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PubMed2004

Performance of chronotypes on memory tests during the morning and the evening shifts.

Memory consists of several phases or processes that can be influenced by many factors, including the individual's circadian rhythm and the time of day at which tests are performed. The present objective was to evaluate the performance on memory tests of different chronotypes during the morning and the evening shifts. Subjects (21 men and 26 women, between the ages of 20 and 35 yr.) were evaluated for memory and metamemory differences in the morning and in the afternoon, using a battery of neuropsychological tests composed of the Word List with Emotional Content, Visual Memory, Scale-Semantic Memory, Digit Span, Word-Pairs Associated, Verbal Fluency Test, and Metamemory questionnaire. In the evening shift, there was a statistical difference among chronotypes on the Word List with Neutral Content and on the Verbal Fluency Test. In the morning, there were no statistically significant differences; however, the morning-type subjects had higher scores on the metamemory tests (p<.01), while the evening-type subjects had higher scores in the afternoon (p<.01). In spite of their perception, on Word-Pairs Associated and Word List with Emotional Content, the subjects, independently of their chronotype, showed better performance by the evening than by the morning shift. These results highlight the importance of controlling the shift of day and chronotype in studies with the objective of exploration of human performance.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Revisiting within-modality and cross-modality attentional blinks: effects of target-distractor similarity.

When two masked targets (T1 and T2) require attention and are presented within half a second of each other, the report accuracy for T2 is reduced, relative to when the two targets are presented farther apart in time. This effect is known as the attentional blink (AB). Potter, Chun, Banks, and Muckenhoupt (1998) argued that all AB-like effects observed when at least one of the targets was presented outside of the visual modality did not represent true instances of the AB, but instead were artifacts of task-set switching. However, in the Potter et al. experiments the presence or absence of task-set switching opportunities was confounded with the T2 task, as well as the alphanumeric class of T2 with respect to the distractors. In the present experiment, we examine the influence of T1 alphanumeric class, T2 alphanumeric class, and switching operations in a fully crossed design that unconfounds these factors. In contrast to the conclusions of Potter et al., the present results suggest that the T2 alphanumeric class can account for the pattern of ABs observed across conditions, without necessarily implicating a separate switch cost. The implications for theoretical models of the AB and the debate over the validity of cross-modal ABs are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Cognition in dysthymia].

UNLABELLED: Depression is named as one of the most prevalent Mental Health problem, affecting almost 10 % of the population. According to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) different subtypes are included. Dysthymic Disorder is characterized by a depressed mood for most of the day, for more days than not, as indicated either by subjective account or observation by others, for at least 2 years. The aim of this study was to investigate the neuropsychological profile of dysthymic disorder. Ninety three patients fulfilling criteria for dysthymia were examined on a variety of cognitive tasks, neurological exam and a semi-structured psychiatric interview. Forty one non-depressed individuals served as controls. Significant differences between groups were found in digit span; immediate and delayed recall of a story; and semantic and phonologic fluency. Logic memory was worse than serial learning task, and has a correlation with attention deficit and depressive features. CONCLUSIONS: This results indicate that the neuropsychological performance of patients with dysthymic disorder exhibit impairments in attention and memory. Attentional deficits appear to be the key of cognitive deficits in dysthymia.

Cognition Disorders↗
PubMed1988

Cortical function in elderly non-insulin dependent diabetic patients. Behavioral and electrophysiologic studies.

Neurobehavioral and electrophysiologic studies were carried out to determine the effect of diabetes mellitus on cognitive function in subjects over the age of 60 years. Forty-three non-insulin-dependent diabetic men were compared with 41 male nondiabetic age-matched controls. The diabetic patients were significantly inferior to the control group in the serial learning task and Benton's Visual Retention Test. The digit span test showed no difference between the groups. Electroencephalogram (EEG)-frequency-band analysis revealed slowing over the central cortex and reduction of alpha activity over the parietal area in diabetic patients. Acute hyperglycemia induced in healthy volunteers with the administration of 50 g of intravenous glucose did not have any effect on the dominant EEG rhythms. The checkerboard elicited P100 wave did not reveal a significant increase in latency nor were the P300 wave latencies significantly different in diabetic patients. However, a trend toward longer latencies in diabetics was evident at Fz and Cz recording sites. Acute hyperglycemia in healthy volunteers did not alter the P300 wave component. The results indicate that elderly type 2 diabetic patients have an impairment in retrieval of recently learned material with preservation of auditory attention and immediate recall. The EEG data suggest that there may be some central neural pathologic condition associated with diabetes.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Presentation rate and the representation of briefly glimpsed pictures in memory.

Four experiments on memory for briefly presented complex pictures showed the following: (a) Pictures shown in a sequence for 110 msec each with a blank 5,890-msec interstimulus interval (ISI) were later recognized almost as well as pictures shown for 6 sec each with no ISI; (b) when the ISI was deleted, recognition memory for the briefly presented pictures dropped almost to chance; (c) however, filling a 5-sec ISI with a to-be-ignored picture that was the same on all trials had little or no effect on memory for the briefly presented pictures; (d) when the time between 110-msec pictures was decreased from 4,890 to 1,390, 620, 385, or 0 msec, the ability to detect that they were mirror reversed in the recognition test decreased more rapidly than did recognition accuracy. Evidently, incidental visuospatial properties of a picture can be encoded for at least 1 sec after a brief presentation unless another to-be-remembered picture is presented during that time.

