title: A retroactive spatial cue improved VSTM capacity in mild cognitive impairment and medial temporal lobe amnesia but not in healthy older adults.
abstract: Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is a vital cognitive ability, connecting visual input with conscious awareness. VSTM performance declines with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and medial temporal lobe (MTL) amnesia. Many studies have shown that providing a spatial retrospective cue ("retrocue") improves VSTM capacity estimates for healthy young adults. However, one study has demonstrated that older adults are unable to use a retrocue to inhibit irrelevant items from memory. It is unknown whether patients with MCI and MTL amnesia will be able to use a retrocue to benefit their memory. We administered a retrocue and a baseline (simultaneous cue, "simucue") task to young adults, older adults, MCI patients, and MTL cases. Consistent with previous findings, young adults showed a retrocue benefit, whereas healthy older adults did not. In contrast, both MCI patients and MTL cases showed a retrocue benefit--the use of a retrocue brought patient performance up to the level of age-matched controls. We speculate that the patients were able to use the spatial information from the retrocue to reduce interference and facilitate binding items to their locations.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ont., Canada M5S 3G3. Electronic address: rachel.newsome@mail.utoronto.ca.
authors: Rachel N
authors: RN
authors: Newsome
authors: School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors: Audrey
authors: A
authors: Duarte
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ont., Canada M5S 3G3.
authors: Carson
authors: C
authors: Pun
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ont., Canada M5S 3G3.
authors: Victoria M
authors: VM
authors: Smith
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ont., Canada M5S 3G3; Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, Ont., Canada.
authors: Susanne
authors: S
authors: Ferber
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ont., Canada M5S 3G3; Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, Ont., Canada.
authors: Morgan D
authors: MD
authors: Barense
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D000647:Amnesia / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Aging; Amnesia; Attention; Binding; Interference; Medial temporal lobe (MTL); Mild cognitive impairment (MCI); Retrocue; Visual short-term memory; change detection