The relationships between episodic memory, working memory, and executive functions: The contribution of the prefrontal cortex

Discusses the neurophysiological functions of the prefrontal cortex related to memory processes. Functional brain imaging studies have revealed that distinct regions of the prefrontal cortex are engaged in episodic memory operations, with some regions apparently part of multiple networks subserving different memory abilities. The prefrontal cortex is also involved in shifting processes. Working memory processes within the dorsolateral and ventrolateral frontal cortex are organized according to the type of processing required rather than the nature of the information being processed. The binding of contextual information, both incidentally and intentionally, is the most crucial process involved in episodic memory. Inhibition control involves not only bilateral prefrontal areas, but also posterior regions and subcortical structures, but the specific role of the cerebral areas is not clear at present

Safety of intravenous ferric carboxymaltose versus oral iron in patients with nondialysis-dependent CKD: an analysis of the 1-year FIND-CKD trial.

Background: The evidence base regarding the safety of intravenous (IV) iron therapy in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is incomplete and largely based on small studies of relatively short duration. Methods: FIND-CKD (ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT00994318) was a 1-year, open-label, multicenter, prospective study of patients with nondialysis-dependent CKD, anemia and iron deficiency randomized (1:1:2) to IV ferric carboxymaltose (FCM), targeting higher (400-600 µg/L) or lower (100-200 µg/L) ferritin, or oral iron. A post hoc analysis of adverse event rates per 100 patient-years was performed to assess the safety of FCM versus oral iron over an extended period. Results: The safety population included 616 patients. The incidence of one or more adverse events was 91.0, 100.0 and 105.0 per 100 patient-years in the high ferritin FCM, low ferritin FCM and oral iron groups, respectively. The incidence of adverse events with a suspected relation to study drug was 15.9, 17.8 and 36.7 per 100 patient-years in the three groups; for serious adverse events, the incidence was 28.2, 27.9 and 24.3 per 100 patient-years. The incidence of cardiac disorders and infections was similar between groups. At least one ferritin level ≥800 µg/L occurred in 26.6% of high ferritin FCM patients, with no associated increase in adverse events. No patient with ferritin ≥800 µg/L discontinued the study drug due to adverse events. Estimated glomerular filtration rate remained the stable in all groups. Conclusions: These results further support the conclusion that correction of iron deficiency anemia with IV FCM is safe in patients with nondialysis-dependent CKD

Sensation-seeking and impulsivity in young and older adults' decision making

The somatic marker hypothesis asserts that decision-making processes involve emotion. Using a gambling task that models real-life decisions, studies showed that old adults perform less efficiently than younger adults, by adopting a strategy that is disadvantageous on the long term. This study aimed at re-examining the age effect on decisionmaking with the same paradigm, and to explore whether differences are related to sensation-seeking and impulsivity traits of personality. Young and older adults were compared on the gambling task (Bechara, Damasio, & Damasio, 2000a), and on questionnaires of sensationseeking and impulsivity. Results confirmed an age effect on the gambling task performance. Moreover, performance in both young and older adults on this task was correlated to scores on the sensation-seeking scale, but not to the rating of impulsivit

Repetition priming for geometric shapes is influenced by changes of spatial, but not color context

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Aging and recognition processes

The aim of our study was twofold : to explore the effect of aging on recollection and familiarity and to compare two procedures for testing recognition (the yes-no and forced choice procedures). We administered a yes-no and a forced choice recognition task using unfamiliar faces as material to 32 young subjects (mean age: 23) and 32 older adults (mean age: 64.28). During the recognition phase, participants were asked to classify each recognised item as one that evoked a Remember response, a Know response or a Guess response. The results indicated significant age differences on global performance in the yes-no recognition task, but not in the forced choice task. Moreover, older adults gave less Remember responses and slightly more Know responses than young subjects. Our findings are consistent with previous studies indicating a reduction of recollection with aging. Concerning the contribution of recollection and familiarity to recognition as a function of the test format, participants in each age group used more Remember responses in the yes-no task than in the forced choice task and more Know responses in the forced choice than in the yes-no task. Our results seem to support the assumption that the contribution of recollection and familiarity depends on the type of testing procedure

L’amorçage par répétition pour des figures géométriques nouvelles est influencée par les changements du context spatial, mais pas des couleurs

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Structure et fonctionnement de la mémoire : une approche neuropsychologique

Memory in not a unified system. It's composed of independant but interacting systems. Cognitive neuropsychology showed dissociations between these systems in patients with various brain lesions. The episodic memory system is devoted to the processing of personally lieved events. The predominant role played by frontal regions in underlying episodic memory has been fully documented. Moreover, the episodic memory disfunctions may lead to illusions of memory such as false memories, confabulations or hallucinations