scholarly journals Early visual deprivation does not prevent the emergence of basic numerical abilities in blind children.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Crollen ◽  
Hélène Warusfel ◽  
Marie-Pascale Noël ◽  
Olivier Collignon
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Mental Arithmetic ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Phonological Loop ◽  
Spatial Span ◽  
Numerical Abilities ◽  
Blind Children ◽  
Congenitally Blind

Studies involving congenitally blind adults demonstrated that visual experience is not a mandatory prerequisite for the emergence of efficient numerical abilities. It remains however unknown whether blind adults developed lifelong strategies to compensate for the absence of foundations vision would provide in infancy. We therefore assessed basic numerical abilities in blind and sighted children of 6 to 13 years old. We also assessed verbal and spatial working memory abilities and their relationship with mental arithmetic in both groups. Blind children showed similar or better numerical abilities as compared to the sighted. Blind children also outperformed their sighted peers in every task assessing verbal working memory and demonstrated a similar spatial span. The correlation between arithmetic and the spatial sketchpad was affected by the group while the correlations between arithmetic and the other two components (the central executive and the phonological loop) were not affected by early visual experience. Our data suggest that early blindness does not impair the development of basic numerical competencies in children but influences the associations between arithmetic and some working memory components.

Neuropsychological functions among adolescents with persistent, subsyndromal and remitted attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (8) ◽  
pp. 1765-1777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. J. Lin ◽  
W. J. Chen ◽  
S. S. Gau
Keyword(s):  
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Attention Deficit ◽  
Visual Recognition ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Memory Impairments ◽  
Spatial Span ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Neuropsychological Functions

BackgroundPrevious studies have reported mixed results on neuropsychological deficits in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and only a few studies have focused on adolescents. There is also a debate about whether the executive function (EF) impairments in ADHD are primary deficits or have some contribution from the underlying non-EF processes. The aim of this study was to investigate the impairments in EF and neuropsychological function with relatively low executive demand (low-EF) in adolescents with childhood diagnosis of ADHD as a function of current ADHD status.MethodPsychiatric diagnostic interviews and computerized neuropsychological tests classified into EF and low-EF tasks were completed by 435 adolescents with a childhood diagnosis of ADHD (300 adolescents classified as persistent ADHD, 109 as subsyndromal ADHD and 26 as remitted ADHD based on the current diagnosis) and 263 typically developing (TD) adolescents.ResultsThere were significant EF (spatial working memory, spatial planning and verbal working memory) and low-EF (signal detectability, spatial span and visual recognition memory) impairments in persistent and subsyndromal ADHD. The impairments in EF were independent of low-EF despite significant moderate correlations between any two of these tasks. Adolescents with remitted ADHD showed no deficit in either EF or low-EF.ConclusionsThis study suggests that adolescents with persistent and subsyndromal ADHD have EF and low-EF impairments that might contribute to ADHD independently.

Shared Predictors of Academic Achievement in Children with ADHD: A Multi-Sample Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 108705472110120
Author(s):  
Kelly D. Carrasco ◽  
Chi-Ching Chuang ◽  
Gail Tripp
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Children With Adhd ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Visual Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Predictors Of Academic Achievement

Objective: To identify common and shared predictors of academic achievement across samples of children with ADHD. Method: Two clinically referred samples from New Zealand (1 n = 88, 82% boys; 2 n = 121, 79% boys) and two community samples from the United States (3 n = 111, 65% boys; 4 n = 114, 69% boys), completed similar diagnostic, cognitive and academic assessments. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses identified significant predictors of word reading, spelling, and math computation performance in each sample. Results: Entered after IQ, semantic language, age at testing, and verbal working memory emerged as consistent predictors of achievement across academic subjects and samples. Visual-spatial working memory contributed to variance in math performance only. Symptom severity explained limited variance. Conclusions: We recommend evaluations of children with ADHD incorporate assessments of working memory and language skills. Classroom/academic interventions should accommodate reduced working memory and address any identified language weaknesses.

scholarly journals Dissociable Mechanisms of Verbal Working Memory Revealed through Multivariate Lesion Mapping

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 2542-2554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Ghaleh ◽  
Elizabeth H Lacey ◽  
Mackenzie E Fama ◽  
Zainab Anbari ◽  
Andrew T DeMarco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Auditory Information ◽  
Verbal Information ◽  
Task Conditions

Abstract Two maintenance mechanisms with separate neural systems have been suggested for verbal working memory: articulatory-rehearsal and non-articulatory maintenance. Although lesion data would be key to understanding the essential neural substrates of these systems, there is little evidence from lesion studies that the two proposed mechanisms crucially rely on different neuroanatomical substrates. We examined 39 healthy adults and 71 individuals with chronic left-hemisphere stroke to determine if verbal working memory tasks with varying demands would rely on dissociable brain structures. Multivariate lesion–symptom mapping was used to identify the brain regions involved in each task, controlling for spatial working memory scores. Maintenance of verbal information relied on distinct brain regions depending on task demands: sensorimotor cortex under higher demands and superior temporal gyrus (STG) under lower demands. Inferior parietal cortex and posterior STG were involved under both low and high demands. These results suggest that maintenance of auditory information preferentially relies on auditory-phonological storage in the STG via a nonarticulatory maintenance when demands are low. Under higher demands, sensorimotor regions are crucial for the articulatory rehearsal process, which reduces the reliance on STG for maintenance. Lesions to either of these regions impair maintenance of verbal information preferentially under the appropriate task conditions.

