ISOLATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTS IN SERIAL LEARNING.
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Humans↗
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ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS IN LEARNING AND REMEMBERING: FUNCTIONAL UNITY OF THE INTERPOLATED TASK AS A FACTOR IN RETROACTIVE INTERFERENCE.
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Humans↗
Factor analysis of verbal and nonverbal clinical memory tests.
This study represents an attempt to evaluate the construct validity of various verbal and nonverbal clinical memory tests. Marker variables for verbal, visual-perceptual-motor and attention-concentration abilities were employed in order to demonstrate the relative independence of these abilities from the memory measures. Subjects were 119 individuals (aged 16-74) from a combined sample of brain damaged and non-neurologic medical controls. Principal components analyses with orthogonal varimax rotations produced four factors in both Immediate and Delayed analyses: nonverbal memory and visual-perceptual-motor skills, verbal learning and memory, general verbal abilities, and attention-concentration. The inclusion of additional nonverbal memory measures helped to create a modality specific nonverbal factor but did not produce a pure nonverbal memory factor. The Wechsler Memory Quotient had modest loadings on three of the four factors.
Journal Article↗
Sex differences in adults' spatial and verbal serial learning tasks.
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Adult↗
Procedural learning is impaired in patients with prefrontal lesions.
OBJECTIVES: To 1) determine the effect of prefrontal cortex lesions on procedural learning (PL), measured by a serial reaction-time task (SRTT); 2) confirm whether visuomotor PL is lateralized to one hemisphere; and 3) clarify the relation between visuomotor sequence learning and verbal sequence learning, working memory, and executive functions. BACKGROUND: Previous cognitive neuroscience research has implicated the prefrontal cortex in visuomotor PL but there is a lack of studies examining patients with prefrontal cortex lesions. METHODS: We studied 22 patients with strictly unilateral prefrontal cortex lesions (traumatic, ischemic, hemorrhagic, or tumors) and 52 cognitively intact controls matched for age, sex, and educational level. We administered to subjects long (10-item sequence) and short (4-item sequence) versions of the SRTT. With the long version, each hand was evaluated separately. Learning was indicated by the shortening of response times (RT) and decrease in errors across the sequential blocks and, most importantly, the rebound increase in RTs and errors when comparing the last sequence block with the next random block. Frontal lobe functions and verbal sequence learning were also assessed. RESULTS: Patients with unilateral prefrontal cortex lesions show PL impairment that involves both hands, although more errors were observed when the hand contralateral to the lesion was performing. Only those patients whose lesions were >2 cm in diameter were impaired. Neuropsychologic evaluation indicated impaired verbal sequence learning and executive function deficits. Patients with poorer working memory and verbal sequence learning were also more impaired in visuomotor sequence learning. CONCLUSIONS: The prefrontal cortex has a role in PL and is part of the neural circuit that mediates this type of learning.
Adult↗
The relationship between CVLT-C process scores and measures of executive functioning: lack of support among community-dwelling adolescents.
In an effort to characterize how a child goes about learning and recalling information, the developers of the California Verbal Learning Test for Children (CVLT-C) provided normative data related to both learning outcome and learning process. The present study examined the assertion that CVLT-C process indices relate to executive functioning in a sample of community-dwelling adolescents. Contrary to predictions, measures of executive functioning typically correlated poorly with measures of learning process, despite displaying significant correlations with measures of learning outcome. Although further research is recommended, these findings do not support the clinical interpretation of CVLT-C process indices as reflections of executive functioning.
Adolescent↗
Attenuation of the neuropsychiatric effects of ketamine with lamotrigine: support for hyperglutamatergic effects of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists.
