Memory and ventricular size in alcoholics

The relationship between memory performance and CT scan measures of ventricular size was investigated in a sample of 39 chronic alcoholics and 39 controls. Measures of verbal, non-verbal, recognition and recall memory were derived from the tests administered and were viewed in relation to the lateral ventricle and third ventricular size measurements. The results showed that the memory performance of male alcoholics was significantly related to measures of third ventricular size, but probably not to measures of the lateral ventricles. An association between verbal memory performance and CT scan measures was found in the male controls.     

Alcoholics' self-assessment of their neuropsychological functioning in everyday life

Self-reports of impairment in everyday cognitive and perceptuomotor functioning for the 6 months that preceded treatment were investigated in 60 male, middle-aged alcoholics and for a comparable time period in 60 nonalcoholic controls matched on age, education, and Shipley Vocabulary age. Alcoholics reported significantly more everyday impairment than did controls in memory, higher cognitive functions, language skills, and perceptual-motor function. Laboratory tests of neuropsychological performance revealed that the alcoholics were significantly poorer than controls on measures of memory, higher cognitive functions, and overall neuropsychological functioning, but test performances essentially were uncorrelated with self-reported everyday impairment and with self-reported levels of depression and anxiety. However, in both groups, measures of depression and anxiety were correlated significantly with self-perception of impairment. In alcoholics, quantity-frequency of drinking (QFI) was also correlated with reported impairment; chronicity was not. Multiple regression analyses indicate that in alcoholics, both quantity-frequency measures of alcohol intake and affective distress (depression, anxiety) made independent and roughly equal contributions to reported everyday impairment; in controls, only affective distress contributed significantly.     

Inpatient Memory Impairment Scale: a cross-validation and extension study

The psychometric properties of the Inpatient Memory Impairment Scale (IMIS), a 10-item behavioural rating scale for assessing hospitalized amnesiacs, were investigated using matched groups of 18 amnesiacs, 20 chronic alcoholics, and 20 psychiatric patients. The scale was found to have a high degree of internal consistency and interrater reliability when two raters are used and to correlate significantly with a range of memory tasks. The IMIS was found to discriminate amnesiacs from chronic alcoholics and amnesiacs from psychiatric patients, which extends the findings of previous studies that used this scale. It is concluded that the IMIS has encouraging psychometric properties that have been replicated in this study and that the development of ecologically valid behavioral measures of cognitive deficit represents a promising direction for future research.     

Memory retraining with adult male alcoholics.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the use of group memory retraining in adult male alcoholics. Subjects were 29 residents of a Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center. Fourteen of the men volunteered to be in a memory retraining group and 15 to be in a control group, and all had memory functioning assessed during a pretest and again during a posttest eight weeks later. Memory retraining occurred in groups of three to six men who met one hour per week for eight weeks. Only one test improved significantly with memory retraining. Despite that fact, subjects appreciated the retraining and were more confident of their ability to learn and remember. Since alcoholics have many subjective complaints about memory dysfunction and previous research has demonstrated memory impairment, both a standardized clinically useful memory test battery and effective memory retraining techniques are needed.     

Memory assessment using the Strub-Black Mental Status Examination and the Wechsler Memory Scale

A systematic mental status exam often can differentiate accurately patients with organic brain disease from normal persons and those with functional disorders. The present study attempts to validate the memory portion of the Strub-Black Mental Status Exam by comparing it to the Wechsler Memory Scale. Twenty-five brain-damaged and 25 routine medical patients were given Form I of the Wechsler Memory Scale and the memory portion of the Strub-Black Mental Status Exam at their hospital bedside. Results indicate significant differences in almost all scores between the brain-damaged and normal groups on both the Wechsler Memory Scale and Mental Status exam; the Mental Status Exam differentiated between groups at a higher level of significance of ANOVA and ANCOVA comparisons of total memory scores, as well as several subtests. In these samples, age, more than education, was an important factor that affected memory test performance. The Mental Status Examination appears valid for the differentiation of clinical samples and for the documentation of specific aspects of memory dysfunction in individual brain-damaged patients. This study represents a beginning step in providing normative data on components of the Strub-Black mental status examination.     

