Computerized Measures of Verbal Working Memory Performance in Healthy Elderly Participants

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (Fall) ◽  
pp. 73-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrienne B. Hancock ◽  
Leonard L. LaPointe ◽  
Julie A. G. Stierwalt ◽  
Michelle S. Bourgeois ◽  
Rolf A. Zwaan
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Healthy Elderly ◽  
Computerized Measures

scholarly journals Effects of valent image-based secondary tasks on verbal working memory

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. 1440-1456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip L Morgan ◽  
Craig Williams ◽  
Fay M Ings ◽  
Nia C Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Free Recall ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
International Affective Picture System ◽  
Secondary Tasks ◽  
Negative Images ◽  
Task Interruption ◽  
Lower Valence

Two experiments examined if exposure to emotionally valent image-based secondary tasks introduced at different points of a free recall working memory (WM) task impair memory performance. Images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) varied in the degree of negative or positive valance (mild, moderate, strong) and were positioned at low, moderate and high WM load points with participants rating them based upon perceived valence. As predicted, and based on previous research and theory, the higher the degree of negative (Experiment 1) and positive (Experiment 2) valence and the higher the WM load when a secondary task was introduced, the greater the impairment to recall. Secondary task images with strong negative valance were more disruptive than negative images with lower valence at moderate and high WM load task points involving encoding and/or rehearsal of primary task words (Experiment 1). This was not the case for secondary tasks involving positive images (Experiment 2), although participant valence ratings for positive IAPS images classified as moderate and strong were in fact very similar. Implications are discussed in relation to research and theory on task interruption and attentional narrowing and literature concerning the effects of emotive stimuli on cognition.

Brain correlates of action word memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zubaida Shebani ◽  
Francesca Carota ◽  
Olaf Hauk ◽  
James B. Rowe ◽  
Lawrence W. Barsalou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Verbal Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Action Perception ◽  
Brain Correlates ◽  
Posterior Parietal

AbstractWhen understanding language semantically related to actions, the motor cortex is active and may be sensitive to semantic information, for example about the body-part-relationship of displayed action-related words. Conversely, movements of the hands or feet can impair memory performance for arm- and leg-related action words respectively, suggesting that the role of motor systems extends to verbal working memory. Here, we studied brain correlates of verbal memory load for action-related words using event-related fMRI during the encoding and memory maintenance of word lists. Seventeen participants saw either four identical or four different words from the same category, semantically related to actions typically performed either with the arms or with the legs. After a variable delay of 4-14 seconds, they performed a nonmatching-to-sample task. Hemodynamic activity related to the information load of words at presentation was most prominent in left temporo-occipital and bilateral posterior-parietal areas. In contrast, larger demand on verbal memory maintenance produced greater activation in left premotor and supplementary motor cortex, along with posterior-parietal areas, indicating that verbal memory circuits for action-related words include the cortical action system. Somatotopic memory load effects of arm- and leg-related words were not present at the typical precentral loci where earlier studies had found such word-category differences in reading tasks, although traces of somatotopic semantic mappings were observed at more anterior cortical regions. These results support a neurocomputational model of distributed action-perception circuits (APCs), according to which language understanding is manifest as full ignition of APCs, whereas working memory is realized as reverberant activity gradually receding to multimodal prefrontal and lateral temporal areas.

scholarly journals Mental Rotational Ability Is Correlated with Spatial but Not Verbal Working Memory Performance and P300 Amplitude in Males

PLoS ONE ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. e57390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory J. Christie ◽  
Charles M. Cook ◽  
Brian J. Ward ◽  
Matthew S. Tata ◽  
Janice Sutherland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
P300 Amplitude

scholarly journals Effect of cortisol levels on working memory performance in elderly subjects with Alzheimer's disease

2008 ◽  
Vol 66 (3b) ◽  
pp. 619-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Nery de Souza-Talarico ◽  
Paulo Caramelli ◽  
Ricardo Nitrini ◽  
Eliane Corrêa Chaves
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Digit Span ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Acute Administration ◽  
Healthy Elderly ◽  
Cortisol Levels

BACKGROUND: Subjects with Alzheimer's disease (AD) have elevated cortisol levels as a result of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction. Acute administration of hydrocortisone has been associated with working memory (WM) performance in young adults. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether cortisol levels are associated with WM performance in subjects with AD. METHOD: Eighty subjects were included, comprising 40 patients with mild AD and 40 healthy elderly controls. WM was assessed using the Digit Span Backward test (DSB). Saliva samples were collected to determine cortisol levels. RESULTS: AD subjects had poorer performance on the DSB than controls (p=0.002) and also presented higher levels of cortisol than control group (p=0.04). No significant correlation was observed between the DSB and cortisol levels in both groups (r= -0.29). CONCLUSION: In this study, elevated cortisol levels were not associated with poorer WM performance in patients with AD or in healthy elderly subjects.

