Recopilacin de informacin: Memoria semntica

1. Interdependence of episodic and semantic memory: Evidence from neuropsychology

Tulvings (1972) theory of memory draws a distinction between general knowledge (semantic
memory) and memory for events (episodic memory). Neuropsychological studies have generally
examined each type of memory in isolation, but theorists have long argued that these two forms of
memory are interdependent. Here we review several lines of neuropsychological research that have
explored the interdependence of episodic and semantic memory. The studies show that these forms
of memory can affect each other both at encoding and at retrieval. We suggest that theories of
memory should be revised to account for all of the interdependencies between episodic and
semantic memory; they should also incorporate forms of memory that do not fit neatly into either
category.
(JINS, 2010, 16, 748753.)

2. Memory rehabilitation in Alzheimer's disease: a review of progress

Three potential levels of memory rehabilitation procedures with proven clinical or pragmatic efficacy
were identified. The first level bears on the facilitation of residual explicit memory with structured
support both at encoding and at subsequent recall; the second level of memory rehabilitation
exploits the relatively intact implicit memory system (priming and procedural memory); the last
deals with finding ways of coping with the patient's limited explicit memory capacities through the
use of external memory aids. A proposal of suggestions for good practice and future research in
memory rehabilitation is also offered with the hope to spur further development in this rapidly
expanding area of applied research.
They conclude that the available evidence shows that alternative and innovative ways of memory
rehabilitation for Alzheimer's patients can indeed be clinically effective or pragmatically useful with a
great potential for use within the new culture of a more graded and proactive type of Alzheimer's
disease care (De Vreese, Neri, Fioravanti, Belloi y Zanetti, 2001).
(Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2001; 16: 794-809)

3. Semantic memory loss in dementia of Alzheimers type

Perceptual testing on our 10 patients provided no evidence of impairment of visual perceptual

processing, auditory processing, or comprehension of written words that would interfere with their
ability to access semantics. This approach, discussed in detail in Chertkow et al. (1989), will only be
summarized here. Tasks to determine intact visual and auditory perception were as follows.
Reading test. A total of 150 single words was presented on 3x5 inch cards to be read aloud.
Word stimuli consisted of 150 concrete picturable noun exemplars, drawn from 8 semantic
categories (15 items each) plus 30 miscellaneous objects. Categories were vehicles, clothing,
furniture, tools, fruit, vegetables, animals and body parts. Items in each category were
drawn from Battig and Montague (1969) and Rosch (1975) and were chosen to include both
high and low frequency values (Kufcera and Francis, 1967) and prototypicality. Lexical
decision task. The words used above in the reading test were administered at a second
 session to test lexical decision ability; 150 pronounceable nonwords were created by altering
two letters of each word, maintaining similar bigram frequencies.
Perceptual object decision task. Line drawings of 20 simple household objects and 20
nonobjects designed to incorporate real object parts (drawn from a group designed by Kroll
and Potter (1984)), were presented randomly. Subjects had to indicate that a drawing
represented a real or an unreal object.
Mixed category word to picture matching test. Subjects were presented with line drawings
of the 150 items used in the reading task, taken from the pictorial stimuli of Snodgrass and
Vanderwart (1980). These pictures were displayed in groups of 5 items arranged vertically in
a column on a card. Each item was drawn from a different one of the 8 semantic categories
or the miscellaneous category. An attempt was made to have the items on a card share basic
perceptual features. These 31 mixed category (MC) cards were presented consecutively
(Butterworth et al., 1984), and subjects were asked to point to the picture named by the
examiner. The position of the target in the column was randomly assigned. All stimuli were
selected and prescreened on normal subjects such that at least 95% of normals identified
each picture correctly.
Western Aphasia Battery (Kertesz and Poole, 1974). This was administered to each patient
in the standard manner. Results on the sections measuring Comprehension, and Repetition,
and the fluency rating on the Spontaneous Speech section were compared with normal
controls.

Results and Discussion

As discussed in the Introduction, our goal was to delineate a subgroup of DAT patients showing no
significant impairment of perceptual processes leading to semantic memory access. Our criteria for
ruling out visual and auditory perception problems required a DAT patient to demonstrate
performance equal to the control group on all 5 of the above tasks. Each of the 10 DAT patients
considered below met those criteria. The test results of object decision and mixed-category
matching of words to pictures provide evidence that these dementia patients had no difficulty in
carrying out visual processing of pictorial stimuli up to a relatively high perceptual level, but imply
little about the state of semantic memory itself. Since distractors in the picture-matching test were
all from different semantic categories, success on this task would be possible even if only
superordinate category knowledge of the items was retained, which is often the case even in
dementia patients with severe loss of semantic memory (Warrington, 1975). The results therefore
provide evidence of adequate visual and auditory perceptual processing up to the level at which
meaning is derived from the input.

Semantic memory testing

It is unclear whether there is a single task which accurately measures semantic memory function. As
discussed in the Introduction, one measure which seems to indicate semantic memory loss in a more
direct manner is the demonstration of an item-to-item association between comprehension loss and
anomia (Huff etal., 1986). We planned to test item comprehension by use of a second word-to-
picture matching procedure. As Butterworth et al. (1984) has pointed out, if distractors were not
only perceptually similar, but also originated from the same semantic category, the subject could no
longer merely use general residual knowledge of the structure of category items to carry out the
matching task. Patients would fail to match correctly if they had lost precise semantic knowledge for
the meaning of a verbal label or meaning of a pictured item. We therefore adapted their 'same
category' word-to-picture matching task, using the identical target items as in the previous tasks.
Failure in this task could then be compared with picture naming for the same items, to assess
whether errors in comprehension and production conformed to an item specific deficit.
(Brain,990, 113 : 397-417)