Memory after menopause: preliminary considerations of hormone influence on cognitive functioning

Summary Oestrogen has been shown to have a wide variety of organisational and activating effects on brain structure and function. Despite the significant amount of research investigating the relation and effects of oestrogen to cognitive performance in menopausal women over the past two decades, studies have failed to produce consistent findings. This paper reports on evaluations of eighty-one community-based postmenopausal Australian women comparing current, past and never users of hormone therapy (HT) on a wide range of cognitive measures of general, verbal and visual memory, delayed recall, attention, concentration and verbal comprehension. Few significant differences were found among the three groups in the demographic profile, health status or psychological functioning. Although never users had significantly lower scores on verbal memory than past users, the differences were not statistically significant when adjustments were made controlling for age, education level, verbal comprehension, attention and concentration. These findings challenge long-held beliefs regarding the usefulness of oestrogen supplements as a protective factor against cognitive decline in older women’s later years.     

Memory and executive impairment in schizophrenia: comparison with frontal and temporal brain damage

BACKGROUND: Although poor neuropsychological test performance is well documented in schizophrenia, how closely it resembles that seen in patients with brain damage in terms of cognitive failures in daily life and stability over time has been little studied. METHOD: Thirty patients with chronic schizophrenia, 24 patients with frontal or temporal brain damage and 30 healthy controls were given a battery of memory and executive tests. Carers of the two patient groups also completed questionnaires rating memory and executive failures in daily life. Testing was repeated 6 weeks later. RESULTS: The schizophrenia and the brain-damaged patients were significantly impaired on most, but not all tests. The degree of carer-rated memory or executive failure was similar in the two groups, but the schizophrenia patients were rated as having significantly more executive failures than memory failures, whereas the brain-damaged patients showed the reverse pattern. Both groups of patients showed similar consistency of performance across sessions. CONCLUSIONS: Neuropsychological impairment in schizophrenia resembles that seen in patients with brain damage, not only in terms of overall severity, but also in terms of stability and the degree to which poor test performance translates into cognitive failures in daily life.     

Memory Impairment and Deep Brain Structures

Clinical and neuropsychological investigations were performed using the Luriya method in 141 patients with arteriovenous malformations (AVM). These included 27 patients with AVM in different parts of the caudate nucleus, 34 with AVM in the thalamus, 39 with AVM in the hippocampal formation, and 41 with AVM in the cingulate gyrus. A total of 102 patients underwent surgery. Patients with AVM in various locations showed common memory impairments as well as individual features of memory disturbances depending on which structures were affected. The common feature was the development of an amnesiac symptom complex resembling Korsakov's syndrome. These lesions developed only in patients with combined damage to deep structures (preoperatively in patients with ventricular hemorrhages); with the exception of patients with AVM of the caudate nucleus, memory impairments were modality-non-specific; all patients showed impairment of auditory-speech memory at the late phase and of visual memory in terms of indirect recall. Memory impairments characteristic of lesions to individual structures were the presence of functional asymmetry of memory defects in available of the caudate nucleus and thalamus (if only speech problems were present) and constant inclusions and contaminations in patients with AVM of the cingulate gyrus. It is suggested that certain aspects of memory function may have been duplicated in different structures during evolution and that each structure makes its own contribution to overall memory function.     

Performance of alcoholic and brain-damaged subjects on the Luria memory words test

Verbal memory was evaluated in groups of 36 community controls, 50 pseudoneurological controls, 50 alcoholics, and 50 brain-damaged patients. All participants were men between the ages of 22-61. Groups did not differ in age or educational levels (F < 1). Groups were compared on their performance on the Luria Memory Words Test. Dependent variables included the number of correct words over learning trials, the trial of best performance, and the number of words recalled at three delayed trials (2, 8, and 30 min after learning). Brain-damaged subjects were inferior to community controls on all measures. Pseudoneurological controls were inferior to community controls on delayed recall, but were equivalent on measures of learning. Alcoholics were inferior to controls on measures of learning but did not differ on measures of recall. Implications regarding the underlying deficit in alcoholics' verbal memory, the use and interpretation of the Luria Memory Words test, and the use of pseudoneurological patients as controls are discussed.     

