Memory and aphasia

• Published in: Neuropsychologia Vol. 35; no. 6; pp. 759 - 766
• Main Authors: Burgio, Francesca, Basso, Anna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.06.1997; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Acute Disease; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aphasia; Aphasia - classification; Aphasia - complications; Aphasia - physiopathology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain Damage; Brain Damage, Chronic - physiopathology; Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology; Cerebrovascular Disorders - complications; Chi-Square Distribution; Confidence Intervals; Dominance, Cerebral - physiology; Female; Humans; Language and communication disorders; Male; Medical sciences; Memory Disorders; Memory Disorders - classification; Memory Disorders - etiology; Memory Disorders - physiopathology; Mental Recall - physiology; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Paired-Associate Learning - physiology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Retention (Psychology) - physiology; Retrospective Studies; Serial Learning - physiology; Verbal Learning - physiology; Verbal Tasks; Visual Perception - physiology; Short term; Human; Memory disorder; Nervous system diseases; Left; Cognitive disorder; Visual memory; Memory; Long term; Language disorder; Cerebral disorder; Verbal memory; Cerebral hemisphere; Central nervous system disease; Aphasia; Lesion; Neurological disorder; Spatial memory
• ISSN: 0028-3932; 1873-3514
• DOI: 10.1016/S0028-3932(97)00014-6

Sixty-one acute and 17 chronic vascular left-hemisphere damaged patients were tested with five memory tasks that investigated verbal short-term (digit span) and long-term (paired-associate and story learning) memory, and spatial short- and long-term memory (Corsi's span and learning). Both brain-damaged groups were significantly impaired in all memory tasks (except for chronic patients in the story learning task) compared to normal controls. The presence of aphasia and locus of lesion (anterior, posterior and deep) had no effect on the memory impairment, with the only exception of paired-associate learning that was better performed by non-aphasic than aphasic patients. Eleven subjects were better at paired-associate learning than story recall, the reverse dissociation was never found. Finally, chronic patients performed significantly better than acute patients only in the Corsi's learning task.