Verbal Memory Abilities Research Articles

Cognition and All-Cause Mortality Across the Entire Adult Age Range: Health and Lifestyle Survey

To investigate the association of reaction time and brief measures of memory and spatial ability with all-cause mortality. Participants were from the UK Health and Lifestyle Survey (HALS), a national sample survey of adults in England, Scotland, and Wales. In 1984/1985, data on lifestyle factors, socioeconomic status, and health were collected for 9,003 people. Cognitive data were collected for 7,414 individuals. All-cause mortality was investigated over 19 years of follow-up in relation to simple and choice reaction time, performance on a short-term verbal declarative memory test, and on a test of visual-spatial reasoning. Slower and more variable simple and choice reaction times were significantly related to increased risk of all-cause mortality over 19 years of follow-up. The increased risk of all-cause mortality was partly attenuated after adjustments for socioeconomic status, health behaviors, and health status. A novel finding was the existence of an effect of reaction time on all-cause mortality in young adults. Poorer verbal memory ability was also significantly related to an increased risk of dying in young adults independently of reaction time score. Slower and more variable reaction time was related to higher mortality risk in younger as well as older participants. Among younger adults, higher memory ability was also associated with lower risk of dying. The cognition-mortality relationship may be explained in part by the brain's efficiency of information processing and memory performance.

Free Recall in Williams Syndrome: is there a Dissociation Between Short-and Long-Term Memory?

Two experiments used the free recall paradigm to investigate verbal memory abilities in Williams syndrome (WS) – a rare genetic disorder. In an earlier free recall study, Vicari et al. (1996a) reported that, unlike TD controls, children with WS showed a recency effect but failed to show a primacy effect. These authors interpreted their findings as evidence for a dissociation between relatively strong verbal short-term memory and relatively impaired verbal long-term memory. In Experiment 1 of the current study, children with WS and TD controls showed comparable improvements in performance with repeated testing of the same material, indicating similar long-term learning of the test items. Neither group showed evidence of primacy effects. However, the extent of primacy effects in free recall is known to depend on the rehearsal strategy that participants adopt. In Experiment 2, therefore, participants were encouraged to engage in overt cumulative rehearsal. This manipulation resulted in significant and comparable primacy effects in both groups, although neither group demonstrated a significant change in overall performance. There was therefore no evidence from either experiment for a dissociation between short- and long-term verbal memory in WS.

One-year double-blind study of the neurocognitive efficacy of olanzapine, risperidone, and haloperidol in schizophrenia

Neurocognitive deficits in schizophrenia can reach 1 to 2 standard deviations below healthy controls. The comparative effect of typical and atypical antipsychotic medications on neurocognition is controversial, and based primarily on studies with small samples and large doses of typical comparator medications. The present study assessed neurocognitive efficacy. It was hypothesized that olanzapine treatment would improve neurocognitive deficits to a greater degree than either risperidone or haloperidol treatment. This was a double-blind, randomized, controlled, parallel study with neurocognition assessed at baseline, and 8, 24, and 52 weeks. Per protocol, the haloperidol arm was discontinued. Four hundred and fourteen inpatients or outpatients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder were treated with oral olanzapine ( n = 159), risperidone ( n = 158), or haloperidol ( n = 97). Individual domains (executive function, learning and memory, processing speed, attention/vigilance, verbal working memory, verbal fluency, motor function, and visuospatial ability) were transformed into composite scores and compared between treatment groups. At the 52-week endpoint, neurocognition significantly improved in each group ( p < 0.01 for olanzapine and risperidone, p = 0.04 for haloperidol), with no significant differences between groups. Olanzapine- and risperidone-treated patients significantly ( p < 0.05) improved on domains of executive function, learning/memory, processing speed, attention/vigilance, verbal working memory, and motor functions. Additionally, risperidone-treated patients improved on domains of visuospatial memory. Haloperidol-treated patients improved only on domains of learning/memory. However, patients able to remain in treatment for the entire 52 weeks benefited more from olanzapine or risperidone treatment than haloperidol treatment.

