IMPLICIT MEMORY IN CHILDREN WITH SPINA BIFIDA

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The overall goal of the proposed research is to examine implicit memory in children with spina bifida. The impact of spina bifida on learning and memory has not been studied in much detail, and most previous studies have been concerned with explicit memory, which involves conscious recollection and is typically measured through recall or recognition. In contrast, there are no previous studies of implicit memory, which involves conscious recollection and is typically measured through recall or facilitation of performance in the absence of conscious recollection. The proposed research is designed to study implicit memory in children with myelomeningocele and shunted hydrocephalus, as compared both to children with severe traumatic brain injuries and to a normative control group of children with orthopedic injuries. There will be 32 children between 8 and 15 years of age in each group. They will be administered a fragmented picture identification task and a semantic decision-making task and a semantic decision-making task. The two tasks will provide measures of three distinct forms of implicit memory: perceptual priming, conceptual priming, and skill learning. The children will also be administered several tests of related cognitive and academic skills, which are potential correlates of implicit memory. In addition, the two groups with brain disorder will undergo MRI of the brain, to validate the hypothesized relationships between neuropathology and implicit memory deficits. Based on brain-behavior relationships established in adult neurological populations, children with spina bifida and shunted hydrocephalus, as well as those with traumatic brain injuries, are expected to demonstrate deficits in skill learning when compared to sibling controls. Children with spina bifida and shunted hydrocephalus are also expected to show deficits in perceptual priming, but not conceptual priming, when compared to sibling controls. In contrast, children with traumatic brain injury are expected to show an opposite pattern, with deficits in conceptual priming but not perceptual priming. Across all three groups, perceptual and conceptual priming scores are expected to correlate positively with measures of abstract reasoning, and skill learning scores are expected to correlate positively with mathematical skills. In addition, in the two groups with brain disorder, regional abnormalities on MRI are expected to be associated with specific deficits in implicit memory. The proposed research will enhance our understanding of memory functioning in children with spina bifida, and in the long run also is likely to have practical implications for rehabilitative and educational intervention.