memory ability contribute to the wide variation in 2-year-olds' expressive vocabulary skills. Seventy-nine children (aged 24-30 months) were assessed by using standardized tests of vocabulary and visual cognition, a processing speed measure, and behavioral measures of verbal working memory and phonological short-term memory. Strong correlations were observed between phonological short-term memory, verbal working memory, and expressive vocabulary. Speed of spoken word recognition showed a moderate significant correlation with expressive vocabulary. In a multivariate regression model for expressive vocabulary, the most powerful predictor was a measure of phonological short-term memory (accounting for 66% unique variance), followed by verbal working memory (6%), sex (2%), and age (1%). Processing speed did not add significant unique variance. These findings confirm previous research positing a strong role for phonological short-term memory in early expressive vocabulary acquisition. They also extend previous research in two ways. First, a unique association between verbal working memory and expressive vocabulary in 2-year-olds was observed. Second, processing speed was not a unique predictor of variance in expressive vocabulary when included alongside measures of working memory.

Normal-range verbal-declarative memory in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Heinrichs, R Walter; Parlar, Melissa; Pinnock, Farena

2017-10-01

Cognitive impairment is prevalent and related to functional outcome in schizophrenia, but a significant minority of the patient population overlaps with healthy controls on many performance measures, including declarative-verbal-memory tasks. In this study, we assessed the validity, clinical, and functional implications of normal-range (NR), verbal-declarative memory in schizophrenia. Performance normality was defined using normative data for 8 basic California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT-II; Delis, Kramer, Kaplan, & Ober, 2000) recall and recognition trials. Schizophrenia patients (n = 155) and healthy control participants (n = 74) were assessed for performance normality, defined as scores within 1 SD of the normative mean on all 8 trials, and assigned to normal- and below-NR memory groups. NR schizophrenia patients (n = 26) and control participants (n = 51) did not differ in general verbal ability, on a reading-based estimate of premorbid ability, across all 8 CVLT-II-score comparisons or in terms of intrusion and false-positive errors and auditory working memory. NR memory patients did not differ from memory-impaired patients (n = 129) in symptom severity, and both patient groups were significantly and similarly disabled in terms of functional status in the community. These results confirm a subpopulation of schizophrenia patients with normal, verbal-declarative-memory performance and no evidence of decline from higher premorbid ability levels. However, NR patients did not experience less severe psychopathology, nor did they show advantage in community adjustment relative to impaired patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of proactive interference on non-verbal working memory.

PubMed

Cyr, Marilyn; Nee, Derek E; Nelson, Eric; Senger, Thea; Jonides, John; Malapani, Chara

2017-02-01

Working memory (WM) is a cognitive system responsible for actively maintaining and processing relevant information and is central to successful cognition. A process critical to WM is the resolution of proactive interference (PI), which involves suppressing memory intrusions from prior memories that are no longer relevant. Most studies that have examined resistance to PI in a process-pure fashion used verbal material. By contrast, studies using non-verbal material are scarce, and it remains unclear whether the effect of PI is domain-general or whether it applies solely to the verbal domain. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of PI in visual WM using both objects with high and low nameability. Using a Directed-Forgetting paradigm, we varied discriminability between WM items on two dimensions, one verbal (high-nameability vs. low-nameability objects) and one perceptual (colored vs. gray objects). As in previous studies using verbal material, effects of PI were found with object stimuli, even after controlling for verbal labels being used (i.e., low-nameability condition). We also found that the addition of distinctive features (color, verbal label) increased performance in rejecting intrusion probes, most likely through an increase in discriminability between content-context bindings in WM.

The cognitive profile of occipital lobe epilepsy and the selective association of left temporal lobe hypometabolism with verbal memory impairment.

PubMed

Knopman, Alex A; Wong, Chong H; Stevenson, Richard J; Homewood, Judi; Mohamed, Armin; Somerville, Ernest; Eberl, Stefan; Wen, Lingfeng; Fulham, Michael; Bleasel, Andrew F

2014-08-01

We investigated the cognitive profile of structural occipital lobe epilepsy (OLE) and whether verbal memory impairment is selectively associated with left temporal lobe hypometabolism on [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). Nine patients with OLE, ages 8-29 years, completed presurgical neuropsychological assessment. Composite measures were calculated for intelligence quotient (IQ), speed, attention, verbal memory, nonverbal memory, and executive functioning. In addition, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was used as a specific measure of frontal lobe functioning. Presurgical FDG-PET was analyzed with statistical parametric mapping in 8 patients relative to 16 healthy volunteers. Mild impairments were evident for IQ, speed, attention, and executive functioning. Four patients demonstrated moderate or severe verbal memory impairment. Temporal lobe hypometabolism was found in seven of eight patients. Poorer verbal memory was associated with left temporal lobe hypometabolism (p = 0.002), which was stronger (p = 0.03 and p = 0.005, respectively) than the association of left temporal lobe hypometabolism with executive functioning or with performance on the WCST. OLE is associated with widespread cognitive comorbidity, suggesting cortical dysfunction beyond the occipital lobe. Verbal memory impairment is selectively associated with left temporal lobe hypometabolism in OLE, supporting a link between neuropsychological dysfunction and remote hypometabolism in focal epilepsy. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2014 International League Against Epilepsy.

The role of verbal labels on flexible memory retrieval at 12-months of age.

PubMed

Taylor, Gemma; Liu, Hao; Herbert, Jane S

2016-11-01

The provision of verbal labels enhances 12-month-old infants' memory flexibility across a form change in a puppet imitation task (Herbert, 2011), although the mechanisms for this effect remain unclear. Here we investigate whether verbal labels can scaffold flexible memory retrieval when task difficulty increases and consider the mechanism responsible for the effect of language cues on early memory flexibility. Twelve-month-old infants were provided with English, Chinese, or empty language cues during a difficult imitation task, a combined change in the puppet's colour and form at the test (Hayne et al., 1997). Imitation performance by infants in the English language condition only exceeded baseline performance after the 10-min delay. Thus, verbal labels facilitated flexible memory retrieval on this task. There were no correlations between infants' language comprehension and imitation performance. Thus, it is likely that verbal labels facilitate both attention and categorisation during encoding and retrieval. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The costs of changing an intended action: movement planning, but not execution, interferes with verbal working memory.

PubMed

Spiegel, M A; Koester, D; Weigelt, M; Schack, T

2012-02-16

How much cognitive effort does it take to change a movement plan? In previous studies, it has been shown that humans plan and represent actions in advance, but it remains unclear whether or not action planning and verbal working memory share cognitive resources. Using a novel experimental paradigm, we combined in two experiments a grasp-to-place task with a verbal working memory task. Participants planned a placing movement toward one of two target positions and subsequently encoded and maintained visually presented letters. Both experiments revealed that re-planning the intended action reduced letter recall performance; execution time, however, was not influenced by action modifications. The results of Experiment 2 suggest that the action's interference with verbal working memory arose during the planning rather than the execution phase of the movement. Together, our results strongly suggest that movement planning and verbal working memory share common cognitive resources. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Memory styles and related abilities in presentation of self.

PubMed

Sehulster, J R

1995-01-01

The notion of a person's memory style (elaborated in Sehulster, 1988) was investigated as it relates to the presentation of self. A memory style is defined as a combination of a subject's (perceived) ability in verbal memory, auto- biographical memory, and prospective memory, as measured by the Memory Scale (Sehulster, 1981b). In addition to filling out the Memory Scale, 325 subjects completed a 72-item questionnaire that tapped descriptions of abilities and experiences. The range of abilities and experiences was drawn loosely from Gardner's (1985) notion of multiple intelligences. Distinct patterns of self-report were observed for different memory styles. For instance, a love of listening to music was associated with the memory style that is high in both verbal and autobiographical memory but low in prospective memory; a love for numbers and mathematics was associated with the memory style that is high in both verbal and prospective memory but low in autobiographical memory. The results suggest broad individual differences in information processing. Gender differences are discussed in relation to memory styles.

Verbal and visual-spatial working memory and mathematical ability in different domains throughout primary school.

PubMed

Van de Weijer-Bergsma, Eva; Kroesbergen, Evelyn H; Van Luit, Johannes E H

2015-04-01

The relative importance of visual-spatial and verbal working memory for mathematics performance and learning seems to vary with age, the novelty of the material, and the specific math domain that is investigated. In this study, the relations between verbal and visual-spatial working memory and performance in four math domains (i.e., addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) at different ages during primary school are investigated. Children (N = 4337) from grades 2 through 6 participated. Visual-spatial and verbal working memory were assessed using online computerized tasks. Math performance was assessed at the start, middle, and end of the school year using a speeded arithmetic test. Multilevel Multigroup Latent Growth Modeling was used to model individual differences in level and growth in math performance, and examine the predictive value of working memory per grade, while controlling for effects of classroom membership. The results showed that as grade level progressed, the predictive value of visual-spatial working memory for individual differences in level of mathematics performance waned, while the predictive value of verbal working memory increased. Working memory did not predict individual differences between children in their rate of performance growth throughout the school year. These findings are discussed in relation to three, not mutually exclusive, explanations for such age-related findings.

Cognitive outcome after stereotactic amygdalohippocampectomy.

PubMed

Vojtěch, Zdeněk; Krámská, Lenka; Malíková, Hana; Seltenreichová, Kateřina; Procházka, Tomáš; Kalina, Miroslav; Liščák, Roman

2012-06-01

We sought to determine the neuropsychological outcome after stereotactic radiofrequency amygdalohippocampectomy performed for intractable mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. The article describes the cases of 31 patients who were evaluated using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised and the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised prior to, and one year after, surgery. Patients showed increases in their mean Full Scale, Verbal and Performance IQ scores of 4, 3 and 4 IQ points respectively (p<.05). 5 (17.2%), 4 (13.8%) and 4 (13.3%) patients improved in their Full-scale, Verbal and Performance IQ respectively. No significant changes were found in memory performance - with a mean increase of 1, 3 and 0 MQ points in Global, Verbal and Visual memory respectively (p<.05). Global memory improved in 3 (10.3%) patients, verbal memory in 1 (3.4%) and 1 patient (3.3%) showed deterioration in visual memory. Our results provide evidence for unchanged memory in patients with MTLE after the procedure. No verbal memory deterioration was detected in any of our patients, while improvements were found in intellectual performance. The results suggest that stereotactic radiofrequency amygdalahippocampectomy could be superior to open surgery in terms of its neurocognitive outcomes. A larger randomised trial of these approaches is justified. Copyright © 2012 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Influence of anxiety on memory performance in temporal lobe epilepsy.

