OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate thalamic shape alterations and their relationships with various episodic memory impairments in subjects with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). METHODS: We compared volumes and morphological alterations of the thalamus between aMCI subjects and healthy controls. In addition, we investigated the correlation between thalamic deformations and various memory impairments in aMCI subjects using a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. RESULTS: The normalized left thalamic volumes of the aMCI group were significantly smaller than those of the healthy control group (p<0.0001). aMCI subjects exhibited significant thalamic deformations in the left thalamic dorso-medial and antero-medial areas compared with healthy individuals. CERAD-K Word List Memory scores were significantly correlated with the left dorso-medial areas in aMCI subjects. There were no significant correlations between verbal fluency, Boston naming test, constructional praxis, Word List Recognition, and Visuospatial Recall scores and thalamic shape in aMCI subjects. Verbal delayed recall scores were also significantly correlated with the left dorso-medial areas in the aMCI group. CONCLUSION: Structural alterations in the thalamic deformations in the left dorso-medial and antero-medial areas might be core underlying neurobiological mechanisms of thalamic dysfunction related to Word List Memory and delayed verbal recall in individuals with aMCI.
Cognition ; Memory ; Memory, Episodic ; Mild Cognitive Impairment* ; Thalamus

OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have shown that bilateral eye movements enhance episodic memory retrieval. However, few studies on the effect of bilateral eye movements on emotional memory have been reported. Therefore, this study was conducted in order to investigate the differences in memory retrieval between neutral and angry stimuli after bilaterally alternating eye movements. METHODS: Twenty seven healthy right-handed subjects participated in this study. The participants learned faces (angry or neutral face), and then performed a recognition memory task in relation to the faces after bilateral eye movements and central fixation. Recognition accuracy, response bias, and mean response time to hits were compared and analyzed. Two-way repeated measure analysis of variance was performed for statistical analysis. RESULTS: There was a significant effect of bilateral eye movement conditions in recognition accuracy (F=13.833, p<0.01). Statistically significant interaction effects were observed between eye movement condition and face emotion type (F=6.253, p=0.02). CONCLUSION: In this study, recognition memory for angry faces was more enhanced than that for neutral faces after bilateral eye movements. This finding suggests that bilateral eye movements can improve recognition memory for emotional stimuli more than that for neutral stimuli.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Eye Movements* ; Memory* ; Memory, Episodic ; Reaction Time

OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have shown that bilateral eye movements enhance episodic memory retrieval. However, few studies on the effect of bilateral eye movements on emotional memory have been reported. Therefore, this study was conducted in order to investigate the differences in memory retrieval between neutral and angry stimuli after bilaterally alternating eye movements. METHODS: Twenty seven healthy right-handed subjects participated in this study. The participants learned faces (angry or neutral face), and then performed a recognition memory task in relation to the faces after bilateral eye movements and central fixation. Recognition accuracy, response bias, and mean response time to hits were compared and analyzed. Two-way repeated measure analysis of variance was performed for statistical analysis. RESULTS: There was a significant effect of bilateral eye movement conditions in recognition accuracy (F=13.833, p<0.01). Statistically significant interaction effects were observed between eye movement condition and face emotion type (F=6.253, p=0.02). CONCLUSION: In this study, recognition memory for angry faces was more enhanced than that for neutral faces after bilateral eye movements. This finding suggests that bilateral eye movements can improve recognition memory for emotional stimuli more than that for neutral stimuli.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Eye Movements* ; Memory* ; Memory, Episodic ; Reaction Time