BACKGROUND: The cognitive, behavioral, and mood effects of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists, such as phencyclidine and ketamine, have been used to study the effects of NMDA receptor dysfunction. Pharmacological modulation of the effects of NMDA receptor antagonists, such as ketamine, may lead to development of novel therapeutic agents for psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia. Preclinical studies indicate that some ketamine effects may be mediated through increased glutamate release. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that lamotrigine, a drug reported to inhibit glutamate release, will reduce the neuropsychiatric effects of ketamine in humans. METHOD: Healthy subjects (n = 16) completed 4 test days involving the administration of lamotrigine, 300 mg by mouth, or placebo 2 hours prior to administration of ketamine (0.26 mg/kg by intravenous bolus and 0.65 mg/kg per hour by intravenous infusion) or placebo in a randomized order under double-blind conditions. Behavioral and cognitive assessments were performed at baseline and after administration of the medications. RESULTS: Lamotrigine significantly decreased ketamine-induced perceptual abnormalities as assessed by the Clinician-Administered Dissociative States Scale (P<.001); positive symptoms of schizophrenia as assessed by the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale positive symptoms subscale (P<.001); negative symptoms as assessed by the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale negative symptoms subscale (P<.05); and learning and memory impairment as assessed by the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (P<.05). However, lamotrigine increased the immediate mood-elevating effects of ketamine (P<.05). CONCLUSIONS: Glutamate release-inhibiting drugs may reduce the hyperglutamatergic consequences of NMDA receptor dysfunction implicated in the pathophysiologic processes of neuropsychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia. Further study is needed.
Adult↗
Strategic processing and episodic memory impairment in obsessive compulsive disorder.
There is evidence that nonverbal memory problems in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are mediated by impaired strategic processing. Although many studies have found verbal memory to be normal in OCD, these studies did not use tests designed to stress organizational strategies. This study examined verbal and nonverbal memory performance in 33 OCD patients and 30 normal control participants with the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test and the California Verbal Learning Test. OCD patients were impaired on verbal and nonverbal measures of organizational strategy and free recall. Multiple regression modeling indicated that free recall problems in OCD were mediated by impaired organizational strategies used during learning trials. Therefore, verbal and nonverbal episodic memory deficits in OCD are affected by impaired strategic processing. Results are consistent with neurobiological models proposing frontal-striatal system dysfunction in OCD.
Adult↗
Clinical correlates of cognitive decline in vascular dementia.
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether demographic data, dementia severity, functional status, whole brain volume (WBV), or subcortical hyperintensity volume (SH) predict subsequent cognitive decline in vascular dementia (VaD). BACKGROUND: The identification of variables that accurately predict progressive cognitive decline in dementia has important clinical implications. METHODS: A cohort of 30 patients with VaD completed neurologic and neuropsychologic examinations and magnetic resonance imaging of the brain at baseline and again after 12 months. All participants met clinical and research criteria for VaD according to standard guidelines. Change scores were computed for measures of verbal fluency, verbal learning, and visual learning. Potential correlates of cognitive change included age, education, score on the Hachinski scale, WBV, SH, and functional ability. RESULTS: As a group, lower WBV and lower Hachinski score correlated with decline in verbal fluency and visual learning, whereas lower Hachinski score correlated with decline in verbal learning. However, when subdivided by disease type, this pattern held only for individuals with evidence of a cortical stroke at baseline. No clinical variables correlated with cognitive decline among individuals without a cortical infarction. CONCLUSIONS: Assessment of cognitive decline in VaD should be guided by dementia subtype, with particular attention directed at severity of cerebral atrophy rather than classic symptoms of infarction.
Aged↗
Pseudoname learning by German-speaking children with dyslexia: evidence for a phonological learning deficit.
In 2 experiments, German-speaking dyslexic children (9-year-olds) showed impaired learning of new phonological forms (pseudonames) in a variety of visual-verbal learning tasks. The dyslexic deficit was also found when phonological retrieval cues were provided and when the to-be-learned pseudonames were presented in spoken as well as printed form. However, the dyslexic children showed no name-learning deficit when short, familiar words were used and they also had no difficulty with immediate repetition of the pseudowords. The dyslexic children's difficulty in learning new phonological forms was associated with pseudoword-repetition and naming-speed deficits assessed at the beginning of school, but not with phonological awareness and visual-motor impairments. We propose that the difficulty in learning new phonological forms may affect reading and spelling acquisition via impaired storage of new phonological forms, which serve as phonological underpinnings of the letter patterns of words or parts of words.
