scholarly journals Computerized Assessment of Memory Performance in Dementia

Author(s):  
Francisco I. Perez ◽  
Nancy A. Hruska ◽  
Rebecca L. Stell ◽  
Victor M. Rivera

SUMMARY:Memory deficits in demented patients were studied by applying a computerized system to titrate individual memory performance. Two delayed matching to sample tasks were used. ABA1 involved random visual shapes used as a measure of visual memory. ABA 2 involved nonsense syllable trigrams used as a measure of verbal memory. A Human Test System panel with a display screen was utilized. This screen was a rear view projection window divided into four independent 3 x 2 sections arranged in a 2 x 2 matrix. The sample stimulus appeared on the upper left window for one second. The delay interval between stimulus sample and choices varied by 7 seconds dependent upon patient performance per trial. A Iso utilized was a color distractor task. Task parameters, data acquisition, retrieval, and graphic print-outs were all computerized. Individual titration levels reflected the severity of neurological impairment. Computerized assessment enabled subtle changes in memory performance to be readily identified. Implications for use of the system as a screening device in the assessment of mental changes in the elderly are apparent.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1139-1139
Author(s):  
Kristina E Smith ◽  
Daniel W Lopez-Hernandez ◽  
Alexis Bueno ◽  
Rachel A Rugh-Fraser ◽  
Bethany A Nordberg ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective We examined perceived workload as it is related to Brief Visual Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R) short-delay and long-delay performance in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and healthy comparison (HC) participants. Method The sample consisted of 39 TBI participants and 54 HC participants. Demographically corrected BVMT-R scores were used to evaluate short-delay and long-delay performances. The perceived workload was measured using the NASA-TLX. Results ANOVA revealed that the HC group outperformed the TBI group on the BVMT-R short-delay and long-delay score, p < 05, η p 2 = 0.05. ANCOVAs controlling for age were used to evaluate NASA-TLX group differences. In regards to the NASA-TLX, TBI participants reported higher levels of physical demand, effort, frustration and overall subjective workload on the BVMT-R short-delay compared to HC participants, p < 05, η p 2 = 0.01–0.09. Furthermore, on the long-delay of the BVMT-R, the NASA-TLX revealed that the TBI group reported higher levels of temporal demand, effort, frustration and overall subjective workload compared to the HC group, p < 0.05, η p 2 = 0.05–0.14. Conclusions Results revealed that TBI participants demonstrated worse BVMT-R performances than HC participants. However, TBI survivors reported higher perceived workload demands compared to the HC group in both short-delay and long-delay of the BVMT-R. Our findings suggest that TBI impacts non-verbal memory performance in both BVMT-R short-delay and long-delay. Also, brain injury may be impacting TBI survivors’ awareness of their non-verbal memory performance. Further work is required to determine what drives the impaired perception of non-verbal memory performance among TBI survivors.



2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (30) ◽  
pp. E4367-E4376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Sarfaty Siegel ◽  
Lenny E. Ramsey ◽  
Abraham Z. Snyder ◽  
Nicholas V. Metcalf ◽  
Ravi V. Chacko ◽  
...  

Deficits following stroke are classically attributed to focal damage, but recent evidence suggests a key role of distributed brain network disruption. We measured resting functional connectivity (FC), lesion topography, and behavior in multiple domains (attention, visual memory, verbal memory, language, motor, and visual) in a cohort of 132 stroke patients, and used machine-learning models to predict neurological impairment in individual subjects. We found that visual memory and verbal memory were better predicted by FC, whereas visual and motor impairments were better predicted by lesion topography. Attention and language deficits were well predicted by both. Next, we identified a general pattern of physiological network dysfunction consisting of decrease of interhemispheric integration and intrahemispheric segregation, which strongly related to behavioral impairment in multiple domains. Network-specific patterns of dysfunction predicted specific behavioral deficits, and loss of interhemispheric communication across a set of regions was associated with impairment across multiple behavioral domains. These results link key organizational features of brain networks to brain–behavior relationships in stroke.



2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 194-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen L. Siedlecki

Abstract. Individuals between the ages of 18 and 94 (N = 326) completed a battery of episodic memory tasks, as well as several measures of spatial visualization. A female advantage in verbal episodic memory and a male advantage in spatial and visual episodic memory were observed. Mediation analyses provided evidence that performance on spatial visualization tasks greatly influences the magnitude of the effect for sex differences among the different episodic memory constructs. In particular, the spatial visualization construct fully mediated the relationship between sex and episodic spatial memory performance. Further, when spatial visualization was included as a mediator in the model the relationship between sex and episodic verbal memory increased, and the relationship between sex and episodic visual memory reversed, such that women scored higher than men.