PubMed

Brown, Franklin C; Westerveld, Michael; Langfitt, John T; Hamberger, Marla; Hamid, Hamada; Shinnar, Shlomo; Sperling, Michael R; Devinsky, Orrin; Barr, William; Tracy, Joseph; Masur, David; Bazil, Carl W; Spencer, Susan S

2014-02-01

This study examined the degree to which anxiety contributed to inconsistent material-specific memory difficulties among 243 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy from the Multisite Epilepsy Study. Visual memory performance on the Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT) was poorer for those with high versus low levels of anxiety but was not found to be related to the TLE side. The verbal memory score on the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) was significantly lower for patients with left-sided TLE than for patients with right-sided TLE with low anxiety levels but equally impaired for those with high anxiety levels. These results suggest that we can place more confidence in the ability of verbal memory tests like the CVLT to lateralize to left-sided TLE for those with low anxiety levels, but that verbal memory will be less likely to produce lateralizing information for those with high anxiety levels. This suggests that more caution is needed when interpreting verbal memory tests for those with high anxiety levels. These results indicated that RCFT performance was significantly affected by anxiety and did not lateralize to either side, regardless of anxiety levels. This study adds to the existing literature which suggests that drawing-based visual memory tests do not lateralize among patients with TLE, regardless of anxiety levels. © 2013.

Ecstasy Exposure & Gender: Examining Components of Verbal Memory Functioning

PubMed Central

Price, Jenessa S.; Shear, Paula; Lisdahl, Krista M.

2014-01-01

Objective Studies have demonstrated verbal memory deficits associated with past year ecstasy use, although specific underlying components of these deficits are less understood. Further, prior research suggests potential gender differences in ecstasy-induced serotonergic changes. Therefore, the current study investigated whether gender moderated the relationship between ecstasy exposure and components of verbal memory after controlling for polydrug use and confounding variables. Method Data were collected from 65 polydrug users with a wide range of ecstasy exposure (ages 18–35; 48 ecstasy and 17 marijuana users; 0–2310 ecstasy tablets). Participants completed a verbal learning and memory task, psychological questionnaires, and a drug use interview. Results Increased past year ecstasy exposure predicted poorer short and long delayed free and cued recalls, retention, and recall discrimination. Male ecstasy users were more susceptible to dose-dependent deficits in retention than female users. Conclusion Past year ecstasy consumption was associated with verbal memory retrieval, retention, and discrimination deficits in a dose-dependent manner in a sample of healthy young adult polydrug users. Male ecstasy users were at particular risk for deficits in retention following a long delay. Gender difference may be reflective of different patterns of polydrug use as well as increased hippocampal sensitivity. Future research examining neuronal correlates of verbal memory deficits in ecstasy users are needed. PMID:25545890

Ecstasy exposure & gender: examining components of verbal memory functioning.

PubMed

Price, Jenessa S; Shear, Paula; Lisdahl, Krista M

2014-01-01

Studies have demonstrated verbal memory deficits associated with past year ecstasy use, although specific underlying components of these deficits are less understood. Further, prior research suggests potential gender differences in ecstasy-induced serotonergic changes. Therefore, the current study investigated whether gender moderated the relationship between ecstasy exposure and components of verbal memory after controlling for polydrug use and confounding variables. Data were collected from 65 polydrug users with a wide range of ecstasy exposure (ages 18-35; 48 ecstasy and 17 marijuana users; 0-2310 ecstasy tablets). Participants completed a verbal learning and memory task, psychological questionnaires, and a drug use interview. Increased past year ecstasy exposure predicted poorer short and long delayed free and cued recalls, retention, and recall discrimination. Male ecstasy users were more susceptible to dose-dependent deficits in retention than female users. Past year ecstasy consumption was associated with verbal memory retrieval, retention, and discrimination deficits in a dose-dependent manner in a sample of healthy young adult polydrug users. Male ecstasy users were at particular risk for deficits in retention following a long delay. Gender difference may be reflective of different patterns of polydrug use as well as increased hippocampal sensitivity. Future research examining neuronal correlates of verbal memory deficits in ecstasy users are needed.

Effects of verbal and nonverbal interference on spatial and object visual working memory.

PubMed

Postle, Bradley R; Desposito, Mark; Corkin, Suzanne

2005-03-01

We tested the hypothesis that a verbal coding mechanism is necessarily engaged by object, but not spatial, visual working memory tasks. We employed a dual-task procedure that paired n-back working memory tasks with domain-specific distractor trials inserted into each interstimulus interval of the n-back tasks. In two experiments, object n-back performance demonstrated greater sensitivity to verbal distraction, whereas spatial n-back performance demonstrated greater sensitivity to motion distraction. Visual object and spatial working memory may differ fundamentally in that the mnemonic representation of featural characteristics of objects incorporates a verbal (perhaps semantic) code, whereas the mnemonic representation of the location of objects does not. Thus, the processes supporting working memory for these two types of information may differ in more ways than those dictated by the "what/where" organization of the visual system, a fact more easily reconciled with a component process than a memory systems account of working memory function.

Effects of verbal and nonverbal interference on spatial and object visual working memory

PubMed Central

POSTLE, BRADLEY R.; D’ESPOSITO, MARK; CORKIN, SUZANNE

2005-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that a verbal coding mechanism is necessarily engaged by object, but not spatial, visual working memory tasks. We employed a dual-task procedure that paired n-back working memory tasks with domain-specific distractor trials inserted into each interstimulus interval of the n-back tasks. In two experiments, object n-back performance demonstrated greater sensitivity to verbal distraction, whereas spatial n-back performance demonstrated greater sensitivity to motion distraction. Visual object and spatial working memory may differ fundamentally in that the mnemonic representation of featural characteristics of objects incorporates a verbal (perhaps semantic) code, whereas the mnemonic representation of the location of objects does not. Thus, the processes supporting working memory for these two types of information may differ in more ways than those dictated by the “what/where” organization of the visual system, a fact more easily reconciled with a component process than a memory systems account of working memory function. PMID:16028575

Accounting for ethnic-cultural and linguistic diversity in neuropsychological assessment of patients with drug-resistant epilepsy: A retrospective study.

PubMed

Peviani, Valeria; Scarpa, Pina; Toraldo, Alessio; Bottini, Gabriella

2016-11-01

Neuropsychological assessment is critical in both diagnosis and prognosis of patients with epilepsy. Beyond electrophysiological and anatomical alterations, other factors including different ethnic-cultural and linguistic backgrounds might affect neuropsychological performance. Only a few studies considered migration and acculturation effects and they typically concerned nonclinical samples. The current study aimed at investigating the influence of ethnic background and time spent in Italy on a full neuropsychological battery administered to both Italian and foreign-born patients and at providing a brief interview for obtaining relevant information on each patient's transcultural and language-related history. Clinical reports from 43 foreign-born patients with drug-resistant epilepsy were collected from the archives of Milan Niguarda Hospital. Epileptogenic zone, age, education, profession, illness duration, seizure frequency, handedness, and gender were considered in selecting 43 Italian controls. Ethnicity (Italian/foreign-born) and years spent in Italy were analyzed as main predictors on 21 neuropsychological scales by means of General(ized) Linear Models. An additional analysis studied two composite scores of overall verbal and nonverbal abilities. Ethnicity significantly affected the following: the verbal overall score, Verbal Fluency, Naming, Token-test, Digit Span, Attentional Matrices, Trail-Making-Test, Line-Orientation-Test, and Raven matrices; no effects were found on the nonverbal overall score, Word Pairs Learning, Episodic Memory, reading accuracy, visual span, Bells test, Rey Figure, and face memory and recognition. No significant effects of years spent in Italy emerged. While years spent in Italy does not predict neuropsychological performance, linguistic background had a strong impact on it. With respect to Italian-speaking patients, those who were foreign-born showed large task-related variability, with an especially low performance on language-related tests. Hence, language tests should not be considered as valid measures of neuropsychological impairment in this population, not even in foreign-born patients with good Italian fluency. Clinicians should consider such asymmetries in order to improve the accuracy of neuropsychological assessment of foreign-born patients. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Memory for Faces Dissociates from Memory for Location Following Anterior Temporal Lobectomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chiaravalloti, Nancy D.; Glosser, Guila

2004-01-01

It has been suggested that the right and left mesial temporal lobes are specialized for processing different types of information for long-term memory (LTM). Although findings have been consistent in regard to the dominant role of the left mesial temporal lobe (MTL) in verbal memory, the role of the right MTL in non-verbal memory remains…

Feasibility of computerized working memory training in individuals with Huntington disease

PubMed Central

Sadeghi, Mahsa; Barlow-Krelina, Emily; Gibbons, Clare; Shaikh, Komal T.; Fung, Wai Lun Alan; Meschino, Wendy S.; Till, Christine

2017-01-01

Objectives Huntington disease (HD) is associated with a variety of cognitive deficits, with prominent difficulties in working memory (WM). WM deficits are notably compromised in early-onset and prodromal HD patients. This study aimed to determine the feasibility of a computerized WM training program (Cogmed QM), novel to the HD population. Methods Nine patients, aged 26–62, with early stage HD underwent a 25-session (5 days/week for 5 weeks) WM training program (Cogmed QM). Training exercises involved the manipulation and storage of verbal and visuospatial information, with difficulty adapted as a function of individual performance. Neuropsychological testing was conducted before and after training, and performance on criterion WM measures (Digit Span and Spatial Span), near-transfer WM measures (Symbol Span and Auditory WM), and control measures were evaluated. Post-training interviews about patient experience were thematically analyzed using NVivo software. Results Seven of nine patients demonstrated adherence to the training and completed all sessions within the recommended timeframe of 5 weeks. All adherent patients showed improvement on the Cogmed tasks as defined by the Improvement Index (M = 22.17, SD = 8.84, range = 13–36). All adherent patients reported that they found training helpful (n = 7), and almost all felt that their memory improved (n = 6). Participants also expressed that the training was difficult, sometimes frustrating, and time consuming. Conclusions This pilot study provides support for feasibility of computerized WM training in early-stage patients with HD. Results suggest that HD patients perceive benefits of intensive WM training, though a full-scale and controlled intervention project is needed to understand the size of the effect and reliability of changes over time. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, Registry number NCT02926820 PMID:28453532

Appetite Loss and Neurocognitive Deficits in Late-Life Depression

PubMed Central

Potter, Guy G.; McQuoid, Douglas R.; Steffens, David C.

2015-01-01

Objectives Examine association of appetite loss symptoms to neurocognitive performance in late-life depression (LLD). Methods Cross-sectional data from individuals aged 60+ with Major Depressive Disorder (N =322). Participants received clinical assessment of depression and neuropsychological testing. Factor analysis was used to characterize depression symptom factors, and composite scales were developed for episodic memory, psychomotor executive functions, verbal fluency, and working memory span. Results Factor analysis produced a five-factor solution: (1) Anhedonia/Sadness, (2) Suicidality/Guilt, (3) Appetite/Weight Loss, (4) Sleep Disturbance, and (5) Anxiety/Tension. In separate multivariate models for each neurocognitive domain and including all 5 depression factors, higher appetite-loss-related symptoms were associated with lower performance in episodic memory, psychomotor executive functions, and verbal fluency; results were significant with covariates of age, education, race, sex, age of depression onset, and illness burden. No other depression factors were associated with neurocognitive performance in these models. In an additional set of models, the Appetite factor mediated the association between global depression severity and neurocognitive performance. Discussion A factor of appetite and weight loss symptoms in LLD was uniquely associated with neurocognitive performance, in contrast to lack of association among other depression symptom factors. Conclusion Cognitive deficits are a major adverse outcome of LLD, and prominent appetite loss during acute depression may be a marker for these deficits, independent of overall depression severity. Research is needed to understand the mechanisms that may explain this association, and how it is related to the cognitive and symptomatic course of LLD. PMID:25315155

Computerized training improves verbal working memory in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: A pilot study.

