Can cognitive aging contribute to fundamental psychological theory? Repetition deafness as a test case

MacKay, Donald G.; Miller, Michelle

doi:10.1080/13825589608256622

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(48 reference statements)

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“…According to these theories, the hippocampus is thought to have a pivotal role for memory, but not language. Distributed‐memory theories, conversely, propose that verbal memory depends on the pattern and strength of connections between a very large number of neural units that are distributed through a vast activation network and that are also important for language production (68–71). These conclusions are based, in part, on findings from the patient H.M. (who had a bilateral mesial temporal lobe resection); although most previous literature has emphasized H.M.'s anterograde memory deficits (72,73), recent language studies (71,74) indicated that many of his language skills are impaired and have been so since early 1970s.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy on Retrograde Memory

Lah

Lee²,

Grayson

et al. 2006

Epilepsia

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Summary:Purpose: In a previous investigation (Lah et al., 2004), we found deficits in retrograde memory in patients who had undergone temporal lobectomy (TL). In this study, we set out to determine whether such deficits are present before surgery in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).Methods: Memory for public and autobiographic facts and events was assessed in patients with focal left-sided (n = 15) or right-sided (n = 14) TLE and healthy control subjects (n = 15). The impact of epilepsy and underlying cognitive deficits on retrograde memory also was examined.Results: Patients with left TLE demonstrated retrograde memory deficits across domains. Patients with right TLE showed defective recall only in the autobiographic domain. Young age at onset (younger than 14 years) was associated with greater difficulties in recall of famous events, and patients receiving polytherapy had significantly reduced recall of autobiographic events compared with those receiving monotherapy. In most cases, deficient memory for the past was associated with impairments in other cognitive skills, especially language abilities.Conclusions: In unoperated-on patients with TLE, we found deficits in retrograde memory that were similar to those seen after TL, with the pattern of deficits being influenced by side of lesion, anticonvulsant medication, and word-finding deficits. Unlike patients tested after right TL, patients with right TLE did not have difficulty recalling details of famous events, which raises the possibility that right TL results in a decline in this aspect of retrograde memory. Key Words: Retrograde memoryAutobiographic memory.Studies examining retrograde memory in patients who have undergone temporal lobectomy (TL) for intractable epilepsy have shown temporally extensive deficits on a range of retrograde memory tests (1,2). Kapur (3) argued that patients with epilepsy might have poor memory for the past because seizures affect memory storage in a variety of ways. He proposed that major seizures are likely to result in a period of retrograde amnesia. Even minor seizures may have a cumulative effect over time and result in a prolonged period of retrograde amnesia. Thus a longer history of seizures and possibly a history of generalized tonicclonic seizures would result in poorer retention of old memories and greater impairments on retrograde memory tests. Interestingly, however, in a previous study, we found that performance on retrograde memory tests after TL was not related to age at onset, duration of seizure disorder, or a history of generalized tonic-clonic seizures (2). We did find that patients who were still taking anticonvulsant medications showed greater impairment than those who were medication free. It seemed possible that the impact of a TL might outweigh effects related to seizure history.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy on Retrograde Memory

Lah

Lee²,

Grayson

et al. 2006

Epilepsia

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“…Within this "distributed-memory" framework (e.g., Carpenter, & Grossberg, 1993;Grafman, & Weingartner, 1996;McClelland, McNaughton, & O'Reilly, 1995;MacKay & Miller, 1996), memory for verbal materials is not localized within discrete or isolable stages or modules (e.g., for short-term versus long-term memory) but depends fundamentally on the strength of connections between millions of neural units or nodes distributed throughout a vast interactive activation network. To illustrate this distributed-memory framework and its relation to language comprehension, we will focus on one from among many recently developed and equally viable distributed-memory accounts.…”

