Working memory characteristics in T2DM individuals with MMSE-defined cognitive status: a behavioral study

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Endocrinology
• Psychology

Background:

• Cognitive decline, particularly working memory impairment, is prevalent in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
• Previous research often compared T2DM patients to healthy controls, focusing on single working memory domains.
• This study investigates working memory performance across different cognitive loads and its association with global cognitive status in T2DM patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To classify T2DM patients based on cognitive status using Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores.
• To examine verbal and visuospatial working memory performance under varying cognitive loads.
• To characterize the cross-sectional association between working memory and global cognitive status in T2DM.

Main Methods:

• Recruited T2DM patients and classified them into higher (T2DM-HC) and lower (T2DM-LC) cognitive status groups based on MMSE scores.
• Assessed verbal and visuospatial working memory using N-back tasks (0-back to 2-back), recording reaction time and accuracy.
• Employed partial correlation and hierarchical regression analyses to examine associations between working memory and cognitive status.

Main Results:

• The T2DM-LC group exhibited longer reaction times and greater accuracy decline under high cognitive load compared to the T2DM-HC group.
• MMSE scores were significantly associated with 2-back accuracy in both verbal and visuospatial tasks.
• Visuospatial 2-back accuracy showed a stronger association with global cognitive status, explaining 38.6% of the variance.

Conclusions:

• Working memory performance is significantly associated with global cognitive status in T2DM patients, especially under high cognitive load.
• Visuospatial working memory, specifically 2-back performance, demonstrated a stronger link to global cognitive status in this cohort.
• These exploratory findings highlight the importance of assessing working memory in T2DM and suggest potential for visuospatial tasks in evaluating cognitive health.