2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 906-906
Author(s):  
K Stypulkowski ◽  
J Roberts ◽  
A Robledo ◽  
M Maxfield

Abstract Objective Prospective and retrospective memory complaints are common among older adults with mixed results regarding their relationship with objective memory performance. This study investigated how subjective memory reports relate to objective memory function in a clinical sample. Method Participants (N = 139, Mage = 69.9, SD = 9.2) completed a cognitive screen at a university clinic. The assessment included the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (verbal memory), the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test – Revised (visual memory) and the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire, a subjective memory measure with higher scores indicating greater perceived difficulties. Correlations and linear regressions were used to evaluate the relationship between subjective and objective memory (a priori p-value = .01). Results Retrospective memory was correlated with immediate (r = -.35, p < .001) and delayed verbal memory (r = -.31, p < .001) but unrelated to visual memory (p > .05). Prospective memory was not correlated with performance on visual or verbal memory tasks (p > .05). Retrospective memory accounted for 12.3% of the variation in immediate (adjusted R2 = 11.6%; medium effect size), and 9.3% of the variation in delayed verbal memory (adjusted R2 = 8.6%; small effect size). Retrospective memory significantly predicted immediate [F(1, 132) = 18.48, p < .001, 95% CI = -1.04 to -0.38] and delayed verbal memory scores [F(1, 132) = 13.51, p < .001, 95% CI = -1.09 to -0.33]. Conclusions Subjective reports of retrospective memory may be a better indicator of objective verbal memory performance than prospective memory in a clinical sample of older adults.



2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (13) ◽  
pp. 1765-1772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen Lacy ◽  
Meagan Hauser ◽  
Neil Pliskin ◽  
Stephanie Assuras ◽  
Mildred O Valentine ◽  
...  

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressive disease of the central nervous system that affects cognition. Short-term treatment with interferon-beta-1b (IFN-b-1b) has been shown to have beneficial effects on cognition. Objective: The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effects of IFN-b-1b on cognitive functioning in patients with MS over the course of 16 years. Methods: Sixteen subjects with relapsing–remitting MS participated in the study. Nine of these subjects received IFN-b-1b, while seven received placebo treatment in the pivotal MS trial. After five years, all subjects were switched to IFN-b-1b treatment. At two and four years into the study, all subjects underwent a brief neuropsychological test battery, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and neurologic ratings; measures were repeated at 16 years. Results: Across the total cohort, cognitive functioning remained relatively stable over the course of 16 years. The placebo/IFN-b-b group exhibited increased visual memory performance relative to the IFN-b-1b treatment group, but had a greater decline in verbal memory. Initial MRI lesion load demonstrated a significant, negative correlation with overall cognitive performance at 16 years ( p = 0.00). Conclusion: We conclude that IFN-b-1b has beneficial effects on long-term cognition outcomes in MS.



2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-244
Author(s):  
Paula Squarzoni ◽  
Daniele de Paula Faria ◽  
Mônica Sanches Yassuda ◽  
Fábio Henrique de Gobbi Porto ◽  
Artur Martins Coutinho ◽  
...  

Background: Studies of elderly subjects using biomarkers that are proxies for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology have the potential to document meaningful relationships between cognitive performance and biomarker changes along the AD continuum. Objective: To document cognitive performance differences across distinct AD stages using a categorization based on the presence of PET-assessed amyloid-β (Aβ) burden and neurodegeneration. Methods: Patients with mild dementia compatible with AD (n = 38) or amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI; n = 43) and a cognitively unimpaired group (n = 27) underwent PET with Pittsburgh compound-B (PiB) assessing Aβ aggregation (A+) and [18F]FDG-PET assessing neurodegeneration ((N)+). Cognitive performance was assessed with verbal and visual episodic memory tests and the Mini-Mental State Examination. Results: The A+(N)+ subgroup (n = 32) showed decreased (p < 0.001) cognitive test scores compared to both A+(N)–(n = 18) and A–(N)–(n = 49) subjects, who presented highly similar mean cognitive scores. Despite its modest size (n = 9), the A–(N)+ subgroup showed lower (p < 0.043) verbal memory scores relative to A–(N)–subjects, and trend lower (p = 0.096) scores relative to A+(N)–subjects. Continuous Aβ measures (standard uptake value ratios of PiB uptake) were correlated most significantly with visual memory scores both in the overall sample and when analyses were restricted to dementia or (N)+ subjects, but not in non-dementia or (N)–groups. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that significant Aβ-cognition relationships are highly salient at disease stages involving neurodegeneration. The fact that findings relating Aβ burden to memory performance were detected only at (N)+ stages, together with the similarity of test scores between A+(N)–and A–(N)–subjects, reinforce the view that Aβ-cognition relationships during early AD stages may remain undetectable unless substantially large samples are evaluated.



