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PubMed2005

Memory and metamemory in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Studies on the link between checking and memory problems have produced equivocal results regarding a general memory deficit in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and subclinical checkers. However, there is clear and consistent evidence that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) show lack of confidence in their memory performance. The purpose of the present study was to investigate memory and metamemory performance (feeling-of-knowing judgments) for neutral and threat-related material in three groups: OCD patients (OCs), subclinical checkers (SCs), and normal controls (NCs). Participants studied a list of neutral and threat word pairs. After an initial cued-recall test, they provided feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments for unrecalled word pairs, followed by a recognition test. The results showed that OCs but not SCs were impaired in both recall and recognition compared to NCs. OCs were also less confident about their future memory performance than the other two groups, as reflected in their lower FOK ratings. Moreover, FOK judgments of the OCs were not reliable predictors of their recognition performance. Finally, neither OCs nor SCs showed any evidence of memory bias for threat-relevant information. The results support the idea of a general memory and a metamemory deficit in OCs.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Self-consciousness and Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVES: To propose a neuropsychological study of the various aspects of self-consciousness (SC) in Alzheimer's disease. METHODS: Forty-five patients with probable mild or moderate AD were included in the study. Severity of their dementia was assessed by the Mini Mental State (MMS). Fourteen questions were prepared to evaluate SC. RESULTS: No significant correlations were found between SC score and educational level, age, and duration of disease. A significant correlation was found between SC score and the severity of dementia, whereas frontal disturbances were just short of the significance threshold. The various aspects of SC were not impaired to the same degree. The most disturbed ones were awareness of cognitive deficiencies, moral judgements and prospective memory. The least disturbed aspects were awareness of identity and of mental representation of the body. Items relating to anosognosia and moral judgements were significantly correlated with the MMS score, whereas affective state, body representation disorders, prospective memory, and capacities for introspection were not related to the severity of the dementia. Consciousness of identity was sound, regardless of MMS score. CONCLUSIONS: AD clearly induces an heterogeneous impairment of SC. SC requires a convergence of many neural networks. In AD, neuronal alterations involve many cortical areas and information sent to the associative frontal cortex from memory, language and visuospatial areas is lacking or disturbed. Thus, the sequential order of successive stimuli cannot be maintained by the heteromodal associative cortex (dorsal convexity of the prefrontal cortex), and the supramodal associative cortex (located rostrally in the frontal lobes) is unable to provide reliable monitoring and assessment of simultaneous neural cognitive networks carrying insufficient and inadequate input. The core deficiency in AD patients might be impaired SC equated with the disability to maintain sequential and simultaneous "attention to life". The Self-Consciousness Questionnaire, a clinical scale providing multidimensional measurement, indicates that different aspects of consciousness are not correlated with overall cognitive deficiency as determined by the MMSE.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

Deficits in language-mediated mental operations in patients with schizophrenia.

We found previously that a subgroup of schizophrenic patients who passed screening tests of attentional competence showed memory deficits on word memory tasks, but were comparable with controls on tone memory tasks. To better understand the nature of language-specific memory deficits in this subgroup of patients, the present experiment was designed to bypass early perceptual processing of verbal material and determine if patients continue to show impaired performance on verbal memory tasks. Patients who passed the screening tests ('discriminator' patients; DSz) received four serial position tasks. In two, familiar sounds or line drawings were presented and subjects were required to remember the word associated with each stimulus item. In the other two, subjects received hard-to-label auditory and visual stimuli (birdsongs or snowflakes).DSz patients showed large memory deficits compared with controls when required to remember words associated with the familiar sounds or drawings, providing clear evidence of deficits in verbal memory processes independent of sensory processing of verbal stimuli. The interaction between diagnosis and labeling was highly significant, confirming that these patients have particular difficulty with verbal as opposed to non-verbal memory. This was particularly striking on the auditory tests where two patients out-performed all controls on the birdsong test, but were below all controls on the easy-to-label sounds test. The verbal memory tests were easier than the non-verbal memory tests for controls, thus deconfounding task difficulty and deficit specificity.

