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Biomedical subjects

A Calev

Publications and source records attributed to A Calev.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Verbal and visuospatial recall by younger and older subjects: use of matched tasks.

In this study, 18 older (over age 65, M = 75.61 years) and 18 younger (below age 40 and over age 17, M = 26.44 years) healthy volunteers were tested on verbal and visuospatial recall. Tasks were matched on discriminating power. Older Ss performed worse than younger Ss on both tasks. The older Ss also showed a larger deficit in visuospatial than in verbal recall, relative to the younger Ss. These results are consistent with the theory of aging according to which verbal tasks are more resistant to deterioration than are nonverbal tasks. A psychological explanation based on lifetime experience with verbal material is preferred over the physiological explanation advocating faster aging of the right hemisphere.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Retrieval from semantic memory using meaningful and meaningless constructs by depressed, stable bipolar and manic patients.

Eleven depressed, 11 stable bipolar and six manic patients, 20 normals and eight late middle-age normals were tested for speech production using a word-fluency task. Fluency was prompted by either a letter (a relatively automatic task), or a semantic category (an effort-demanding task). The results showed that depressed patients were more impaired in speech production than other patients when prompted by a semantic category than when prompted by a letter. A post hoc matched-tasks check suggested that this finding was not due to differences in discriminating power between the two word-fluency tasks. Manic and stable bipolar patients did not differ in their speech production, although matched on age. The results suggest that depressives perform better on more automatic than on effort-demanding tasks, and that manic and stable bipolar patients do not differ in speech production when experimentally imposed restrictions are present.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Remote and recent memory in long-hospitalized chronic schizophrenics.

This study shows that chronic, long-hospitalized schizophrenics perform (tested by the Famous Events Questionnaire) at a higher level on remote memory than they do on word list recall. A post hoc, matched-tasks check suggested that this finding was not due to differences in the discriminating power of the tasks. Relative to normals, patients showed no differential performance on the three time periods (1973/74, 1979/80, 1984) represented in the remote memory questionnaire, thus giving no evidence for an amnesic gradient. The findings are discussed in relation to amnesia and dementia hypotheses in chronic schizophrenia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Performance of chronic schizophrenics on matched word and design recall tasks.

Matched word and design recall tasks were constructed and used to assess the performance of chronic schizophrenics on neuroleptics alone and on both neuroleptic and anticholinergic drugs. The two groups of patients performed at an equally low level on both tasks, without evidence for a differential deficit. The tasks did, however, evoke a differential deficit in clustering performance for designs as opposed to words. Although clustering, which is based on recall, is not necessarily as well matched for words and designs as recall itself, this result suggests a lateralized dysfunction in brain structures related to use of mnemonic organization at retrieval.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Facilitation of ECT by caffeine pretreatment.

In this study, eight patients participated in a standardized protocol to assess the effects of caffeine on seizures in ECT. Caffeine sodium benzoate (500-2000 mg) was administered intravenously 10 minutes before ECT, and seizure duration was compared with that of a previous treatment unmodified by caffeine. Seizure duration was significantly increased during ECTs preceded by caffeine. Three other patients given caffeine when seizures of adequate duration could no longer be elicited at maximal stimulus levels experienced longer seizures. Administration of caffeine was not associated with significant cardiovascular or other (including cognitive) adverse effects.

Benzoates↗
PubMed1986

Verbal and non-verbal recall by depressed and euthymic affective patients.

This study uses matched-tasks methodology in order to test memory function in depressed and euthymic patients with major affective disorder. Neither drug-free depressed patients nor lithium-treated euthymic patients show a differential deficit in verbal versus non-verbal recall. However, while euthymic patients show no memory impairment, drug-free depressives do show poor memory functioning. The results support the view that memory deficits observed in affective patients in the depressed state are transient, secondary manifestations of depression and are neither indicative of underlying organic pathology, nor of abnormal hemispheric laterality. This suggests that memory impairment in depression can be treated by treating depressive symptoms, both chemically and behaviourally. The results also support the view that prophylactic lithium treatment has no adverse effects on these memory tasks.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Recall and recognition in depressives: use of matched tasks.

