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Abstract:
Huntington's Disease (HD) patients show a host of
neuropsychological deficits related to a fronto-subcortical
syndrome, including deficits in recall and, to a lesser extent,
recognition. Given the neuropathological features in HD, deficits
in source memory and in strategy-use are also expected. To explore
the differential effects of HD on various domains of memory, we
administered the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) to 48
non-demented HD patients and 48 age/education-matched controls.
Further, we examined how manipulating the encoding strategy using
semantic clustering during acquisition affected memory in patients
and controls. For the Blocked List, words were presented grouped
into their semantic categories; whereas, for the Unblocked List,
categories were intermixed within the list. Categories on the two
lists were mutually exclusive. Measures of free recall, semantic
clustering, recognition and source memory were assessed during
initial testing and again one week later. Controls were more
accurate than the HD patients on all memory measures; however, the
effect size of these differences varied, with largest effects seen
in source memory. Controls also showed higher semantic clustering
scores during acquisition than did HD patients, though both
patients and controls profited equally from the blocking
manipulation. Overall, results revealed significant deficits in
source memory and semantic encoding in HD patients, which are
presumably attributable to the fronto-subcortical neuropathology
characteristic of HD.
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