Functioning of Cognitive Memory Inhibition Processes in People with Down Syndrome: An Empirical Study.

Cognitive inhibition is part of executive functions. When it exercises control over memory processes, it has the function of regulating the accessibility of memories and allows interference to be resolved. The impairment of its functioning has been related to the presence of forgetfulness of relevant information. In this research, we study the functioning of cognitive memory inhibition processes in people with intellectual disabilities in tasks of delayed visual recognition and analyze the influence of age. For this purpose, 36 people with Down syndrome (mean age = 33.44, standard deviation = 7.54, 50% females) and 36 people with neurotypical development (mean age = 33.55, standard deviation = 7.52, 50% females) participated. The results reflected a lower effectiveness in the group of people with Down syndrome, F(1, 68) = 159.09, p < .001, $ {\upeta}_{\mathrm{p}}^2 $ = .70. The people in the group with Down syndrome had difficulties in interference resolution, both in the subgroup of young people (p = .014, $ \hat{\updelta\ } $= 0.88) and in the subgroup of older people (p = .022, $ \hat{\updelta\ } $= 0.67). The impairment of cognitive inhibition in people with Down syndrome warrants the need to develop specific intervention programs for this process.

Functioning of cognitive memory inhibition processesin people with Down syndrome: an empirical study

Cognitive inhibition is part of executive functions. When it exercises control over memory processes, it has the function of regulating the accessibility of memories and allows interference to be resolved. The impairment of its functioning has been related to the presence of forgetfulness of relevant information. In this research, we study the functioning of cognitive memory inhibition processes in people with intellectual disabilities in tasks of delayed visual recognition and analyze the influence of age. For this purpose, 36 people with Down syndrome (mean age = 33.44, standard deviation = 7.54, 50% females) and 36 people with neurotypical development (mean age = 33.55, standard deviation = 7.52, 50% females) participated. The results reflected a lower effectiveness in the group of people with Down syndrome, F(1, 68) = 159.09, p < .001, = .70. The people in the group with Down syndrome had difficulties in interference resolution, both in the subgroup of young people (p = .014, = 0.88) and in the subgroup of older people (p = .022, = 0.67). The impairment of cognitive inhibition in people with Down syndrome warrants the need to develop specific intervention programs for this process

No disponible

Operation of cognitive memory inhibition in adults with Down syndrome: Effects of maintenance load and material.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive inhibition is one of the executive functions; this process over memory plays a fundamental role in recalling relevant information. The aims of this study were to understand the effects of maintenance load and stimuli on the operation of cognitive inhibition over memory in working memory tasks in adults with Down syndrome. METHOD: The study included 36 individuals with Down syndrome (mean age = 33.44 years, standard deviation = 7.54 years, 50% women) and 36 individuals with neurotypical development (mean age = 33.55 years, standard deviation = 7.52 years, 50% women). The participants performed a working memory task in which they had to solve an interference problem during the maintenance phase. RESULTS: The Down syndrome group performed worse on cognitive inhibition over memory than the neurotypical development group. Both groups had lower recall with interference and under high-load conditions. In the neurotypical development group, memory was similar with both materials. The Down syndrome group performed better with non-social stimuli than with social stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding the variables that influence cognitive inhibition over memory will help in planning effective interventions for people with Down syndrome. Considering the results, special importance should be placed on work with social stimuli, at least in individuals with Down syndrome.

Impairment of cognitive memory inhibition in individuals with intellectual disability: a meta-analysis / Afectación de la inhibición cognitiva sobre la memoria en personas con discapacidad intelectual: un meta-análisis

BACKGROUND: Cognitive inhibition impairment is intimately related to the forgetfulness of relevant information. This meta-analysis aims to synthesise the evidence of impaired function of cognitive inhibition processes over memory in individuals with intellectual disability (ID). METHOD: Eleven studies were selected and analysed and included a total of 683 participants. The studies were categorised according to variables such as the task used, the processes involved, the sensory modalities and the method. RESULTS: Despite the small sample of studies, the results revealed significant difficulties with cognitive memory inhibition (CMI) tasks in individuals with ID compared with typical development (TD) individuals (d = 0.62). CMI problems were found in all life stages except the 19-45-year-old stage. In this stage, there was a smaller amount of evidence even though it included the 31-40-year-old range, during which premature aging has been observed in ID. CONCLUSIONS: An impairment of CMI in people with ID was observed. More studies are needed to more reliably assess the potential moderating role of age and other factors