PubMed

Maroti, Daniel; Westerberg, Annika Fryxell; Saury, Jean-Michel; Bileviciute-Ljungar, Indre

2015-08-18

Patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome experience cognitive difficulties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of computerized training on working memory in this syndrome. Non-randomized (quasi-experimental) study with no-treatment control group and non-equivalent dependent variable design in a myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome-cohort. Patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome who participated in a 6-month outpatient rehabilitation programme were included in the study. Eleven patients who showed signs of working memory deficit were recruited for additional memory training and 12 patients with no working memory deficit served as controls. Cognitive training with computerized working memory tasks of increasing difficulty was performed 30-45 min/day, 5 days/week over a 5-week period. Short-term and working memory tests (Digit Span - forward, backward, total) were used as primary outcome measures. Nine of the 11 patients were able to complete the training. Cognitive training increased working memory (p = 0.003) and general attention (p = 0.004) to the mean level. Short-term memory was also improved, but the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.052) vs prior training. The control group did not show any significant improvement in primary outcome measures. Cognitive training may be a new treatment for patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.

The impact of sex and language dominance on material-specific memory before and after left temporal lobe surgery.

PubMed

Helmstaedter, C; Brosch, T; Kurthen, M; Elger, C E

2004-07-01

Recent findings raised evidence that in early-onset left temporal lobe epilepsy, women show greater functional plasticity for verbal memory than men. In particular, women with lesion- or epilepsy-driven atypical language dominance show an advantage over men. The question asked in this study was whether there is evidence of sex- and language dominance-dependent late, i.e. adult age, plasticity for verbal memory when epilepsy surgery is performed in these patients. Pre- and 1-year postoperative memory performance was evaluated in 169 patients (94 males and 75 females) who underwent left temporal lobe surgery and who had WADA testing of hemispheric language dominance prior to surgery. Verbal memory and figural memory were assessed by list-learning paradigms. According to the Bonn intracarotid amobarbital test (IAT) protocol, patients were categorized into left dominant or atypically dominant (right, incomplete left or right, and bilateral dominant) groups. Results were controlled for the hypothesized sex differences. Thirty-four percent of men and 47% of women displayed patterns of atypical language dominance. Atypical dominance was related to an early onset of epilepsy. Men showed a larger time window for development of atypical dominance but, differently from women, the pattern of atypical dominance was more strictly determined by the age at onset of epilepsy. Atypically dominant women showed better verbal memory than typically dominant women or men. After surgery, right dominant patients had better verbal memory outcome than patients with bilateral or left language dominance who showed significant memory loss. No effect of sex on verbal memory change was found. Figural memory deteriorated in men and improved in women, when they were not left dominant. Seizure outcome had no effect on performance changes. It was concluded that better preserved verbal memory in atypically dominant women before surgery indicates greater benefit from atypical dominance in women than men with regard to the initial damage associated with left hemisphere epilepsy. Later in life, when epilepsy surgery causes additional damage, no such sex difference is observed, indicating that the women's advantage over men is fixed to an early time window in life. Postoperative changes in figural memory suggest dynamics in crowding and suppression patterns. Whether this reflects late plasticity and compensation needs further demonstration. For clinical practice, it is important to note that incomplete right hemisphere and bilateral language dominance do not protect against verbal memory loss after left-sided temporal lobe surgery. Copyright 2004 Guarantors of Brain

Age-Related Effects of Study Time Allocation on Memory Performance in a Verbal and a Spatial Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krueger, Lacy E.

2012-01-01

Past studies have suggested that study time allocation partially mediates age relations on memory performance in a verbal task. To identify whether this applied to a different material modality, participants ages 20-87 completed a spatial task in addition to a traditional verbal task. In both the verbal and the spatial task, increased age was…

Is Working Memory Involved in the Transcribing and Editing of Texts?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayes, John R.; Chenoweth, N. Ann

2006-01-01

Generally, researchers agree that verbal working memory plays an important role in cognitive processes involved in writing. However, there is disagreement about which cognitive processes make use of working memory. Kellogg has proposed that verbal working memory is involved in translating but not in editing or producing (i.e., typing) text. In…

Working Memory Capacity and Resistance to Interference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oberauer, Klaus; Lange, Elke; Engle, Randall W.

2004-01-01

Single-task and dual-task versions of verbal and spatial serial order memory tasks were administered to 120 students tested for working memory capacity with four previously validated measures. In the dual-task versions, similarity between the memory material and the material of the secondary processing task was varied. With verbal material, three…

Musicians' Memory for Verbal and Tonal Materials under Conditions of Irrelevant Sound

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williamson, Victoria J.; Mitchell, Tom; Hitch, Graham J.; Baddeley, Alan D.

2010-01-01

Studying short-term memory within the framework of the working memory model and its associated paradigms (Baddeley, 2000; Baddeley & Hitch, 1974) offers the chance to compare similarities and differences between the way that verbal and tonal materials are processed. This study examined amateur musicians' short-term memory using a newly adapted…

Effects of Anxiety on Memory Storage and Updating in Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Visu-Petra, Laura; Cheie, Lavinia; Benga, Oana; Alloway, Tracy Packiam

2011-01-01

The relationship between trait anxiety and memory functioning in young children was investigated. Two studies were conducted, using tasks tapping verbal and visual-spatial short-term memory (Study 1) and working memory (Study 2) in preschoolers. On the verbal storage tasks, there was a detrimental effect of anxiety on processing efficiency…

Lower Working Memory Performance in Overweight and Obese Adolescents Is Mediated by White Matter Microstructure

PubMed Central

Alarcón, Gabriela; Ray, Siddharth; Nagel, Bonnie J.

2017-01-01

Objectives Elevated body mass index (BMI) is associated with deficits in working memory, reduced gray matter volume in frontal and parietal lobes, as well as changes in white matter (WM) microstructure. The current study examined whether BMI was related to working memory performance and blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activity, as well as WM microstructure during adolescence. Methods Linear regressions with BMI and (1) verbal working memory BOLD signal, (2) spatial working memory BOLD signal, and (3) fractional anisotropy (FA), a measure of WM microstructure, were conducted in a sample of 152 healthy adolescents ranging in BMI. Results BMI was inversely related to IQ and verbal and spatial working memory accuracy; however, there was no significant relationship between BMI and BOLD response for either verbal or spatial working memory. Furthermore, BMI was negatively correlated with FA in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and left inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF). ILF FA and IQ significantly mediated the relationship between BMI and verbal working memory performance, whereas SLF FA, but not IQ, significantly mediated the relationship between BMI and accuracy of both verbal and spatial working memory. Conclusions These findings indicate that higher BMI is associated with decreased FA in WM fibers connecting brain regions that support working memory, and that WM microstructural deficits may underlie inferior working memory performance in youth with higher BMI. Of interest, BMI did not show the same relationship with working memory BOLD activity, which may indicate that changes in brain structure precede changes in function. PMID:26708324

Non-Verbal Episodic Memory Deficits in Primary Progressive Aphasias are Highly Predictive of Underlying Amyloid Pathology.

PubMed

Ramanan, Siddharth; Flanagan, Emma; Leyton, Cristian E; Villemagne, Victor L; Rowe, Christopher C; Hodges, John R; Hornberger, Michael

2016-01-01

Diagnostic distinction of primary progressive aphasias (PPA) remains challenging, in particular for the logopenic (lvPPA) and nonfluent/agrammatic (naPPA) variants. Recent findings highlight that episodic memory deficits appear to discriminate these PPA variants from each other, as only lvPPA perform poorly on these tasks while having underlying amyloid pathology similar to that seen in amnestic dementias like Alzheimer's disease (AD). Most memory tests are, however, language based and thus potentially confounded by the prevalent language deficits in PPA. The current study investigated this issue across PPA variants by contrasting verbal and non-verbal episodic memory measures while controlling for their performance on a language subtest of a general cognitive screen. A total of 203 participants were included (25 lvPPA; 29 naPPA; 59 AD; 90 controls) and underwent extensive verbal and non-verbal episodic memory testing, with a subset of patients (n = 45) with confirmed amyloid profiles as assessed by Pittsburgh Compound B and PET. The most powerful discriminator between naPPA and lvPPA patients was a non-verbal recall measure (Rey Complex Figure delayed recall), with 81% of PPA patients classified correctly at presentation. Importantly, AD and lvPPA patients performed comparably on this measure, further highlighting the importance of underlying amyloid pathology in episodic memory profiles. The findings demonstrate that non-verbal recall emerges as the best discriminator of lvPPA and naPPA when controlling for language deficits in high load amyloid PPA cases.

Verbal working memory and reading abilities among students with visual impairment.

PubMed

Argyropoulos, Vassilios; Masoura, Elvira; Tsiakali, Thomai K; Nikolaraizi, Magda; Lappa, Christina

2017-05-01

This study investigated the relationship between working memory (WM) and reading abilities among students with visual impairment (VI). Seventy-five students with VI (visually impairment and blindness), aged 10-15 years old participated in the study, of whom 44 were visually impaired and 31 were blind. The participants' reading ability was assessed with the standardized reading ability battery Test-A (Padeliadu & Antoniou, 2008) and their verbal working memory ability was assessed with the listening recall task from the Working Memory Test Battery for Children (Pickering et al., 2001). Data analysis indicated a strong correlation between verbal WM and decoding, reading comprehension and overall reading ability among the participants with VI, while no correlation was found between reading fluency and verbal WM. The present study points out the important role of verbal WM in reading among students who are VI and carries implications for the education of those individuals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Working Memory Influences Processing Speed and Reading Fluency in ADHD

PubMed Central

Jacobson, Lisa A.; Ryan, Matthew; Martin, Rebecca B.; Ewen, Joshua; Mostofsky, Stewart H.; Denckla, Martha B.; Mahone, E. Mark

2012-01-01

Processing speed deficits affect reading efficiency, even among individuals who recognize and decode words accurately. Children with ADHD who decode words accurately can still have inefficient reading fluency, leading to a bottleneck in other cognitive processes. This “slowing” in ADHD is associated with deficits in fundamental components of executive function underlying processing speed, including response selection. The purpose of the present study was to deconstruct processing speed in order to determine which components of executive control best explain the “processing” speed deficits related to reading fluency in ADHD. Participants (41 ADHD, 21 controls), ages 9-14, screened for language disorders, word reading deficits, and psychiatric disorders, were administered measures of copying speed, processing speed, reading fluency, working memory, reaction time, inhibition, and auditory attention span. Compared to controls, children with ADHD showed reduced oral and silent reading fluency, and reduced processing speed—driven primarily by deficits on WISC-IV Coding. In contrast, groups did not differ on copying speed. After controlling for copying speed, sex, severity of ADHD-related symptomatology, and GAI, slowed “processing” speed (i.e., Coding) was significantly associated with verbal span and measures of working memory, but not with measures of response control/inhibition, lexical retrieval speed, reaction time, or intra-subject variability. Further, “processing” speed (i.e., Coding, residualized for copying speed) and working memory were significant predictors of oral reading fluency. Abnormalities in working memory and response selection (which are frontally-mediated and enter into the output side of processing speed) may play an important role in deficits in reading fluency in ADHD, potentially more than posteriorally-mediated problems with orienting of attention or perceiving the stimulus. PMID:21287422

Working memory influences processing speed and reading fluency in ADHD.