Modulation of limbic-cerebellar functional connectivity enables alcoholics to recognize who is who

Chronic alcoholism is known to disrupt functions served by distributed brain systems, including limbic and frontocerebellar circuits involved in resting-state and task-activated networks subserving component processes of memory often affected in alcoholics. Using an fMRI paradigm, we investigated whether memory performance by alcoholics on a face–name association test previously observed to be problematic for alcoholics could be explained by desynchronous activity between nodes of these specific networks. While in the scanner, 18 alcoholics and 15 controls performed a face–name associative learning task with different levels of processing at encoding. This task was designed to activate the hippocampus, cerebellum, and frontal cortex. Alcoholics and controls were also scanned at rest. Twelve alcoholics and 12 controls were selected to be matched on face–name recognition performance. Task-related fMRI analysis indicated that alcoholics had preserved limbic activation but lower cerebellar activation (Crus II) than the controls in the face–name learning task. Crus II was, therefore, chosen as a seed for functional connectivity MRI analysis. At rest, the left hippocampus and left Crus II had positively synchronized activity in controls, while hippocampal and cerebellar activities were negatively synchronized in alcoholics. Task engagement resulted in hippocampal-cerebellar desynchronization in both groups. We speculate that atypical cerebello-hippocampal activity synchronization during rest in alcoholics was reset to the normal pattern of asynchrony by task engagement. Aberrations from the normal pattern of resting-state default mode synchrony could be interpreted as enabling preserved face–name associative memory in alcoholism.     

Event Related Potentials and EEG Components in a Semantic Memory Search Task

This study examined the effects of memory search and related processes on both time and frequency domain components of electroencephalographic activity. More specifically, we were interested in the relationship between EEG and event-related potential (ERP) components as a function of memory load and response type. Subjects performed a semantic memory search task in which they matched word probes to category labels. Consistent with previous studies, reaction time increased and accuracy decreased with increasing memory loads. A negative component of the ERP (N400) was found to reflect semantic mismatch: N400s were larger for the nontargets than for the targets. Two ERP components were found to be reciprocally related to memory load. P300 decreased and Negative Slow Wave increased in amplitude with increases in the size of the memory set. These two ERP components were reflected by different components in a Principal Components Analysis. The power in the theta band (5-7 Hz) also increased as a function of memory load and appears to be functionally and topographically related to the Negative Slow Wave in the ERP. It is argued that both measures are jointly determined and reflect the difficulty of the conceptual operations during memory search.     

Age-Associated Memory Changes in Adults With Williams Syndrome

Age-associated changes on measures of episodic and working memory were examined in 15 adults with Williams Syndrome (WS; M age = 48.3 years, SD = 14.7; M IQ = 62.9, SD = 8.5) and their performance was compared to that of 33 adults with mental retardation (MR) with unspecified etiologies (M age = 54.2 years, SD = 8.9; M IQ = 61.7, SD = 6.5). Among the group with WS, older adults were significantly poorer than younger adults on the free recall task, a measure of episodic memory. Although this finding is consistent with normal aging, it occurred at a chronologically early age in adults with WS and was not found in their peers with unspecified MR. Although both groups showed small declines with age on a backward digit span task, a measure of working memory, for the group with WS the rate of decline on backward digit span was slower as compared to their performance on the free recall task. The findings from this study indicate a chronologically early and precipitous age-associated decrease in long-term, episodic memory in adults with WS.     

Implicit Memory Development in School-Aged Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Conceptual Priming Deficit?

