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Abstract:
Abstract: Previous studies examining implicit memory in
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients report that the patients exhibit
relatively intact implicit memory as measured in visual word stem
completion tasks. Those studies, however, did not control for the
use of intentional retrieval, and the MS patients were not
separated into specific disease type subgroups. Recent studies with
subgroups indicate that Primary Progressive MS patients (PP) may
exhibit a clinical phenotype of MS distinct from those of patients
in the more common Relapsing Remitting (RR) and Secondary
Progressive (SP) subgroups. The current study investigated both
perceptual and conceptual implicit memory using word fragment
completion and exemplar generation tasks. Furthermore, the
contribution of explicit memory to the implicit tests was assessed,
and explicit memory was measured using a free recall procedure.
Preliminary results indicate that explicit memory is disrupted in
MS patients, but that conceptual implicit memory is relatively
preserved. Moreover, only the PP subgroup appears to exhibit a
deficit in perceptual implicit priming.
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