PubMed

Jacobson, Lisa A; Ryan, Matthew; Martin, Rebecca B; Ewen, Joshua; Mostofsky, Stewart H; Denckla, Martha B; Mahone, E Mark

2011-01-01

Processing-speed deficits affect reading efficiency, even among individuals who recognize and decode words accurately. Children with ADHD who decode words accurately can still have inefficient reading fluency, leading to a bottleneck in other cognitive processes. This "slowing" in ADHD is associated with deficits in fundamental components of executive function underlying processing speed, including response selection. The purpose of the present study was to deconstruct processing speed in order to determine which components of executive control best explain the "processing" speed deficits related to reading fluency in ADHD. Participants (41 ADHD, 21 controls), ages 9-14 years, screened for language disorders, word reading deficits, and psychiatric disorders, were administered measures of copying speed, processing speed, reading fluency, working memory, reaction time, inhibition, and auditory attention span. Compared to controls, children with ADHD showed reduced oral and silent reading fluency and reduced processing speed-driven primarily by deficits on WISC-IV Coding. In contrast, groups did not differ on copying speed. After controlling for copying speed, sex, severity of ADHD-related symptomatology, and GAI, slowed "processing" speed (i.e., Coding) was significantly associated with verbal span and measures of working memory but not with measures of response control/inhibition, lexical retrieval speed, reaction time, or intrasubject variability. Further, "processing" speed (i.e., Coding, residualized for copying speed) and working memory were significant predictors of oral reading fluency. Abnormalities in working memory and response selection (which are frontally mediated and enter into the output side of processing speed) may play an important role in deficits in reading fluency in ADHD, potentially more than posteriorally mediated problems with orienting of attention or perceiving the stimulus.

Development of Working Memory for Verbal-Spatial Associations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cowan, Nelson; Saults, J. Scott; Morey, Candice C.

2006-01-01

Verbal-to-spatial associations in working memory may index a core capacity for abstract information limited in the amount concurrently retained. However, what look like associative, abstract representations could instead reflect verbal and spatial codes held separately and then used in parallel. We investigated this issue in two experiments on…

Effects of Metformin on Spatial and Verbal Memory in Children with ASD and Overweight Associated with Atypical Antipsychotic Use.

PubMed

Aman, Michael G; Hollway, Jill A; Veenstra-VanderWeele, Jeremy; Handen, Benjamin L; Sanders, Kevin B; Chan, James; Macklin, Eric; Arnold, L Eugene; Wong, Taylor; Newsom, Cassandra; Hastie Adams, Rianne; Marler, Sarah; Peleg, Naomi; Anagnostou, Evdokia A

2018-05-01

Studies in humans and rodents suggest that metformin, a medicine typically used to treat type 2 diabetes, may have beneficial effects on memory. We sought to determine whether metformin improved spatial or verbal memory in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and overweight associated with atypical antipsychotic use. We studied the effects of metformin (Riomet ® ) concentrate on spatial and verbal memory in 51 youth with ASD, ages 6 through 17 years, who were taking atypical antipsychotic medications, had gained significant weight, and were enrolled in a trial of metformin for weight management. Phase 1 was a 16-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group comparison of metformin (500-850 mg given twice a day) versus placebo. During Phase 2, all participants took open-label metformin from week 17 through week 32. We assessed spatial and verbal memory using the Neuropsychological Assessment 2nd Edition (NEPSY-II) and a modified children's verbal learning task. No measures differed between participants randomized to metformin versus placebo, at either 16 or 32 weeks, after adjustment for multiple comparisons. Sixteen-week change in memory for spatial location on the NEPSY-II was nominally better among participants randomized to placebo. However, patterns of treatment response across all measures revealed no systematic differences in performance, suggesting that metformin had no effect on spatial or verbal memory in these children. Although further study is needed to support these null effects, the overall impression is that metformin does not affect memory in overweight youth with ASD who were taking atypical antipsychotic medications.

Verbal and non-verbal semantic impairment: From fluent primary progressive aphasia to semantic dementia

PubMed Central

Senaha, Mirna Lie Hosogi; Caramelli, Paulo; Porto, Claudia Sellitto; Nitrini, Ricardo

2007-01-01

Selective disturbances of semantic memory have attracted the interest of many investigators and the question of the existence of single or multiple semantic systems remains a very controversial theme in the literature. Objectives To discuss the question of multiple semantic systems based on a longitudinal study of a patient who presented semantic dementia from fluent primary progressive aphasia. Methods A 66 year-old woman with selective impairment of semantic memory was examined on two occasions, undergoing neuropsychological and language evaluations, the results of which were compared to those of three paired control individuals. Results In the first evaluation, physical examination was normal and the score on the Mini-Mental State Examination was 26. Language evaluation revealed fluent speech, anomia, disturbance in word comprehension, preservation of the syntactic and phonological aspects of the language, besides surface dyslexia and dysgraphia. Autobiographical and episodic memories were relatively preserved. In semantic memory tests, the following dissociation was found: disturbance of verbal semantic memory with preservation of non-verbal semantic memory. Magnetic resonance of the brain revealed marked atrophy of the left anterior temporal lobe. After 14 months, the difficulties in verbal semantic memory had become more severe and the semantic disturbance, limited initially to the linguistic sphere, had worsened to involve non-verbal domains. Conclusions Given the dissociation found in the first examination, we believe there is sufficient clinical evidence to refute the existence of a unitary semantic system. PMID:29213389

Verbal Short-Term Memory Reflects the Organization of Long-Term Memory: Further Evidence from Short-Term Memory for Emotional Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Majerus, Steve; D'Argembeau, Arnaud

2011-01-01

Many studies suggest that long-term lexical-semantic knowledge is an important determinant of verbal short-term memory (STM) performance. This study explored the impact of emotional valence on word immediate serial recall as a further lexico-semantic long-term memory (LTM) effect on STM. This effect is particularly interesting for the study of…

Delayed degeneration of the left fornical crus with verbal memory impairment in a patient with mild traumatic brain injury

PubMed Central

Jang, Sung Ho; Seo, Jeong Pyo

2017-01-01

Abstract Rationale: We report on a patient who showed delayed degeneration of the left fornical crus with verbal memory impairment following mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), which was demonstrated by diffusion tensor tractography (DTT). Patient concerns: fter flexion and hyperextension of her head to the opposite side, the patient experienced a dazed feeling for a while at the time of head trauma. The patient's Glasgow Coma Scale score was 15, and mini-mental state examination score was 30. Diagnoses: A 50-year-old right-handed female with 12 years of education suffered from head trauma resulting from a car accident. Interventions: A The patient showed normal memory function at one year after onset: the Memory Assessment Scale (global memory: 124 (95 percentile (%ile)), verbal memory: 111 (77%ile), and visual memory: 132 (98%ile) (A percentile is a measure used in statistics indicating the value below which a given percentage of observations in a group of observations fall). However, the patient began to experience decline of memory function such as forgetfulness at approximately 1.5 years after onset. On the 2-year evaluation, she showed decrement of memory function (global memory: 108 (70%ile), verbal memory: 86 (18%ile), and visual memory: 129 (97%ile). Outcomes: On 1-year DTT, the integrity of the fornix was well preserved between the fornical column and fornical crus. However, on 2-year DTT, a discontinuation was observed in the left fornical crus. Lessons: Delayed degeneration of the left fornical crus was demonstrated in a patient who showed delayed onset of verbal memory impairment following mild TBI. PMID:29390470

The Two Sides of Sensory–Cognitive Interactions: Effects of Age, Hearing Acuity, and Working Memory Span on Sentence Comprehension

PubMed Central

DeCaro, Renee; Peelle, Jonathan E.; Grossman, Murray; Wingfield, Arthur

2016-01-01

Reduced hearing acuity is among the most prevalent of chronic medical conditions among older adults. An experiment is reported in which comprehension of spoken sentences was tested for older adults with good hearing acuity or with a mild-to-moderate hearing loss, and young adults with age-normal hearing. Comprehension was measured by participants’ ability to determine the agent of an action in sentences that expressed this relation with a syntactically less complex subject-relative construction or a syntactically more complex object-relative construction. Agency determination was further challenged by inserting a prepositional phrase into sentences between the person performing an action and the action being performed. As a control, prepositional phrases of equivalent length were also inserted into sentences in a non-disruptive position. Effects on sentence comprehension of age, hearing acuity, prepositional phrase placement and sound level of stimulus presentations appeared only for comprehension of sentences with the more syntactically complex object-relative structures. Working memory as tested by reading span scores accounted for a significant amount of the variance in comprehension accuracy. Once working memory capacity and hearing acuity were taken into account, chronological age among the older adults contributed no further variance to comprehension accuracy. Results are discussed in terms of the positive and negative effects of sensory–cognitive interactions in comprehension of spoken sentences and lend support to a framework in which domain-general executive resources, notably verbal working memory, play a role in both linguistic and perceptual processing. PMID:26973557

Neurocognitive Changes among Elderly Exposed to PCBs/PCDFs in Taiwan

PubMed Central

Lin, Kao-Chang; Guo, Nai-Wen; Tsai, Pei-Chien; Yang, Chiu-Yueh; Guo, YueLiang Leon

2008-01-01

Background In 1979 approximately 2,000 people were exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) due to ingestion of contaminated cooking oil in Taiwan. Although a previous study has shown delayed developmental milestones and poorer neurocognitive functioning in children born to exposed mothers, it is unclear whether neurocognitive functioning was impaired in people who were directly exposed to the PCBs and PDCFs. Objective The objective of this study was to compare neurocognitive functioning in people exposed to PCBs and PCDFs with that of unexposed sex- and age-matched neighbors. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study among exposed and unexposed subjects ≥60 years of age using prospective outcome measurements. We evaluated neurocognitive tests including cognition, memory modalities, learning, motor and sensory function, mood, and daily activity. Results In total, 162 (59%) exposed and 151 (55%) reference subjects completed this study. In exposed men, all test results were similar to the reference group; however, exposed women had reduced functioning in attention and digit span (ADS), visual memory span (VMS), and verbal memory recalls (VMR), especially learning ability. We also found a borderline reduction in the Mini-Mental State Examination. The digit symbol, motor, sensory, depression (determined by the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form), and activity of daily life were not different between the exposed and reference groups. A significant dose–response relationship was found for VMR, ADS, and VMS. Conclusion Our study showed dose-dependent neurocognitive deficits in certain aspects of attention, visual memory, and learning ability in women previously exposed to PCBs and PCDFs, but not in exposed men. PMID:18288316

Cognitive markers of psychotic unipolar depression: a meta-analytic study.