Although delusion of theft (DT) is the most frequent type of delusion in Alzheimer's disease (AD), its relationship to cognitive functions remains unclear. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the relationship between DT and cognitive functions in mild AD. Two hundred eighty-nine mild AD patients were enrolled in this study. These subjects were classified into three groups: patients with no delusions (ND, n=82), patients with paranoid delusions (PD, n=114) and patients with DT (n=93). Cognitive functions and their associations with the degree of delusion were compared among the three groups. The results showed that verbal Fluency scores were significantly lower in the PD group than in the DT and ND groups. Word List Recall scores were significantly lower in the DT group than in the PD and ND groups. Interestingly, delusion severity measured with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory delusion subscale correlated negatively with the Word List Recall scores in the DT group. In this study, we demonstrated that episodic memory functions in mild AD patients were associated with DT, but not with PD. Further studies might be needed to clarify the pathophysiology of delusions associated with AD.
Alzheimer Disease* ; Cognition* ; Delusions* ; Humans ; Memory, Episodic ; Theft*

Corticobasal degeneration (CBD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by asymmetric parkinsonism associated with apraxia, cortical sensory loss, and alien-limb phenomenon. Neuropsychological testing in patients with CBD typically shows deficits in executive functions, praxis, language, and visuospatial functioning, but not in memory. We report a CBD patient with severely impaired memory function but relatively mild motor symptoms. Detailed neuropsychological assessment showed significant verbal and visual memory deficits accompanied by frontal executive dysfunctions. Our observations indicate that CBD can in rare cases present with severe episodic memory impairment associated with frontal executive dysfunctions in the early stage of illness.
Apraxias ; Executive Function ; Humans ; Memory ; Memory Disorders ; Memory, Episodic ; Neurodegenerative Diseases ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Parkinsonian Disorders

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to examine the effects of normal aging and cerebral pathology on the prospective memory and the relationships between the prospective memory and frontal lobe functions. METHODS: The subjects were 30 college students, 30 normal elderly, and 30 Parkinson's disease patients. There was no significant difference in the mean age or education level between the normal elderly and Parkinson's disease patients. The Cambridge Prospective Memory Test and the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire were administered to evaluate the prospective memory. The Seoul Verbal Learning Test and Rey Complex Figure Test were given to assess the verbal and visual episodic memories. The subjects also took the Sorting Test, the Korean-Color Word Stroop Test, and the Iowa Gambling Task to assess the frontal lobe functions. RESULTS: The results showed that the prospective memory declines with aging and pathological process. The normal elderly showed significantly lower scores on the time-based prospective memory than the event-based prospective memory, although the college students and Parkinson's disease patients did not show any differences between them. Many significant correlations were found between the prospective memory tests and frontal lobe tests in the normal elderly and Parkinson's disease patients, although only a few correlations were found in the college students. CONCLUSIONS: These quantitative and qualitative changes in the prospective memory by aging and frontal lobe dysfunction would support the de-differentiation hypothesis of aging.
Aged ; Aging ; Frontal Lobe ; Gambling ; Humans ; Iowa ; Memory ; Memory, Episodic ; Parkinson Disease ; Stroop Test ; Verbal Learning

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to test the hypothesis that the level of current insight in patients with schizophrenia may affect autobiographical memory about their previous psychiatric history. METHODS: 28 patients with schizophrenia were interviewed with a newly designed questionnaire to report their memories about symptoms and situations during the first psychiatric admission. The subjects' memory reports were compared with their medical records. The error ratio was compared between the good and poor insight groups. RESULTS: The poor insight group demonstrated less true responses and more miss responses to the question about the existence of delusion, and more miss responses to the questions about the details of the hallucination than the good insight group. The insight level was correlated with miss ratio of the responses to questions about details of delusion. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that poor current insight in patients with schizophrenia may be related to larger distortion of autobiographical memories about certain symptoms of theirs.
Delusions ; Hallucinations ; Humans ; Medical Records ; Memory ; Memory, Episodic ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Schizophrenia