Ecstasy (MDMA) exposure and neuropsychological functioning: A polydrug perspective

Ecstasy (MDMA) is a popular drug that can act as a selective serotonin neurotoxin in several species. The goal of the present study was to examine the relationship between ecstasy exposure and cognitive functioning after controlling for other drug use and demographic variables. Furthermore, we assessed whether gender was a moderator of the relationship between cognitive functioning and ecstasy use. Data were collected from 31 men and 34 women with a wide range of ecstasy use (17 marijuana users with no ecstasy use and 48 ecstasy users ranging from low to heavy use). Participants were interviewed and administered a battery of neuropsychological tests. The primary finding was that ecstasy exposure was significantly related to poorer verbal learning and memory ability in a dose-dependent manner, while no such relationship was observed between ecstasy exposure and executive functioning or attentional ability. Gender was found to significantly moderate the relationship between ecstasy consumption and design fluency. These results suggest primary memory dysfunction among abstinent recreational ecstasy users. This finding is consistent with reports of hippocampal vulnerability, particularly among heavy users.

Verbal short‐term memory in individuals with congenital articulatory disorders: new empirical data and review of the literature

To investigate the nature of the articulatory rehearsal mechanism of the Articulatory Loop in Baddeley's Working Memory model, it seems particularly important to study individuals who developed a deficit (dysarthria) or total abolition (anarthria) of the ability to articulate language following a cerebral lesion. In this study, a forced-choice recognition procedure for word sequences of increasing length was used to evaluate verbal short-term memory in nine individuals with severe congenital motor and verbal disabilities (seven anarthric and two severely dysarthric) and associated intellectual disability (ID) and 30 normal children of comparable mental age. The normal children exhibited classical phonological similarity effects (better performance on acoustically dissimilar than on similar word lists), word length (greater accuracy on two-syllable than on four-syllable word lists) and frequency of occurrence (an advantage of high-frequency over low-frequency words). Instead, all of these effects were lacking in the experimental group. These data suggest that persons with congenital anarthria/dysarthria and ID present defective maturation at many levels of the Articulatory Loop and reduced contribution of semantic-lexical processing in the temporary retention of phonological sequences. It is likely that in these individuals both communicative deficits and ID play a role in the impaired development of verbal short-term memory abilities.

Benign childhood epilepsy with occipital paroxysms: Neuropsychological findings

Benign childhood epilepsy with occipital paroxysms is classified among childhood benign partial epilepsies. The absence of neurological and neuropsychological deficits has long been considered as a prerequisite for a diagnosis of benign childhood partial epilepsy. Much evidence has been reported in literature in the latest years suggesting a neuropsychological impairment in this type of epilepsy, particularly in the type with Rolandic paroxysms. The present work examines the neuropsychological profiles of a sample of subjects affected by the early-onset benign childhood occipital seizures (EBOS) described by Panayotopulos. The patient group included 22 children (14 males and 8 females; mean age 10.1 ± 3.3 years) diagnosed as having EBOS. The patients were examined with a set of tests investigating neuropsychological functions: memory, attention, perceptive, motor, linguistic and academic (reading, writing, arithmetic) abilities. The same instruments have been given to a homogeneous control group as regards sex, age, level of education and socio-economic background. None of the subjects affected by EBOS showed intellectual deficit (mean IQ in Wechsler Full Scale 91.7; S.D. 8.9). Results show a widespread cognitive dysfunction in the context of a focal epileptogenic process in EBOS. In particular, children with EBOS show a significant occurrence of specific learning disabilities (SLD) and other subtle neuropsychological deficits. We found selective dysfunctions relating to perceptive-visual attentional ability ( p < 0.05), verbal and visual-spatial memory abilities ( p < 0.01), visual perception and visual-motor integration global abilities ( p < 0.01), manual dexterity tasks ( p < 0.05), some language tasks ( p < 0.05), reading and writing abilities ( p < 0.01) and arithmetic ability ( p < 0.01). The presence of cognitive dysfunctions in subjects with EBOS supports the hypothesis that epilepsy itself plays a role in the development of neuropsychological impairment. Supported by other studies that have documented subtle neuropsychological deficits in benign partial epilepsy, we stress the importance of reconsidering its supposed “cognitive benignity”, particularly in occipital types.

Different mechanisms of episodic memory failure in mild cognitive impairment

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), defined as episodic memory impairment beyond what is expected in normal aging, is often associated with hippocampal atrophy (HA) and may represent incipient Alzheimer's disease. However, recent studies suggest that MCI is very heterogeneous and multiple etiologies likely exist. One possibility is small vessel cerebrovascular disease (CVD). Specifically, we hypothesized that white matter hyperintensities (WMH), an MRI marker for CVD, would lead to impairments in executive control processes critical for working memory that may, in turn, result in episodic memory impairment. To test this hypothesis, we examined a group of subjects clinically diagnosed with MCI and used MRI to further subcategorize individuals as either MCI with severe white matter hyperintensities (MCI-WMH) or MCI with severe hippocampal atrophy (MCI-HA). MCI-WMH, MCI-HA, and matched control subjects each performed a battery of working memory and episodic memory tasks. Results showed that MCI-HA and MCI-WMH were equally impaired on the episodic memory task relative to controls, but MCI-WMH were additionally impaired on tests tapping verbal and spatial working memory abilities and attentional control processes. These results suggest that CVD and hippocampal dysfunction are associated with distinct neuropsychological profiles. Although both syndromes are associated with episodic memory deficits, CVD is additionally associated with working memory and executive control deficits.

