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PubMed1993

Memory and frontal lobe dysfunction in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

Verbal memory and performance on a number of tests known to be sensitive to lesions that disrupt frontal lobe functioning were studied in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective illness. Both patient groups were severely and equally impaired on verbal and design fluency and on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, measures that are sensitive to dysfunction of frontal-striatal circuitry. Both patient groups exhibited impaired recall but nearly normal recognition memory, a pattern that is typically observed in frontal and subcortical diseases. Accelerated forgetting was evident on delayed recall tests; the magnitude of this impairment was greater for schizophrenic than for schizoaffective patients. These results suggest that frontal and/or subcortical dysfunction is common to schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. A subgroup including the majority of schizophrenic patients, however, exhibit a mild amnesia-like disorder which may result from pathological changes in the structure and function of the temporal lobes or the medial diencephalon.

Adult↗

PubMed1986

Noradrenergic and cholinergic agents in Korsakoff's syndrome.

Subjects suffering from memory disorders associated with Korsakoff's syndrome were treated with noradrenergic and cholinergic drugs in two phases. In the acute phase, tests of short- and long-term memory were conducted shortly after the administration of methylphenidate, physostigmine, an oral placebo, and an intramuscular placebo. In the chronic phase, the memory tests were given after the subjects had been administered each of the following for 1-week periods: methylphenidate, choline chloride, methylphenidate plus choline chloride, and an oral placebo. Significant improvements were seen in long-term memory scores of patients receiving chronic methylphenidate treatment. Significant improvement was not found in short-term memory measures with any of the drug treatments.

Aged↗

PubMed1986

Semantic encoding deficits in frontal lobe disease and amnesia.

The relationship between semantic encoding deficits and memory dysfunction was evaluated for the following groups: amnesic patients with bilateral frontal lobe lesions; nonamnesic patients with bilateral frontal lesions; and alcoholic Korsakoff patients. Semantic encoding was assessed using the Wickens' release from proactive interference (PI) paradigm. Korsakoff patients and the poor memory frontal lobe patients failed to show automatic PI release, while good memory frontal patients did show a release. These results support the view that an encoding disability is a contributor to amnesics' memory disorder and they suggest a possible neuroanatomical correlate for impaired semantic encoding.

Alcohol Amnestic Disorder↗

PubMed1993

The role of galanin in cholinergically-mediated memory processes.

1. Galanin, a 29 amino-acid neuroactive peptide, has been shown to affect diverse processes throughout the nervous system and to coexist with several "classical" neurotransmitters, including norepinephrine, serotonin, and acetylcholine. 2. Galanin coexists with acetylcholine in neurons of the medial septum, diagonal band, and nucleus basalis of Meynert, cells which degenerate during the course of Alzheimer's disease. 3. In the ventral hippocampus, galanin inhibits the release of acetylcholine and inhibits carbachol stimulated phosphatidyl inositol hydrolysis. 4. Galanin impairs choice accuracy in learning and memory paradigms in rats, and is therefore hypothesized to be a contributory factor in the memory and cognitive disabilities found in Alzheimer's patients. 5. Newly developed galanin antagonists, by eliminating putative inhibitory effects of endogenous galanin on cholinergic function, may serve as useful therapies for memory disorders.

Animals↗

PubMed1998

Inhibition of apamin-sensitive calcium dependent potassium channels facilitate the induction of long-term potentiation in the CA1 region of rat hippocampus in vitro.

Using field potential recording in the CA1-region of rat hippocampal slices we investigated the effect of apamin; a specific antagonist of small conductive calcium activated potassium channels on long-term potentiation (LTP). The experiments revealed that LTP of excitatory postsynaptic potentials induced by a single 100 Hz tetanization was intensified by extracellular application of apamin in a concentration range of 1-200 nM. No effects of apamin on LTP induced by triple 100 Hz tetanization were seen. We conclude that the positive modulation of LTP by apamin is effective in a nanomolar concentration range and dependent upon the employed tetanization. Because it has been shown that apamin-binding sites are affected by learning disorders including Alzheimer's disease, our finding suggests that changes in the sensitivity to apamin may result in memory disorders.

