INVESTIGATING REASONING DEFICITS IN DEMENTIA PATIENTS

描述（申请人摘要）：拟议项目旨在 研究阿尔茨海默氏症痴呆症中推理障碍的性质 类型及相关疾病。 此外，通过整合神经心理学 数据与大脑成像数据，该研究旨在确定的作用， 不同的大脑区域进行推理。 三组的表现 患者将在工作记忆，陈述记忆， 推理：1）一组前额叶局灶性损害患者， 皮质，2）损伤仅限于颞叶前部区域的患者 皮质，和3）后皮质区损伤的患者， 老年痴呆症 一组年龄匹配的对照受试者将 也被测试。 推理测试的项目在不同的年龄段有系统的变化。 它们需要推理机来进行大量的关系表示， 同时操纵。 有人提出，完整的前额叶皮层是 成功的推理是必不可少的，因为它是必要的， 对象和事件之间关系的整合。 照经上所 假设前额皮质受损的病人 与阿尔茨海默病患者相比， 需要关系集成的项目。 此外，预计 在关系推理和 前额叶皮层损伤患者的陈述性记忆能力 和老年痴呆症患者。 最后，我假设 将观察到以下指标的得分之间存在显著相关性： 工作记忆和关系推理。

DESCRIPTION (Applicant's abstract): The proposed project is designed to investigate the nature of reasoning impairments in dementia of Alzheimer's type, and related disorders. In addition, by integrating neuropsychological data with brain imaging data, the study seeks to determine the roles of different brain regions in reasoning. The performance of three groups of patients will be compared on tests of working memory, declarative memory, and reasoning: 1) a group of patients with focal damage to prefrontal cortex, 2) patients with damage limited to anterior regions of temporal cortex, and 3) patients with damage to posterior cortical areas, producing dementia of Alzheimer's type. A group of age-matched control subjects will also be tested. Items from reasoning tests systematically vary in the number of relational representations they require reasoners to simultaneously manipulate. It is proposed that intact prefrontal cortex is essential for successful reasoning because it is required for the integration of relations between objects and events. Thus, it is hypothesized that patients with damage to prefrontal cortex will show significant impairment, relative to patients with Alzheimer's disease, on items which require relational integration. Additionally, it is predicted that a double dissociation will be found between relational reasoning and declarative memory abilities in patients with damage to prefrontal cortex and patients with Alzheimer's Disease. Finally, I hypothesize that significant correlations will be observed between scores on measures of working memory and relational reasoning in all participant groups.