PubMed

Zaninotto, Leonardo; Guglielmo, Riccardo; Calati, Raffaella; Ioime, Lucia; Camardese, Giovanni; Janiri, Luigi; Bria, Pietro; Serretti, Alessandro

2015-03-15

The goal of the current meta-analysis was to review and examine in detail the features of cognitive performance in psychotic (MDDP) versus non-psychotic (MDD) major depressive disorder. An electronic literature search was performed to find studies comparing cognitive performance in MDDP versus MDD. A meta-analysis of broad cognitive domains (processing speed, reasoning/problem solving, verbal learning, visual learning, attention/working memory) and individual cognitive tasks was conducted on all included studies (n=12). Demographic and clinical features were investigated via meta-regression analysis as moderators of cognitive performance. No difference in socio-demographic and clinical variables was detected between groups. In general, a poorer cognitive performance was detected in MDDP versus MDD subjects (ES=0.38), with a greater effect size in drug-free patients (ES=0.69). MDDP patients were more impaired in verbal learning (ES=0.67), visual learning (ES=0.62) and processing speed (ES=0.71) tasks. A significantly poorer performance was also detected in MDDP patients for individual tasks as Trail Making Test A, WAIS-R digit span backward and WAIS-R digit symbol. Age resulted to have a negative effect on tasks involved in working memory performance. In line with previous meta-analyses, our findings seem to support an association between psychosis and cognitive deficits in the context of affective disorders. Psychosis during the course of MDD is associated with poorer cognitive performance in some specific cognitive domains, such as visual and verbal learning and executive functions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Increased distractibility in schizotypy: Independent of individual differences in working memory capacity?

PubMed

Marsh, John E; Vachon, François; Sörqvist, Patrik

2017-03-01

Individuals with schizophrenia typically show increased levels of distractibility. This has been attributed to impaired working memory capacity (WMC), since lower WMC is typically associated with higher distractibility, and schizophrenia is typically associated with impoverished WMC. Here, participants performed verbal and spatial serial recall tasks that were accompanied by to-be-ignored speech tokens. For the few trials wherein one speech token was replaced with a different token, impairment was produced to task scores (a deviation effect). Participants subsequently completed a schizotypy questionnaire and a WMC measure. Higher schizotypy scores were associated with lower WMC (as measured with operation span, OSPAN), but WMC and schizotypy scores explained unique variance in relation to the mean magnitude of the deviation effect. These results suggest that schizotypy is associated with heightened domain-general distractibility, but that this is independent of its relationship with WMC.

Verbal memory improvement in first-episode psychosis APOE-ε4 carriers: a pleiotropic effect?

PubMed

Vila-Rodriguez, Fidel; Lang, Donna J; Baitz, Heather; Gicas, Kristina; Thorton, Allen E; Ehmann, Thomas S; Smith, Geoff N; Barr, Alasdair M; Torres, Ivan J; Kopala, Lili C; MacEwan, G William; Müller, Daniel J; Kennedy, James L; Honer, William G

2017-01-01

Verbal memory impairment is a core feature in schizophrenia even at early stages of the disease, but its etiopathogenesis is not fully understood. The APOE -ε4 is the main genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Our primary goal was to ascertain whether APOE -ε4 status had a pleiotropic effect in early stages of the illness. A total of 86 first-episode psychosis (FEP) outpatients and 39 healthy volunteers were recruited. Demographic and clinical data, APOE genotyping, and a neuropsychological test battery including the California Verbal Learning Test - second edition (CVLT-II) were administered and assessed at study entry and at 1-year follow-up. Data were analyzed using mixed-model repeated measures, where the dependent variable was verbal memory indexed by California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) Trials 1-5 total recall score. FEP- APOE -ε4 carriers and FEP- APOE -ε4 noncarriers had similar symptom severity, clinical outcomes, premorbid and current intelligence quotient, and exposure to antipsychotics. There was a main effect of group on CVLT 1-5 (FEP =43.30 vs control =58.25; F [1, 119.7]=42.97; P <0.001) as well as an APOE -ε4 by group by time ( F [4, 116.2]=2.73, P =0.033) interaction with only FEP- APOE -ε4 carriers showing improved verbal memory at follow-up. Our study is the first to report improvement in verbal memory in persons afflicted by FEP who are APOE -ε4 carriers and replicates the prominent verbal memory deficits present in FEP. Our work provides further evidence pointing to an antagonistic pleiotropic effect of APOE -ε4 in neuropsychiatric disorders. Our results merit further research into antagonistic pleiotropic effects in schizophrenia.

Domain-Generality of Timing-Based Serial Order Processes in Short-Term Memory: New Insights from Musical and Verbal Domains

PubMed Central

Kowialiewski, Benjamin; Majerus, Steve

2016-01-01

Several models in the verbal domain of short-term memory (STM) consider a dissociation between item and order processing. This view is supported by data demonstrating that different types of time-based interference have a greater effect on memory for the order of to-be-remembered items than on memory for the items themselves. The present study investigated the domain-generality of the item versus serial order dissociation by comparing the differential effects of time-based interfering tasks, such as rhythmic interference and articulatory suppression, on item and order processing in verbal and musical STM domains. In Experiment 1, participants had to maintain sequences of verbal or musical information in STM, followed by a probe sequence, this under different conditions of interference (no-interference, rhythmic interference, articulatory suppression). They were required to decide whether all items of the probe list matched those of the memory list (item condition) or whether the order of the items in the probe sequence matched the order in the memory list (order condition). In Experiment 2, participants performed a serial order probe recognition task for verbal and musical sequences ensuring sequential maintenance processes, under no-interference or rhythmic interference conditions. For Experiment 1, serial order recognition was not significantly more impacted by interfering tasks than was item recognition, this for both verbal and musical domains. For Experiment 2, we observed selective interference of the rhythmic interference condition on both musical and verbal order STM tasks. Overall, the results suggest a similar and selective sensitivity to time-based interference for serial order STM in verbal and musical domains, but only when the STM tasks ensure sequential maintenance processes. PMID:27992565

Domain-Generality of Timing-Based Serial Order Processes in Short-Term Memory: New Insights from Musical and Verbal Domains.

PubMed

Gorin, Simon; Kowialiewski, Benjamin; Majerus, Steve

2016-01-01

Several models in the verbal domain of short-term memory (STM) consider a dissociation between item and order processing. This view is supported by data demonstrating that different types of time-based interference have a greater effect on memory for the order of to-be-remembered items than on memory for the items themselves. The present study investigated the domain-generality of the item versus serial order dissociation by comparing the differential effects of time-based interfering tasks, such as rhythmic interference and articulatory suppression, on item and order processing in verbal and musical STM domains. In Experiment 1, participants had to maintain sequences of verbal or musical information in STM, followed by a probe sequence, this under different conditions of interference (no-interference, rhythmic interference, articulatory suppression). They were required to decide whether all items of the probe list matched those of the memory list (item condition) or whether the order of the items in the probe sequence matched the order in the memory list (order condition). In Experiment 2, participants performed a serial order probe recognition task for verbal and musical sequences ensuring sequential maintenance processes, under no-interference or rhythmic interference conditions. For Experiment 1, serial order recognition was not significantly more impacted by interfering tasks than was item recognition, this for both verbal and musical domains. For Experiment 2, we observed selective interference of the rhythmic interference condition on both musical and verbal order STM tasks. Overall, the results suggest a similar and selective sensitivity to time-based interference for serial order STM in verbal and musical domains, but only when the STM tasks ensure sequential maintenance processes.

Working Memory Differences Between Children Living in Rural and Urban Poverty

PubMed Central

Tine, Michele

2014-01-01

This study was designed to investigate if the working memory profiles of children living in rural poverty are distinct from the working memory profiles of children living in urban poverty. Verbal and visuospatial working memory tasks were administered to sixth-grade students living in low-income rural, low-income urban, high-income rural, and high-income urban developmental contexts. Both low-income rural and low-income urban children showed working memory deficits compared with their high-income counterparts, but their deficits were distinct. Low-income urban children exhibited symmetrical verbal and visuospatial working memory deficits compared with their high-income urban counterparts. Meanwhile, low-income rural children exhibited asymmetrical deficits when compared with their high-income rural counterparts, with more extreme visuospatial working memory deficits than verbal working memory deficits. These results suggest that different types of poverty are associated with different working memory abilities. PMID:25554726

Working Memory Differences Between Children Living in Rural and Urban Poverty.

PubMed

Tine, Michele

2014-10-02

This study was designed to investigate if the working memory profiles of children living in rural poverty are distinct from the working memory profiles of children living in urban poverty. Verbal and visuospatial working memory tasks were administered to sixth-grade students living in low-income rural, low-income urban, high-income rural, and high-income urban developmental contexts. Both low-income rural and low-income urban children showed working memory deficits compared with their high-income counterparts, but their deficits were distinct. Low-income urban children exhibited symmetrical verbal and visuospatial working memory deficits compared with their high-income urban counterparts. Meanwhile, low-income rural children exhibited asymmetrical deficits when compared with their high-income rural counterparts, with more extreme visuospatial working memory deficits than verbal working memory deficits. These results suggest that different types of poverty are associated with different working memory abilities.

Acute exposure to blue wavelength light during memory consolidation improves verbal memory performance.

PubMed

Alkozei, Anna; Smith, Ryan; Dailey, Natalie S; Bajaj, Sahil; Killgore, William D S

2017-01-01

Acute exposure to light within the blue wavelengths has been shown to enhance alertness and vigilance, and lead to improved speed on reaction time tasks, possibly due to activation of the noradrenergic system. It remains unclear, however, whether the effects of blue light extend beyond simple alertness processes to also enhance other aspects of cognition, such as memory performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a thirty minute pulse of blue light versus placebo (amber light) exposure in healthy normally rested individuals in the morning during verbal memory consolidation (i.e., 1.5 hours after memory acquisition) using an abbreviated version of the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT-II). At delayed recall, individuals who received blue light (n = 12) during the consolidation period showed significantly better long-delay verbal recall than individuals who received amber light exposure (n = 18), while controlling for the effects of general intelligence, depressive symptoms and habitual wake time. These findings extend previous work demonstrating the effect of blue light on brain activation and alertness to further demonstrate its effectiveness at facilitating better memory consolidation and subsequent retention of verbal material. Although preliminary, these findings point to a potential application of blue wavelength light to optimize memory performance in healthy populations. It remains to be determined whether blue light exposure may also enhance performance in clinical populations with memory deficits.

Assessing Working Memory in Spanish-Speaking Children: Automated Working Memory Assessment Battery Adaptation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Injoque-Ricle, Irene; Calero, Alejandra D.; Alloway, Tracy P.; Burin, Debora I.