Animals↗

PubMed1999

Depressive disorders in Chinese patients with Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVE: The present study was to investigate the prevalence and potential risk factors of depressive disorders in Chinese patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHOD: A series of consecutive AD patients from the Memory Disorders Clinic of the Veterans General Hospital, Taipei were studied. Psychiatric diagnosis was made according to DSM-III-R criteria with the use of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID). The Chinese version of the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI) and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) were also applied. Primary caregivers were interviewed for the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale, the Barthel Index and the Alzheimer's Deficit Scale (ADS). RESULTS: Among 141 AD patients, seven (5.0%) were diagnosed with major depression, 11 (7.8%) with dysthymia and five (3.5%) with depressive disorder not otherwise specified. Women were at elevated risk for depressive disorders and had more severe symptoms of depression. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of depressive disorders among Chinese AD patients is in the middle of the range of western findings. The risk factor for depression is female gender.

Aged↗

PubMed1983

Lack of effect of desglycinamide-arginine-vasopressin (DGAVP) on memory in patients with korsakoff's syndrome.

The effect of desglycinamide9-[Arg8]-vasopressin (DGAVP) on memory processes was studied in patients with Korsakoff's syndrome. Intranasal treatment with DGAVP for 7 days affected neither attention nor short- and long-term memories. It is suggested that treatment with DGAVP is not indicated for all types of memory disorders, and that the beneficial effect of this treatment may depend on the integrity of certain brain structures.

Aged↗

PubMed1995

[The assessment of drug effects on memory in animals].

The methodology of experiments on animal memory for the preclinical evaluation of cognition enhancers was reviewed. Representative experiments such as passive avoidance, the radial-arm maze, and delayed response are described. From the viewpoint of the predictability of drug effects in humans, the usefulness and the problems associated with these experiments are discussed. For example, such problems as the significance of response latency in the passive avoidance experiment, the innate robustness of the behavior in the radial-arm maze experiment, and the stability of the behavioral baseline in the delayed response experiment were noted. As for future directions, three issues are proposed: the importance of the descriptive principle in evaluating the data, the systematic construction of the testing battery, and the need for the development of new experimental methods that simulate human memory disorders.

Animals↗

PubMed1989

The EASI: a self-administered screening test for cognitive impairment in the elderly.

The Early Assessment Self Inventory (EASI), a rapid self-administered screening test for cognitive impairment in the elderly, was constructed to permit individuals to be assessed in a group or singly without examiner intervention. This paper-and-pencil device requires a fourth-grade reading level and makes minimal demands on literacy while assessing orientation, recent and remote memory, language, visual-construction, calculation, and attention. In the present study, the EASI was group-administered to 146 elderly persons attending senior centers and completed individually without examiner intervention by 19 outpatients at a memory disorders clinic. Participants were 60 to 95 years old with 5 to 18 years of education. The EASI demonstrated good internal consistency and test-retest reliability and was significantly correlated with the Mini-Mental State Exam and the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale, both widely used screening instruments. Neuropsychological measures of memory, attention, and verbal fluency correlated as well with the EASI as with the examiner-administered screening instruments, suggesting that the EASI may provide an efficient method of screening for cognitive impairment.

Aged↗

PubMed1996

Focal temporal lobe dysfunction in probable Alzheimer's disease predicts a slow rate of cognitive decline.