The Mental Maps of the Blind: The Role of Previous Visual Experience

1982 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G. Dodds ◽  
C. I. Howarth ◽  
D. C. Carter
Keyword(s):  
Visual Experience ◽  
Spatial Reasoning ◽  
Mental Maps ◽  
Spatial Coding ◽  
Spatial Understanding ◽  
Spatial Strategies ◽  
Blind Children ◽  
Coding Strategies ◽  
Congenitally Blind

The structure of spatial representation in congenitally and adventitiously blind 11-year-old children was examined by means of pointing, map-drawing, and spatial reasoning on two simple routes over repeated trials. Although all the children learned how to travel each route successfully after only one trial, three out of four of the congenitally blind children showed a complete lack of spatial understanding, as evinced by “egocentric” or “self-referent” spatial coding strategies, whereas all the adventitiously blind subjects exhibited appropriate externally referent spatial strategies compatible with convential two-dimensional maps. The role of previous visual experience in the encoding and decoding of spatial material in memory is discussed.

scholarly journals Testing Conclusions From Functional Imaging of Working Memory with Data From Acute Stroke

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa E. Philipose ◽  
Hannah Alphs ◽  
Vivek Prabhakaran ◽  
Argye E. Hillis
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Acute Stroke ◽  
Functional Imaging ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Stroke Patients ◽  
Imaging Results ◽  
Cortical Stroke ◽  
The Right

Functional imaging studies indicate that the left hemisphere mediates verbal working memory, while the right hemisphere mediates both verbal and spatial working memory. We evaluated acute stroke patients with working memory tests and imaging to identify whether unilateral dysfunction causes deficits in spatial and/or verbal working memory deficits. While left cortical stroke patients had verbal working memory impairments (p< 0.003), right cortical stroke patients had both verbal (p< 0.007) and spatial working memory (p< 0.03) impairments, confirming functional imaging results. Patients with transient ischemic stroke and patients with non-cortical stroke did not have significant deficits in working memory in either modality.

scholarly journals Social Skills Intervention Participation and Associated Improvements in Executive Function Performance

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn E. Christ ◽  
Janine P. Stichter ◽  
Karen V. O’Connor ◽  
Kimberly Bodner ◽  
Amanda J. Moffitt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Social Competence ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disorder ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Mixing Costs ◽  
Adolescents With Asd

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social communication. It has been postulated that such difficulties are related to disruptions in underlying cognitive processes such as executive function. The present study examined potential changes in executive function performance associated with participation in the Social Competence Intervention (SCI) program, a short-term intervention designed to improve social competence in adolescents with ASD. Laboratory behavioral performance measures were used to separately evaluate potential intervention-related changes in individual executive function component processes (i.e., working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility) in a sample of 22 adolescents with ASD both before and after intervention. For comparison purposes, a demographically matched sample of 14 individuals without ASD was assessed at identical time intervals. Intervention-related improvements were observed on the working memory task, with gains evident in spatial working memory and, to a slightly lesser degree, verbal working memory. Significant improvements were also found for a working memory-related aspect of the task switching test (i.e., mixing costs). Taken together, these findings provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that participation in the SCI program is accompanied by changes in underlying neurocognitive processes such as working memory.

scholarly journals Visuospatial bootstrapping: Binding useful visuospatial information during verbal working memory encoding does not require set-shifting executive resources

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 913-921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Calia ◽  
Stephen Darling ◽  
Jelena Havelka ◽  
Richard J Allen
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Control Process ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Executive Processes ◽  
Immediate Serial Recall ◽  
Task Load ◽  
Single Location ◽  
Visuospatial Information

Immediate serial recall of digits is better when the digits are shown by highlighting them in a familiar array, such as a phone keypad, compared with presenting them serially in a single location, a pattern referred to as “visuospatial bootstrapping.” This pattern implies the establishment of temporary links between verbal and spatial working memory, alongside access to information in long-term memory. However, the role of working memory control processes like those implied by the “Central Executive” in bootstrapping has not been directly investigated. Here, we report a study addressing this issue, focusing on executive processes of attentional shifting. Tasks in which information has to be sequenced are thought to be heavily dependent on shifting. Memory for digits presented in keypads versus single locations was assessed under two secondary task load conditions, one with and one without a sequencing requirement, and hence differing in the degree to which they invoke shifting. Results provided clear evidence that multimodal binding (visuospatial bootstrapping) can operate independently of this form of executive control process.

scholarly journals Effect of verbal working memory load during the oculomotor activity in visual search

