Information Processing Efficiency in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Reduced information processing efficiency, consequent to impaired neural transmission, has been proposed as underlying various cognitive problems in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). This study employed two measures developed from experimental psychology that control for the potential confound...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology 2000-10, Vol.22 (5), p.686-701
Main Authors: Archibald, Catherine J., Fisk, John D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Analysis of Variance
Biological and medical sciences
Case-Control Studies
Cognition Disorders - etiology
Female
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Memory, Short-Term
Middle Aged
Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Progressive - complications
Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Progressive - psychology
Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting - psychology
Neuropsychological Tests
Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Reaction Time
Set (Psychology)
Severity of Illness Index
Verbal Learning
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Reduced information processing efficiency, consequent to impaired neural transmission, has been proposed as underlying various cognitive problems in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). This study employed two measures developed from experimental psychology that control for the potential confound of perceptual-motor abnormalities (Salthouse, Babcock, & Shaw, 1991; Sternberg, 1966, 1969) to assess the speed of information processing and working memory capacity in patients with mild to moderate MS. Although patients had significantly more cognitive complaints than neurologically intact matched controls, their performance on standard tests of immediate memory span did not differ from control participants and their word list learning was within normal limits. On the experimental measures, both relapsing-remitting and secondary-progressive patients exhibited significantly slowed information processing speed relative to controls. However, only the secondary-progressive patients had an additional decrement in working memory capacity. Depression, fatigue, or neurologic disability did not account for performance differences on these measures. While speed of information processing may be slowed early in the disease process, deficits in working memory capacity may appear only as there is progression of MS. It is these latter deficits, however, that may underlie the impairment of new learning that patients with MS demonstrate.
ISSN:1380-3395
1744-411X
DOI:10.1076/1380-3395(200010)22:5;1-9;FT686