Sentence processing and verbal working memory in a white-matter-disconnection patient

Objective: Sexual dimorphism has been investigated in schizophrenia, although sex-specific differences among individuals who are at clinical high-risk (CHR) for developing psychosis have been inconclusive. This study aims to characterize sexual dimorphism of language areas in the brain by investigating the asymmetry of four white matter tracts relevant to verbal working memory in CHR patients compared to healthy controls (HC). HC typically show a leftward asymmetry of these tracts. Moreover, structural abnormalities in asymmetry and verbal working memory dysfunctions have been associated with neurodevelopmental abnormalities and are considered core features of schizophrenia.Methods: Twenty-nine subjects with CHR (17 female/12 male) for developing psychosis and twenty-one HC (11 female/10 male) matched for age, sex, and education were included in the study. Two-tensor unscented Kalman filter tractography, followed by an automated, atlas-guided fiber clustering approach, were used to identify four fiber tracts related to verbal working memory: the superior longitudinal fasciculi (SLF) I, II and III, and the superior occipitofrontal fasciculus (SOFF). Using fractional anisotropy (FA) of tissue as the primary measure, we calculated the laterality index for each tract.Results: There was a significantly greater right>left asymmetry of the SLF-III in CHR females compared to HC females, but no hemispheric difference between CHR vs. HC males. Moreover, the laterality index of SLF-III for CHR females correlated negatively with Backward Digit Span performance, suggesting a greater rightward asymmetry was associated with poorer working memory functioning.Conclusion: This study suggests increased rightward asymmetry of the SLF-III in CHR females. This finding of sexual dimorphism in white matter asymmetry in a language-related area of the brain in CHR highlights the need for a deeper understanding of the role of sex in the high-risk state. Future work investigating early sex-specific pathophysiological mechanisms, may lead to the development of novel personalized treatment strategies aimed at preventing transition to a more chronic and difficult-to-treat disorder.

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Lower Working Memory Performance in Overweight and Obese Adolescents Is Mediated by White Matter Microstructure

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617715001265 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 281-292 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Gabriela Alarcón ◽

Siddharth Ray ◽

Bonnie J. Nagel

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

White Matter ◽

Spatial Working Memory ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Bold Signal ◽

The Relationship

AbstractObjectives: Elevated body mass index (BMI) is associated with deficits in working memory, reduced gray matter volume in frontal and parietal lobes, as well as changes in white matter (WM) microstructure. The current study examined whether BMI was related to working memory performance and blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activity, as well as WM microstructure during adolescence. Methods: Linear regressions with BMI and (1) verbal working memory BOLD signal, (2) spatial working memory BOLD signal, and (3) fractional anisotropy (FA), a measure of WM microstructure, were conducted in a sample of 152 healthy adolescents ranging in BMI. Results: BMI was inversely related to IQ and verbal and spatial working memory accuracy; however, there was no significant relationship between BMI and BOLD response for either verbal or spatial working memory. Furthermore, BMI was negatively correlated with FA in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and left inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF). ILF FA and IQ significantly mediated the relationship between BMI and verbal working memory performance, whereas SLF FA, but not IQ, significantly mediated the relationship between BMI and accuracy of both verbal and spatial working memory. Conclusions: These findings indicate that higher BMI is associated with decreased FA in WM fibers connecting brain regions that support working memory, and that WM microstructural deficits may underlie inferior working memory performance in youth with higher BMI. Of interest, BMI did not show the same relationship with working memory BOLD activity, which may indicate that changes in brain structure precede changes in function. (JINS, 2015, 21, 281–292)

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Verbal Working Memory and Sentence Comprehension in Children With Specific Language Impairment

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jslhr.4302.293 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 43 (2) ◽

pp. 293-308 ◽

Cited By ~ 174

Author(s):

James W. Montgomery

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Memory Task ◽

Load Condition ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Receptive Vocabulary ◽

Physical Size ◽

Comprehension Task

In this study we examined the influence of verbal working memory on sentence comprehension in children with SLI. Twelve children with SLI, 12 normally developing children matched for age (CA), and 12 children matched for receptive vocabulary (VM) completed two tasks. In the verbal working memory task, children recalled as many real words as possible under three processing load conditions (i.e., no-load condition; single-load condition, where words were recalled according to physical size of word referents; and dual-load condition, where words were recalled by semantic category and physical size of word referents). In the sentence comprehension task, children listened to linguistically nonredundant (shorter) and linguistically redundant (longer) sentences. Results of the memory task showed that the children with SLI recalled fewer words in the dual-load condition than their CA peers, who showed no condition effect. The SLI and VM groups performed similarly overall, but both groups showed poorer recall in the dual-load condition than in the other conditions. On the sentence comprehension task, children with SLI comprehended fewer sentences of both types than the CA children and fewer redundant sentences relative to themselves and to the VM children. Results were interpreted to suggest that children with SLI (a) have less functional verbal working memory capacity (i.e., ability to coordinate both storage and processing functions) than their CA peers and (b) have greater difficulty managing both their working memory abilities and general processing resources than both age peers and younger children when performing a "complex" off-line sentence processing task.