Attention↗
PubMed1978

Operativity and reversibility in children's understanding of pictorial sequences.

The role of reversibility in children's comprehension and memory for sequences of pictures was investigated. Bidirectionality in the ability to remember and infer antecedents and consequences was assessed. Preschoolers were significantly more accurate at identifying consequences of portrayed events than the antecedents. Kindergartners and older children correctly identified beginnings and endings of sequences with equal proficiency. This developmental shift from relatively unidirectional to reversible comprehension was observed both on trials involving figurative memory and operative inference judgments.

Child↗
PubMed1980

The effect of growth hormone administration on human sleep: a dose-response study.

Human growth hormone and saline were administered for one night each to normal volunteers in a cross-over study. A dose of 2 units im given 15 min before bedtime had no effect on sleep EEG parameters. In contrast, 5 units resulted in a 19% decrease in slow-wave sleep (p < 0.01) and a 13% increase in REM sleep (p < 0.05). Neither doe, when given during daytime, affected tests of affect or serial learning.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Development and use of pharmacological probes of the CNS in man: evidence of cholinergic abnormality in primary affective illness.

The role of cholinergic mechanisms in the regulation of CNS functions was studied in normal humans. The purpose was to develop in vivo pharmacological techniques to assess central neurotransmitter activity in normals and apply them in primary affective illness and other neuropsychiatric conditions. Central cholinergic stimulation by cholinomimetics induced rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, dreaming, cortical arousal, and accelerated the REM cycle. Effects on memory included enhancement of serial learning, short-term consolidation of low-imagery words, and retrieval of clustered information. Analgesia and reduction of the P100 component of visual EEG evoked responses were also noted after physostigmine. Using the induction of REM sleep by arecoline as a "marker" of central cholinergic functioning, it was possible to (i) demonstrate the phenomenon of pharmacological denervation supersensitivity in normal humans after pretreatment with scopolamine, and (ii) demonstrate a significantly faster REM induction by arecoline in two groups of patients with primary affective illness (remitted and depressed) compared to normals. Rapid REM induction was found, not only in remitted patients who were drug-free for 2 weeks, but in patients who had never received somatic therapy. Pretreatment with scopolamine on three consecutive mornings also induced sleep changes at night in normals similar to several sleep abnormalities reported in primary affective illness. This was confirmed by a multivariate discriminate analysis program, which had previously been shown to separate depressed patients, insomniacs, and normals. On the basis of these data, it is proposed that cholinergic abnormalities may be present in primary affective illness during both the ill and the well states.

Acetylcholine↗
PubMed1994

Effects of target probability and memory demands on the vigilance of adults with and without mental retardation.

The vigilance of young adults with mild mental retardation and without mental retardation was compared in two experiments in which observers performed two memory demanding, cognitively based, 60-minute tests. In Experiment 1, target probability was 5% or 30% with a 1.5-second event rate. Detection by observers with mental retardation declined more rapidly than did that of observers without mental retardation in both target probability conditions; further, their response criterion became increasingly more conservative. In Experiment 2, target probability was 10% or 30% with an 8-second event rate. Observers with mental retardation detected fewer targets under both target probability conditions. Subjects' response criterion differed as a function of level of intelligence from the onset of the vigil and did not change with time on task. Intelligence-related differences in vigilance were explained in terms of subjects' information-processing abilities.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Thalamic amnesia reconsidered: excitotoxic lesions of the intralaminar nuclei, but not the mediodorsal nucleus, disrupt place delayed matching-to-sample performance in rats (Rattus norvegicus).

Rats with large thalamic lesions affecting the mediodorsal (MDn) and intralaminar (ILn) nuclei are impaired performing delayed matching to sample tasks (DMTS). To determine the neurological basis of this deficit, we trained rats to perform a place DMTS task and then compared the effects of excitotoxic lesions of the MDn, the ILn, and the lateral internal medullary lamina (L-IML). The MDn lesion had little effect. The ILn group was significantly impaired throughout 8 months of training. The L-IML group exhibited an intermediate level of impairment. Varying the sample response requirement, retention intervals, and trial-to-trial congruence in the side reinforced, had predicted effects, as did variations in response latency. However, none of these factors interacted with the treatment effects. These findings indicate that DMTS performance is disrupted by lesions of the ILn but not the MDn.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Rule learning in a serial reaction time task: an fMRI study on patients with early Parkinson's disease.