2011-01-01

The Automated Working Memory Assessment battery was designed to assess verbal and visuospatial passive and active working memory processing in children and adolescents. The aim of this paper is to present the adaptation and validation of the AWMA battery to Argentinean Spanish-speaking children aged 6 to 11 years. Verbal subtests were adapted and…

Maternal Scaffolding and Preterm Toddlers’ Visual-Spatial Processing and Emerging Working Memory

PubMed Central

Poehlmann, Julie; Hilgendorf, Amy E; Miller, Kyle; Lambert, Heather

2010-01-01

Objective We examined longitudinal associations among neonatal and socioeconomic risks, maternal scaffolding behaviors, and 24-month visual-spatial processing and working memory in a sample of 73 toddlers born preterm or low birthweight (PT LBW). Methods Risk data were collected at hospital discharge and dyadic play interactions were observed at 16-months postterm. Abbreviated IQ scores, verbal/nonverbal working memory, and verbal/nonverbal visual-spatial processing data were collected at 24-months postterm. Results Higher attention scaffolding and lower emotion scaffolding during 16-month play were associated with 24-month verbal working memory scores. A joint significance test revealed that maternal attention and emotion scaffolding during 16-month play mediated the relationship between socioeconomic risk and 24-month verbal working memory. Conclusions These findings suggest areas for future research and intervention with children born PT LBW who also experience high socioeconomic risk. PMID:19505998

Articulatory rehearsal in verbal working memory: a possible neurocognitive endophenotype that differentiates between schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

PubMed

Gruber, Oliver; Gruber, Eva; Falkai, Peter

2006-09-11

Recent fMRI studies have identified brain systems underlying different components of working memory in healthy individuals. The aim of this study was to compare the functional integrity of these neural networks in terms of behavioural performance in patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and healthy controls. In order to detect specific working memory deficits based on dysfunctions of underlying brain circuits we used the same verbal and visuospatial Sternberg item-recognition tasks as in previous neuroimaging studies. Clinical and performance data from matched groups consisting of 14 subjects each were statistically analyzed. Schizophrenic patients exhibited pronounced impairments of both verbal and visuospatial working memory, whereas verbal working memory performance was preserved in schizoaffective patients. The findings provide first evidence that dysfunction of a brain system subserving articulatory rehearsal could represent a biological marker which differentiates between schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

Verbal learning on depressive pseudodementia: accentuate impairment of free recall, moderate on learning processes, and spared short-term and recognition memory.

PubMed

Paula, Jonas Jardim de; Miranda, Débora Marques; Nicolato, Rodrigo; Moraes, Edgar Nunes de; Bicalho, Maria Aparecida Camargos; Malloy-Diniz, Leandro Fernandes

2013-09-01

Depressive pseudodementia (DPD) is a clinical condition characterized by depressive symptoms followed by cognitive and functional impairment characteristics of dementia. Memory complaints are one of the most related cognitive symptoms in DPD. The present study aims to assess the verbal learning profile of elderly patients with DPD. Ninety-six older adults (34 DPD and 62 controls) were assessed by neuropsychological tests including the Rey auditory-verbal learning test (RAVLT). A multivariate general linear model was used to assess group differences and controlled for demographic factors. Moderate or large effects were found on all RAVLT components, except for short-term and recognition memory. DPD impairs verbal memory, with large effect size on free recall and moderate effect size on the learning. Short-term storage and recognition memory are useful in clinical contexts when the differential diagnosis is required.

Congenital amusia: a short-term memory deficit for non-verbal, but not verbal sounds.

PubMed

Tillmann, Barbara; Schulze, Katrin; Foxton, Jessica M

2009-12-01

Congenital amusia refers to a lifelong disorder of music processing and is linked to pitch-processing deficits. The present study investigated congenital amusics' short-term memory for tones, musical timbres and words. Sequences of five events (tones, timbres or words) were presented in pairs and participants had to indicate whether the sequences were the same or different. The performance of congenital amusics confirmed a memory deficit for tone sequences, but showed normal performance for word sequences. For timbre sequences, amusics' memory performance was impaired in comparison to matched controls. Overall timbre performance was found to be correlated with melodic contour processing (as assessed by the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia). The present findings show that amusics' deficits extend to non-verbal sound material other than pitch, in this case timbre, while not affecting memory for verbal material. This is in line with previous suggestions about the domain-specificity of congenital amusia.

Functional-anatomic correlates of individual differences in memory.

PubMed

Kirchhoff, Brenda A; Buckner, Randy L

2006-07-20

Memory abilities differ greatly across individuals. To explore a source of these differences, we characterized the varied strategies people adopt during unconstrained encoding. Participants intentionally encoded object pairs during functional MRI. Principal components analysis applied to a strategy questionnaire revealed that participants variably used four main strategies to aid learning. Individuals' use of verbal elaboration and visual inspection strategies independently correlated with their memory performance. Verbal elaboration correlated with activity in a network of regions that included prefrontal regions associated with controlled verbal processing, while visual inspection correlated with activity in a network of regions that included an extrastriate region associated with object processing. Activity in regions associated with use of these strategies was also correlated with memory performance. This study reveals functional-anatomic correlates of verbal and perceptual strategies that are variably used by individuals during encoding. These strategies engage distinct brain regions and may separately influence memory performance.

The role of verbal memory in regressions during reading.

PubMed

Guérard, Katherine; Saint-Aubin, Jean; Maltais, Marilyne

2013-01-01

During reading, participants generally move their eyes rightward on the line. A number of eye movements, called regressions, are made leftward, to words that have already been fixated. In the present study, we investigated the role of verbal memory during regressions. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to read sentences for comprehension. After reading, they were asked to make a regression to a target word presented auditorily. The results revealed that their regressions were guided by memory, as they differed from those of a control group who did not read the sentences. The role of verbal memory during regressions was then investigated by combining the reading task with articulatory suppression (Exps. 2 and 3). The results showed that articulatory suppression affected the size and the accuracy of the initial regression but had a minimal effect on corrective saccades. This suggests that verbal memory plays an important role in determining the location of the initial saccade during regressions.

Long-term memory-based control of attention in multi-step tasks requires working memory: evidence from domain-specific interference

PubMed Central

Foerster, Rebecca M.; Carbone, Elena; Schneider, Werner X.

2014-01-01

Evidence for long-term memory (LTM)-based control of attention has been found during the execution of highly practiced multi-step tasks. However, does LTM directly control for attention or are working memory (WM) processes involved? In the present study, this question was investigated with a dual-task paradigm. Participants executed either a highly practiced visuospatial sensorimotor task (speed stacking) or a verbal task (high-speed poem reciting), while maintaining visuospatial or verbal information in WM. Results revealed unidirectional and domain-specific interference. Neither speed stacking nor high-speed poem reciting was influenced by WM retention. Stacking disrupted the retention of visuospatial locations, but did not modify memory performance of verbal material (letters). Reciting reduced the retention of verbal material substantially whereas it affected the memory performance of visuospatial locations to a smaller degree. We suggest that the selection of task-relevant information from LTM for the execution of overlearned multi-step tasks recruits domain-specific WM. PMID:24847304

Compensation or inhibitory failure? Testing hypotheses of age-related right frontal lobe involvement in verbal memory ability using structural and diffusion MRI

PubMed Central

Cox, Simon R.; Bastin, Mark E.; Ferguson, Karen J.; Allerhand, Mike; Royle, Natalie A.; Maniega, Susanna Muñoz; Starr, John M.; MacLullich, Alasdair M.J.; Wardlaw, Joanna M.; Deary, Ian J.; MacPherson, Sarah E.

2015-01-01

Functional neuroimaging studies report increased right prefrontal cortex (PFC) involvement during verbal memory tasks amongst low-scoring older individuals, compared to younger controls and their higher-scoring contemporaries. Some propose that this reflects inefficient use of neural resources through failure of the left PFC to inhibit non-task-related right PFC activity, via the anterior corpus callosum (CC). For others, it indicates partial compensation – that is, the right PFC cannot completely supplement the failing neural network, but contributes positively to performance. We propose that combining structural and diffusion brain MRI can be used to test predictions from these theories which have arisen from fMRI studies. We test these hypotheses in immediate and delayed verbal memory ability amongst 90 healthy older adults of mean age 73 years. Right hippocampus and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) volumes, and fractional anisotropy (FA) in the splenium made unique contributions to verbal memory ability in the whole group. There was no significant effect of anterior callosal white matter integrity on performance. Rather, segmented linear regression indicated that right DLPFC volume was a significantly stronger positive predictor of verbal memory for lower-scorers than higher-scorers, supporting a compensatory explanation for the differential involvement of the right frontal lobe in verbal memory tasks in older age. PMID:25241394

Psychotic Experiences and Neuropsychological Functioning in a Population-based Sample.

PubMed

Mollon, Josephine; David, Anthony S; Morgan, Craig; Frissa, Souci; Glahn, David; Pilecka, Izabela; Hatch, Stephani L; Hotopf, Matthew; Reichenberg, Abraham

2016-02-01

Psychotic experiences in early life are associated with neuropsychological impairment and the risk for later psychiatric disorders. Psychotic experiences are also prevalent in adults, but neuropsychological investigations spanning adulthood are limited, and confounding factors have not been examined rigorously. To characterize neuropsychological functioning in adults with psychotic experiences while adjusting for important sociodemographic characteristics and familial factors and investigating the effect of age. The South East London Community Health (SELCoH) study is a population-based household survey of physical and mental health in individuals 16 years or older conducted from June 1, 2008, to December 31, 2010, in 2 London boroughs. The study included 1698 participants from 1075 households. Data were analyzed from May 6, 2014, to April 22, 2015. Psychotic experiences measured using the Psychosis Screening Questionnaire. Neuropsychological functioning measured using tests assessing verbal knowledge (Wechsler Test of Adult Reading), working memory (Spatial Delayed Response Task), memory (Visual Object Learning Task), and processing speed (digit symbol coding task). A composite IQ score of general cognitive ability was calculated. A total of 1677 participants with a mean (SD) age of 40 (17) years were included in the analysis. Compared with the group without psychotic experiences, the 171 (9.7%) adults with psychotic experiences did not show a statistically significant impairment on mean (SD) measures of IQ (95.25 [16.58] vs 100.45 [14.77]; Cohen d, -0.22; P = .06) or processing speed (40.63 [13.06] vs 42.17 [13.79]; Cohen d, -0.03; P = .73) but were impaired on measures of verbal knowledge (31.36 [15.78] vs 38.83 [12.64]; Cohen d, -0.37; P = .003), working memory (20.97 [4.12] vs 22.51 [3.26]; Cohen d, -0.34; P = .005), and memory (43.80 [8.45] vs 46.53 [7.06]; Cohen d, -0.28; P = .01). Only participants 50 years and older with psychotic experiences showed medium to large impairments in neuropsychological functioning (mean [SD]) on measures of IQ (81.22 [15.97] vs 91.28 [14.31]; Cohen d, -0.70), verbal knowledge (28.31 [13.83] vs 38.51 [11.50]; Cohen d, -0.88), working memory (19.11 [4.77] vs 21.99 [3.42]; Cohen d, -0.82), and memory (39.17 [8.23] vs 44.09 [6.51]; Cohen d, -0.45) after adjusting for socioeconomic status, cannabis use, and common mental disorders. Medium impairments (mean [SD]) on measures of working memory (21.27 [3.64] vs 22.62 [2.97]; Cohen d, -0.45) and memory (44.32 [5.84] vs 46.91 [5.74]; Cohen d, -0.45) were seen in those aged 35 to 49 years and on a measure of verbal knowledge (30.81 [14.17] vs 37.60 [10.48]; Cohen d, -0.62) in those aged 16 to 24 years. First-degree relatives of adults with psychotic experiences showed a small impairment on a measure of verbal knowledge (34.71 [12.10] vs 38.63 [10.97]; Cohen d, -0.36; P = .02), and unrelated cohabitants showed no neuropsychological impairment. The profile of cognitive impairment in adults with psychotic experiences differed from that seen in adults with psychotic disorders, suggesting important differences between subclinical and clinical psychosis.