This study uses matched tasks methodology, and shows that unipolar depressives perform better on recognition than on recall. Since they also show a low level of item clustering in free recall, this suggests that the memory deficit of depressives is partly due to an associative disturbance.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Recall and recognition in mildly disturbed schizophrenics: the use of matched tasks.

Unlike previous studies, this study shows that in controlled conditions non-chronic schizophrenics receiving neuroleptic medication show no disparity between recall and recognition. Patients receiving both neuroleptic and anticholinergic drugs show this disparity, performing less well on recall than on recognition. These patients also seem more severely disturbed. The importance of task matching, drugs and chronicity are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Evidence for distinct verbal memory pathologies in severely and mildly disturbed schizophrenics.

It is well known that schizophrenics have difficulty in effectively encoding verbal materials into their long-term memories and consequently show a deficit in recall. Recently, orienting tasks were introduced as a method for achieving equivalent to normal encoding and mnemonic organization in schizophrenics; consequently, their deficit in recall disappeared. A detailed review of the literature, however, showed that such effective orienting tasks had only been applied to mildly disturbed schizophrenics (nonchronic, in a good condition). This report presents three experiments which show that more severely disturbed (chronic, hospitalized) schizophrenics, unlike mildly disturbed patients, have memory deficits that cannot be located at the encoding stage. Severely disturbed schizophrenics show (1) a recall deficit, even after effective encoding and mnemonic organization are induced; (2) excessive forgetting over 24- and 48-hour periods; and (3) a recognition memory deficit. These deficits are in addition to their encoding deficit. The use of a matched-tasks check in experiments 2 and 3 suggests that this postencoding deficit is a differential deficit and does not is a differential deficit and does not simply reflect the schizophrenic generalized deficit. Theoretical implications, also supported by the use of various organizational indices (e.g., clustering, hierarchical clustering schemes, and hierarchical grouping analysis), are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Sorting consistency as a diagnostic tool for schizophrenics and normals.

This report demonstrates the potential of the Sorting Consistency Task, both for assessing the degree of schizophrenic disturbance in patients, and for screening normals for schizophrenic tendencies. The task can be administered quickly and adapted for individual or group testing. Experiment 1 demonstrated a strong relationship between the Sorting Consistency Task and indicators of schizophrenic disturbance. Experiment 2 used normals and demonstrated that the Sorting Consistency Task could discriminate between subjects who score high or low on the Physical Anhedonia Scale of Chapman et al. (1976).

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Neuroendocrine responses in chronic schizophrenia. Evidence for serotonergic dysfunction.

Neuroendocrine and mood responses to a 60 mg oral dose of the serotonin-releasing agent, fenfluramine, were assessed in ten neuroleptic-free, chronic schizophrenic patients and in age- and sex-matched normal control subjects. The prolactin (PRL) response to fenfluramine was significantly blunted in the schizophrenic subjects. Growth hormone and cortisol levels were not differentially affected by the challenge. There was no significant effect of fenfluramine on mood in either group. The blunted PRL response in the schizophrenic group suggests serotonergic dysfunction; possible mechanisms of this finding and implications for treatment are considered.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Immediate and delayed memory performance in schizophrenia spectrum patients: use of matched tasks.

Rapid forgetting has been observed in long-term schizophrenic patients in the past. In this study, the rate of forgetting was assessed in short-term schizophrenic, schizophreniform and schizoaffective patients who had positive symptoms in the past, and in schizophreniform patients who never had positive symptoms. Four groups of patients representing these distinctions and a group of normal controls were assessed using immediate and delayed recall tasks, while controlling for effects of discriminating power of tasks, using matched-task methodology. The results showed that all schizophrenia spectrum patients with positive symptoms showed rapid forgetting as compared to schizophreniform patients with negative symptoms and normal controls. It is concluded that better immediate than delayed recall characterizes schizophrenia spectrum patients who have had positive symptoms. However, schizophrenia spectrum patients with negative symptoms may be qualitatively different from patients with positive symptoms in showing a slower rate of forgetting. The results support the hypothesis that there is at least one and possibly two brain dysfunctions affecting memory in schizophrenia.

Brain↗