Altgassen Mareike, Ariese Laura, Wester Arie J, Kessels Roy P C
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Department of Psychology, TU Dresden, Germany.
Br J Clin Psychol. 2016 Jun;55(2):123-36. doi: 10.1111/bjc.12099. Epub 2015 Nov 18.
Korsakoff's syndrome is characterized by deficits in episodic memory and executive functions. Both cognitive functions are needed to remember to execute delayed intentions (prospective memory, PM), an ability that is crucial for independent living in everyday life. So far, PM has only been targeted by one study in Korsakoff's syndrome. This study explored the effects of executive control demands on PM to shed further light on a possible interdependence of memory and executive functions in Korsakoff's syndrome,
Twenty-five individuals with Korsakoff's syndrome and 23 chronic alcoholics (without amnesia) performed a categorization task into which a PM task was embedded that put either high or low demands on executive control processes (using low vs. high salient cues).
Overall, Korsakoff patients had fewer PM hits than alcoholic controls. Across groups, participants had fewer PM hits when cues were low salient as compared to high salient. Korsakoff patients performed better on PM when highly salient cues were presented than cues of low salience, while there were no differential effects for alcoholic controls.
While overall Korsakoff patients' showed a global PM deficit, the extent of this deficit was moderated by the executive control demands of the task applied. This indicated further support for an interrelation of executive functions and memory performance in Korsakoff.
Positive clinical implications of the work Prospective memory (PM) performance in Korsakoff's syndrome is related to executive control load. Increasing cues' salience improves PM performance in Korsakoff's syndrome. Salient visual aids may be used in everyday life to improve Korsakoff individuals' planning and organization skills. Cautions or limitations of the study Results were obtained in a structured laboratory setting and need to be replicated in a more naturalistic setting to assess their transferability to everyday life. Given the relatively small sample size, individual predictors of PM performance should be determined in larger samples.
科萨科夫综合征的特征是情景记忆和执行功能缺陷。记住执行延迟意图（前瞻性记忆，PM）需要这两种认知功能，而这种能力对于日常生活中的独立生活至关重要。到目前为止，在科萨科夫综合征中，仅有一项研究针对前瞻性记忆。本研究探讨了执行控制需求对前瞻性记忆的影响，以进一步阐明科萨科夫综合征中记忆与执行功能之间可能存在的相互依存关系。
25名科萨科夫综合征患者和23名慢性酒精中毒者（无失忆）进行了一项分类任务，其中嵌入了一项前瞻性记忆任务，该任务对执行控制过程提出了高或低的要求（使用低显著性线索与高显著性线索）。
总体而言，科萨科夫综合征患者的前瞻性记忆命中次数少于酒精中毒对照组。在所有组中，与高显著性线索相比，当线索显著性较低时，参与者的前瞻性记忆命中次数更少。当呈现高显著性线索时，科萨科夫综合征患者在前瞻性记忆方面的表现优于低显著性线索，而酒精中毒对照组则没有差异效应。
虽然总体上科萨科夫综合征患者表现出整体前瞻性记忆缺陷，但该缺陷的程度受到所应用任务的执行控制需求的调节。这进一步表明科萨科夫综合征中执行功能与记忆表现之间存在相互关系。
该研究的积极临床意义 科萨科夫综合征中的前瞻性记忆（PM）表现与执行控制负荷有关。提高线索的显著性可改善科萨科夫综合征患者的前瞻性记忆表现。在日常生活中可使用显著的视觉辅助工具来提高科萨科夫综合征患者的计划和组织能力。该研究的注意事项或局限性 结果是在结构化的实验室环境中获得的，需要在更自然的环境中进行重复验证，以评估其对日常生活的可转移性。鉴于样本量相对较小，应在更大的样本中确定前瞻性记忆表现的个体预测因素。