Attention↗

PubMed2004

Procedural and declarative memory in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been associated with frontostriatal abnormality. This has led to the hypothesis that the disorder is characterized by abnormality of procedural memory. However, evidence for either procedural or declarative memory disturbance has been mixed, and few studies have directly assessed both of these forms of memory in the same patient group. In the present study, we assessed encoding and retrieval in declarative memory using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), and procedural memory using the Pursuit Rotor Task, in 27 adults with OCD and 29 matched healthy controls. Groups did not differ with respect to salient demographic characteristics or memory on the RAVLT. In contrast, patients with OCD performed significantly better than controls during the early, but not later trial blocks of the Pursuit Rotor Task. This pattern of results indicates intact encoding and retrieval in declarative memory, but abnormally enhanced procedural memory during the early course of learning in OCD. These findings may be consistent with striatal overactivation observed in neuroimaging studies of OCD, as well as the prominent role of the striatum during early stages of procedural memory.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Hemispheric laterality and memory bias for threat in anxiety disorders.

The authors examined auditory perceptual asymmetries and explicit memory biases for threat in patients with panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder relative to healthy control subjects. They did not find a greater explicit memory bias for threat in the anxiety patients. However, explicit memory biases for threat were associated with perceptual asymmetry scores; patients with a greater right-ear (left hemisphere) advantage exhibited an explicit memory bias for threat material, whereas patients with a lower right-ear advantage displayed apparent cognitive avoidance of threat material. Memory for threat words was unrelated to perceptual asymmetry in healthy control subjects. These findings suggest that neuropsychological variables may partly determine the degree to which anxiety patients process threatening stimuli.

Adult↗

PubMed1980

Interictal memory and language impairment in temporal lobe epilepsy.

Memory and language were evaluated in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and generalized epilepsy. Subjects were matched for age, duration of illness, and seizure frequency, and grouped according to the electroencephalographic results and seizure type into right temporal, left temporal, and generalized. In formal tests of intelligence, auditory and visual memory, and language, a significant difference was noted only on a confrontation naming test. The mean score on this test was considerably lower in the left temporal group; right temporal and generalized groups scored in the normal range. This correlated with impairment on many verbal subtests of intelligence and memory. These results suggest that the interictal memory impairment of temporal lobe epilepsy may be an anomia and that the anomia may contribute to impairment of verbal learning and memory; both circumlocution and circumstantiality may compensate for anomia.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Neuropsychological differences between frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease: a review.

This paper surveys the similarities and differences between frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The review covers findings primarily from neuropsychological studies on memory, language, attention/executive function, and visuospatial abilities. However, neuropsychiatric and neuroimaging data are also briefly discussed. Distinguishing features of both FTD and AD are described in order to present a comprehensive clinical picture of these dementing diseases, which is essential for the process of differential diagnosis. The cause of specific cognitive deficits is also considered. Our comprehensive review of the empirical literature reveals that AD is characterized by early memory loss and visuospatial problems, while among the main features of FTD are behavioral abnormalities and executive dysfunctions.

Alzheimer Disease↗

PubMed1999

Magnetoencephalography: applications in psychiatry.

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) measures the extracranial magnetic fields produced by intraneuronal ionic current flow within appropriately oriented cortical pyramidal cells. Based upon superconducting quantum interference device technology operating at liquid helium temperatures (4 K), MEG offers excellent temporal and spatial resolution for selected sources, and complements information obtained from electroencephalograms and other functional imaging strategies. Current instrumentation permits recording up to several hundred channels simultaneously with head-shaped dewars, although the cost of such systems is high. The fact that magnetic fields fall off with the square of the distance from the source is both a benefit (when separating activity in the two hemispheres) and a limitation (when attempting to record deep sources). The lack of skin contact facilitates using MEG to record direct current and very high frequency (> 600 Hz) brain activity. The clinical utility of MEG includes presurgical mapping of sensory cortical areas and localization of epileptiform abnormalities, and localization of areas of brain hypoperfusion in stroke patients. MEG studies in psychiatric disorders have contributed materially to improved understanding of anomalous brain lateralization in the psychoses, have suggested that P50 abnormalities may reflect altered gamma band activity, and have provided evidence of hemisphere-specific abnormalities of short-term auditory memory function.