Previous research has shown that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often demonstrate performance deficits on effortful, strategic memory tasks, whereas relatively rote tasks of memory reveal no such deficit. Thus far, research in this domain has focused primarily on explicit memory. This study examined performance on multiple measures of implicit and explicit memory in children aged 7 to 14 years with and without ADHD. Memory for words and pictures was assessed at 15-min and 24-hr intervals. ADHD and non-ADHD groups performed similarly on tests of explicit memory (category-cued recall and recognition) and on perceptual aspects of implicit memory (word stem completion and picture fragment identification) as a function of age, retention interval, and stimulus format (i.e., picture or word). However, there was no evidence of priming on a conceptual implicit memory test (category exemplar generation) for boys with ADHD. This type of conceptual task, which is likely mediated by frontal systems, may indicate a unique memory deficit associated with ADHD.     

Memory related dysregulation of hippocampal function in major depressive disorder

Hippocampal abnormalities have frequently been associated with major depressive disorder (MDD), however evidence of a functional hippocampal deficit has remained illusive. Here, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is employed in conjunction with an associative memory paradigm to investigate functional irregularities of the hippocampus during the encoding process. The use of a focussed analytical approach and a behavioural task targeted to hippocampal function confirmed the hypothesis that the normal modulation of hippocampal activation by encoding strength is dysregulated in MDD. Further analysis demonstrated that this impairment of function was specific to the hippocampus. A double dissociation between groups in the hippocampus and intraparietal sulcus indicates that compensatory mechanisms may exist. These results show that MDD is associated with a dysregulation of hippocampal function that cannot be explained in terms of overall brain state or motivational stance and provides an important link between memory impairments and hippocampal changes in MDD.     

Patterns of neuropsychological deficit in alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome

Twenty-five male and 13 female patients with alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome (AKS) were compared with age- and sex-matched non-Korsakoff chronic alcoholics and healthy volunteers in a neuropsychological study, which included computer-administered tests of cognitive function. The performance of male Korsakoff patients was significantly inferior to that of healthy male controls, not only in tests of memory, but also in visuo-perceptual tasks with a speed or motor component, and on category sorting and verbal fluency measures. Compared with male alcoholics, the performance of male Korsakoff patients was again inferior on similar tests. Female Korsakoff patients showed more extensive deficits compared with female controls, but differed less from matched female alcoholics. The results suggest that, in addition to their amnesia, many Korsakoff patients have sustained widespread cognitive deficits, affecting particularly visuo-perceptual and abstracting functions, which are sensitive to cortical lesions. The range of deficits falls short of what may be regarded as 'global' in male, but probably not in female, Korsakoffs. The implications for a dual aetiology of AKS involving thiamine deficiency and other features associated with alcoholism, probably direct alcohol neurotoxicity, are discussed.     

蛋白质组学方法鉴定小鼠Barnes迷宫空间记忆相关蛋白

目的：通过Barnes Maze （ Barnes迷宫, BM）对小鼠进行空间记忆训练,随后用蛋白质组学方法鉴定BM空间记忆相关的海马蛋白并分析蛋白功能及参与的生物学过程。方法将小鼠分为实验组和对照组。应用BM对实验组小鼠进行空间记忆训练,蛋白质组学方法鉴定两组小鼠中表达水平不同的海马蛋白,分析空间记忆相关的蛋白及其功能。结果实验组小鼠学习训练后学习记忆能力明显强于对照组,到达目标孔的时间明显缩短[对照组：（116．0±5．5） s,实验组：（42．0±3．6） s; P＜0．05]。蛋白质组学分析结果表明9种海马蛋白的表达水平在记忆形成过程中显著下调,下调的蛋白按功能可分为4类：①细胞骨架;②能量代谢;③神经发育;④物质运输。结论这9种学习记忆相关蛋白可能通过调节细胞骨架、能量代谢、神经发育和物质运输等生物学过程进而影响了学习记忆能力。     

