Neuropsychology Of Memory Research Articles

Functional neuroanatomical networks associated with expertise in motor imagery

Although numerous behavioural studies provide evidence that there exist wide differences within individual motor imagery (MI) abilities, little is known with regards to the functional neuroanatomical networks that dissociate someone with good versus poor MI capacities. For the first time, we thus compared, through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the pattern of cerebral activations in 13 skilled and 15 unskilled imagers during both physical execution and MI of a sequence of finger movements. Differences in MI abilities were assessed using well-established questionnaire and chronometric measures, as well as a new index based upon the subject's peripheral responses from the autonomic nervous system. As expected, both good and poor imagers activated the inferior and superior parietal lobules, as well as motor-related regions including the lateral and medial premotor cortex, the cerebellum and putamen. Inter-group comparisons revealed that good imagers activated more the parietal and ventrolateral premotor regions, which are known to play a critical role in the generation of mental images. By contrast, poor imagers recruited the cerebellum, orbito-frontal and posterior cingulate cortices. Consistent with findings from the motor sequence learning literature and Doyon and Ungerleider's model of motor learning [Doyon, J., Ungerleider, L.G., 2002. Functional anatomy of motor skill learning. In: Squire, L.R., Schacter, D.L. (Eds.), Neuropsychology of memory, Guilford Press, pp. 225–238], our results demonstrate that compared to skilled imagers, poor imagers not only need to recruit the cortico-striatal system, but to compensate with the cortico-cerebellar system during MI of sequential movements.

Human Memory Systems: A Framework for Understanding Dementia

Human Memory Systems: A Framework for Understanding Dementia

Neuropsychology of Memory, 3rd ed.

Neuropsychology of Memory, 3rd ed.

Neuroscientific research with possible relevance for psychoanalysis

Concepts from the history of neuroscience and neuropsychology are introduced as a background to current research findings with emphasis on the neuropsychology of memory. The author thinks that psychoanalysis should be interested in this research, but is critical of establishing a new discipline, the so-called neuropsychoanalysis.

Distinct contribution of the cortico-striatal and cortico-cerebellar systems to motor skill learning

This review paper focuses on studies in healthy human subjects that examined the functional neuroanatomy and cerebral plasticity associated with the learning, consolidation and retention phases of motor skilled behaviors using modern brain imaging techniques. Evidence in support of a recent model proposed by Doyon and Ungerleider [Functional Anatomy of Motor Skill Learning. In: Squire LR, Schacter DL, editors. Neuropsychology of Memory. New York: Guilford Press, 2002.] is also discussed. The latter suggests that experience-dependent changes in the brain depend not only on the stage of learning, but also on whether subjects are required to learn a new sequence of movements (motor sequence learning) or learn to adapt to environmental perturbations (motor adaptation). This model proposes that the cortico-striatal and cortico-cerebellar systems contribute differentially to motor sequence learning and motor adaptation, respectively, and that this is most apparent during the slow learning phase (i.e. automatization) when subjects achieve asymptotic performance, as well as during reactivation of the new skilled behavior in the retention phase.

Temporal order memory in patients with Korsakoff’s syndrome and medial temporal amnesia

Two groups of patients with global amnesia resulting either from Korsakoff’s syndrome (KS) or from medial temporal lobe (MTL) damage were compared with groups of matched healthy control subjects on a list discrimination paradigm. Item recognition memory was matched across the amnesic and control groups in order to determine whether KS, but not MTL amnesics are disproportionately impaired on list discrimination as predicted by Parkin’s [Functional significance of etiological factors in human amnesia. In: Squire LR, Butters N, editors. Neuropsychology of memory, 2nd ed. New York: The Guilford Press, 1992] hypothesis. However, both patient groups were impaired disproportionately on the temporal order memory task, which is inconsistent with Parkin’s hypothesis. It remains possible that the KS patients are more disproportionately impaired than those with MTL damage because both patient groups performed at floor on the list discrimination task. The results are consistent with theories that postulate a critical role for the hippocampus in the kind of associative memory which underlies memory for temporal order, but not in recognition of single items or arbitrary associations between items of similar kinds.