In the present study, we investigated implicit rule learning in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and healthy participants. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a variant of the serial reaction time task were employed to examine the performance of previously learned regular sequences. Participants responded to successively appearing visual stimuli by pressing spatially corresponding keys. Unbeknownst to them, a cycling 12-item sequence was presented. In order to measure rule learning independently from initial visuomotor learning, participants were trained with the sequence prior to scanning. In the fMRI session, alternating blocks of regular and random stimuli were performed. Imaging revealed activations in the frontomedian and posterior cingulate cortex during performance of sequence blocks as opposed to random blocks. The magnitude of activations in these two areas was correlated with the behavioral index for rule learning. As has been reported earlier, the frontomedian cortex may be involved in the prediction of future stimuli and anticipation of corresponding actions, whereas the posterior cingulate activation may rather be related to memory retrieval. Additional activations of the right putamen and the inferior frontal sulcus were not related to behavioral performance. In patients with early PD, the behavioral data showed reduced training effects during pretraining, but intact rule learning during the fMRI session. Imaging revealed highly similar frontomedian and posterior cingulate activations in patients and controls, in the absence of significant striatal and inferior frontal activations in patients. Our findings support the view that in early PD, with the lateral striatofrontal dopaminergic projections being affected, medial dopaminergic projections involved in the application of previously learned rules may still be spared.

Aged↗
PubMed1995

Serial reaction time learning and Parkinson's disease: evidence for a procedural learning deficit.

This paper presents evidence in support of a serial reaction time (SRT) deficit associated with Parkinson's disease, and related to the acquisition or execution of serial-order information. Eleven patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease, and 10 age-matched but otherwise healthy control subjects, were compared on a variant of the SRT task introduced by Nissen and Bullemer (Cognit. Psychol. 19, 1-32, 1987). The results of this study clearly demonstrate that PD patients produce a quite different pattern of RT performance to that of control subjects. Such a pattern of results may reflect either: (1) a deficit in the patients' ability to learn the temporal order information provided by a repeating sequence of target locations in the SRT task; or (2) a deficit in the patients' ability to express temporal order information provided by the repeating sequence of target locations in the SRT task.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

Implicit memory in schizotypal subjects and normal controls: effects of a secondary task on sequence learning.

Using a serial reaction-time task, the implicit memory performances of 29 high scoring (schizotypes) and 24 low scoring subjects (controls) on the German version of the 1997 Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire by Klein, Andresen, and Jahn were compared. To test the hypothesis that schizotypes show a differential deficit, subjects participated either in a single task condition of the serial reaction-time task or in a dual task condition of a secondary tone-counting task. Neither under single task conditions nor under dual task conditions did schizotypes show any impairment of implicit memory compared with controls. In addition, a separate analysis of the response latencies for the unique and ambiguous transitions of the repeated sequence did not indicate any differences between the two groups. These findings support and augment the results reported by Ferraro and Okerlund (1995).

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Serial reaction time learning in preschool- and school-age children.

Visuomotor sequence learning was assessed in 4- to 10-year-old children using a serial reaction time (SRT) task with both random and sequenced trials. One-half of the children received exposure to the sequence prior to performing the reaction time (RT) task. In Experiment 1, 7- and 10-year-old children demonstrated sequence-specific decreases in RT. As in the adult SRT literature, participants with explicit awareness of the sequence at the end of the session showed larger sequence-specific reaction time decrements than those without explicit awareness. Contrary to expectation, preexposure to the sequence did not reliably predict the level of awareness attained. Results from Experiment 2 indicate that 4-year-olds also demonstrate significant sequence learning on a variant of the SRT task. This article provides preliminary data regarding developmental changes in sequential learning and the development and use of implicit and explicit knowledge. Age-related differences emerged primarily in explicit rather than implicit knowledge.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2004

Implicit learning in a serial choice visual discrimination task in the operant 9-hole box by intact and striatal lesioned mice.

Within a broader programme developing murine models of Huntington's disease (HD), we have sought to develop a test of implicit learning for the mouse. Mice were trained in a novel serial visual discrimination task in the '9-hole box' operant test apparatus, followed by retesting after either bilateral quinolinic acid striatal lesions or sham lesions. In the task, each trial involves two sequential responses: an initial light stimulus is presented randomly in one of five holes, to which a nose-poke response results in the first light being extinguished and a second light is illuminated in a different hole. Response to the second light results in food reward, followed by a brief interval before the next trial. When the first light was in one of three of the five holes, the location of the second light was unpredictable in any of the remaining four holes; by contrast, if the first light occurred in one of the other two of the five holes, then the location of the second light was entirely predictable, being the hole two steps to the left or to the right, respectively. Reaction times and accuracy of responding were recorded to both stimuli. The mice learned the task with a degree of accuracy, and they demonstrated clear implicit learning, as measured by increased accuracy and reduced latency to respond to the presentation of the predictable stimulus. Striatal lesions disrupted performance, reducing accuracy for both the first and second stimuli and increasing response latencies for the second stimuli. The decrease in accuracy by the lesioned animals was accompanied by increases in perseverative nose-poking and inappropriate magazine entries throughout the trials, but the lesioned mice still showed a similar benefit (albeit, against a lower baseline of performance) from the implicit knowledge provided on predictable trials. The data validates the task as a sensitive probe for determining implicit learning deficits in the mouse, and suggests that the consequences of striatal lesions, while disrupting performance of skilled stimulus-response habits, are not selective to the process underlying implicit learning.

Animals↗