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PubMed1980

Memory for verbal and spatial information as a function of age.

The present study investigated whether there is a differential decline with age in verbal and spatial memory, by measuring the ability of 24 young (mean age = 18.8) and 24 elderly (mean age = 69.5) subjects to remember verbal and spatial information under identical task conditions. Subjects recalled either the identities or spatial locations of seven letters arranged randomly within a 5 x 5 grid. To determine whether subjects actually encoded the verbal and spatial characteristics of the array differently, verbal and spatial interference tasks were administered during the retention interval. Results showed that the memory decrement in the elderly was not greater for the spatial aspects of the stimulus array than for its verbal aspects. Thus, there was no evidence for a greater decline with age in spatial memory than in verbal memory. Limited support was found for the utility of the selective interference paradigm to demonstrate separate and independent verbal and spatial memory codes.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Dissociating verbal and spatial working memory using PET.

Three experiments used position emission tomography (PET) to study the neural basis of human working memory. These studies ask whether different neural circuits underly verbal and spatial memory. In Experiment 1, subjects had to retain for 3 sec. either the names of four letters (verbal memory) or the positions of three dots (spatial memory). The PET results manifested a clear cut double dissociation, as the verbal task activated primarily left-hemisphere regions whereas the spatial task activated only right-hemisphere regions. In Experiment 2, the identical sequence of letters was presented in all conditions, and what varied was whether subjects had to remember the names of the letters (verbal memory) or their positions in the display (spatial memory). In the verbal task, activation was concentrated more in the left than the right hemisphere; in the spatial task, there was substantial activation in both hemispheres, though in key regions, there was more activation in the right than the left hemisphere. Experiment 3 studied only verbal memory, and showed that a continuous memory task activated the same regions as the discrete verbal task used in Experiment 1. Taken together, these results indicate that verbal and spatial working memory are implemented by different neural structures.

Humans↗
PubMed1990

The effects of aging in rats on working and reference memory performance in a spatial holeboard discrimination task.

The effects of aging on spatial memory performance of rats was studied in a holeboard task in which 4 of 16 holes were baited with food. Brown-Norway rats of five ages (4, 13, 19, 25, and 30 months) received a total of 80 acquisition trials. A clear age-related decline of spatial working and reference memory performance was found. The decline was most profound between 19 and 25 months of age. The speed of visiting holes and the development of a preferred pattern of hole-visits did not influence spatial discrimination performance. Correlational analysis supported the view that the working and reference memory measures represent distinct aspects of spatial memory.

Aging↗
PubMed1994

Evidence for spatial working memory in honeybees (Apis mellifera).

Spatial working memory (the ability to represent multiple locations in a flexible, dynamic manner) has been studied in a range of vertebrate species. The results of 3 experiments indicate that this ability also exists in at least one invertebrate (honeybees; Apis mellifera). Individual honeybees collected sugar solution from a matrix of 6 locations. They avoided revisits to locations previously depleted of solution more accurately than expected by chance. The results rule out several nonmemorial explanations for this ability, and it is therefore best explained by a spatial working memory system that allows discrimination of previously visited locations from those not yet visited. These results substantially expand the range of species in which spatial working memory has been demonstrated.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Complex figure recall in the elderly: a deficit in memory or constructional strategy?

Spatial memory declines with age. This study investigated the hypothesis that the decline in spatial memory in the elderly is due to a dysfunction in frontal lobe-mediated planning and organization. The copy and recall ability of 49 elderly subjects and 20 younger subjects was assessed using the Rey-Osterrieth Figure. In addition, the manner of construction, (e.g., the order that each line was produced) was compared between groups. Despite comparable performance with the younger subjects when copying the figure, older subjects performed significantly worse than younger subjects when asked to reproduce the figure from memory. However, this was not due to the organizational strategies they used while copying the figure. They constructed the figure in the same manner as the younger subjects. Therefore, the spatial memory deficits in the elderly are not due to an abnormal organizational strategy. These results are discussed in relation to those of patients with frontal lobe damage and preliminary data from subjects with mild dementia.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Mentally retarded and nonretarded adults' memory for spatial location.