Review of Case studies in the neuropsychology of vision.

GLYN H. HUMPHREYS (Ed.) Studies in the Neuropsychology of Vision Philadelphia PA: Psychology Press, 1999, 224 pages (ISBN 0-86377-895-X, us$49.95, Hardcover) Reviewed by PATRICIA A. MCMULLEN Imagine a car speeding toward you or liquid pouring into a cup, which is seen as a series of stills that stop and restart every few seconds. How would you predict when the cup will overflow or when you and the car will collide? What if you successfully recognized many objects and words in the world, but not your own face in a mirror or those of family members? This edited volume contains investigations of individuals for whom impairments such as these are daily experiences due to cortical brain damage. Beyond the curiosity factor of these accounts lies the importance for theories about the organization of the normal visual cognitive system. Reciprocally, information about the normal system that is gained from these studies may guide future rehabilitation programs that are designed to help individuals pla ued bv these deficits. Many unique and now classic cases are described in the nine chapters of this book. Deficits of early stages of vision such as those involved in the processing of motion and colour are described in the first two chapters by Charles Heywood, Josef Zihl, and Alan Cowey. Deficits of later stages of vision such as those involved in object recognition that result in visual agnosia are described by Glyn Humphreys, and Jules Davidoff and Elizabeth Warrington. Within this group of cognitive deficits are the fascinating category-specific agnosias in which recognition of one category of objects, usually those that are living, is selectively impaired while the recognition of artefactual objects is preserved. This topic is covered by Emer Forde, who has an upcoming book on the topic that is co-authored with Humphreys. Optic aphasia is another intriguing type of agnosia whereby an object cannot be recognized through the visual modality but motor actions that are appropriate to the object can be produced. Jane Riddoch discusses this problem in her chapter. Marlene Behrmann and her colleagues take on the issue of whether there are shared processes and representations in visual perception and imagery. Edward DeHaan and his colleagues describe covert recognition in prosopagnosia, another category-specific agnosia in which faces cannot be visually recognized. Finally, Martha Farah provides her broad theoretical perspective to the mix in the last chapter. Farah is one of the few researchers in this field who has taken on the task of summarizing many case studies and providing a theoretical framework for their interpretation. I suggest that the title, Studies in the Neuropsychology of Vision, is somewhat misleading. It implies discussion of cases of all disorders of higher order vision due to brain damage, but acquired deficits of reading are not treated. As such, a more apt title might have been Case Studies in the Neuropsychology of Object and Face Recognition. Psychology Press is producing a series of books on case studies in neuropsychology. To date, they have published Studies in the Neuropsychology of Memory, edited by Alan Parkin (1997), and Studies in the Neuropsychology of Reading, edited by Elaine Funnell (1999). …