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White Matter Integrity Correlates of the Reading Span

10.20944/preprints202101.0254.v2 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ekaterina V. Pechenkova ◽

Yana R. Panikratova ◽

Maria A. Fomina ◽

Elena A. Mershina ◽

Daria A. Bazhenova ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

White Matter ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Diffusion Tensor ◽

Structural Connectivity ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

The Body ◽

White Matter Integrity ◽

Reading Span ◽

The Right

Although working memory (WM) is crucial for intellectual abilities, not much is known about its brain underpinnings, especially the structural connectivity. We used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to look across the whole brain for the white matter integrity correlates of the individual differences in the reading span (verbal WM capacity during reading) in healthy adults. Right-handed healthy native Russian speakers (N = 67) underwent DTI on a 3T Philips Ingenia scanner. Verbal WM was assessed with the Daneman-Carpenter reading span test (Russian version). Fractional anisotropy maps from each participant were entered into the group tract-based spatial statistics analysis with the reading span as a covariate; the results were TFCE-corrected. After taking into account effects of age, sex, education and handedness, reading span positively correlated with the white matter integrity in multiple sites: the body, the genu and the splenium of corpus callosum; bilateral corona radiata (anterior, posterior, and superior); bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus; several tracts in the right hemisphere only, including the internal and external capsule; bilateral superior parietal and frontal white matter. Although the left hemisphere is central for verbal processing, we revealed the important role of the right hemisphere white matter for the verbal WM capacity. Our finding indicates that larger verbal working memory span may originate from additional processing resources of the right hemisphere.

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The Role of Broca's Area in Sentence Comprehension

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2010.21530 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (7) ◽

pp. 1664-1680 ◽

Cited By ~ 130

Author(s):

Corianne Rogalsky ◽

Gregory Hickok

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Functional Organization ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

General Function ◽

Broca’S Area ◽

Broca's Area

The role of Broca's area in sentence processing has been debated for the last 30 years. A central and still unresolved issue is whether Broca's area plays a specific role in some aspect of syntactic processing (e.g., syntactic movement, hierarchical structure building) or whether it serves a more general function on which sentence processing relies (e.g., working memory). This review examines the functional organization of Broca's area in regard to its contributions to sentence comprehension, verbal working memory, and other multimodal cognitive processes. We suggest that the data are consistent with the view that at least a portion of the contribution of Broca's area to sentence comprehension can be attributed to its role as a phonological short-term memory resource. Furthermore, our review leads us to conclude that there is no compelling evidence that there are sentence-specific processing regions within Broca's area.

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Language-Specific Attention Treatment for Aphasia: Description and Preliminary Findings

Seminars in Speech and Language ◽

10.1055/s-0036-1597260 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 38 (01) ◽

pp. 005-016 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Richard Peach ◽

Meghana Nathan ◽

Katherine Beck

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Processing Speed ◽

Auditory Processing ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Visual Selective Attention ◽

Moderate Degree ◽

Attentional Deficits ◽

Specific Skill ◽

Test Retest Reliability

The need for a specific, language-based treatment approach to aphasic impairments associated with attentional deficits is well documented. We describe language-specific attention treatment, a specific skill-based approach for aphasia that exploits increasingly complex linguistic tasks that focus attention. The program consists of eight tasks, some with multiple phases, to assess and treat lexical and sentence processing. Validation results demonstrate that these tasks load on six attentional domains: (1) executive attention; (2) attentional switching; (3) visual selective attention/processing speed; (4) sustained attention; (5) auditory-verbal working memory; and (6) auditory processing speed. The program demonstrates excellent inter- and intrarater reliability and adequate test–retest reliability. Two of four people with aphasia exposed to this program demonstrated good language recovery whereas three of the four participants showed improvements in auditory-verbal working memory. The results provide support for this treatment program in patients with aphasia having no greater than a moderate degree of attentional impairment.

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The Measurement of Verbal Working Memory Capacity and Its Relation to Reading Comprehension

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A ◽

10.1080/713755607 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 49 (1) ◽

pp. 51-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 139

Author(s):

Gloria S. Waters ◽

David Caplan

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Reading Comprehension ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Digit Span ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Span Task ◽

Word Recall ◽

Reading Span ◽

Visual Spatial ◽

Span Tasks

Ninety-four subjects were tested on the Daneman and Carpenter (1980) reading span task, four versions of a related sentence span task in which reaction times and accuracy on sentence processing were measured along with sentence-final word recall, two number generation tasks designed to test working memory, digit span, and two shape-generation tasks designed to measure visual-spatial working memory. Forty-four subjects were retested on a subset of these measures at a 3-month interval. All subjects were tested on standard vocabulary and reading tests. Correlational analyses showed better internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the sentence span tasks than of the Daneman-Carpenter reading span task. Factor analysis showed no factor that could be related to a central verbal working memory; rotated factors suggested groupings of tests into factors that correspond to digit related tasks, spatial tasks, sentence processing in sentence span tasks, and recall in sentence span tasks. Correlational analyses and regression analyses showed that the sentence processing component of the sentence span tasks was the best predictor of performance on the reading test, with a small independent contribution of the recall component. The results suggest that sentence span tasks are unreliable unless measurements are made of both their sentence processing and recall components, and that the predictive value of these tasks for reading comprehension abilities lies in the overlap of operations rather than in limitations in verbal working memory that apply to both.

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