The claim that memory for spatial location is automatic was evaluated. Mentally retarded and nonretarded adults studied 16 objects on a matrix in front of them under one of two instructional conditions: intentional or incidental. They then tried to recall both the objects and their locations. Results showed that memory for spatial location was above chance under both instructional conditions. Intention to encode spatial location had no effect on recall. Finally, retarded and nonretarded adults differed in recall of the objects but not in recall of spatial locations. The findings support several of the criteria for automaticity proposed by Hasher and Zacks (1979) and suggest that automatic encoding of spatial location is an area of strength for retarded persons.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

The effects of visual and spatial interference on spatial working memory.

Baddeley and Lieberman (1980) have shown that processing within spatial working memory is disrupted by a spatial secondary task, but not significantly by a visual processing secondary task. In the present study their experiment was replicated under broadly similar circumstances. The spatial and verbal primary tasks involved remembering descriptions of spatially arranged or nonsense sequences of digits, respectively. The secondary visual and spatial tasks involved either judging the level of brightness or pressing an unseen matrix of buttons in a predetermined sequence. In contrast to the finding of Baddeley and Lieberman, both the visual and spatial secondary tasks significantly impaired spatial working memory. Neither of these secondary tasks significantly interfered with concurrent verbal processing. The present findings suggest that spatial working memory draws from resources from both visual and spatial quarters.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Frontal lobe function in Korsakoff and non-Korsakoff alcoholics: planning and spatial working memory.

Groups of Korsakoff (KS) and non-Korsakoff alcoholics (ALC) and a group of normal volunteers, matched for age and verbal IQ, were tested on traditional neuropsychological tests of frontal lobe function and on computerized tests of planning (the Tower of London task) and spatial working memory. KS demonstrated deficits on the planning task which could not be explained by abnormalities of memory, including spatial span, or by visuoperceptive disturbances. KS were also impaired on the spatial working memory task, in part because of the failure to adopt an organized strategy. ALC exhibited fewer impairments which could not be attributed to deficits in either planning or spatial working memory. On Nelson's modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, KS and ALC achieved fewer categories than controls but only KS made perseverative errors. The data suggest that in the alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome there is a specific disturbance of frontal-lobe function in addition to amnesia. The impairment seen in chronic alcoholics without Korsakoff's syndrome, on the other hand, do not reflect specific frontal dysfunction.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Spatial recognition and spatial order memory in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type.

Patients diagnosed as having mild or moderate primary degenerative dementia of the Alzheimer's type (PDDAT), and normal elderly subjects were tested for spatial order and a spatial recognition memory. Results for spatial order memory indicated that compared to normal elderly subjects, patients with mild PDDAT showed an impaired memory only for the last serial positions. In contrast, with respect to spatial recognition memory, patients with mild PDDAT showed an impaired memory only for the early serial positions. Patients with moderate PDDAT were impaired on all serial positions for both spatial order and spatial recognition memory. Based on comparable deficit patterns seen in animals and patients with hippocampal and parietal cortex lesions, it is suggested that memory deficits displayed by PDDAT patients might be a function of underlying pathology in the hippocampus and parietal cortex.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Individual differences in aging: behavioral and neurobiological correlates.

The goal of this experiment was to determine the correlations among different behavioral and neurobiological measures in aged rats. Aged Sprague-Dawley rats were given a battery of cognitive and sensorimotor tests, followed by electrophysiological assessment of sleep and biochemical measurements of various neurotransmitter systems. The behavioral tests included the following: Activity level in an open field; short-term and long-term memory of a spatial environment as assessed by habituation: spatial navigation, discrimination reversal, and cue learning in the Morris water pool; spatial memory in a T-maze motivated by escape from water; spatial memory and reversal on the Barnes circular platform task; passive avoidance; motor skills. Sleep was assessed by electrographic cortical records. The following neurotransmitter markers were examined: Choline acetyltransferase; the density of nicotinic, benzodiazepine and glutamine receptors in the cortex and caudate nucleus; endogenous levels of norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin in the cortex and hippocampus. The duration of bouts of paradoxical sleep was strongly correlated with several cognitive measures and selected serotonergic markers. This finding suggests that changes in sleep patterns and brain biochemistry contribute directly to deficits in learning and memory, or that the same neurobiological defect contributes to age-related impairments in sleep and in learning and memory.

