The contribution of impaired working memory monitoring to performance of the self-ordered pointing task in normal aging and Parkinson's disease.
The factors contributing to the working memory deficit observed in older adults and individuals with Parkinson's disease on the Self-Ordered Pointing Task were examined in 2 experiments. A detailed analysis of the error data revealed that errors tended to be clustered toward the end of a trial and that this effect was somewhat independent of set size. This pattern was proposed to result from a monitoring deficit where individuals failed to maintain an integrated representation of how far they had proceeded in the trial, an interpretation consistent with animal work by M. Petrides (1995).
West
R
R
Rotman Research Institute of Baycrest Centre, North York, Ontario, Canada. rwest@rotman-baycrest.on.ca
Ergis
A M
AM
Winocur
G
G
Saint-Cyr
J
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*