TY - JOUR
T1 - The Contribution of Working Memory Areas to Verbal Learning and Recall in Primary Progressive Aphasia
AU - Afthinos, Alexandros
AU - Themistocleous, Charalambos
AU - Herrmann, Olivia
AU - Fan, Hongli
AU - Lu, Hanzhang
AU - Tsapkini, Kyrana
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by grants from the Science of Learning Institute at Johns Hopkins University and by the NIH/NIDCD
Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to our participants for their unfailing commitment and interest in our study. The authors also thank referring physicians, especially Dr. Constantine Frangakis from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Department of Biostatistics, for his insightful comments and suggestions on the statistical analysis and the R codes he provided for the final version of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Afthinos, Themistocleous, Herrmann, Fan, Lu and Tsapkini.
PY - 2022/2/17
Y1 - 2022/2/17
N2 - Recent evidence of domain-specific working memory (WM) systems has identified the areas and networks which are involved in phonological, orthographic, and semantic WM, as well as in higher level domain-general WM functions. The contribution of these areas throughout the process of verbal learning and recall is still unclear. In the present study, we asked, what is the contribution of domain-specific specialized WM systems in the course of verbal learning and recall? To answer this question, we regressed the perfusion data from pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (pCASL) MRI with all the immediate, consecutive, and delayed recall stages of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) from a group of patients with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA), a neurodegenerative syndrome in which language is the primary deficit. We found that the early stages of verbal learning involve the areas with subserving phonological processing (left superior temporal gyrus), as well as semantic WM memory (left angular gyrus, AG_L). As learning unfolds, areas with subserving semantic WM (AG_L), as well as lexical/semantic (inferior temporal and fusiform gyri, temporal pole), and episodic memory (hippocampal complex) become more involved. Finally, a delayed recall depends entirely on semantic and episodic memory areas (hippocampal complex, temporal pole, and gyri). Our results suggest that AG_L subserving domain-specific (semantic) WM is involved only during verbal learning, but a delayed recall depends only on medial and cortical temporal areas.
AB - Recent evidence of domain-specific working memory (WM) systems has identified the areas and networks which are involved in phonological, orthographic, and semantic WM, as well as in higher level domain-general WM functions. The contribution of these areas throughout the process of verbal learning and recall is still unclear. In the present study, we asked, what is the contribution of domain-specific specialized WM systems in the course of verbal learning and recall? To answer this question, we regressed the perfusion data from pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (pCASL) MRI with all the immediate, consecutive, and delayed recall stages of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) from a group of patients with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA), a neurodegenerative syndrome in which language is the primary deficit. We found that the early stages of verbal learning involve the areas with subserving phonological processing (left superior temporal gyrus), as well as semantic WM memory (left angular gyrus, AG_L). As learning unfolds, areas with subserving semantic WM (AG_L), as well as lexical/semantic (inferior temporal and fusiform gyri, temporal pole), and episodic memory (hippocampal complex) become more involved. Finally, a delayed recall depends entirely on semantic and episodic memory areas (hippocampal complex, temporal pole, and gyri). Our results suggest that AG_L subserving domain-specific (semantic) WM is involved only during verbal learning, but a delayed recall depends only on medial and cortical temporal areas.
KW - Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT)
KW - arterial spin labeling MRI
KW - pCASL
KW - perfusion imaging
KW - primary progressive aphasia (PPA)
KW - recall
KW - verbal learning
KW - working memory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125840485&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85125840485&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fneur.2022.698200
DO - 10.3389/fneur.2022.698200
M3 - Article
C2 - 35250797
AN - SCOPUS:85125840485
SN - 1664-2295
VL - 13
JO - Frontiers in Neurology
JF - Frontiers in Neurology
M1 - 698200
ER -