The memory disorder in Alzheimer's disease (AD) can be described as having two components: one primarily a defect in secondary memory and the other a defect in executive processes. We compared and contrasted the pattern of neuropsychological impairment in AD patients as a function of their memory and executive deficits. A K-Means cluster analysis identified four groups of patients. All four groups had impaired episodic and semantic memory and three had progressively more severe impairments in executive functions. The fourth group had normal executive functions; this group (N=32), described as having a "temporal lobe" pattern of impairment, had a significantly slower rate of progression of their dementia, with visual-construction skills virtually spared. These data demonstrate the existence of a subgroup of AD patients with a consistent pattern of impairment who progress more slowly than other patients over the course of 2 years and who maintain some specific cognitive abilities. This suggests that the mechanism of their disease may be different.

Aged↗

PubMed2003

Face memory and its disorders.

Face recognition is an essential biologic and social skill. Accurate recognition depends on the ability to encode, store, and retrieve distinct memory representations for the faces of countless individuals encountered in everyday life. In addition, face memory records must be integrated with specific biographic and name information in order to allow the recognition of each person's unique identity. Converging evidence from functional imaging, cortical electrical recording, and neuropsychologic studies suggests that face memory operations in the human brain are mediated by a distributed neural system. Components of this network include specialized memory storage sites within temporal neocortex that interact with medial temporal lobe and prefrontal cortical areas during face memory encoding and retrieval. Selective damage to these neuroanatomic regions gives rise to face recognition disorders characterized by memory loss or memory distortion.

Brain Diseases↗

PubMed1993

Verbal and visual memory impairment in children with epilepsy.

Verbal and visual memory performances were evaluated in 60 epileptic children and 60 normal control subjects with Signoret's Memory Battery scale. Eighteen patients had idiopathic generalized epilepsy and 42 had partial epilepsy, mostly of the temporal (n = 28) and frontal (n = 10) lobes. Memory scores were statistically lower in epileptics than in controls and significant differences were found within each group: (1) children with idiopathic generalized epilepsy had a slight depression of visual memory; (2) memory disorder was more severe in partial epilepsy; and (3) children with left and right temporal lobe epilepsy had marked memory deficits related to hemispheric specialization.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Attention and memory dysfunction in posttraumatic stress disorder.

Attention and memory performances were studied in Persian Gulf War veterans with and without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnoses. Veterans diagnosed with PTSD showed relative performance deficiencies on tasks of sustained attention, mental manipulation, initial acquisition of information, and retroactive interference. Their performances were also characterized by errors of commission and intrusion. The tendency toward response disinhibition and intrusion on cognitive tasks was correlated positively with reexperiencing symptoms and negatively with avoidance-numbing symptoms. These cognitive deficit patterns are consistent with models of PTSD that emphasize the role of hyperarousal and implicate dysfunction of frontal-subcortical systems. Results suggest that intrusion of traumatic memories in PTSD may not be limited to trauma-related cognitions but instead reflects a more general pattern of disinhibition.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Rate of progression of Alzheimer's disease is associated with genetic risk.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether differences in genetic origin affect the clinical course of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The limited number of cases of AD linked to a known genetic abnormality is a major obstacle in determining whether the disorder is expressed differently in patients with familial AD and those with sporadic AD. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Memory Disorders Unit of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 186 patients who had a clinical diagnosis of probable AD, family history information available for all first-degree relatives, and three or more outpatient visits were identified from a consecutive case series. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Rate of decline on the Blessed Dementia Scale and the Activities of Daily Living Scale. RESULTS: We calculated the probability that an individual patient has a major genetic locus for AD (MGAD) using an algorithm that incorporates information from a genetic model and the individual's family. We measured cognitive and functional changes by the average annual rate of increase (slope) in scores for the Blessed Dementia Scale and Activities of Daily Living Scale, respectively. Multivariate analysis adjusted for age at onset, duration of illness at entry into the study, and education level indicated that scores on the Activities of Daily Living Scale worsened significantly faster in men with MGAD than in men with non-MGAD. No differences in Activities of Daily Living Scale slopes were observed among women with MGAD and non-MGAD. The slopes for Blessed Dementia Scale scores were similar in men and women regardless of the MGAD probability. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic factors may account for heterogeneity in rates of functional decline in AD. This study also illustrates the practical application of a probabilistic method that characterizes the genetic status of AD in an individual patient.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed1984

[The pharmacology of memory (results and prospects)].