Age Factors↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Spatial synchronization of cerebral cortical potentals at different levels of functioning of short-term verbal memory].

Spatial synchronization of cortical biopotentials was studied at different levels of the functioning of short-term verbal memory. In the phases prior to and during presentation of information the general level of distant synchronization in the cortex at a high functional state of the mnemical mechanism is higher than at a low state. In the phases following presentation and during reproduction, the relations are reverse. The enhancement of distant synchronization involves primarily the posterior parts of the right hemisphere, while the decrease comprises all the cortical areas, with some predominance of this effect in the anterior areas.

Cerebral Cortex↗
PubMed1995

Glucocorticoids, hippocampal corticosteroid receptor gene expression and antidepressant treatment: relationship with spatial learning in young and aged rats.

The emergence of cognitive deficits in a subgroup of aged rats is associated with increased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity, decreased hippocampal mineralocorticoid and/or glucocorticoid receptor gene expression and neuronal loss. Short-term treatment with antidepressant drugs in young rats increases hippocampal corticosteroid receptor gene expression. In this study, the effects of chronic antidepressant administration on hippocampal mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptor gene expression and spatial memory in young and aged rats were investigated. Young (eight months) and old (22 +/- 1 months) Lister-hooded rats were ranked according to watermaze performance. Matched pairs of rats were treated with amitriptyline (10 mg/kg) or saline daily for nine weeks, then reassessed in the watermaze. Amitriptyline significantly improved spatial memory in the young rats (33% increase in transfer test time) and increased hippocampal mineralocorticoid, but not glucocorticoid receptor messenger RNA expression. By contrast, in aged rats, amitriptyline had no effect on spatial memory or hippocampal corticosteroid receptor gene expression, either in cognitively unimpaired or cognitively-impaired animals. In aged rats, basal plasma corticosterone levels, which were significantly higher than in young animals, correlated negatively with spatial memory, while hippocampal glucocorticoid receptor mRNA expression correlated negatively with plasma corticosterone levels and positively with spatial memory. Amitriptyline had no significant effect on basal morning plasma corticosterone levels in either young or aged rats, but significantly decreased evening corticosterone levels in aged rats. Our data support the notion that corticosterone exerts a concentration-dependent biphasic influence, via selective activation of hippocampal mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptor, on spatial memory. Amitriptyline improves spatial memory in young rats and increases hippocampal mineralocorticoid receptor gene expression. The lack of amitriptyline effect on spatial memory in aged rats may reflect decreased plasticity of both the synaptic processes underlying spatial memory and the regulation of hippocampal mineralocorticoid/glucocorticoid receptor expression, with mineralocorticoid receptors fully occupied due to elevated basal plasma corticosterone levels (in part a consequence of inadequate glucocorticoid receptor function).

Aging↗
PubMed1983

Spatial working memory in rats: effects of monoaminergic antagonists.

To assess the possible involvement of the monoaminergic neurotransmitters norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin in the maintenance of spatial working memory rats were treated with antagonists 0 or 2 hr after completing the first 4 choices in an 8 arm maze. Haloperidol (0.25-1 mg/kg), when administered 2 hr after Choice 4, produced a small but consistent impairment in performance on retention tests given 5 hr after the first 4 choices. This deficit closely resembled natural forgetting in terms of the type of errors committed. By contrast, haloperidol in the same doses given 0 hr after Choice 4 or 3 hr before the first 4 choices did not affect retention. Likewise treatment with propranolol (10-20 mg/kg), phentolamine (5-20 mg/kg) or methysergide (5-15 mg/kg) did not impair spatial memory, regardless of when these drugs were injected within the session. Evidently dopaminergic neuronal systems are important in the maintenance of normal spatial working memory.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Scopolamine does not disrupt spatial working memory in rats.

The importance of cholinergic systems for spatial working memory was examined by injecting scopolamine at varying times during a 5 hr-long retention interval imposed between the rat's fourth and fifth choices in an 8 arm maze. Regardless of whether or not the testing procedure required the rats to adopt a spatial solution for the task, scopolamine (1.0-5.0 mg/kg) did not impair retention in a manner that was suggestive of an effect on working memory. Modest deficits observed in some conditions appeared to result from drug effects on performance. Previous findings of impaired acquisition of accurate spatial behavior by scopolamine-treated rats evidently reflect an influence of the drug on physiological systems other than those necessary to maintain working memory for spatial information.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Hippocampal and amygdaloid involvement in nonspatial and spatial working memory in rats: effects of delay and interference.

