Abstract
Objectives: The objective of the current study was to evaluate the nonverbal semantic memory performance of MS patients and compare it with their healthy counterparts.
 Materials and methods: In this study, 70 patients with definite relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis(15 men and 55 women) and 70 healthy individuals of comparable demographics (age, gender, and education) from patients’ relatives and family members were selected based on convenient sampling. The patients recruited for this study were divided into two groups based on their Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores. The first group of patients (MS1) with MoCA scores of 18-25, and the MoCA scores of the second group (MS2) ranged from 10 -17. All of the participants were right-handed, originally born in Mashhad, Iran, and native speakers of Persian. To assess the nonverbal semantic memory performance of the participants, the picture version of The Camel and Cactus Test (CCT) was selected and administered from the Cambridge Semantic Memory battery test.
 Results: The results revealed that there was no significant difference between the MS1 and the Healthy Controls group in living and man-made variables, while MS 2 performed significantly different compared to other groups in these variables. The results also showed that all three groups of participants performed significantly different from each other in reaction time variable.
 Conclusion: The findings showed that cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis patients did not affect their nonverbal semantic memory performance, however, it had an impact on their reaction time.
 Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.20(2) 2021 p.390-395
Highlights
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disorder which affects Central Nervous System (CNS) and leads to demyelination and neurodegeneration through disease progression[1, 2]
One of the most common deficits in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is cognitive impairment and might be manifested even in the early phase of the disease[3, 4]. This disability affects the speed of information processing, attention, executive function and long-term memory performance of 40 to 65% of MS patients[5,6, 7]
The patients recruited for this study were divided into two groups (MS1& MS2) according to their Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores, cut off score≥ 26
Summary
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disorder which affects Central Nervous System (CNS) and leads to demyelination and neurodegeneration through disease progression[1, 2]. The CCT comprised of 64 pictures which shows 32 living (domestic and foreign animal, fruits, birds) and 32 man-made (large and small household items, vehicles, tools) items This test is easy to administer, and more scrutinizing in evaluating mild semantic memory[24]. Performance in MoCA test, significantly belonged to The results in table 3 revealed that all three groups of the patient group with higher EDSS score (moderate), participant (HC, MS1, MS2) performed significantly the rank belonged to the patient group with different from each other in living, man-made, and lower EDSS ratings (mild), while the highest scores reaction time variables (P=0.000 < 0.05).received by the healthy controls. One way ANOVA was run to MS1 performed respectively better compared to MS2
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