Memory impairment in patients with cirrhosis

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Subclinical hepatic encephalopathy (HE) in cirrhotic patients is usually characterized by memory impairment and psychomotor slowing. Our aim was to investigate memory status in cirrhotic patients with and without clinically overt HE. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty-two cirrhotic patients (10 female and 22 male) aged 49 +/- 17 years and 20 healthy subjects (six female and 14 male) aged 46 +/- 12 years were included in the study. Memory status was defined by Wechsler Memory Scale, verbal memory process and complex memory process tests. RESULTS: Grade-1 HE was detected in 7 (22%) patients with cirrhosis. We detected 36 to 92% decrement in various memory tests in cirrhotic patients without HE as compared to healthy subjects. The scores for all psychometric testing results were significantly lower in cirrhotic patients without HE as compared to healthy subjects. We detected 42.9 to 100% decrement in various memory tests in cirrhotic patients with HE than cirrhotic patients without HE. However, there was no statistical significant difference between cirrhotic patients with and without HE. There was no statistical significant difference in cirrhotic patients with Child-Pugh A, B, and C. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, memory status was influenced in which patients with cirrhosis yet has a normal mental and neurological status to routine clinical examination (subclinical HE). Occasionally, decreased memory performance may adversely affect the satisfaction and lifestyle of these patients. Therefore, subclinical HE is an important social problem.     

Differences in platelet enzyme activity between alcoholics and nonalcoholics

Blood platelets are an accessible tissue that reflects the activity of many enzymes found in the brain. To investigate the possible effect on such enzymes of long-term consumption of large quantities of ethanol, we assayed the activities of two enzymes, monoamine oxidase and adenylate cyclase, in platelet membranes of men with alcoholism and controls matched for sex and age. We also compared these two groups in terms of the inhibition of platelet monoamine oxidase activity by ethanol in vitro (400 mM), and in terms of the stimulation of adenylate cyclase activity by various agents. There was no significant difference in monoamine oxidase activity between the alcoholics and the controls. However, the inhibition of monoamine oxidase by ethanol was significantly higher in the platelets of alcoholics. The basal activity of adenylate cyclase was the same in platelets from the alcoholics and the controls, but the platelet adenylate cyclase activity after stimulation with guanine nucleotide, cesium fluoride, or prostaglandin E1 was significantly lower in alcoholics. These differences were not associated with age, race, smoking, or illicit drug use, and there was no significant correlation with the duration of problems with alcohol. The changes were long-lasting; cesium fluoride-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity was lower in alcoholic subjects who had abstained from alcohol for one to four years. Discriminant analysis showed that the use of values for the inhibition of monoamine oxidase activity by ethanol and cesium fluoride-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity correctly classified 75 percent of the alcoholics and 73 percent of the controls. These measures may be of value either as indexes of excessive alcohol consumption or as an indication of a predisposition to alcoholism.     

Personality characteristics of adult children of alcoholics

The study examined whether eight characteristics attributed to adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs) by Woititz (1983) were supported by personality measures. The Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST) and nine scales from the California Personality Inventory and the 16-PF were administered to 166 undergraduates. Forty-nine (29%) of these subjects were identified as ACOAs. ACOAS' scores on the personality measures were compared to an age- and gender-matched control group. No differences were identified between ACOA men and control men. ACOA women were found to be more flexible, impulsive, and pessimistic, with a sense of less wellbeing than control women. A significant discriminant function correctly classified 77.6% of the women subjects. This function indicated that easygoingness, independence, self-assurance, and self-directedness are associated with status as an ACOA for women.     

The premature aging hypothesis: old before its time?

This study tested the hypothesis that alcoholism results in premature aging of memory functioning. It was proposed that support for the premature aging hypothesis must come from qualitative as well as quantitative similarities between younger alcoholics and older controls. The California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) was administered to young and old alcoholics and to young and old controls. The CVLT provides measures of recall, recognition, learning strategies, and error types. Alcoholism and aging produced similar levels of immediate and delayed free recall. However, poor recognition memory and more frequent intrusion and false positive errors were associated with alcoholism but not with aging. Qualitative differences in error types between alcoholism and aging were also found. Results indicated that alcoholism and aging produce independent verbal learning decrements.