Principal possibilities and limits of using the pharmacological approach for control of memory in studies of neurophysiological and neurochemical mechanisms of learning and memory in humans and animals are reviewed as well as its place in experimental and clinical therapy of memory disorders. Using an unspecific connector aethimizol as a pharmacological probe aided to assess changes accompanying the formation and consolidation of memory traces. The significance of fast and slow bioelectrical brain activity in the memory processing, the role of enzymes involved in transcription and template chromatine activity of the neurons under the effect of drugs on memory and learning, the correlation between time-depending learning and the pattern of RNA synthesis in brain cells, as well as possibilities and pathways of utilization of drugs in the correction of the long-term memory matrix formed by a stable pathological state of the brain, are discussed.

Animals↗

PubMed1997

[Isolated retrograde amnesia following viral encephalitis].

We describe a patient who presented with isolated retrograde amnesia of 2-year duration after recovery from viral encephalitis. The patient was a 29-year-old right-handed male dentist and was admitted to our hospital with a complaint of generalized convulsion. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) showed mononuclear pleocytosis. Neuroradiological examinations (X-ray CT, MRI and 123I-IMP SPECT) revealed no significant abnormality. Immunological method showed no specific increase of viral antibody titers. However, with a tentative diagnosis of viral encephalitis, administration of acyclovir was started. After 3 weeks he became comprehensive, and several kinds of neuropsychological tests were performed. His intelligence and immediate memory were normal, and his procedural memory of dentist was intact. On the other hand, he could not recall any information about events, both personal and public, occurred within 2 years before the onset of present illness. His autobiographical memory disorder was also demonstrated using a series of weekly comic. In isolated retrograde amnesia following viral encephalitis like this case, memory of relatively short time duration, acquired prior to the onset of present illness, tend to be disturbed.

Acyclovir↗

PubMed1978

Physical illness presenting as psychiatric disease.

A study of 658 consecutive psychiatric outpatients receiving careful medical and biochemical evaluation, defined an incidence of medical disorders productive of psychiatric symptoms in 9.1% of cases. The most frequent presentations were of depression, confusion, anxiety, and speech or memory disorders. The presence of visual hallucinations was believed to indicate medical etiology until proved otherwise. Major illnesses presenting with psychiatric symptoms in order of frequency were infectious, pulmonary, thyroid, diabetic, hematopoietic, hepatic and CNS diseases. Forty-six percent of these patients suffered from medical illnesses previously unknown to either them or their physician. A plea is made for careful medical evaluation of psychiatric patients.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Importance of histamine in modulatory processes, locomotion and memory.

Acetylcholine modulates histaminergic transmission via M(1) receptors. On the other hand, cholinergic transmission is modulated by neighbouring histaminergic neurons via H(1), H(2) and H(3) receptors. Dopaminergic and GABAergic neurons are also involved in these modulatory mechanisms. Furthermore, the release of histamine is modulated by glutamatergic neurons and nitric oxide of neuronal origin. The release of histamine in the brain oscillates according to circadian, slow ultradian and fast ultradian rhythms. Ultradian fluctuations have also been observed in the theta- and delta-frequency bands of the EEG spectral power. Simultaneous recordings of histamine outflow and EEG in the hypothalamus revealed that the ultradian histamine release rhythm coincides temporally with ultradian fluctuations in the EEG spectral power. Histamine receptor ligands used in pharmacotherapy, like H(1) and H(2) antagonists, modify the frequency of the EEG fluctuations. Brain histamine seems to be involved in memory processes, since inhibition of histamine synthesis deteriorates, while H(3) antagonists, histamine and histidine improve short-term memory. The latter finding may open new horizons in pharmacological treatment of memory disorders.

Activity Cycles↗