Abbreviations: ELU, ease of language understanding model; WMC, working memory capacity; R+, rhyming; R-, non-rhyming; O+, orthographically similar; O-, orthographically dissimilar; RAMBPHO, rapid automatic binding of phonology; NAM, neighbourhood activation model; SOA, stimulus onset asynchrony; ERP, event-related potentials; HI, hearing impairment; BestEarPTA, best ear pure tone average; NH, normal hearing; RSPM, Ravens standard progressive matrices; DLS, diagnostic tests of reading and writing; NH-High, normal hearing and high WMC; NH-Low, normal hearing and low WMC; HI-High, hearing impairment and high WMC; HI-Low, hearing impairment and low WMC. WORKING MEMORY COMPENSATES AbstractAcquired hearing impairment is associated with gradually declining phonological representations. According to the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model, poorly defined representations lead to mismatch in phonologically challenging tasks. To resolve the mismatch, reliance on working memory capacity (WMC) increases. This study investigated whether WMC modulated performance in a phonological task in individuals with hearing impairment. A visual rhyme judgment task with congruous or incongruous orthography, followed by an incidental episodic recognition memory task, was used. In participants with hearing impairment, WMC modulated both rhyme judgment performance and recognition memory in the orthographically similar non-rhyming condition; those with high WMC performed exceptionally well in the judgment task, but later recognized few of the words. For participants with hearing impairment and low WMC the pattern was reversed; they performed poorly in the judgment task but later recognized a surprisingly large proportion of the words. Results indicate that good WMC can compensate for the negative impact of auditory deprivation on phonological processing abilities by allowing for efficient use of phonological processing skills. They also suggest that individuals with hearing impairment and low WMC may use a non-phonological approach to written words, which can have the beneficial side effect of improving memory encoding.
Tinnitus is the perception of sound in the absence of any appropriate external stimulus. Based on the clinical observation that tinnitus patients may distract themselves from their sounds, we performed an experimental test on the effects of suppressing thoughts about tinnitus with 45 tinnitus patients, to systematically evaluate the immediate consequences of suppressing thought vs. attending to tinnitus. Suppression instructions tended to lead to a subsequent decrease in tinnitus-related thoughts, whereas attention to tinnitus resulted in an increase in such thoughts. No effects were seen in a control group who neither suppressed nor attended to their tinnitus. In an independent positron emission tomography study of cerebral blood flow with 8 patients we found that silent backward counting (‘serial sevens test’) led to a decrease in neural activity in auditory cortex, as well as perceived decrease of tinnitus loudness and annoyance. Thus, distraction that altered the tinnitus experience seemed to attenuate auditory cortex activity.
Background: Women with early ovarian hormone deprivation due to bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO; ovarian and fallopian tube removal) are at risk for later life Alzheimer's disease (AD), but estradiol therapy (ET) may be protective (Rocca et al., 2007). Working memory (WM), temporarily maintaining and manipulating information in mind, depends on structural integrity of fronto-parietal brain regions (Burzynska et al., 2012). WM declines have been observed in midlife women with BSO not taking ET (Gervais et al., 2020), however, structural brain-WM relationships in this midlife population remain unexplored. This study aimed to: 1) Investigate fronto-parietal cortical thickness and gyrification (folding) changes in younger women after early BSO and their relationship to WM, and 2) Explore whether ET ameliorates these changes. Method: Women with early BSO taking ET (BSO+ET: M±SD age = 45±5.1; n = 26), or not taking ET (BSO: M±SD age = 46±5.0y; n = 26) were compared to premenopausal, age-matched controls (AMC: M±SD age = 44±2.9y; n = 42) from Toronto and Montreal, Canada, and Linköping, Sweden. T1-weighted scans were acquired on Siemens Prisma/Philips 3T scanners. WM was measured using Digit Span Backwards (Wechsler, 1945) maximum span and Digit Ordering Task (Petrides et al., 1993) errors. Average cortical thickness and gyrification of fronto-parietal regions were calculated from CIVET (Ad-Dab'bagh et al. 2005), adjusting for scanner and past cancer treatment.Result: Linear models showed no group differences in cortical thickness or WM. However, they showed BSO had significant hypogyrification (reduced cortical folding) in the supplementary motor area (SMA), part of the posterior prefrontal cortex, compared to AMC (adjusted for brain volume; FDR-corrected p = 0.028). BSO+ET had intermediate
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