Auditory Perception↗

PubMed1995

Memory in schizophrenia and affective disorders.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the stability of memory and information processing in schizophrenics and affectively disturbed patients. Twenty-two schizophrenics, eight affectives and 14 normal controls were tested twice, with an interval of approximately one year. Results showed that normals performed better than schizophrenics and affectively disturbed patients on almost all of the cognitive measures. The differences reached a level of significance on a reaction time test, a vigilance task and a long-term memory task. The only measure where the difference did not reach a level of significance was on a short-term memory test. Groups' performance to some extent changed over time on most of the measures, but the changes were not significantly different for different groups.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Theory of mind performance in schizophrenia: diagnostic, symptom, and neuropsychological correlates.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between Theory of Mind (ToM) performance and schizophrenia subtype, symptom, and neuropsychological variables. One hundred twenty-eight stable outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were assessed during the intake phase of a vocational and cognitive rehabilitation study. Results indicate that ToM performance differed significantly by schizophrenia diagnosis, with people diagnosed with disorganized schizophrenia performing the most poorly. Theory of Mind performance was also significantly correlated with measures of thought disorder and verbal memory. Regression analysis revealed that thought disorder and verbal memory measures explained 30% of the variance in ToM scores. Findings suggest that there is theory of mind variance in the schizophrenia population and theory of mind is strongly related to thought disorder, verbal memory, and cognitive disorganization. Contrary to previous reports, ToM was not related to measures of paranoia.

Adult↗

PubMed1976

[Confabulation in atrophic and vascular disease of old age (clinico-psychopathologic findings)].

The paper is concerned with a study of confabulation seen in 95 patients. A gradual development of the confabulatory syndrome (from mnemonic confabulations to ecmnestic) was seen in senile dementia (5 cases) and in its combination with vascular atherosclerosis (61 cases). An acute development of confabulations (with a prevalence of mnemonic false reminiscence over ecmnestic) was seen in cerebral atherosclerosis (9 cases). Rudimentary ecmnestic confabulations, without mnemonic were seen in Alzheimer's disease (20 cases). The author established a certain correlation between ecmnestic confabulations and disturbances of fixation, between mnemonic confabulations and disorders of selective reproductivity, between their expressiveness and emotional liveliness and the degree of actualization of the past events. In a complacent-euphoric and anxiety affect the confabulations were spontaneous and were accompanied by psuedoactivity. In depressive states they were fragmentary and were detected only in response to questions. Aphatic disorders and the severity of dementia influence the mnestic confabulations making them poorer and incomplete.

Aged↗

PubMed1998

Memory for language in deaf adults and children.

Cognitive psychologists have known for a long time that language and memory are intimately related in people who can hear. Why should the situation be any different for deaf children and deaf adults? This article considers the results of previous studies and some new findings in examining the possible impact of spoken language and sign language fluencies/preferences on the structure and process of memory in deaf individuals. Current evidence suggests that there are some differences in the organization of long-term memory in deaf as compared to hearing people, but no one has yet demonstrated such differences to be so large that they qualitatively or quantitatively affect learning in any real sense. In contrast, there is now abundant evidence to suggest that variation in spoken language abilities have a direct impact on memory span and perhaps on working memory more generally. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the education of students who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

Retained neuropsychological abilities of individuals with Alzheimer's disease.

Individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) retain certain cognitive abilities over the course of the disease. In this article, we describe retained cognitive-linguistic abilities and the status of activities of daily living (ADLs) of individuals in the early, middle, and late stages of AD. Knowledge of preserved abilities in AD is necessary for clinicians to structure communication-stimulation programs and to train caregivers in the most effective ways to facilitate communication. Using the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) for staging severity of AD, an outline of preserved abilities by disease stage is provided. Attention, memory, and communication abilities are discussed, and samples of discourse from patients at different stages are included.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Memory bias for panic-related material in patients with panic disorder.

Two experiments investigated memory bias for panic-related material in 40 patients with panic disorder and 40 healthy control subjects. No memory bias was found on a memory task that tested intentional encoding and explicit recall of panic-related versus non-panic-related sentences. In contrast, a significant memory bias was apparent on a memory task requiring classification of panic-related and non-panic-related words to test conceptual information processing in implicit memory. Panic patients learned panic-related material better than controls.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Neuropsychological predictors of everyday memory and everyday functioning in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease.