Disorders of Brain and Mind

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book Forum: Neuropsychiatry and NeurologyFull AccessDisorders of Brain and MindCONSTANTINE G. LYKETSOS, M.D., M.H.S., CONSTANTINE G. LYKETSOSSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., M.H.S., Baltimore, Md.Published Online:1 Apr 2001https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.158.4.671AboutSectionsView EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail The recent increase in appreciation of the role that the brain plays in psychiatry, coupled with advances in neuroscience, brain imaging, and pharmacology, has led to an explosion of information on the interplay of brain and mind in the expression of psychiatric disorders. Pertinent research over the past two decades has been of two types. On the one hand is study of the psychiatric and psychological manifestations of coarse brain diseases or damage to specific brain regions as well as conditions closely linked to the brain, such as cognitive disorders and amnesia. On the other hand is careful study of the brains of patients with major psychiatric illnesses, particularly schizophrenia and the mood disorders, using a variety of modalities.Disorders of Brain and Mind is a compilation of much of the research in these areas. The book contains seven sections, each with two chapters. The first section is on frontal lobes and neuropsychiatry. Its chapters are on the neuropsychology of the frontal lobes and on frontal lobe structural abnormalities in schizophrenia. The second section is on basal ganglia in neuropsychiatry; the first chapter is on the neuropsychology of basal ganglia disorders, and the second is on the behavioral pharmacology of brain dopamine systems with implications for schizophrenia. The next section is on memory and its disorders. Once again, there is a chapter on neuropsychology of memory and amnesia. The second chapter in this section is on clinical neuropsychological studies of patients with amnestic disorders. Next is a section on brain disease and mental illness, which has one chapter on the psychiatric manifestations of demonstrable brain disease and one on structural brain imaging and the psychoses. The section that follows is on epilepsy; one chapter is on behavior in chronic experimental epilepsies and the other is a conceptual paper regarding the behavior disorders of epilepsy. A section on schizophrenia follows with both chapters expanding on the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia. The final section, Imaging Brain and Mind: Old and New Approaches, includes one chapter that discusses magnetic resonance spectroscopy in neuropsychiatry and another that discusses the hallucination as a disorder of brain and mind.Overall, this book is quite well written, thorough, and well founded empirically. In fact, the reference lists at the end of each chapter are very comprehensive. The chapters are all well balanced in their strengths, but the chapter by David and Busatto on the hallucination is an especially well-written integration of psychiatric phenomenology and neuroscience. It nicely illustrates the complex reasoning that will be necessary in future explorations of the relationship between brain and mind.Disorders of Brain and Mind is a very important book, despite its small weaknesses in conceptualization and integration of the topic and the occasional duplication or even slight contradiction in content, typical of an edited book. Its major strength is that it is a comprehensive “state of the field” review of the interface between brain and mind. Although the philosophical issues of the mind-brain problem are not addressed directly, the book’s empirical nature is quite satisfying. The book is also presented in a way that helps the reader appreciate the complexities of the issues at hand as well as some of the advances that have recently occurred. For any psychiatrist, both clinical or academic, interested in the interface of brain and mind, this is a valuable book that can be read through quite easily as an update and can also be referred to from time to time. For students new to psychiatry, this volume might also serve as an introductory text. Neuroscientists who are looking for a rather thorough review of brain-behavior relationships in select disorders will also find this book of interest.Edited by Maria A. Ron and Anthony S. David. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1998, 373 pp., $90.00; $44.95 (paperback published 2000). FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 158Issue 4 April 2001Pages 671-671 Metrics History Published online 1 April 2001 Published in print 1 April 2001

Las memorias y la enfermedad de Alzheimer

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. Memory loss is generally the most pervasive cognitive symptom of AD but is not the only one and is not homogeneous in its loss. Memory complaint is one of the most frequent complaints in elderly people but not all complaints of memory inefficiencies in old age reflect dementing illnesses. Amnesia is the failure or lack of memory. Research in cognitive psychology and neuropsychology of memory has produced evidence than human memory is not a unitary aspect of human cognition but is organized in independent systems. Tulving (1995) and Van der Linden (1997) identified at least five major memory systems: primary memory or working memory, episodic memory, semantic memory, procedural system and perceptual priming. From a theoretical view of multiple memory systems, the purpose of the present conference is the review of multiple systems models of human memory and the memory processes, encoding, storage and retrieval in AD and memory assessment. Memory assessment is not limited by formal testing and requires ecological assessment by daily living tasks of AD patients. Appropriateness of multiple memory systems models is discussed.

Remembering and knowing in a patient with preserved recognition and impaired recall

ROB is a patient who has a severe deficit in recalling recently presented verbal material following rupture and repair of an anterior communicating artery aneurysm [Hanley JR, Davies ADM, Downes J, Mayes A. Cognitive Neuropsychology 1994;11:543–78; Hanley JR, Davies ADM. In: Parkin A, editor. Case Studies in the Neuropsychology of Memory. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1997. p. 111–26]. Despite this, her performance on tests of recognition memory is comfortably within the normal range. In the present series of experiments, we investigated whether or not ROB's performance on tests of recognition memory might be associated with a disproportionately large number of correct decisions made on the basis of familiarity rather than contextual retrieval [e.g. Mandler G. Psychological Review 1980;87:252–71]. Contrary to this hypothesis, the results showed that ROB made a high proportion of remember decisions relative to know decisions in recognition [cf. Gardiner JM. Memory & Cognition 1988;16:309–13] and produced a high recollection score when conscious recollection and familiarity were placed in opposition to one another [cf. Jacoby LL, Woloshyn V, Kelley C. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 1989;118:115–25.]. ROB's recognition memory performance therefore appears to be qualitatively as well as quantitatively similar to that found in the normal population. As ROB has suffered damage to both the fornix and the anterior thalamus, the results of the present study are consistent with the claim that damage to the extended hippocampal system has a much more severe effect on recall than on recognition [Aggleton JP, Shaw C. Neuropsychologia 1996;34:51–62; Aggleton JP, Saunders RC. Memory 1997;5:49–71]. The present results provide no support, however, for the additional suggestion [Aggleton JP, Brown MW. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1999;22:425–56.] that the extended hippocampal system is necessary for recognition memory decisions that are based on contextual retrieval.

