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

Abstract

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.

Psychometric properties of inhibitory control measures among youth with Down syndrome

“…The assessment of inhibitory control has been the focus of a growing body of research among individuals with DS (Brunamonti et al 2011;Borella et al 2013;Carney et al 2013;Daunhauer et al 2017;Traverso et al 2018;Palomino et al 2020;. These studies have primarily relied on measures commonly designed for typically developing children, and minimal attention has been devoted to evaluating their appropriateness for use among individuals with DS.…”

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

“…In a recent meta-analysis, some weaknesses of the few studies on CMI in people with IDs were detected, including disparities in empirical paradigms, the use of different tasks, very different age ranges, and few tasks in each range [26]. After analysing these weaknesses, some authors conducted a study on CMI processes in adults with DS [27] using a proven experimental paradigm of natural ageing processes in individuals with ND [28, 29]. They applied CMI tasks with low maintenance loads (a single stimulus per trial) using food images as stimuli.…”