ANTECEDENTES: la afectación de la inhibición cognitiva se encuentra íntimamente relacionada con el olvido de información relevante. Este meta-análisis tiene como objetivo conocer si los procesos de inhibición cognitiva sobre la memoria están afectados en personas con discapacidad intelectual (DI). MÉTODO: se seleccionaron y analizaron 11 estudios que incluyeron un total de 683 participantes. Los artículos fueron categorizados en función de la tarea utilizada, los procesos implicados, las modalidades sensoriales y el método. RESULTADOS: a pesar del número de estudios, se observaron dificultades significativas en inhibición cognitiva sobre la memoria (ICM) en personas con DI, en comparación con personas con desarrollo típico (d = 0.62). Estas dificultades se observaron en todas las etapas cronológicas, excepto de 19 a 45 años. En esta etapa, la evidencia fue escasa, a pesar de incluir el rango de los 31-40 años, donde se ha observado presencia de envejecimiento prematuro en personas con DI. CONCLUSIONES: se observaron dificultades en ICM en personas con DI. Se necesitan más estudios para evaluar de forma más exhaustiva el papel potencialmente moderador de la edad y de otros factores

The effects of aging on the working memory processes of multimodal information.

Normal aging is associated with deficits in working memory processes. However, the majority of research has focused on storage or inhibitory processes using unimodal paradigms, without addressing their relationships using different sensory modalities. Hence, we pursued two objectives. First, was to examine the effects of aging on storage and inhibitory processes. Second, was to evaluate aging effects on multisensory integration of visual and auditory stimuli. To this end, young and older participants performed a multimodal task for visual and auditory pairs of stimuli with increasing memory load at encoding and interference during retention. Our results showed an age-related increased vulnerability to interrupting and distracting interference reflecting inhibitory deficits related to the off-line reactivation and on-line suppression of relevant and irrelevant information, respectively. Storage capacity was impaired with increasing task demands in both age groups. Additionally, older adults showed a deficit in multisensory integration, with poorer performance for new visual compared to new auditory information.

Working memory retrieval differences between medial temporal lobe epilepsy patients and controls: a three memory layer approach.

Multi-store models of working memory (WM) have given way to more dynamic approaches that conceive WM as an activated subset of long-term memory (LTM). The resulting framework considers that memory representations are governed by a hierarchy of accessibility. The activated part of LTM holds representations in a heightened state of activation, some of which can reach a state of immediate accessibility according to task demands. Recent neuroimaging studies have studied the neural basis of retrieval information with different states of accessibility. It was found that the medial temporal lobe (MTL) was involved in retrieving information within immediate access store and outside this privileged zone. In the current study we further explored the contribution of MTL to WM retrieval by analyzing the consequences of MTL damage to this process considering the state of accessibility of memory representations. The performance of a group of epilepsy patients with left hippocampal sclerosis in a 12-item recognition task was compared with that of a healthy control group. We adopted an embedded model of WM that distinguishes three components: the activated LTM, the region of direct access, and a single-item focus of attention. Groups did not differ when retrieving information from single-item focus, but patients were less accurate retrieving information outside focal attention, either items from LTM or items expected to be in the WM range. Analyses focused on items held in the direct access buffer showed that consequences of MTL damage were modulated by the level of accessibility of memory representations, producing a reduced capacity.

Early prefrontal activation as a mechanism to prevent forgetting in the context of interference.

OBJECTIVE: Recent research has focused on interference resolution deficits as the main cause of short-term memory decreases in aging. To determine whether activation of brain compensatory mechanisms occur during the encoding process in older people. Moreover, two different levels of interference (distraction and interruption) were presented during the maintenance period to examine how they modulate brain activity profiles. DESIGN: A delayed match-to-sample task with two experimental conditions: distraction and interruption. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-seven young adults from Complutense University of Madrid and 20 healthy older adults from Complutense Elderly University of Madrid. MEASUREMENTS: Magnetoencephalography scans were recorded during the execution of a working memory interference task. Brain activity sources from younger and older adults during the encoding stage were compared in each condition using minimum norm estimation analyses. RESULTS: The elderly showed enhancement of prefrontal activity during early latencies of the encoding process in both conditions. In the distraction condition, enhanced activity was located in left ventrolateral prefrontal regions, whereas in the interruption condition, enhanced activity was observed in the right ventral prefrontal areas and anterior cingulate cortex. CONCLUSION: Increased recruitment of prefrontal regions in the elderly might be related to the processing depth of information, encoding of new information and semantic associations that are successfully recalled, and with interference resolution and preparatory control when the level of interference becomes higher. These prefrontal modulations during early latencies might reflect a higher top-down control of the encoding process in normal aging to prevent forgetting.