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.B. Velichkovsky ◽  
A.I. Izmalkova
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Visual Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Oculomotor Activity

The structure of working memory has components responsible for the storage of verbal and visualspatial information; despite the fairly detailed study of the functions and mechanisms of their work, the question of their mutual influence is still open. Studies on the verbal working memory load influence on visual search performance (a task requiring the use of visual-spatial working memory resources) it was found that the load on the verbal working memory leads to increased efficiency of target detection. The results of the analysis of oculomotor activity during visual search also point out that the implementation of such tasks under verbal working memory load is accompanied by an increase in cognitive tension and of the degree of search automaticity. The results may indicate the interaction of verbal and visual-spatial working memory components that share non-specific cognitive resources.

scholarly journals Resources Underlying Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Enable Veridical Large Numerosity Perception

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Castaldi ◽  
Manuela Piazza ◽  
Evelyn Eger
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Visual Image ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Clinical Population ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Multiple Objects ◽  
Numerosity Discrimination ◽  
Numerosity Perception

Humans can quickly approximate how many objects are in a visual image, but no clear consensus has been achieved on the cognitive resources underlying this ability. Previous work has lent support to the notion that mechanisms which explicitly represent the locations of multiple objects in the visual scene within a mental map are critical for both visuo-spatial working memory and enumeration (at least for relatively small numbers of items). Regarding the cognitive underpinnings of large numerosity perception, an issue currently subject to much controversy is why numerosity estimates are often non-veridical (i.e., susceptible to biases from non-numerical quantities). Such biases have been found to be particularly pronounced in individuals with developmental dyscalculia (DD), a learning disability affecting the acquisition of arithmetic skills. Motivated by findings showing that DD individuals are also often impaired in visuo-spatial working memory, we hypothesized that resources supporting this type of working memory, which allow for the simultaneous identification of multiple objects, might also be critical for precise and unbiased perception of larger numerosities. We therefore tested whether loading working memory of healthy adult participants during discrimination of large numerosities would lead to increased interference from non-numerical quantities. Participants performed a numerosity discrimination task on multi-item arrays in which numerical and non-numerical stimulus dimensions varied congruently or incongruently relative to each other, either in isolation or in the context of a concurrent visuo-spatial or verbal working memory task. During performance of the visuo-spatial, but not verbal, working memory task, precision in numerosity discrimination decreased, participants’ choices became strongly biased by item size, and the strength of this bias correlated with measures of arithmetical skills. Moreover, the interference between numerosity and working memory tasks was bidirectional, with number discrimination impacting visuo-spatial (but not verbal) performance. Overall, these results suggest that representing visual numerosity in a way that is unbiased by non-numerical quantities relies on processes which explicitly segregate/identify the locations of multiple objects that are shared with visuo-spatial (but not verbal) working memory. This shared resource may potentially be impaired in DD, explaining the observed co-occurrence of working memory and numerosity discrimination deficits in this clinical population.

Heritability of specific cognitive functions and associations with schizophrenia spectrum disorders using CANTAB: a nation-wide twin study

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Cecilie K. Lemvigh ◽  
Rachel M. Brouwer ◽  
Christos Pantelis ◽  
Maria H. Jensen ◽  
Rikke W. Hilker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Movement Time ◽  
Set Shifting ◽  
Adult Intelligence Scale ◽  
Verbal Iq ◽  
Spatial Span ◽  
Schizophrenia Spectrum

Abstract Background Many cognitive functions are under strong genetic control and twin studies have demonstrated genetic overlap between some aspects of cognition and schizophrenia. How the genetic relationship between specific cognitive functions and schizophrenia is influenced by IQ is currently unknown. Methods We applied selected tests from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) to examine the heritability of specific cognitive functions and associations with schizophrenia liability. Verbal and performance IQ were estimated using The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III and the Danish Adult Reading Test. In total, 214 twins including monozygotic (MZ = 32) and dizygotic (DZ = 22) pairs concordant or discordant for a schizophrenia spectrum disorder, and healthy control pairs (MZ = 29, DZ = 20) were recruited through the Danish national registers. Additionally, eight twins from affected pairs participated without their sibling. Results Significant heritability was observed for planning/spatial span (h2 = 25%), self-ordered spatial working memory (h2 = 64%), sustained attention (h2 = 56%), and movement time (h2 = 47%), whereas only unique environmental factors contributed to set-shifting, reflection impulsivity, and thinking time. Schizophrenia liability was associated with planning/spatial span (rph = −0.34), self-ordered spatial working memory (rph = −0.24), sustained attention (rph = −0.23), and set-shifting (rph = −0.21). The association with planning/spatial span was not driven by either performance or verbal IQ. The remaining associations were shared with performance, but not verbal IQ. Conclusions This study provides further evidence that some cognitive functions are heritable and associated with schizophrenia, suggesting a partially shared genetic etiology. These functions may constitute endophenotypes for the disorder and provide a basis to explore genes common to cognition and schizophrenia.

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