Random number generation and the ability of mentally reconstructing context in patients with organic amnesia

Sousa, Nariana Mattos Figueiredo; Tudesco, Ivanda de Souza Silva; Bolognani, Silvia Adriana Prado; Batistela, Silmara; Bueno, Orlando Francisco Amodeo

doi:10.1590/1980-5764-DN-2021-0021

Brasil

home Sumário navigate_before Anterior Atual Seguinte navigate_next

home Sumário

Original Article • Dement. neuropsychol. 16 (1) • Mar 2022 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-5764-DN-2021-0021 linkcopy

Random number generation and the ability of mentally reconstructing context in patients with organic amnesia

GERAÇÃO ALEATÓRIA DE NÚMEROS E A CAPACIDADE DE RECONSTRUIR MENTALMENTE O CONTEXTO EM PACIENTES COM AMNÉSIA ORGÂNICA

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT.

Studies investigating amnesic patients have shown the involvement of the medial temporal lobe during working memory (WM) tasks, especially when multiple items or features have to be associated. However, so far, no study has examined the relationship between episodic memory and WM components in patients with amnesia for comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate whether the null retention relates to deficits in the episodic buffer (EB) or the central executive (CE) components of WM.

Methods: This study included 15 amnesic patients with mixed etiologies and 13 matched healthy controls. These 15 amnesic patients with mixed etiologies were divided into two subgroups: NUL subgroup (n=7) patients whose raw score was 0 (zero) on the Logical Memory delayed recall test and MOR subgroup (n=8) patients who recalled at least 1 item. The EB was assessed by complex span tasks, and the CE was assessed by random number generation (RNG) test.

Results: EB tasks were impaired in both subgroups compared with controls. RNG was impaired in NUL (p=0.03), but not in MOR (p=0.99), subgroup.

Conclusions: CE impairment hampers the retrieval mode action, preventing it from initiating the mental reconstruction of the context in which the to-be-remembered information was presented minutes ago.

Keywords: Amnesia; Memory, Short-Term; Memory, Episodic; Executive Function

Amnesic patients	Age	Years of study	Etiology
ST	49	16	Stroke
SC	32	12	Stroke
AF	45	11	TBI
MB	43	15	Encephalitis
RT	44	18	Anoxia
AC	36	9	Tumor^a a brain tumor.
JP	67	16	Anoxia
MQ	60	18	Stroke
ED	22	9	TBI
GB	52	12	TBI
EM	24	11	Encephalitis
EC	35	12	TBI
HP	59	16	TBI
LM	29	13	TBI
JR	62	16	Hydrocephalus

		Amnesic patient		Control group
		n		n
Gender
	Female	4		5
	Male	11		8
		M	SD	M	SD	p-value
Age		43.93	14.20	40.85	12.88	0.62
Schooling		13.60	3.02	12.77	2.49	0.53
Raven		38.87	10.31	43.77	7.34	0.22
BDI		5.73	2.87	4.69	3.35	0.5
STAI-S		36.87	5.48	36.46	4.84	0.79
STAI-T		39.60	5.87	39.31	6.59	0.98

		MOR (n=8)		NUL (n=7)		Control group (n=13)		F_2,25	MOR ×NUL	Control×MOR	Control×NUL	MOR× NUL
Episodic memory tests		M	SD	M	SD	M	SD		p-value	Tukey test	Tukey test	Tukey test
Verbal memory
	LM immediate	13.75	6.32	9.29	7.52	29.08	6.13	25.53	<0.001	0.001	0.003	0.42
	LM delayed	4.13	2.64	0.00	0.00	26.77	6.67	91.46	<0.001	0.001	0.001	0.26
Visual memory
	ROCF immediate	7.68	5.46	4.71	2.95	18.96	5.45	23.20	<0.001	0.004	0.001	0.51
	ROCF delayed	7.75	5.58	3.85	3.13	18.19	5.88	19.89	<0.001	0.001	0.002	0.36
	VR immediate	26.25	4.89	25.71	3.72	35.61	2.36	25.35	<0.001	0.001	0.001	0.95
	VR delayed	10.75	5.47	5.57	3.69	30.84	5.66	67.02	<0.001	0.001	0.001	0.17

Working memory test	MO R (n=8)		NUL (n=7)		Contro l group (n=13)		F_2,25	MOR× NUL	Contr ol×MOR	Contr ol×NUL	MOR× NUL
Digit span	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD		p-value	Tukey test	Tukey test	Tukey test
Forward	4.50	1.3 0	4.85	0.6 9	6.15	1.0 6	6.95	0.003	0.01	0.07	0.80
Backward	3.12	1.3 5	4.0	1.5 2	5.0	1.0	5.73	0.008	0.01	0.30	0.40
OSPAN	18.1 2	4.3 2	16.5 2	4.3 9	29.2	4.8 2	23.1 6	<0.000 1	0.002	0.002	0.80
CSPAN	41.0	7.2 8	40.0	6.0 6	52.30	3.6 8	16.0 0	<0.000 1	0.001	0.009	0.93
RNG	0.36 4	0.0 5	0.51 4	0.1 7	0.365	0.0 7	5.46	0.01	0.99	0.03	0.03

		All		Cont vs MOR		Cont vs NUL		MOR vs NUL
		p-value	BF₁₀ (Bayes Factor)	p-value	BF₁₀ (Bayes Factor)	p-value	BF₁₀ (Bayes Factor)	p-value	BF₁₀ (Bayes Factor)
LM Immediate		<0.001	5.798e-5	<0.001	606	<0.001	2361	0.42	0.724
LM Delayed		<0.001	4.891e-10	<0.001	312245	<0.001	1.432e+6	0.26	24.8
ROCF Immediate		<0.001	1.172e-4	<0.001	110	<0.001	2343	0.51	0.742
ROCF Delayed		<0.001	3.529e-4	0.001	38	<0.001	1133	0.36	1.006
VR Immediate		<0.001	5.916e-5	<0.001	1353	<0.001	11642	0.95	0.445
VR Delayed		<0.001	1.157e-8	<0.001	51968	<0.001	1.640e+6	0.17	1.677
Digit Span
	Forward	0.003	0.076	0.01	8.5	0.07	5.2	0.80	0.5
	Backward	0.008	0.147	0.01	19.4	0.30	1.2	0.40	0.7
	OSPAN	<0.001	1.168e-4	<0.001	406	<0.001	756	0.80	0.5
	CSPAN	<0.001	0.001	0.001	146	<0.001	691	0.93	0.45
	RNG	0.01	0.2	0.99	0.4	0.03	3.8	0.03	2.2

vertical_align_top file_download show_chart

more_horizclose
- image
- translate
- link
- article
- vertical_align_top
- file_download
- show_chart
- image
- translate
- link
- article

location_on

Academia Brasileira de Neurologia, Departamento de Neurologia Cognitiva e Envelhecimento R. Vergueiro, 1353 sl.1404 - Ed. Top Towers Offices, Torre Norte, São Paulo, SP, Brazil, CEP 04101-000, Tel.: +55 11 5084-9463 | +55 11 5083-3876 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: revistadementia@abneuro.org.br | demneuropsy@uol.com.br

rss_feed Acompanhe os números deste periódico no seu leitor de RSS

Acessibilidade / Reportar erro

[TFN1] In the left column are shown the initial letter of patient’s names. TBI: traumatic brain injury

[TFN2] ^a
brain tumor.