Child↗
Odor detection, learning, and memory in Huntington's disease.
We compared 7 mildly affected Huntington's disease (HD) patients to 7 age- and education-matched healthy controls (NC) on an odor detection test, the California Odor Learning Test, and the California Verbal Learning Test. Results demonstrated that odor detection sensitivity, but not group membership, accounted for significant variance in total olfactory learning. Both groups learned fewer items in the olfactory modality compared to the verbal modality, but retained a similar amount following a delay. No group differences were demonstrated for verbal recognition discriminability, but the HD group demonstrated significantly impaired odor recognition discriminability. Finally, odor detection provided excellent classification sensitivity and specificity between the patients and controls, suggesting that olfactory testing may provide a sensitive measure of the early disease process in HD.
Cognition Disorders↗
[Aging and schizophrenia: the relation of age to clinical symptoms and cognitive functions in schizophrenia].
OBJECTIVE: The course of clinical symptoms and cognitive functions with aging in schizophrenia is still unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of age on psychopathological symptoms and cognitive functions in schizophrenia. METHOD: Forty-one patients with schizophrenia and 22 healthy subjects as a control group were included in the study. The relation of age to the severity of the symptoms and the cognitive functions were investigated in patients with schizophrenia. The age related variations in cognitive functions among patients and healthy subjects were analyzed by separating each group into young (18-34 years) and older (35-60 years) age groups. RESULTS: There was a negative correlation between age and positive scores of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Age was negatively correlated to the Digit Span Test in patients with schizophrenia and the Rey Verbal Learning and Memory Test and Controlled Word Association Test in healthy subjects. There was a significant age related difference between the two groups in the Controlled Word Association Test. CONCLUSION: The results of this study revealed that age had an influence on attention but not on any other domains in patients with schizophrenia, and on verbal learning-memory and verbal fluency in the control group. This might show a cognitive impairment that does not significantly change with aging in schizophrenia. This study also demonstrated an improvement in positive symptoms with aging.
Adolescent↗
Changes in cognitive functioning with risperidone and olanzapine treatment: a large-scale, double-blind, randomized study.
OBJECTIVE: The effects of risperidone and olanzapine on cognitive functioning in patients with schizophrenia were compared in a randomized, double-blind trial. METHOD: Three hundred and seventy-seven patients were randomly assigned to receive 2-6 mg/day of risperidone or 5-20 mg/day of olanzapine for 8 weeks. Cognitive function was assessed with a focused cognitive assessment battery; in addition, extrapyramidal symptoms were assessed using the extrapyramidal symptom rating scale (ESRS), and the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) was rated for all patients. RESULTS: Treatment with these two atypical antipsychotic medications was associated with improved performance on the Wisconsin card sorting test, the trail-making test, the California verbal learning test, the continuous performance test, and some aspects of verbal fluency and spatial working memory. No differences in the effects of the drugs on any of the cognitive tests were noted. Correcting for the effects of anticholinergic treatment did not alter the magnitude of cognitive effects. CONCLUSIONS: Atypical antipsychotic treatment is associated with wide-ranging benefits on cognitive functioning. Previous reports of greater benefits of olanzapine over risperidone in a small-sample pilot study were not substantiated. These results are not due in general to changes in clinical symptoms or movement disorders, suggesting a direct effect of atypical antipsychotic medications on cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.
Adolescent↗
Cognitive functioning in depression.
Verbal learning and memory, and recognition of famous faces, were assessed in 21 non-demented inpatients with RDC endogenous depression. Severity of depression was related to attention span, and patient age was related to measures of learning and recall. However, even in this severely depressed sample, verbal learning/memory measures were not below normative values. Facial recognition was significantly impaired relative to test norms. The results suggest that mild impairment in the early stages of verbal information encoding, and more marked impairment in the recognition of famous faces, may be associated with depression. These impairments differ from the cognitive changes associated with aging.
