title: Implicit and explicit memory in children with congenital and acquired brain disorder.
abstract: Implicit and explicit memory were examined in 8- to 15-year-old children with myelomeningocele and shunted hydrocephalus, severe traumatic brain injuries, or orthopedic injuries. Each group included between 22 and 29 children. Children completed a fragmented picture identification task to assess perceptual priming and a semantic decision-making task to assess conceptual priming. Each task also assessed procedural learning as well as explicit recall and recognition. All 3 groups showed significant perceptual and semantic priming of similar magnitude. In contrast, both brain-disordered groups displayed poorer explicit memory than did the comparison group. No group showed significant procedural learning on either task. Age and IQ were stronger predictors of explicit recall than of implicit memory. The findings indicate that implicit memory is relatively intact in many children with congenital and acquired brain disorders, despite deficits in explicit memory, and support the existence of separate memory systems in children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Ohio State University and Center for Biobehavioral Health, Columbus Children's Research Institute, Columbus, OH 43205, USA. yeatesk@chi.osu.edu
authors.forename: Keith Owen
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: Yeates
authors.forename: Benedicta G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Enrile
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale; D020197:Head Injuries, Penetrating / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D008591:Meningomyelocele / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012044:Regression Analysis