Auditory Memory and Proficiency of Second Language Speaking: A Latent Variable Analysis Approach

Previous studies of second language aptitude have mainly used verbal stimuli in memory tasks. Memory for musical stimuli has not been used in aptitude studies although music and language have structural similarity. In this study, 30 Japanese university students who speak English as a second language (19 men, M=21.3 yr., SD=1.8) participated in the experiment as volunteers. They performed verbal memory tasks, musical memory tasks, and English pronunciation tasks. Factor analysis indicated that verbal and musical memory abilities are better represented as a unitary factor rather than two independent factors. Further, a path analysis supported the hypothesis that the memory for both verbal and musical tasks affects proficiency of second language pronunciation, including prosodic features such as stress in word or intonation through a couple of sentences. The memory factor was interpreted as reflecting the performance of "auditory working memory."

Relationship between psychopathology and cognitive functioning in schizophrenia

The purpose of this study was to delineate the relationship between positive, negative, cognitive, depressive, and excitement symptom dimensions of schizophrenia and cognitive functioning. Fifty-eight patients with schizophrenia (DSM-IV criteria) were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and a battery of neuropsychological tests (executive function/abstraction, verbal and spatial working memory, verbal and nonverbal memory/learning, attention, visuospatial ability, and psychomotor speed). The cognitive symptom dimension correlated with executive functions, attention, verbal memory, and spatial ability. Severity of the negative symptom dimension was related to impairment in the structure of the semantic knowledge system, verbal memory, and auditory attention. In contrast, severity of the positive symptom dimension correlated only with impairment in the structure of the semantic knowledge system, and psychomotor speed. Finally, severity of the depressive and excitement symptom dimension was not associated with cognition. Correlations between symptom dimensions and cognitive measures were at best modest. Severity of cognitive and negative symptoms was mainly correlated with deficits on executive functions, semantic memory, and verbal memory, while positive symptoms only with semantic memory. These correlations were modest, suggesting that psychopathology and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are caused, at least partially, by distinct pathophysiological processes.

Adult spelling strategies

The goal of this study was to investigate how adult English speakers, who are good readers, but who differ in spelling ability, remember word-specific spelling information. In the first experiment, participants learned the spellings of words they had previously misspelled, while “thinking out loud”. The main strategies observed in order of popularity were: letter rehearsal, overpronunciation, comparison of the remembered and the correct spelling, morphological analysis and visualisation. All strategies produced good learning success for the better spellers, but weaker spellers had less success with overpronunciation, comparison and morphological analysis. In a second experiment, when participants were shown their misspelling and the correct spelling, and instructed to use either overpronunciation or comparison to learn the correct spelling, learning success was independent of spelling ability. However, sequential verbal memory ability was associated with greater success in using overpronunciation, and sequential visual memory ability with greater success in using comparison. The findings provide new insight into the types of strategies that advanced learners use spontaneously to memorise arbitrary letter sequences, as well as revealing how effective the strategies are.

Verbal Memory Abilities of Children With Brain Tumors

Several critical neuroanatomical structures and pathways for memory performance are located in the third ventricle region. This led us to predict that verbal memory abilities would be more impaired in children treated for third ventricle tumors compared to those treated for cerebellar tumors. Archival data was obtained from 24 pediatric patients with third ventricle region tumors and 18 pediatric patients with cerebellar tumors. Neuroradiological verifications of tumor involvement and hydrocephalus severity (i.e., Evans Index) on preoperative scans and MRIs proximal to the time of the neuropsychological evaluation were conducted. The potential confounds of hydrocephalus severity, seizure medication, age, radiation treatment, and chemotherapy were addressed. Verbal IQ was comparable between tumor groups and in the Average range. The third ventricle region group performed significantly worse on list learning and delayed list recall compared to the cerebellar group. Their mean performance was in the clinically impaired range on both trials. The third ventricle region tumor group performed better than the cerebellar tumor group on Digit Span, a basic repetition, attention span task. These findings support the hypothesis that pediatric patients with third ventricle region brain tumors are more likely to be impaired on verbal recall tasks compared to pediatric patients with cerebellar brain tumors. In contrast, patients who were treated for cerebellar tumors were more impaired on the basic repetition, attention span task compared to patients who were treated for third ventricle tumors. Future studies should examine the specific neuroanatomical structures and pathways that are damaged and may influence differential cognitive impairments in children.

