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Visual versus Verbal Working Memory in Statistically Determined Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment: On behalf of the Consortium for Clinical and Epidemiological Neuropsychological Data Analysis (CENDA)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2019

Sheina Emrani Open the ORCID record for Sheina Emrani [Opens in a new window] ,
Victor Wasserman ,
Emily Matusz ,
David Miller ,
Melissa Lamar Open the ORCID record for Melissa Lamar [Opens in a new window] ,
Catherine C. Price ,
Terrie Beth Ginsberg ,
Rhoda Au ,
Rod Swenson  and
David J. Libon
Sheina Emrani
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Rd, Glassboro, NJ 08028, USA
Victor Wasserman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Rd, Glassboro, NJ 08028, USA
Emily Matusz
Affiliation:
Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging, School of Osteopathic Medicine, Rowan University, 42 E Laurel Rd, Stratford, NJ 08084, USA
David Miller
Affiliation:
South Jersey Radiology Associates, 1307 White Horse Rd, Ste A102, Voorhees, NJ, 08043, USA
Melissa Lamar
Affiliation:
Department of Behavioral Sciences and the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, 600 S. Paulina St. Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA
Catherine C. Price
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida, 1225 Center Dr, Gainesville, FL 32603, USA
Terrie Beth Ginsberg
Affiliation:
Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging, School of Osteopathic Medicine, Rowan University, 42 E Laurel Rd, Stratford, NJ 08084, USA
Rhoda Au
Affiliation:
Departments of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Neurology and Framingham Heart Study, Boston University School of Medicine, 72 E Concord St (L 1004) Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, 72 E. Concord St Housman (R) Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA
Rod Swenson
Affiliation:
University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 1301 N Columbia Rd Stop 9037 Grand Forks, ND 58202, USA
David J. Libon*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Rd, Glassboro, NJ 08028, USA Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging, School of Osteopathic Medicine, Rowan University, 42 E Laurel Rd, Stratford, NJ 08084, USA
*
*Correspondence and reprint requests to: David J. Libon, Rowan University, School of Osteopathic Medicine, Glassboro, NJ, USA; New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging, 42 E Laurel Rd, Stratford, NJ 08084, USA. E-mail: libon@rowan.edu
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Abstract

Objective:

Previous research in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) suggests that visual episodic memory impairment may emerge before analogous verbal episodic memory impairment. The current study examined working memory (WM) test performance in MCI to assess whether patients present with greater visual versus verbal WM impairment. WM performance was also assessed in relation to hippocampal occupancy (HO), a ratio of hippocampal volume to ventricular dilation adjusted for demographic variables and intracranial volume.

Methods:

Jak et al. (2009) (The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 17, 368–375) and Edmonds, Delano-Wood, Galasko, Salmon, & Bondi (2015) (Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 47(1), 231–242) criteria classify patients into four groups: little to no cognitive impairment (non-MCI); subtle cognitive impairment (SCI); amnestic MCI (aMCI); and a combined mixed/dysexecutive MCI (mixed/dys MCI). WM was assessed using co-normed Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV) Digit Span Backwards and Wechsler Memory Scale-IV (WMS-IV) Symbol Span Z-scores.

Results:

Between-group analyses found worse WMS-IV Symbol Span and WAIS-IV Digit Span Backwards performance for mixed/dys MCI compared to non-MCI patients. Within-group analyses found no differences for non-MCI patients; however, all other groups scored lower on WMS-IV Symbol Span than WAIS-IV Digit Span Backwards. Regression analysis with HO as the dependent variable was statistically significant for WMS-IV Symbol Span performance. WAIS-IV Digit Span Backwards performance failed to reach statistical significance.

Conclusions:

Worse WMS-IV Symbol Span performance was observed in patient groups with measurable neuropsychological impairment and better WMS-IV Symbol Span performance was associated with higher HO ratios. These results suggest that visual WM may be particularly sensitive to emergent illness compared to analogous verbal WM tests.

Keywords

Mild cognitive impairmentDigit spanSymbol spanWorking memoryVisual working memoryNeuroquant
Type
Regular Research
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 25 , Issue 10 , November 2019 , pp. 1001 - 1010
Copyright
Copyright © INS. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019 

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