Cognitive performance of neuromyelitis optica patients: comparison with multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

Vanotti, Sandra; Cores, Evangelina Valeria; Eizaguirre, Barbara; Melamud, Luciana; Rey, Raúl; Villa, Andrés

2013-06-01

The aim of the present research was to investigate cognitive pattern of patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and to compare it with multiple sclerosis (MS) patients' performance. Fourteen NMO, 14 relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), and 14 healthy control patients participated in the investigation. Neuropsychological functions were evaluated with the Brief Repeatable Neuropsychological Battery for MS; Symbol Digit Modalities Test; Digit Span; and Semantic Fluency. Fifty-seven percent of NMO patients and 42.85% of the MS ones had abnormal performance in at least two cognitive tests. The NMO Group showed abnormal performance in verbal fluency, verbal and visual memories, with greater attention deficits. NMO patients outperformed healthy control in the paced auditory serial addition test (PASAT). However, no difference was found between NMO and RRMS patients. The NMO Group showed more dysfunction in attention and verbal fluencies than in verbal and visual memories. When compared with the MS patients, a similar dysfunction pattern was found. O objetivo da presente pesquisa foi investigar o padrão cognitivo de pacientes com neuromielite óptica (NMO) e compará-lo com o desempenho de pacientes com esclerose múltipla (EM). Métodos: Quatorze pacientes com NMO, 14 com esclerose múltipla recorrente remitente (EMRR) e 14 participantes do Controle saudáveis participaram da presente investigação. As funções neuropsicológicas foram avaliadas com a Bateria Breve de Testes Neuropsicológicos de Rao, Teste Símbolo Digit e a Fluência Semântica. Resultados: Cinquenta e sete por cento dos pacientes com NMO e 42,85% daqueles com EM apresentaram desempenho anormal em pelo menos dois testes cognitivos. O Grupo NMO apresentarou desempenho anormal na fluência verbal e nas memórias visual e verbal, com maiores déficits de atenção. Pacientes com NMO superaram os controles saudáveis em PASAT. No entanto, não foi encontrada diferença entre os pacientes com NMO e aqueles com EMRR. Conclusões: O Grupo NMO mostrou mais disfunção nas fluências de atenção e verbais do que nas memórias verbal e visual. Quando comparados com os pacientes com EM, um padrão de disfunção semelhante foi encontrado.

Effects of a cochlear implant simulation on immediate memory in normal-hearing adults

PubMed Central

Burkholder, Rose A.; Pisoni, David B.; Svirsky, Mario A.

2012-01-01

This study assessed the effects of stimulus misidentification and memory processing errors on immediate memory span in 25 normal-hearing adults exposed to degraded auditory input simulating signals provided by a cochlear implant. The identification accuracy of degraded digits in isolation was measured before digit span testing. Forward and backward digit spans were shorter when digits were degraded than when they were normal. Participants’ normal digit spans and their accuracy in identifying isolated digits were used to predict digit spans in the degraded speech condition. The observed digit spans in degraded conditions did not differ significantly from predicted digit spans. This suggests that the decrease in memory span is related primarily to misidentification of digits rather than memory processing errors related to cognitive load. These findings provide complementary information to earlier research on auditory memory span of listeners exposed to degraded speech either experimentally or as a consequence of a hearing-impairment. PMID:16317807

Salience of working-memory maintenance and manipulation deficits in schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Hill, S. K.; Griffin, G. B.; Miura, T. Kazuto; Herbener, E. S.; Sweeney, J. A.

2011-01-01

Background Encoding and maintenance of information in working memory, followed by internal manipulation of that information for planning adaptive behavior, are two key components of working-memory systems. Both processes have been reported to be impaired in schizophrenia, but few studies have directly compared the relative severity of these abnormalities, or the degree to which manipulation deficits might be secondary to alterations in maintenance processes. Method Clinically stable schizophrenia patients (n=25) and a demographically similar healthy comparison group (n=24) were administered a verbal span task with three levels of working-memory load. Maintenance was assessed using sequential position questions. Manipulation processes were assessed by requiring comparison of the relative sequential position of test items, which entailed simultaneous serial search strategies regarding item order. Results Both groups showed reduced accuracy and increased reaction time for manipulation compared with maintenance processing. There were significant patient impairments across working-memory loads. There was no differential deficit in manipulation processing, and effect sizes of relative deficit in the patient group were higher for maintenance than manipulation processing. Conclusions The strong correlation for maintenance and manipulation deficits suggest that impairments in the ability to internally manipulate information stored in working-memory systems are not greater than alterations in the encoding and maintaining of information in working memory and that disturbances in maintenance processing may contribute to deficits in higher-order working-memory operations. PMID:20214839

Some Factors Underlying Individual Differences in Speech Recognition on PRESTO: A First Report

PubMed Central

Tamati, Terrin N.; Gilbert, Jaimie L.; Pisoni, David B.

2013-01-01

Background Previous studies investigating speech recognition in adverse listening conditions have found extensive variability among individual listeners. However, little is currently known about the core, underlying factors that influence speech recognition abilities. Purpose To investigate sensory, perceptual, and neurocognitive differences between good and poor listeners on PRESTO, a new high-variability sentence recognition test under adverse listening conditions. Research Design Participants who fell in the upper quartile (HiPRESTO listeners) or lower quartile (LoPRESTO listeners) on key word recognition on sentences from PRESTO in multitalker babble completed a battery of behavioral tasks and self-report questionnaires designed to investigate real-world hearing difficulties, indexical processing skills, and neurocognitive abilities. Study Sample Young, normal-hearing adults (N = 40) from the Indiana University community participated in the current study. Data Collection and Analysis Participants’ assessment of their own real-world hearing difficulties was measured with a self-report questionnaire on situational hearing and hearing health history. Indexical processing skills were assessed using a talker discrimination task, a gender discrimination task, and a forced-choice regional dialect categorization task. Neurocognitive abilities were measured with the Auditory Digit Span Forward (verbal short-term memory) and Digit Span Backward (verbal working memory) tests, the Stroop Color and Word Test (attention/inhibition), the WordFam word familiarity test (vocabulary size), the BRIEF-A self-report questionnaire on executive function, and two performance subtests of the WASI Performance IQ (non-verbal intelligence). Scores on self-report questionnaires and behavioral tasks were tallied and analyzed by listener group (HiPRESTO and LoPRESTO). Results The extreme groups did not differ overall on self-reported hearing difficulties in real-world listening environments. However, an item-by-item analysis of questions revealed that LoPRESTO listeners reported significantly greater difficulty understanding speakers in a public place. HiPRESTO listeners were significantly more accurate than LoPRESTO listeners at gender discrimination and regional dialect categorization, but they did not differ on talker discrimination accuracy or response time, or gender discrimination response time. HiPRESTO listeners also had longer forward and backward digit spans, higher word familiarity ratings on the WordFam test, and lower (better) scores for three individual items on the BRIEF-A questionnaire related to cognitive load. The two groups did not differ on the Stroop Color and Word Test or either of the WASI performance IQ subtests. Conclusions HiPRESTO listeners and LoPRESTO listeners differed in indexical processing abilities, short-term and working memory capacity, vocabulary size, and some domains of executive functioning. These findings suggest that individual differences in the ability to encode and maintain highly detailed episodic information in speech may underlie the variability observed in speech recognition performance in adverse listening conditions using high-variability PRESTO sentences in multitalker babble. PMID:24047949

Nonspecific Verbal Cues Alleviate Forgetting by Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morgan, Kirstie; Hayne, Harlene

2007-01-01

Verbal reminders play a pervasive role in memory retrieval by human adults. In fact, relatively nonspecific verbal information (e.g. "Remember the last time we ate at that restaurant?") will often cue vivid recollections of a past event even when presented outside the original encoding context. Although research has shown that memory retrieval by…

Hemispheric Lateralization of Verbal and Spatial Working Memory during Adolescence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nagel, Bonnie J.; Herting, Megan M.; Maxwell, Emily C.; Bruno, Richard; Fair, Damien

2013-01-01

Adult functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) literature suggests that a left-right hemispheric dissociation may exist between verbal and spatial working memory (WM), respectively. However, investigation of this type has been obscured by incomparable verbal and spatial WM tasks and/or visual inspection at arbitrary thresholds as means to…

The Effects of Musical Training on Verbal Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franklin, Michael S.; Moore, Katherine Sledge; Yip, Chun-Yu; Jonides, John; Rattray, Katie; Moher, Jeff

2008-01-01

A number of studies suggest a link between musical training and general cognitive abilities. Despite some positive results, there is disagreement about which abilities are improved. One line of research leads to the hypothesis that verbal abilities in general, and verbal memory in particular, are related to musical training. In the present…

Verbal Intrusions Precede Memory Decline in Adults with Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kittler, P.; Krinsky-McHale, S. J.; Devenny, D. A.

2006-01-01

Background: Verbal intrusion errors are irrelevant responses made in the course of verbal memory retrieval or language production that have been associated with disruption of executive functions and the prefrontal cortex. They have been observed to occur more frequently both with normal aging and with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's…

[Building and validation of a test evaluating verbal recognition memory: The Forty test (f40)].

PubMed

Marqué, A; Hommet, C; Constans, T; Perrier, D; Bardet, F; Chaput, M; Mondon, K

2011-04-01

Neuropsychologic evaluation is a primordial diagnostic tool. Numerous tests explore episodic memory but few tests exist to assess incidental verbal episodic memory or verbal recognition memory. This memory is however impaired early in certain neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Our objective was to create a test sensitive and specific to this cognitive dysfunction. Our test was performed by 33 healthy volunteers and 51 patients (19 with idiopathic Parkinson's disease, 16 with Alzheimer's disease at the prodromal stage and 16 with Alzheimer's disease). Independently of age, education level and global cognitive impairment, the young and old healthy volunteers and the patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease displayed results significantly better than the group of Alzheimer's disease at the prodromal stage and Alzheimer's disease patients. Our test appears to be sensitive to dysfunction of verbal recognition memory. A score of 30/40 or less on the Forty test discriminates 91% of subjects with a cortical pattern of memory. This test could be recommended for clinical neuropsychological practice. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Prefrontal N-acetylaspartate is strongly associated with memory performance in (abstinent) ecstasy users: preliminary report.

