Memory for recent U.S. presidents in patients with cerebral disease.
Four tasks were developed to assess memory for recent U.S. presidents: free recall of presidents' names, naming their photographs, and temporal ordering of their printed names and photographs. The tasks were standardized on a sample of 250 hospital control subjects and administered to 55 patients with cerebral disease. Recall of the presidents' names, a task frequently advocated for mental status examination, was relatively difficult for hospital control patients and was least sensitive to brain disease. None of the brain-damaged patients manifested an isolated retrieval defect. Generalized memory impairment for recent presidents was not found with focal lesions. In the context of a diffuse or bilateral disease, generalized memory impairment for recent presidents was a frequent concomitant of substantial intellectual loss. This brief, multi-task assessment of memory for recent presidents may prove a more useful adjunct to neurobehavioral evaluation than testing simple recall of presidents' names.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000379:methods*; D011057:Politics; D012691:Serial Learning