Unusual Cases of Memory Loss

In recent years, edited books presenting unusual case studies of neuropsychological disorders have appeared in the literature with increasing frequency. In general, I have found these books to be fascinating, illustrating the seemingly endless variety of ways in which damage to the nervous system can affect the cognitive functioning and the day-to-day lives of previously normal individuals. These volumes, which focus on the uniqueness or specificity of an individual neuropsychological deficit rather than on the commonality of dysfunction across individuals, always include at least some cases that are unlike any that I have previously encountered and almost always present some real surprises—cases that seem to defy easy explanation in terms of existing theories. In these respects, Case Studies in the Neuropsychology of Memory, edited by Alan Parkin, is no exception. The descriptions of the cases reported in the 10 chapters of this book are unique and intriguing. They are presented as stand-alone case studies without any cross-referencing to other cases in the book, which highlights their uniqueness. There is little in the way of editorial intrusion. A brief introduction tells us what to expect, provides some rationale for the selection of cases that appear in the book, and includes a sentence or two of the accepted theory that may be challenged by the reported case studies.

Non-verbal semantic impairment in semantic dementia

The clinical presentation of patients with semantic dementia is dominated by anomia and poor verbal comprehension. Although a number of researchers have argued that these patients have impaired comprehension of non-verbal as well as verbal stimuli, the evidence for semantic deterioration is mainly derived from tasks that include some form of verbal input or output. Few studies have investigated semantic impairment using entirely non-verbal assessments and the few exceptions have been based on results from single cases ( [3]: Breedin SD, Saffran EM, Coslett HB. Reversal of the concreteness effect in a patient with semantic dementia. Cognitive Neuropsychology 1994;11:617–660, [12]: Graham KS, Becker JT, Patterson K, Hodges JR. Lost for words: a case of primary progressive aphasia? In: Parkin A, editor. Case studies in the neuropsychology of memory, East Sussex: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1997. pp. 83–110, [21]: Lambon Ralph MA, Howard D. Gogi aphasia or semantic dementia? Simulating and assessing poor verbal comprehension in a case of progressive fluent aphasia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, (in-press). This study employed sound recognition and semantic association tasks to investigate the nature of the verbal and non-verbal comprehension deficit in 10 patients with semantic dementia. The patients were impaired on both verbal and non-verbal conditions of the assessments, and their accuracy on these tasks was directly related to their scores on a range of other tests requiring access to semantic memory. Further analyses revealed that performance was graded by concept and sound familiarity and, in addition, identified significant item consistency across the different conditions of the tasks. These results support the notion that the patients’ deficits across all modalities were due to degradation within a single, central network of conceptual knowledge. There were also reliable differences between conditions. The sound-picture matching task proved to be more sensitive to semantic impairment than the word-picture matching equivalent, and the patients performed significantly better on the picture than word version of a semantic association test. We propose that these differences arise directly from the nature of the mapping between input modality and semantic memory. Words and sounds have an arbitrary relationship with meaning while pictures benefit from a degree of systematicity with conceptual knowledge about the object.

Book Review: Case studies in the neuropsychology of memory

Book Review: Case studies in the neuropsychology of memory

The neuropsychology of memory: Recall of a composite memory by an incomplete set of stimuli

The neuropsychology of memory: Recall of a composite memory by an incomplete set of stimuli

Memory, amnesia, and the issue of recovered memory: Neurobiological aspects

The main thesis of this article is that the debate about the credibility of “recovered memories”—reports by adults of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse and trauma that were allegedly repressed for many years—can be usefully informed by considering the biological and behavioral facts and ideas about how memory works. Accordingly, the first section of this review describes current facts and ideas about the neurobiology and neuropsychology of memory and amnesia, including what parts of the brain are important for memory, distinctions between different memory systems in the brain, and the phenomena of infantile amnesia and source amnesia. The second section takes into account the information about the biological and behavioral bases of memory and addresses two questions about memory that have become a focus of debate in the recovered memory controversy, that is, whether memories for traumatic events change over time, and whether memories can be created for traumatic events that did not actually happen.

Neuropsychology of memory and SPECT in the diagnosis and staging of dementia of Alzheimer type.

We studied the role of neuropsychology and SPECT imaging in the diagnosis and staging of dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT) in 33 patients with mild disease and 30 matched controls. Working, episodic, semantic and remote memory were assessed. For diagnosis, it was determined by logistic regression analysis that one of the memory tests (delayed verbal recall of the Doors and People Test) could correctly classify subjects as DAT or controls in 97% of cases. For staging, stepwise regression analysis using five of the memory tests could predict 70% of the variance in Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores. The measures most useful for staging were tests of immediate recall, and tests of working, semantic and autobiographical memory. In a separate experiment, SPECT imaging on 31 of the above 33 patients and 24 different controls was used to address the issue of diagnosis and staging. 99Tc-HMPAO SPECT scans were analysed quantitatively to obtain measures of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). Logistic regression analysis showed that three of the SPECT regions of interest (left posterior temporal, right high frontal and right posterior temporal) could correctly classify subjects in 75% of cases. Of note was the fact that 39% of the DAT patients had normal SPECT scans. SPECT data were of limited use in modelling disease severity; only 38% of the variance in MMSE scores could be predicted from SPECT data. In addition, we found that the pattern of rCBF in DAT was much more heterogeneous than previously described.

Word retrieval to letter and semantic cues: A double dissociation in normal subjects using interference tasks

Recent evidence suggests that letter and semantic category verbal fluency tasks may use different component processes of a distributed word retrieval system. We hypothesized that the retrieval of words that begin with the same letter places greater demands on frontal lobe mediated strategic search processes than on temporal lobe mediated semantic knowledge. Conversely, generation of words from the same semantic category places greater demands on semantic knowledge than on strategic search. This hypothesis was tested by requiring subjects to generate lists of words to letter and semantic cues alone and while performing an interference task. A motor sequencing task (developed by Moscovitch, Neuropsychology of Memory, pp. 5–22, 1992) was used to activate frontal regions and an object decision task was used to activate posterior temporal cortex. In support of the hypothesis, letter fluency was reduced to a greater extent by concurrent performance of the motor sequencing task than by the object decision task. The opposite interference pattern was found for semantic category fluency.

Neuropsychology of Memory, 2nd ed

Neuropsychology of Memory, 2nd ed

The Neuropsychology of Memory

Neuropsychology aims to describe how the brain accomplishes learning and memory, in a way that speaks both to cognitive psychology and neuroscience. This paper presents a summary of presently available information about the neuropsychology of human memory, emphasizing three ideas: a) The neural substrate of memory continues to change for a long time after initial learning. This change (memory consolidation) is distinct from the changes underlying forgetting and involves the medial temporal region of the brain. b) The nervous system honors the distinction between two kinds of learning and memory (procedural vs. declarative). The former is spared in amnesia and does not depend on the integrity of the particular brain regions that when damaged cause amnesia. c) Animal models of human amnesia in the monkey are now available. These models should permit those brain regions damaged in amnesia to be identified and should lead to more detailed neurobiological study of these regions.

NEUROBIOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MEMORY. By G. Lynch, J.L. McGaugh and N.M. Weinberger. Published by Guilford Press, 528 pages. $65.00 - NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF MEMORY. By L.R. Squire and N. Butters. Published by Guilford Press, 655 pages. $65.00.

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