Neuropsychological assessment in HTLV-1 infection: a comparative study among TSP/HAM, asymptomatic carriers, and healthy controls

Background: Human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-I) can cause tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-1 associated myelopathy (TSP/HAM) and adult T cell leukaemia/lymphoma. More recently other diseases such as isolated peripheral...

Assessment of short-term verbal memory impairments in adolescents and adults with ADHD.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a brief measure of verbal memory can assess short-term verbal memory impairments relative to verbal abilities in adolescents and adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and to ascertain whether significant differences between short-term verbal memory and verbal abilities are more common among persons with ADHD than in the general population. One hundred seventy-six adolescents and adults diagnosed with ADHD (DSM-IV criteria) were assessed with a measure of short-term verbal memory. The short-term verbal memory score of each subject was compared with the verbal abilities on two measures. Percentages of ADHD subjects with "significant discrepancy" between verbal IQ and short-term verbal memory were compared with the standardization sample for the verbal memory measure. A majority of adolescents and adults diagnosed with ADHD demonstrated significant discrepancy between performance on the short-term verbal memory measure and verbal IQ. The percentage of ADHD subjects with a significant discrepancy between these two measures greatly exceeded the percentage of persons in the general population showing such a discrepancy. This brief measure of short-term verbal memory may be a useful measure to include in a comprehensive assessment for ADHD symptoms in adolescents and adults. Replication in other groups of ADHD patients is needed to test the generalizability of the findings.

Impact of radionecrosis on cognitive dysfunction in patients after radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Cognitive dysfunction is common in patients who develop radionecrosis after receiving radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, the impact of the location and volume of radionecrosis on cognitive dysfunction remains unclear. The authors found a significant association between the severity of cognitive impairment and the volume of radionecrosis; in turn, the volume of radionecrosis was affected by patient age at time radiotherapy was completed. Fifty patients with NPC who received radiotherapy were evaluated by a battery of neuropsychologic tests of cognitive function. The brain lesion volume was quantified, and the lesion locations were identified by standardized brain templates. The results of the neuropsychologic tests were correlated with lesion volume. Gender, education, age at the completion of radiotherapy, brain volume, total dose, and fractional dose were evaluated as risk factors for lesion volume. Lesion volume was correlated significantly with the severity of cognitive deficits. Larger left-hemisphere lesions were correlated with lower verbal memory (from P < 0.001 to P = 0.008) and language abilities (from P = 0.001 to P = 0.018), whereas larger right-hemisphere lesions were associated with worse visual memory (from P = 0.009 to P = 0.039). Finally, patients who received radiotherapy at a younger age had smaller lesion volumes (P < 0.001). The volume and location of radionecrosis had an influential impact on the pattern of cognitive impairment found in patients with NPC, and patient age at the time radiotherapy was completed appeared to affect the volume of radionecrosis found after radiotherapy.

Técnicas para evaluar la memoria del niño

This is a review of the more relevant instruments to measure memory abilities of children and adolescents. The strengths, limitations and future developments of these instruments are discussed. Memory disturbances are present in developing individuals as a consequence of perinatal damage, brain trauma, neuroinfections, epilepsy etc. Also mnesic deficits may be observed as an element of language and learning disorders. Probably all types of amnesic syndromes well known in adults do exist in children, but there are only a few observations documented in the literature. Here are described the available batteries (TOMAL, WRAML, CMS, BEM 144) and specific tests (RBMT C,VADS, CAVLT 2, etc.) that are useful for the diagnostic measurement of verbal and visual memory abilities in children and adolescents; a Spanish version and validation is available for many of these instruments. The use of tests must be preceded by structured clinical interviews and questionnaires for parents and teachers. In spite of all these instruments, the diagnosis must be based on clinical criteria; new developments of instruments adapted to children aged under five years have to be done. All aspects of memory functions shall be considered procedural, explicit (semantic an autobiographical), prospective, etc. , parallel forms and typifications on more large samples are claimed.

Decline in verbal memory during preclinical Alzheimer's disease: examination of the effect of APOE genotype.