Section: Why Hm's Language Comprehension Is Theoretically Importantmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Why is ambiguity detection so difªcult, especially for older adults, and even more so for H.M.? Ambiguity detection always requires the formation of two sets of new connections from the same set of nodes (see Figures 3a and 3b), and young adults under extreme time pressure are known to experience difªculty with this double connection process (see, e.g., MacKay & Miller, 1996). Moreover, this double connection process causes greater difªculty for older than young adults (see MacKay, Miller, & Schuster, 1994) because older adults suffer from a general deªcit in the ability to form new connections that is not speciªc to hippocampal functioning (for recent reviews, see MacKay & Abrams, 1996;and Burke & MacKay, 1997).…”

Section: Does Hm Have a Language Comprehension Deªcit?mentioning

confidence: 99%

H.M. Revisited: Relations between Language Comprehension, Memory, and the Hippocampal System

MacKay

Stewart

Burke

1998

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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Three studies tested the claim that H.M. exhibits a "pure memory deficit" that has left his ability to comprehend language unimpaired relative to memory-normal controls. In Study 1, H.M. and memory-normal controls of comparable intelligence, education, and age indicated whether sentences were ambiguous or unambiguous, and H. M. detected ambiguities significantly less often than controls. In Study 2, participants identified the two meanings of visually presented sentences that they knew were ambiguous, and relative to controls, H.M. rarely discovered the ambiguities without help and had difficulty understanding the first meanings, experimenter requests, and his own output. Study 3 replicated these results and showed that they were not due to brain damage per se or to cohort effects: Unlike H.M., a patient with bilateral frontal lobe damage detected the ambiguities as readily as young and same-cohort older controls. These results bear on two general classes of theories in use within a wide range of neurosciences and cognitive sciences: The data favor "distributed-memory theories" that ascribe H.M.'s deficit to semantic-level binding processes that are inherent to both language comprehension and memory, over "stages-of-processing theories," where H.M.'s defective storage processes have no effect on language comprehension.

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“…Or if a prosodic pause follows dog, as in, ''Watson fed her dog______ biscuits'', listeners quickly link her and dog to form a quite different proposition. However, equal-length pauses after her and biscuits slow comprehension and impair immediate recall (see MacKay & Miller, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The binding problem for syntax, semantics, and prosody: H.M.'s selective sentence-reading deficits under the theoretical-syndrome approach

MacKay¹,

James²

2001

Language and Cognitive Processes

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In this case study, a ''hippocampal amnesic'' (H.M.) and memory-normal controls of similar age, background, intelligence, and education read novel sentences aloud in tasks where fast and accurate reading either was or was not the primary goal. In four experiments, H.M. produced more misreadings than normal and cerebellar controls, usually without self-correction. H.M.'s misreadings typically reduced semantic and syntactic complexity and caused ungrammaticality by omitting short high-frequency function-words. H.M. also produced each word more slowly and paused longer than controls at three points: before beginning to produce a sentence, between words in unfamiliar phrases, and at major syntactic boundaries unmarked by commas. H.M.'s selective sentence-reading de cits were unrelated to word-speci c factors, ambiguity, and sentence length, and were not attributable to his cerebellar damage, speed-accuracy trade-off, general slowing, general cognitive decline, left-to-right reading processes, or limitations in workingmemory capacity. However, present results supported a ''theoreticalsyndrome approach'' under which all of H.M.'s de cits (in reading sentences, in comprehending and producing spoken sentences, in reading isolated words and pseudo-words, in visual cognition, and in recall from episodic memory) form part of a general, theoretically coherent syndrome that generalises to other patients.

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Can cognitive aging contribute to fundamental psychological theory? Repetition deafness as a test case

Cited by 12 publications

References 28 publications

Effects of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy on Retrograde Memory

Effects of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy on Retrograde Memory

H.M. Revisited: Relations between Language Comprehension, Memory, and the Hippocampal System

The binding problem for syntax, semantics, and prosody: H.M.'s selective sentence-reading deficits under the theoretical-syndrome approach

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