Remediation efficacy of the memory notebook for patients with memory dysfunction in multiple sclerosis

The current paper evaluated the effectiveness of an 8-week memory notebook treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with memory dysfunction. Fourteen participants who were diagnosed with MS and had either a score indicating mild-to-moderate impairment on an objective memory test (i.e., the CVLT-II or the BVMT) or a self-report of a decline in memory were randomly assigned to either the Memory Notebook group (MNG) or the Supportive Psychotherapy control group (CG). Both groups received 8 training sessions for 1.5 hours over 7 weeks; on the eighth week, one hour was dedicated to training and the remaining half hour was designated to follow-up paperwork. The primary outcome measures were between-groups comparison of pre-post change on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and the Everyday Memory Questionnaire (EMQ). In terms of secondary measures, a between-groups comparison of pre-mid-post change on the Retrospective Memory Task (5RMT) and the Prospective Memory Task (5RMT), and comparisons of pre-post change on the Functional Assessment of Multiple Sclerosis, Version 2 (FAMS-2), the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), the Zung Anxiety Scale (ZAS), the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS), and the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). A greater improvement of depression symptoms was seen for the MNG than the CG. Non-significant changes were seen in clinically therapeutic directions on all other measures. This trial supports the efficacy of memory notebook training for distress reduction in MS

Costs of a predictable switch between simple cognitive tasks following severe closed-head injury

The authors used a predictable, externally cued task-switching paradigm to investigate executive control in a severe closed-head injury (CHI) population. Eighteen individuals with severe CHI and 18 controls switched between classifying whether a digit was odd or even and whether a letter was a consonant or vowel on every 4th trial. The target stimuli appeared in a circle divided into 8 equivalent parts. Presentation of the stimuli rotated clockwise. Participants performed the switching task at both a short (200 ms) and a long (1,000 ms) preparatory interval. Although the participants with CHI exhibited slower response times and greater switch costs, similar to controls, additional preparatory time reduced the switch costs, and the switch costs were limited to the 1st trial in the run. These findings indicate that participants with severe CHI were able to take advantage of time to prepare for the task switch, and the executive control processes involved in the switch costs were completed before the 1st trial of the run ended

Remembrance and Resurrection: Ry Cooder's Chavez Ravine

This article explores Los Angeles guitarist Ry Cooder’s project to excavate and resurrect through music the lost community of Chávez Ravine, the vibrant Mexican‐American neighbourhood bulldozed in 1958 to make way for the construction of the Dodger baseball stadium. The article draws critical parallels with Marcel Proust, of whom Hannah Segal writes: “On realizing the destruction of a whole world that had been his he decides to write, to sacrifice himself to the re‐creation of the dying and the dead. By virtue of his art he can give his objects an eternal life in his work”. Proust’s medium is the written word; Cooder’s is the dance music of the Pachucos, the corridos of the Ravine’s local heroes and the laments of the residents driven away by the bulldozers. Through this music, Cooder’s aim is to ensure that the name “Chávez Ravine” and “all the images that had been living in it” (Proust) will not remain eclipsed by the corporate power and self‐congratulation of the Los Angeles Dodgers