A retroactive spatial cue improved VSTM capacity in mild cognitive impairment and medial temporal lobe amnesia but not in healthy older adults

NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA

卷:77

Article

Newsome, Rachel N.¹  Duarte, Audrey²  Pun, Carson¹  Smith, Victoria M.¹  Ferber, Susanne^1,3  Barense, Morgan D.^1,3 

[1] Univ Toronto, Dept Psychol, Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, Canada

[2] Georgia Inst Technol, Sch Psychol, Atlanta, GA 30332 USA

[3] Rotman Res Inst, Toronto, ON, Canada

关键词: Attention;    Mild cognitive impairment (MCI);    Aging;    Visual short-term memory;    Medial temporal lobe (MTL);    Amnesia;    Interference;    Retrocue;    change detection;    Binding;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.08.017

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is a vital cognitive ability, connecting visual input with conscious awareness. VSTM performance declines with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and medial temporal lobe (MTL) amnesia. Many studies have shown that providing a spatial retrospective cue (retrocue) improves VSTM capacity estimates for healthy young adults. However, one study has demonstrated that older adults are unable to use a retrocue to inhibit irrelevant items from memory. It is unknown whether patients with MCI and MTL amnesia will be able to use a retrocue to benefit their memory. We administered a retrocue and a baseline (simultaneous cue, simucue) task to young adults, older adults, MCI patients, and MTL cases. Consistent with previous findings, young adults showed a retrocue benefit, whereas healthy older adults did not. In contrast, both MCI patients and MTL cases showed a retrocue benefit - the use of a retrocue brought patient performance up to the level of age-matched controls. We speculate that the patients were able to use the spatial information from the retrocue to reduce interference and facilitate binding items to their locations. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free