OBJECTIVES: Previous research has shown that bilaterally alternating eye movements enhance episodic memory retrieval. This effect has been considered an important mechanism of the therapeutic effects of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treatment. We conducted this study in order to test the hypothesis that bilaterally alternating auditory stimuli would also have similar effects on episodic memory retrieval. METHODS: Thirty eight right-handed subjects participated in this study. Subjects learned words, and then received bilaterally alternating auditory stimuli (as experimental stimuli) or unilateral auditory stimuli (as control stimuli). Subsequently, they performed recognition memory task. Recognition accuracy, response bias, and mean response to hits were used for evaluation of episodic memory retrieval. Repeated measures analysis of variance was performed for statistical analysis. RESULTS: There was no significant effect of experimental conditions in recognition accuracy, the response bias, and mean response time to hits. CONCLUSION: Unlike the previous positive results of bilaterally alternating eye movements, we did not observe an enhancing effect of bilaterally alternating auditory stimuli compared to unilateral auditory stimuli on episodic memory retrieval. This result suggests the possibility that the therapeutic mechanisms of EMDR might differ according to modalities of bilateral stimulation.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing ; Eye Movements ; Memory ; Memory, Episodic* ; Reaction Time

OBJECTIVES: We investigated the predictors of subjective memory complaints in the community-dwelling normal elderly. METHODS: This study was conducted as a part of Korean Longitudinal Study on Health and Aging (KLoSHA). 747 nondemented community-dwelling elderly aged 65 years or older were recruited. All participants underwent clinical evaluation for dementia and psychiatric disorder conformed to the Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD-K) Clinical Assessment Battery and Korean version of Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview, respectively. Word list recall test, frontal assessment battery, Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE-KC) and Korean version of Geriatric depression scale (GDS-K) were administered to evaluate episodic memory, frontal function, global cognition and depression, respectively. Subjective memory complaint was defined in two different ways: worse than one's past (SMC-P) and worse than others of one's age (SMC-O). RESULTS: In highly educated elderly, minor depressive disorder (OR=7.23, 95% C.I.= 2.29-22.86) and frontal dysfunction (OR=2.48, 95% C.I.=1.29-4.77) significantly increased the risk of SMC-O. However, they did not influence the risk of SMC-P. In low educated elderly, both the minor depressive disorder and frontal dysfunction did not influence the risk of SMC-O as well as that of SMC-P. CONCLUSION: SMC-O can be a sensitive subjective recognition of mild depression and/or frontal dysfunction in highly educated normal elderly.
Aged* ; Aging* ; Alzheimer Disease ; Cognition ; Dementia ; Depression ; Depressive Disorder ; Education ; Humans ; Longitudinal Studies* ; Memory* ; Memory, Episodic

BACKGROUND: We aimed to study the regional cerebral PET activation patterns during memory tests in medial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) patients and to see whether the activation study could lateralize memory dominance. METHODS: Participants included 6 right mTLE patients, 6 left mTLE patients, and 6 controls. Language was dominant in the left hemisphere in all the participants. PETs were performed while presenting a set of 30 line drawings of com-mon objects with 4 second intervals between each drawing. After 30 minutes, PETs were repeated while presenting a set of drawings with half of the obejcts changed. RESULTS: During the encoding, activated areas were dispersed in mTLE in the superior frontal gyrus, the primary sensory cortex, the premotor area, the supramarginal and angular gyri ipsilaterally or contralaterally, in addition to the inferior and middle frontal gyri activated in the controls. During the retrieval, activated areas were localized in the bilateral inferior frontal gyri and the right medial temporal area in the controls, but also in the premotor area, the primary sensory cortex, and the angular gyrus in mTLE. In the encoding and also in the retrieval, the activated fields of the prefrontal areas contralateral to the epileptogenic zone became wider compared to the controls and those ipsilateral to the epileptogenic zone became smaller. CONCLUSIONS: Cortical areas involved in the encoding and retrieval of the episodic memory are dispersed and contralaterally lateralized to the epileptogenic zone. Lateralization is most prominent in the prefrontal areas.
Brain Mapping* ; Brain* ; Electrons* ; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe* ; Humans ; Memory ; Memory, Episodic* ; Positron-Emission Tomography* ; Temporal Lobe*