PubMed

Reneman, L; Majoie, C B; Schmand, B; van den Brink, W; den Heeten, G J

2001-10-01

3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or "Ecstasy") is known to damage brain serotonin neurons in animals and possibly humans. Because serotonergic damage may adversely affect memory, we compared verbal memory function between MDMA users and MDMA-naïve control subjects and evaluated the relationship between verbal memory function and neuronal dysfunction in the MDMA users. An auditory verbal memory task (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test) was used to study eight abstinent MDMA users and seven control subjects. In addition 1H-MRS was used in different brain regions of all MDMA users to measure N-acetylaspartate/creatine (NAA/Cr) ratios, a marker for neuronal viability. The MDMA users recalled significantly fewer words than control subjects on delayed (p =.03) but not immediate recall (p =.08). In MDMA users, delayed memory function was strongly associated with NAA/Cr only in the prefrontal cortex (R(2) =.76, p =.01). Greater decrements in memory function predicted lower NAA/Cr levels-and by inference greater neuronal dysfunction-in the prefrontal cortex of MDMA users.

Verbal and Visual Memory Impairments in Bipolar I and II Disorder.

PubMed

Ha, Tae Hyon; Kim, Ji Sun; Chang, Jae Seung; Oh, Sung Hee; Her, Ju Young; Cho, Hyun Sang; Park, Tae Sung; Shin, Soon Young; Ha, Kyooseob

2012-12-01

To compare verbal and visual memory performances between patients with bipolar I disorder (BD I) and patients with bipolar II disorder (BD II) and to determine whether memory deficits were mediated by impaired organizational strategies. Performances on the Korean-California Verbal Learning Test (K-CVLT) and the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCF) in 37 patients with BD I, 46 patients with BD II and 42 healthy subjects were compared. Mediating effects of impaired organization strategies on poor delayed recall was tested by comparing direct and mediated models using multiple regression analysis. Both patients groups recalled fewer words and figure components and showed lower Semantic Clustering compared to controls. Verbal memory impairment was partly mediated by difficulties in Semantic Clustering in both subtypes, whereas the mediating effect of Organization deficit on the visual memory impairment was present only in BD I. In all mediated models, group differences in delayed recall remained significant. Our findings suggest that memory impairment may be one of the fundamental cognitive deficits in bipolar disorders and that executive dysfunctions can exert an additional influence on memory impairments.

The impact of finger counting habits on arithmetic in adults and children.

PubMed

Newman, Sharlene D; Soylu, Firat

2014-07-01

Here, we explored the impact of finger counting habits on arithmetic in both adults and children. Two groups of participants were examined, those that begin counting with their left hand (left-starters) and those that begin counting with their right hand (right-starters). For the adults, performance on an addition task in which participants added 2 two-digit numbers was compared. The results revealed that left-starters were slower than right-starters when adding and they had lower forward and backward digit-span scores. The children (aged 5-12) showed similar results on a single-digit timed addition task-right-starters outperformed left-starters. However, the children did not reveal differences in working memory or verbal and non-verbal intelligence as a function of finger counting habit. We argue that the motor act of finger counting influences how number is represented and suggest that left-starters may have a more bilateral representation that accounts for the slower processing.

Preservation of episodic memory in semantic dementia: The importance of regions beyond the medial temporal lobes.

PubMed

Irish, Muireann; Bunk, Steffie; Tu, Sicong; Kamminga, Jody; Hodges, John R; Hornberger, Michael; Piguet, Olivier

2016-01-29

Episodic memory impairment represents one of the hallmark clinical features of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) attributable to the degeneration of medial temporal and parietal regions of the brain. In contrast, a somewhat paradoxical profile of relatively intact episodic memory, particularly for non-verbal material, is observed in semantic dementia (SD), despite marked atrophy of the hippocampus. This retrospective study investigated the neural substrates of episodic memory retrieval in 20 patients with a diagnosis of SD and 21 disease-matched cases of AD and compared their performance to that of 35 age- and education-matched healthy older Controls. Participants completed the Rey Complex Figure and the memory subscale of the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised as indices of visual and verbal episodic recall, respectively. Relative to Controls, AD patients showed compromised memory performance on both visual and verbal memory tasks. In contrast, memory deficits in SD were modality-specific occurring exclusively on the verbal task. Controlling for semantic processing ameliorated these deficits in SD, while memory impairments persisted in AD. Voxel-based morphometry analyses revealed significant overlap in the neural correlates of verbal episodic memory in AD and SD with predominantly anteromedial regions, including the bilateral hippocampus, strongly implicated. Controlling for semantic processing negated this effect in SD, however, a distributed network of frontal, medial temporal, and parietal regions was implicated in AD. Our study corroborates the view that episodic memory deficits in SD arise very largely as a consequence of the conceptual loading of traditional tasks. We propose that the functional integrity of frontal and parietal regions enables new learning to occur in SD in the face of significant hippocampal and anteromedial temporal lobe pathology, underscoring the inherent complexity of the episodic memory circuitry. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contribution of organizational strategy to verbal learning and memory in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Roth, Robert M; Wishart, Heather A; Flashman, Laura A; Riordan, Henry J; Huey, Leighton; Saykin, Andrew J

2004-01-01

Statistical mediation modeling was used to test the hypothesis that poor use of a semantic organizational strategy contributes to verbal learning and memory deficits in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Comparison of 28 adults with ADHD and 34 healthy controls revealed lower performance by the ADHD group on tests of verbal learning and memory, sustained attention, and use of semantic organization during encoding. Mediation modeling indicated that state anxiety, but not semantic organization, significantly contributed to the prediction of both learning and delayed recall in the ADHD group. The pattern of findings suggests that decreased verbal learning and memory in adult ADHD is due in part to situational anxiety and not to poor use of organizational strategies during encoding. ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)

The Role of Semantic Representations in Verbal Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loaiza, Vanessa M.; Camos, Valérie

2018-01-01

Two main mechanisms, articulatory rehearsal and attentional refreshing, are argued to be involved in the maintenance of verbal information in working memory (WM). Whereas converging research has suggested that rehearsal promotes the phonological representations of memoranda in working memory, little is known about the representations that…

In a Concurrent Memory and Auditory Perception Task, the Pupil Dilation Response Is More Sensitive to Memory Load Than to Auditory Stimulus Characteristics.

PubMed

Zekveld, Adriana A; Kramer, Sophia E; Rönnberg, Jerker; Rudner, Mary

2018-06-19

Speech understanding may be cognitively demanding, but it can be enhanced when semantically related text cues precede auditory sentences. The present study aimed to determine whether (a) providing text cues reduces pupil dilation, a measure of cognitive load, during listening to sentences, (b) repeating the sentences aloud affects recall accuracy and pupil dilation during recall of cue words, and (c) semantic relatedness between cues and sentences affects recall accuracy and pupil dilation during recall of cue words. Sentence repetition following text cues and recall of the text cues were tested. Twenty-six participants (mean age, 22 years) with normal hearing listened to masked sentences. On each trial, a set of four-word cues was presented visually as text preceding the auditory presentation of a sentence whose meaning was either related or unrelated to the cues. On each trial, participants first read the cue words, then listened to a sentence. Following this they spoke aloud either the cue words or the sentence, according to instruction, and finally on all trials orally recalled the cues. Peak pupil dilation was measured throughout listening and recall on each trial. Additionally, participants completed a test measuring the ability to perceive degraded verbal text information and three working memory tests (a reading span test, a size-comparison span test, and a test of memory updating). Cue words that were semantically related to the sentence facilitated sentence repetition but did not reduce pupil dilation. Recall was poorer and there were more intrusion errors when the cue words were related to the sentences. Recall was also poorer when sentences were repeated aloud. Both behavioral effects were associated with greater pupil dilation. Larger reading span capacity and smaller size-comparison span were associated with larger peak pupil dilation during listening. Furthermore, larger reading span and greater memory updating ability were both associated with better cue recall overall. Although sentence-related word cues facilitate sentence repetition, our results indicate that they do not reduce cognitive load during listening in noise with a concurrent memory load. As expected, higher working memory capacity was associated with better recall of the cues. Unexpectedly, however, semantic relatedness with the sentence reduced word cue recall accuracy and increased intrusion errors, suggesting an effect of semantic confusion. Further, speaking the sentence aloud also reduced word cue recall accuracy, probably due to articulatory suppression. Importantly, imposing a memory load during listening to sentences resulted in the absence of formerly established strong effects of speech intelligibility on the pupil dilation response. This nullified intelligibility effect demonstrates that the pupil dilation response to a cognitive (memory) task can completely overshadow the effect of perceptual factors on the pupil dilation response. This highlights the importance of taking cognitive task load into account during auditory testing.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CCBY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

"I know your name, but not your number"--Patients with verbal short-term memory deficits are impaired in learning sequences of digits.

PubMed

Bormann, Tobias; Seyboth, Margret; Umarova, Roza; Weiller, Cornelius

2015-06-01

Studies on verbal learning in patients with impaired verbal short-term memory (vSTM) have revealed dissociations among types of verbal information. Patients with impaired vSTM are able to learn lists of known words but fail to acquire new word forms. This suggests that vSTM is involved in new word learning. The present study assessed both new word learning and the learning of digit sequences in two patients with impaired vSTM. In two experiments, participants were required to learn people's names, ages and professions, or their four digit 'phone numbers'. The STM patients were impaired on learning unknown family names and phone numbers, but managed to acquire other verbal information. In contrast, a patient with a severe verbal episodic memory impairment was impaired across information types. These results indicate verbal STM involvement in the learning of digit sequences. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Core verbal working-memory capacity: the limit in words retained without covert articulation.

PubMed

Chen, Zhijian; Cowan, Nelson

2009-07-01

Verbal working memory may combine phonological and conceptual units. We disentangle their contributions by extending a prior procedure (Chen & Cowan, 2005) in which items recalled from lists of previously seen word singletons and of previously learned word pairs depended on the list length in chunks. Here we show that a constant capacity of about 3 chunks holds across list lengths and list types, provided that covert phonological rehearsal is prevented. What remains is a core verbal working-memory capacity.

Impact of Spatial and Verbal Short-Term Memory Load on Auditory Spatial Attention Gradients.

PubMed

Golob, Edward J; Winston, Jenna; Mock, Jeffrey R

2017-01-01

Short-term memory load can impair attentional control, but prior work shows that the extent of the effect ranges from being very general to very specific. One factor for the mixed results may be reliance on point estimates of memory load effects on attention. Here we used auditory attention gradients as an analog measure to map-out the impact of short-term memory load over space. Verbal or spatial information was maintained during an auditory spatial attention task and compared to no-load. Stimuli were presented from five virtual locations in the frontal azimuth plane, and subjects focused on the midline. Reaction times progressively increased for lateral stimuli, indicating an attention gradient. Spatial load further slowed responses at lateral locations, particularly in the left hemispace, but had little effect at midline. Verbal memory load had no (Experiment 1), or a minimal (Experiment 2) influence on reaction times. Spatial and verbal load increased switch costs between memory encoding and attention tasks relative to the no load condition. The findings show that short-term memory influences the distribution of auditory attention over space; and that the specific pattern depends on the type of information in short-term memory.