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Frontal lobe dysfunction and memory impairment in patients with chronic progressive multiple sclerosis.
W W Beatty1, D E Goodkin, P A Beatty
1Cognitive Neuroscience Research Program, Neuropsychiatric Institute, Fargo, North Dakota.
Brain and Cognition
|September 1, 1989
Summary
Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients can semantically encode information, suggesting memory issues stem from slow processing, not encoding deficits. This finding impacts understanding of cognitive impairment in MS.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neurology
Background:
- Frontal lobe disease is linked to semantic encoding deficits and memory impairment.
- Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients often show memory deficits and impaired semantic encoding.
- MS patients also exhibit deficits in verbal fluency and concept formation, indicative of frontal lobe dysfunction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the semantic encoding capacity in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).
- To determine if memory disturbances in MS are due to impaired semantic encoding or other processing deficits.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a modified Wickens' release from proactive interference (PI) paradigm to measure semantic encoding.
- Assessed individual MS patients on verbal fluency, verbal recognition memory, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task.
Main Results:
- Despite varied impairments in memory and frontal lobe tasks, MS patients demonstrated normal release from PI after a categorical shift.
- Semantic encoding capacity appears preserved in MS patients, even those with memory and frontal lobe dysfunction.
Conclusions:
- Memory disturbances in multiple sclerosis are unlikely caused by an inability to perform semantic encoding.
- Deficits in rapid information processing, rather than semantic encoding, may underlie memory problems in MS.