The contributions of executive function, naming, visuoperception, and delayed recall to everyday memory abilities and everyday living activities were examined in a sample (n = 24) of mildly impaired Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Everyday memory was rated independently by the patient and by a caregiver, and everyday functioning was rated by a caregiver. For patient-rated everyday memory, verbal recall accounted for 23% of the variance, while naming performance alone accounted for 56% of the variance in caregiver-rated everyday memory. Executive function was a unique and significant predictor of caregiver-rated functional daily living skills, accounting for 40% of the variance. Clinician's ratings of patient unawareness of deficit correlated with the discrepancy between caregiver and patient rating of memory. Caregiver reports of memory impairment appear to be influenced by naming abilities, indicating that language dysfunction may be misinterpreted as reflecting memory impairment. Helping caregivers distinguish between these two abilities may result in more accurate reporting of patients' impairments.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2005

Reading abilities and cognitive functions of children with epilepsy: influence of epileptic syndrome.

Children with epilepsy are at risk of developing learning disorders. To explore the influence of the epileptic syndrome on reading abilities, we have compared the neuropsychological profile of 12 children with benign idiopathic epilepsy with rolandic spikes, 10 with temporal lobe epilepsy and 12 with idiopathic generalized epilepsy. Children underwent a selection of standardised tests designed to assess: oral language, reading, short-term memory, attention and behavioural adjustment. Analysis of variance was adjusted according to age of onset of the epileptic syndrome, duration of the syndrome, and performance IQ for each group. Children with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) had significantly lower scores for reading speed and comprehension, but epileptic variables (the age of onset of epilepsy, duration and activity of epilepsy) had influenced academic performances. In the TLE group there was a clear effect of the topography of the epileptic foci (left-side TLE vs. right-side TLE) on reading profile. Furthermore, the effect of epileptic syndromes was found in phonological, semantic and verbal working memory deficits in the TLE group. To a lesser extent children with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) also exhibit cognitive deficit. The results of the present study lend support to epilepsy-specific patterns of neuropsychological dysfunction in children that should be considered to improve remediation of academic underachievement in these populations.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Neuropsychology of cerebral palsy].

INTRODUCTION: Cognitive performance in cerebral palsy (CP) varies between being completely normal and severe mental retardation. This heterogeneity depends on several factors, including the type of paralysis and associated cerebral lesions. DEVELOPMENT: We review neuropsychological studies with reference to general cognitive performance and specific performance (language, memory, attention and visuospatial functions). We also consider studies relating neuroimaging and neuropsychology in the different types of CP. CONCLUSIONS: Language is one of the best preserved functions studied in CP, apart from effects due to the lesion itself. Defects of articulation may affect understanding but not to any great extent. Immediate memory also seems to be relatively well preserved. In general no effects of lateralization are seen with regard to language or memory, although this may be seen when carrying out complex tasks or when involving attention and visuoconstructive tasks. The relatively few studies relating neuroimaging and neuropsychology are inconclusive regarding specific abilities.

Cerebral Palsy↗

PubMed1994

Right hemisphere restitution of language and memory functions in right hemisphere language-dominant patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy.

Concomitant with the right hemispheric restitution of language functions after early left hemisphere lesions, suppression effects on originally right hemispheric visuospatial/constructional functions have repeatedly been reported. The present study evaluated this issue in 10 right hemisphere language-dominant patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Left hemisphere language-dominant patients with left (n = 10) or right (n = 10) temporal lobe epilepsy served as controls. The following results were obtained: in all but one of the right dominant patients, left hemisphere lesions, left hemisphere foci and histories of early left brain damage indicated that secondary language transfer rather than a genetically determination is the more likely cause of the right hemisphere dominance. Despite this transfer, the language functions (comprehension, fluency, reasoning) of the right dominant patients remained significantly impaired. Language generally appeared to be better preserved in patients with an onset of epilepsy before the third year of life or a circumscribed left hemisphere lesion. No suppression effects could be detected on the level of complex cortical language and non-language functions. In contrast, on the level of temporo-limbic memory functions, verbal learning and recognition were left largely intact, albeit mostly at the expense of visuo-spatial learning and memory. The findings of the study thus indicate that the cerebral plasticity of the right hemisphere differs according to the extent of the left-hemisphere lesion, the onset of structural/functional damage and the complexity of the functions requiring restitution. Assuming that language and memory represent neocortical and palaeocortical functions, respectively, the restitution process is seemingly governed by their status in a phylogenetically determined hierarchy of functional importance.

Brain Diseases↗