Age-related effects in working memory recognition modulated by retroactive interference.

One of the main causes for age-related declines in working memory is a higher vulnerability to retroactive interference due to a reduced ability to suppress irrelevant information. However, the underlying neural correlates remain to be established. Magnetoencephalography was used to investigate differential neural patterns in young and older adults performing an interference-based memory task with two experimental conditions, interrupting and distracting, during successful recognition. Behaviorally, both types of retroactive interference significantly impaired accuracy at recognition more in older adults than in young adults with the latter exhibiting greater disruptions by interrupters. Magnetoencephalography revealed the presence of differential age-related neural patterns. Specifically, time-modulated activations in temporo-occipital and superior parietal regions were higher in young adults compared with older adults for the interrupting condition. These results suggest that age-related deficits in inhibitory mechanisms that increase vulnerability to retroactive interference may be associated with neural under-recruitments in a high-interference task.

Age effects on retroactive interference during working memory maintenance.

The present study uses magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine brain magnetic patterns in young and older adults who perform an interference-based working memory (WM) task with two experimental conditions; interrupting and distracting. Behaviourally, both types of retroactive interference significantly impair WM accuracy at recognition more in older adults than in young adults with the latter exhibiting greater disruptions by interruptors. MEG results revealed the presence of differential age-related and interference-related neural patterns. Specifically, time-modulated activations in posterior-frontal regions were increased in young compared to older adults characterising each condition. Additionally, young adults exhibited greater posterior-frontal activations for the interrupting compared to the distracting condition. These results suggest that age-related deficits in inhibitory mechanisms that increase vulnerability to interference are associated with under-recruitments in posterior-frontal regions. On the other hand, the absence of differential interference-related neural recruitments reflects that both types of interference affect WM equally in the elderly.

Retroactive interference in normal aging: a magnetoencephalography study.

Biomagnetic responses were recorded from healthy elderly subjects (55-67 years) performing a working memory task during recognition. The objective was to identify differential spatio-temporal brain activity patterns with magnetoencephalography by the presentation of two types of retroactive interference, active and passive. We obtained increased activity in the left medial temporal lobe and the left anterior ventral prefrontal cortex at early (100-200 ms) and medium latencies (300-400 ms) for the active interference group, and left anterior ventral prefrontal cortex showed greater activity at late latencies (700-800 ms) for the passive interference group. A time-modulated ventral prefrontal activation was shown for the active and passive interference conditions indicating that executive control mechanisms were necessary in both groups.

Procesos implicados en el establecimiento del origen de la información y génesis de las alucinaciones en pacientes esquizofrénicos / Processes involved in establishing the source of information and the genesis of hallucinations in schizophrenic patients

Estudios recientes señalan que los pacientes esquizofrénicos con alucinaciones y sujetos normales con alta propensión a ellas tienen problemas para establecer el origen de sus representaciones mnemónicas. Se ha señalado como posibles causas de esta alteración, bien un fallo general en el proceso de monitorización de las fuentes o bien un fallo específico en los procesos heurísticos y/o analíticos implicados en dicha monitorización. Nuestro objetivo fue analizar ambos procesos en pacientes esquizofrénicos alucinadores. Con este fin, se llevó a cabo una tarea experimental donde analizamos cómo los pacientes esquizofrénicos con y sin alucinaciones resuelven la procedencia de sus recuerdos, derivados de una fuente interna (autogenerada), utilizando un procesamiento heurístico o un procesamiento analítico. Los resultados señalaron que los pacientes esquizofrénicos que sufren alucinaciones tienden a atribuir a una fuente externa sus recuerdos autogenerados con independencia de la estrategia de procesamiento utilizada (AU)

Recent studies have shown that schizophrenic patients with a history of hallucinations and hallucination-prone normal subjects have difficulties to establish the origin of their memory representations. Two possible causes for this deficit have been suggested: a general failure in the source monitoring process, or a specific failure in the heuristic and/or analytic processes involved in source monitoring. The aim of this study was to find out whether hallucinating schizophrenic patients exhibit any failure in the processes (heuristic versus analytic) underlying decisions about the origin of their memories. An experiment was carried out in order to find out how schizophrenic patients, both hallucinating and non-hallucinating, determine the origin of their memories, when such memories are derived from an internal source (i.e. self-generated), by using either heuristic or analytic processes. Our results suggest that schizophrenic hallucinating patients tend to assign an external source to their own, self-generated memories, irrespective of the processing strategy employed (AU)