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Abstract:
Research into the neuropsychological consequences of HIV
infection have provided a conflicting picture of the disease and
its effects on cognitive functioning. Recently, evidence has
suggested that processes traditionally assigned to frontal brain
structures are compromised in patients with HIV Dementia. In our
study we explore this frontal link further by assessing HIV+
patients (not diagnosed with AIDS dementia), older adults (who have
also been found in other studies to have compromised frontal
functioning) and young adults on several tasks that target specific
frontally-related processes. These include measures of inhibition,
cognitive flexibility, and working, long-term, and prospective
aspects of memory. HIV+ individuals were very similar to older
adults in their lower performance on all tests (as compared to
young adult controls) with the exception of long-term memory, which
did not differ between the groups. Additional correlations of
cognitive performance and viral status will be presented at the
conference. We conclude that the pattern of compromised performance
in individuals who are diagnosed as HIV+ is similar to that of
older adults and patients with frontal lobe injury. HIV dementia
does not have to be diagnosed for these deficits to appear.
Discussion of the neurophysiological mechanism that may underlie
this finding will be included.
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