Age Factors↗
SHORT-TERM RETENTION OF VERBAL UNITS WITH EQUATED DEGREES OF LEARNING.
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Humans↗
Cobalamin supplementation improves cognitive and cerebral function in older, cobalamin-deficient persons.
BACKGROUND: Mild cobalamin (Cbl) deficiency is frequently found in older persons and is associated with cognitive and cerebral abnormalities. The effects of Cbl supplementation on these abnormalities are largely unknown. METHODS: In a single-blind, placebo-controlled intervention study, 16 healthy community-dwelling elderly subjects with low plasma Cbl concentration and no cognitive impairments were studied. Subjects underwent 1 month of treatment with placebo, followed by 5 months of treatment with intramuscular injections of hydroxycobalamin. Before and after measurements of plasma cobalamin, total homocysteine (tHcy), methylmalonic acid (MMA), quantitative electroencephalograph (qEEG), and psychometric tests were taken. RESULTS: After Cbl supplementation, plasma Cbl concentrations increased, and plasma MMA and tHcy concentrations decreased. The performance on the Verbal Word Learning Test, Verbal Fluency and Similarities improved. qEEG showed more fast activity and less slow activity. Lower plasma tHcy concentrations were related to increased fast activity on qEEG on the one hand and improved performance on the Verbal Word Learning Test and Similarities on the other. Increased fast or decreased slow activity on qEEG was associated with improved performance on the Verbal Word Learning Test, Similarities and Verbal Fluency. CONCLUSIONS: Electrographic signs of improved cerebral function and improved cognitive function were found after Cbl supplementation in older subjects with low plasma Cbl concentrations who were free of significant cognitive impairment. These improvements were related to a reduction of plasma tHcy concentration.
Aged↗
Preserved performance by cerebellar patients on tests of word generation, discrimination learning, and attention.
Recent theories suggest that the human cerebellum may contribute to the performance of cognitive tasks. We tested a group of adult patients with cerebellar damage attributable to stroke, tumor, or atrophy on four experiments involving verbal learning or attention shifting. In experiment 1, a verb generation task, participants produced semantically related verbs when presented with a list of nouns. With successive blocks of practice responding to the same set of stimuli, both groups, including a subset of cerebellar patients with unilateral right hemisphere lesions, improved their response times. In experiment 2, a verbal discrimination task, participants learned by trial and error to pick the target words from a set of word pairs. When age was taken into account, there were no performance differences between cerebellar patients and control subjects. In experiment 3, measures of spatial attention shifting were obtained under both exogenous and endogenous cueing conditions. Cerebellar patients and control subjects showed similar costs and benefits in both cueing conditions and at all SOAs. In experiment 4, intra- and interdimensional shifts of nonspatial attention were elicited by presenting word cues before the appearance of a target. Performance was substantially similar for cerebellar patients and control subjects. These results are presented as a cautionary note. The experiments failed to provide support for current hypotheses regarding the role of the cerebellum in verbal learning or attention. Alternative interpretations of previous results are discussed.
Aged↗
Effects of severe traumatic brain injury on visual memory.
The study aimed to clarify the effects of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) on visual memory. Three groups of participants (14 late-recovery and 14 early-recovery TBI individuals and 18 controls) were administered the following: The Shum Visual Learning Test (SVLT), a test that measures the ability to remember visual patterns, an electronic maze test, a test that measures the ability to remember spatial positions, and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), a test of verbal memory and learning. The individuals with TBI (late- and early-recovery) were found to be impaired on the SVLT and the RAVLT but not on the electronic maze. Specifically, on the SVLT, they were found to learn at a slower rate and make more false-positive errors than the controls. The advantages of the SVLT over visual memory tests used in previous studies and the significance of findings of the present study were discussed.
Adolescent↗