Parametric manipulations of the task demand were used to examine the role of the hippocampus and amygdala in nonspatial and spatial working memory in rats. Hippocampal lesions produced an immediate and long-lasting impairment of nonspatial working memory in an operant task. The memory deficits increased as the delay interval and the amount of proactive interference increased. Hippocampal lesions severely impaired spatial working memory in spatial alternation. Extensive postoperative testing reduced the magnitude of impairment of nonspatial but not spatial working memory. Amygdaloid lesions did not impair any aspect of performance in 2 tasks. The results suggest that the hippocampus, but not the amygdala, is involved in working memory and the task demand is a critical determinant for observing impairments of nonspatial working memory following hippocampal lesions.

Amygdala↗
PubMed1994

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of human prefrontal cortex activation during a spatial working memory task.

High-speed magnetic resonance (MR) imaging was used to detect activation in the human prefrontal cortex induced by a spatial working memory task modeled on those used to elucidate neuronal circuits in nonhuman primates. Subjects were required to judge whether the location occupied by the current stimulus had been occupied previously over a sequence of 14 or 15 stimuli presented in various locations. Control tasks were similar in all essential respects, except that the subject's task was to detect when one of the stimuli presented was colored red (color detection) or when a dot briefly appeared within the stimulus (dot detection). In all tasks, two to three target events occurred randomly. The MR signal increased in an area of the middle frontal gyrus corresponding to Brodmann's area 46 in all eight subjects performing the spatial working memory task. Right hemisphere activation was greater and more consistent than left. The MR signal change occurred within 6-9 sec of task onset and declined within a similar period after task completion. An increase in MR signal was also noted in the control tasks, but the magnitude of change was less than that recorded in the working memory task. These differences were replicated when testing was repeated in five of the original subjects. The localization of spatial working memory function in humans to a circumscribed area of the middle frontal gyrus supports the compartmentalization of working memory functions in the human prefrontal cortex and the localization of spatial memory processes to comparable areas in humans and nonhuman primates.

Color Perception↗
PubMed1990

Effects of distinctive context on memory for objects and their locations in young and elderly adults.

Sharps and Gollin (1987, 1988) reported that older adults' memory for both objects and their spatial location is more facilitated than that of young adults when items are studied in a distinctive visual context. They also reported that age differences in spatial memory and item memory can be ameliorated if the items are studied in a distinctive context. The goal of this study was to verify and extend these findings by examining memory for everyday objects when the objects were studied on a (a) plain surface, (b) black-and-white schematic map, or (c) colored model. In Experiment 1, item memory was examined, and in Experiment 2, spatial memory was studied. The results indicated that spatial memory improved with the addition of distinctive context but item memory did not. Moreover, there was no evidence that elderly adults were more facilitated by the distinctive context than were the young.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1993

Cholinergic modulation of spatial working memory of mice in radial maze performance: retention curve analysis.

Cholinergic modulation of the spatial working memory of mice was investigated in an eight-arm radial maze. The mice were trained to achieve a stable baseline level of performance, and the retention of spatial working memory was then examined by means of imposition of retention intervals of 45, 90, 180, and 360 min between choices four and five. The animals were removed from the apparatus during these intervals. The effects of oxotremorine (0.025-0.1 mg/kg, ip), physostigmine (0.025-0.1 mg/kg, ip), and scopolamine (0.1-0.4 mg/kg, ip) on the number of the correct responses after the various time intervals (5-8 choices) were studied. Mice received drug injections 30 min prior to the first four arm-choices before delay intervals (1-4 choices). The number of correct responses after the intervals decreased with the increased length of the retention interval. Oxotremorine and physostigmine exhibited dose-dependent stimulating effects of resistance to decreases in the number of correct responses, but scopolamine potentiated the decline in a dose-dependent manner. Significant interactions between the effects of cholinergic drugs and the length of retention over time were also observed. These observations indicate a cholinergic modulation of spatial working memory in mice engaged in radial maze performance, as assessed by means of retention curve analysis.

Animals↗