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Biomedical subjects

S A Smallberg

Publications and source records attributed to S A Smallberg.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1984

Effortful and automatic memory: effects of dopamine.

With advancing age, there are changes in both cognitive functions and neurotransmitter metabolism. Dopamine plays a role in learning, memory, and related cognitive processes. We evaluated the effects of supplemental dopamine in precursor form (levodopa) on various aspects of memory in elderly normal volunteers in a controlled, double-blind study. Access to semantic memory and automatic processes were unaffected, but levodopa reliably facilitated effortful memory processing. Levodopa may be useful clinically in attenuating impairments in effortful cognitive tasks. Different neural systems probably mediate different forms of cognition.

Aged↗
PubMed1982

Effort and cognition in depression.

Motor performance and cognitive function were examined in depressed patients and controls. Increasing severity of depression was strongly associated with decrements in performance in both motor and memory tasks. Greatest depression-related impairment was found on those cognitive and motor tasks that required sustained effort. We discuss these results in terms of a generalized deficit in the central motivational state of depressed individuals.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Effects of vasopressin on human memory functions.

Arginine vasopressin and a number of its synthetic analogs augment memory functions in experimental animals. One of these analogs, 1-desamino-8-D-arginine vasopressin (DDAVP), influences human learning and memory. Cognitively unimpaired, as well as cognitively impaired adults, treated with DDAVP for a period of several days, learn information more effectively, as measured by the completeness, organization, and consistency (reliability) of recall. DDAVP also appears to reverse partially the retrograde amnesia that follows electroconvulsive treatment.

Adult↗