title: Memory interference in multiple sclerosis.
abstract: To explore verbal memory impairments associated with multiple sclerosis (MS), we compared proactive and retroactive interference effects on the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT; Delis et al., 1987) in a sample of 83 community-residing individuals with MS and 80 healthy participants. Individuals with MS demonstrated normal accumulation of proactive interference (PI), but attenuated release from PI relative to healthy individuals. Furthermore, accumulation of retroactive interference (RI) at short-delay free recall (SDFR) was intensified for those with MS as compared to healthy participants. Interestingly, accumulation of RI predicted long-term memory (LTM) only for participants with MS. These findings suggest that individuals with MS may experience particular difficulty when required to use semantic properties of information flexibly to facilitate verbal LTM.
authors.affiliation: Human Neuropsychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Stephanie Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Griffiths
authors.forename: Aiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Vanessa G
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: Boudreau
authors.forename: Leslie K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kozora
authors.forename: Allen E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Thornton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000150:complications*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology