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Biomedical subjects

S Mattis

Publications and source records attributed to S Mattis.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Some amnesic patients can freely recall large amounts of information in new contexts.

A previously reported technique for promoting robust free recall in amnesic subjects (Ridiculously Imaged Stories) was further studied in two amnesic patients to determine if there is a limit to the amount of information that can be acquired, and if the novelty of the storyline is essential for its efficacy. Two different lists of words were taught to each subject embedded in either a ridiculous or a logical story. The subjects learned combined totals of 160 (S1) and 120 (S2) words with perfect free recall at intervals up to 7 weeks between last list exposure and recall. No differences were observed in rates of learning between the two types of stories. These results challenge the view that amnesic subjects are unable to freely recall large amounts of new information within a newly acquired context. A theoretical integration of the data is explored.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Cognitive sequelae and recovery course after moderate and severe head injury.

The quality of survival after severe and moderate head injury is highly dependent on the adequacy of cognitive recovery. The intellectual sequelae of head injury impede social and occupational reintegration more than physical disabilities do. The present study examines the course of cognitive recovery from the time of admission to 1 year after trauma. Included in the study were 68 patients with severe or moderate head injury who were 15 to 55 years old. The severity of injury was determined by the Glasgow coma scale. For this analysis, the data from tests of general intellect, language, verbal and nonverbal memory, and fine motor coordination were utilized. Standard scores (Z scores) were calculated for each test using the available normative data. Evaluation at discharge or 3 months after injury revealed I.Q. scores about 1.5 standard deviations (SD) below the mean, whereas language functioning was 4 SD, verbal memory was 5 SD, nonverbal memory was 5 SD, and fine motor coordination was 3 to 5 SD below the mean. All cognitive functions showed improvement over a 1-year period. Most of the recovery in linguistic functioning occurred during the first 6 months after trauma. This study suggests that all patients sustain significant mental sequelae after severe or moderate head injury. In spite of significant improvement during the 1st year, patients continue to have marked impairment in cognitive functions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

A technique for promoting robust free recall in chronic organic amnesia.

A learning technique was developed for chronically amnesic subjects which linked word-list items in a novel manner utilizing ridiculously-imaged-stories (RIS). By the 8th week of once-weekly 45 minute training sessions with RIS the five amnesic subjects were able to freely recall an average of 14 items from a 20-item list after a 1-week interval, but showed minimal recall after the same interval of another 20-word list that had been concurrently learned in a cued, modified free-recall condition. The effective RIS technique producing this robust recall combines stimuli embedded in a novel-arousing context with high-imagery, storyline, cuing, and spaced repetition. The net effect of this technique is interpreted as providing artificial "chunks" that can be encoded and transferred relatively normally into long-term memory.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Selective effects of cholinergic treatment on verbal memory in posttraumatic amnesia.

The combined effects or orally administered physostigmine and lecithin were assessed in a double-blind study of a single patient with posttraumatic amnesia. Treatment improved verbal recall but not verbal recognition, visual memory, or conceptual reasoning. Both storage and retrieval of words in verbal memory were facilitated. Greater improvement in learning of longer or semantically homogeneous word lists than shorter or semantically mixed lists may indicate that treatment reduced the effects of interstimulus interference. Greater divergence of recognition response biases for semantically homogeneous vs. mixed lists was observed under treatment, reflecting some enhancement of semantic appreciation. Absence of a treatment effect on visual nonverbal memory may be due in part to lateralization of the mesencephalic lesion to the left in this patient. Lack of improvement of encoding capacity, d', or conceptual reasoning may reflect a greater dependence of basal forebrain structures on catecholaminergic than cholinergic mechanisms.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

A verbal semantic deficit in the alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome.

A test designed to assess the adequacy of knowledge about specific words, presumed to be well established in long-term storage, was administered to 5 alcoholic Korsakoff patients, 3 post-trauma amnesics, and 5 normal controls. The 400 question true/false test tapped knowledge of basic and obscure attributes and functions of 25 noun-concepts. The data indicate that traumatic amnesics made more total errors than Korsakoff amnesics, who in turn made more errors than normals. However, Korsakoffs made a greater proportion of errors on basic-knowledge items than the other groups. It is concluded that semantic organization is impaired in both amnesic groups, although differently. The post-trauma error pattern suggests a uni-factor deficit while the Korsakoff pattern suggests a multifactor deficit.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Verbal auditory agnosia in children.

Four (possibly five) boys are described with a profound comprehension deficit for acoustic language, leading to severe or complete abolition of expressive speech. One boy had presumed megalencephaly from birth but was of superior intelligence. He had a severe articulation deficit from early childhood, with delayed acquisition of speech. Another boy is thought to have a small angiomatous anomaly in the depth of the left parietal lobe. No brain lesions are known in the other three. Evidence for bilateral brain dysfunction consists of minor motor abnormalities in three boys, oromotor deficits in two boys, and bilaterally synchronous diffuse or independent focal paroxysmal discharges in the EEG of three, possibly four, of the boys. Seizures have occurred in only three boys, and have been easily controlled with anticonvulsants. One boy with a grossly abnormal EEG has had no clinical seizures to date and has not benefited frome one year of anticonvulsant therapy. Two of the boys are brothers, including the boy in whome the diagnosis is questionable since speech was never normal and since he has had neither seizures for an abnormal EEG. The severity of EEG abnormalities did not correlate closely with the course of the language deficit. The relationship of this syndrome to acquired aphasia in children, to Wernicke's aphasia and pure word deafness in adults, and to developmental lagnuage disability with predominantly receptive deficits, is discussed. One child illustrated the close association between writing and phonologic encoding and decoding operations, and two children the preservation of linguistic skills provided the acoustic channel was by-passed and language presented visually. This latter point has been emphasized because of its implications for the remedial education of children with this syndrome.

Agnosia↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Affective/motivational factors in the recall of prose passages by alcoholic Korsakoff patients.

The present study assessed the role of motivational/affective factors in the recall of short stories by alcoholic Korsakoff patients. On both immediate and delayed recall, the Korsakoff patients remembered proportionately more of stories with a sexual theme than of passages which were neutral or aggressive in content. In contrast to the Korsakoff patients, the emotional theme of the story had no effect upon the recall performance of alcoholic (non-Korsakoff) and normal control subjects. While the two control groups evidenced no forgetting of textual material between immediate and delayed recall, the alcoholic Korsakoff patients showed a rapid and equivalent rate of forgetting of all three story types. These findings suggest that while motivational/affective factors may influence the alcoholic Korsakoff patients' selective attention and immediate recall, they have little or no influence upon the patients' inability to retain verbal information. The importance of this conclusion for encoding theories of amnesia is discussed.

Affect↗