Fractionation of Verbal Memory Impairment in Schizophrenia and Schizophreniform Psychosis

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (9) ◽  
pp. 732-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Wood ◽  
Aleks U. Tarnawski ◽  
Tina M. Proffitt ◽  
Warrick J. Brewer ◽  
Greg R. Savage ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Associative Learning ◽  
Verbal Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
First Episode ◽  
Story Recall ◽  
Associate Learning ◽  
The Impact

Objectives: The characterization, aetiology, and course of verbal memory deficits in schizophrenia remain ill defined. The impact of antipsychotic medications is also unclear. The purpose of the present paper was to investigate verbal memory performance in established schizophrenia (SZ) and first-episode schizophreniform psychosis (FE). Method: Performances of 32 SZ and 33 FE patients were compared to those of 47 healthy volunteers on measures of verbal working memory, verbal associative learning and story recall. Results: Story recall deficits, but not deficits in working memory or paired associate learning, were demonstrated by both patient groups. Patients treated with typical neuroleptics had more impairment in associative learning with arbitrary word pairings than those treated with atypicals, regardless of patient group. Conclusions: The results are consistent with the notion that some neuropsychological impairment is present at the time of psychosis onset and that this impairment is non-progressive. However, deficits may be specific to subclasses of memory function.

Verbal working memory in HIV-seropositive drug users

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 548-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROXANNA FARINPOUR ◽  
EILEEN M. MARTIN ◽  
MICHAEL SEIDENBERG ◽  
DAVID L. PITRAK ◽  
KENNETH J. PURSELL ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Drug Users ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Memory Deficits ◽  
Visuospatial Working Memory ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Pointing Task ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Hiv Seropositive

Recent evidence suggests that HIV-seropositive drug users are impaired on tasks of visuospatial working memory compared with drug users seronegative for HIV. In the current study we evaluated the performance of 30 HIV-seropositive male drug users and 30 risk-matched seronegative controls on two measures of verbal working memory, the Listening Span and the verbal Self Ordered Pointing Task. Impaired working memory performance was significantly more common among HIV-seropositive persons compared to controls, with the highest incidence of deficit among symptomatic participants. These findings indicate that working memory deficits in persons with HIV are not domain-specific and can be demonstrated reliably in drug users. (JINS, 2000, 6, 548–555.)

scholarly journals The influence of schooling on working memory performance in elderly individuals without cognitive decline

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 276-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Nery de Souza-Talarico ◽  
Paulo Caramelli ◽  
Ricardo Nitrini ◽  
Eliane Corrêa Chaves
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Digit Span ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Multiple Linear Regression Model ◽  
Statistical Correlation ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Elderly Individuals ◽  
Healthy Elderly ◽  
The Difference

Abstract Over recent decades, research on cognition has been developed rapidly toward better understanding the cognitive changes that usually occur during normal aging. There is evidence that elderly individuals have worse working memory performance than young adults. However, the effect of education on this cognitive function remains unclear. Objectives: To analyze the performance of healthy elderly subjects on working memory tasks and to verify the influence of educational level on this performance. Methods: Forty elderly individuals without cognitive impairment and fully independent, were randomly chosen from a group of subjects participating in cultural activities at the university campus. The Digit Span Forward (DSF) test was used to evaluate attention performance. The working memory performance was assessed by the Digit Span Backward (DSB) and the difference between DSF and DSB. The data were statistically analyzed using the Spearman's correlation coefficient to verify the correlation between the Digit Span (DS) scores and the variables age and schooling, while the Multiple Linear Regression Model was used to verify the effect of these variables on the DS scores. Results: A significant positive correlation (r=0.41, p<0.01) as well as a significant association (b=0.506; p=0.001; CI 95%= 0.064/0.237) were found between years of schooling and DSB scores. It was not observed statistical correlation (r= -0.08, p=0.64) or association (b=0.41; p=0.775; CI 95%= -0.049/0.065) between age and DSB scores. Conclusion: In this study, higher levels of schooling were associated with better working memory performance in cognitively healthy elders.

scholarly journals Verbal working memory performance in older Schizophrenia patients

1998 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-53
Author(s):  
D. Byrd ◽  
J. Paulsen ◽  
S. Squibb ◽  
R. Heaton ◽  
D. Jeste
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Verbal Working Memory
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