A subtle decline in episodic memory often occurs prior to the emergence of the full dementia syndrome in nondemented older adults who develop Alzheimer's disease (AD). The APOE-epsilon4 genotype may engender a more virulent form of AD that hastens this decline. To examine this possibility, we compared the rate of decline in episodic memory during the preclinical phase of AD in individuals with or without at least one APOE epsilon4 allele. Nondemented normal control (NC; n = 84) participants, nondemented older adults who subsequently developed dementia within 1 or 2 years (i.e., preclinical AD; n = 20), and patients with mild AD (n = 53) were examined with 2 commonly employed tests of episodic memory, the Logical Memory subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised and the California Verbal Learning Test. Results revealed a precipitous decline in verbal memory abilities 1 to 2 years prior to the onset of the dementia syndrome, but there was little effect of APOE genotype on the rate of this memory decline. The presence of an APOE-epsilon4 allele, however, did have a differential effect on the sensitivity of the 2 types of memory tests for tracking progression and made an independent contribution to the prediction of conversion to AD.

Mini-mental state examination and mental deterioration battery: analysis of the relationship and clinical implications.

To explore the associative structure between a screening test for dementia, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and a neuropsychological battery for the detection of dementia, the Mental Deterioration Battery (MDB). A retrospective analysis. Psychology unit of a general hospital in Rome, Italy. Three hundred consecutive outpatients and inpatients referred to our hospital on the basis of suspected cognitive impairment and evaluated between January 1999 and March 2000. MMSE and MDB. Of the 300 subjects evaluated by the MMSE score, 142 (47.3%) were considered to be cognitively healthy, and 116 (38.7%) were mildly and 42 (14.0%) moderately impaired. Factor analysis of MDB extracted three factors able to account for 75% of the total variance: a visuospatial factor, verbal memory ability, and a language skill. Using MMSE as an independent variable, a linear regression model could account for the visuospatial and language factors and a cubic regression model for the verbal memory factor. Within the normal MMSE boundaries (24-30), a dramatic decrease of verbal memory could be documented, whereas the slope is less steep in the mild impairment group (16-23). Our findings indicate the presence of a warning range within the normal MMSE interval. Thus, the traditional MMSE cutoff values may not be appropriate in detecting early phases of dementia. When patients score about 27 on MMSE, it should be of interest to check whether they fail only on long-term memory tests, because this could be a first signal of a preclinical condition heralding clear dementia (e.g., mild cognitive impairment).

Executive dysfunction in subcortical ischaemic vascular disease

Background: Executive dysfunction has been reported in patients with subcortical-frontal pathology, even in the absence of dementia. Objective: This study was undertaken to determine if impairments in executive functioning could...

Neuropsychological Sequelae of Patients Treated with Microsurgical Clipping or Endovascular Embolization for Anterior Communicating Artery Aneurysm

Background and Purpose: While microsurgical clipping has been the choice of treatment for anterior communicating artery (ACoA) aneurysm, endovascular embolization is increasingly popular for treating intracranial aneurysms. Previous studies showed that in terms of mortality (i.e., death) and morbidity (i.e., functional outcome, independent living, rebleeding) rates, the clinical outcomes of coil embolization for intracranial aneurysms are as good as or even better than those of surgical clipping. However, little is known about the impact of these treatments on the cognitive functions of those survived after the treatment. Thus, the present study is designed to examine the cognitive deficits of patients treated with either surgical clipping or coil embolization. Method: Eighteen patients with a ruptured ACoA aneurysm were recruited. Half of them had undergone surgical clipping and the other half had endovascular embolization. Standardized neuropsychological tests were employed to assess their memory, executive function, motor ability, language and visual perceptual abilities. Results: The performance of the patients was in general poorer than that of the normal control subjects on tests of verbal memory, flexible thinking, ability to resist interference and motor control. However, in terms of severity, the patients who received surgical clipping demonstrated more severe impairment than those had endovascular embolization on these cognitive domains. In addition, while 33% of patients in the clipping group showed impairments on memory and executive function, no patient in the embolization group demonstrated these impairments. Conclusions: Patients with ACoA aneurysm demonstrated impaired verbal memory, executive function and motor abilities while their language and visual perception abilities remained relatively intact. However, when comparing the effect of treatment choice on the cognitive functions of these patients, the present results favored the coil embolization as the patients treated with coil embolization demonstrated significantly fewer severe cognitive deficits than patients who had undergone surgical clipping.

Memory lost, memory regained: neuropsychological findings and neuroimaging in two cases of paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis with radically different outcomes

OBJECTIVETo report two cases of paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis (PNLE) with similar clinical presentation, but dramatically different outcome and to highlight the role of neuropsychological and radiological evaluation in PNLE.METHODSBoth patients...