2019 ◽  
Vol 131 (3) ◽  
pp. 790-798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Woorim Jeong ◽  
Hyeongrae Lee ◽  
June Sic Kim ◽  
Chun Kee Chung

OBJECTIVEHow the brain supports intermediate-term preservation of memory in patients who have undergone unilateral medial temporal lobe resection (MTLR) has not yet been demonstrated. To understand the neural basis of episodic memory in the intermediate term after surgery for temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), the authors investigated the relationship between the activation of the hippocampus (HIP) during successful memory encoding and individual memory capacity in patients who had undergone MTLR. They also compared hippocampal activation with other parameters, including structural volumes of the HIP, duration of illness, and age at seizure onset.METHODSThirty-five adult patients who had undergone unilateral MTLR at least 1 year before recruiting and who had a favorable seizure outcome were enrolled (17 left MTLR, 18 right MTLR; mean follow-up 6.31 ± 2.72 years). All patients underwent a standardized neuropsychological examination of memory function and functional MRI scanning with a memory-encoding paradigm of words and figures. Activations of the HIP during successful memory encoding were calculated and compared with standard neuropsychological memory scores, hippocampal volumes, and other clinical variables.RESULTSGreater activation in the HIP contralateral to the side of the resection was related to higher postoperative memory scores and greater postoperative memory improvement than the preoperative baseline in both patient groups. Specifically, postoperative verbal memory performance was positively correlated with contralateral right hippocampal activation during word encoding in the left-sided surgery group. In contrast, postoperative visual memory performance was positively correlated with contralateral left hippocampal activation during figure encoding in the right-sided surgery group. Activation of the ipsilateral remnant HIP was not correlated with any memory scores or volumes of the HIP; however, it had a negative correlation with the seizure-onset age and positive correlation with the duration of illness in both patient groups.CONCLUSIONSFor the first time, a neural basis that supports effective intermediate-term episodic memory after unilateral MTLR has been characterized. The results provide evidence that engagement of the HIP contralateral rather than ipsilateral to the side of resection is responsible for effective memory function in the intermediate term (> 1 year) after surgery in patients who have undergone left MTLR and right MTLR. Engagement of the material-specific contralesional HIP, verbal memory in the left-sided surgery group, and visual memory in the right-sided surgery group were observed.



2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 68-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibylle Heinze ◽  
Gudrun Sartory ◽  
Bernhard W. Müller ◽  
Armin de Greiff ◽  
Michael Forsting ◽  
...  

Neuroimaging studies have indicated involvement of left prefrontal cortex and temporal areas in verbal memory processes. The current study used event-related functional neuroimaging to compare encoding of subsequently recalled and not recalled words in high and low memory performers. Fifteen healthy volunteers were given lists of words to learn with immediate recall and to read as a control condition. High performers reported to have visualized the words whereas low performers used a rehearsal strategy. Compared to reading, unsuccessful encoding was associated with thalamic and left premotor area (BA 6) activity. Comparing successful with unsuccessful learning yielded widespread activity of the left prefrontal and posterior temporal gyrus as well as the left superior parietal lobe in the whole group. Low performers showed activation of the left premotor area throughout learning and additionally of the left middle temporal and parahippocampal gyrus during successful encoding. High performers showed increased activation in the extrastriate cortex throughout learning and additionally in the left parietal post- and paracentral areas as well as in the right precuneus during successful encoding. The results suggest that high verbal memory performance is the result of spatiovisual activation concomitant to imagery and low performance of hippocampal and motor activation, the latter being associated with rehearsal, with a common memory circuit subserving both groups.



2010 ◽  
Vol 218 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Slawomira J. Diener ◽  
Herta Flor ◽  
Michèle Wessa

Impairments in declarative memory have been reported in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Fragmentation of explicit trauma-related memory has been assumed to impede the formation of a coherent memorization of the traumatic event and the integration into autobiographic memory. Together with a strong non-declarative memory that connects trauma reminders with a fear response the impairment in declarative memory is thought to be involved in the maintenance of PTSD symptoms. Fourteen PTSD patients, 14 traumatized subjects without PTSD, and 13 non-traumatized healthy controls (HC) were tested with the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) to assess verbal declarative memory. PTSD symptoms were assessed with the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale and depression with the Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Several indices of the CVLT pointed to an impairment in declarative memory performance in PTSD, but not in traumatized persons without PTSD or HC. No group differences were observed if recall of memory after a time delay was set in relation to initial learning performance. In the PTSD group verbal memory performance correlated significantly with hyperarousal symptoms, after concentration difficulties were accounted for. The present study confirmed previous reports of declarative verbal memory deficits in PTSD. Extending previous results, we propose that learning rather than memory consolidation is impaired in PTSD patients. Furthermore, arousal symptoms may interfere with successful memory formation in PTSD.





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