• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.468-478
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• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of this study were to find out the degree of memory decline and to confirm its correlated factors in old adults. Method: The subjects consisted of 68 old adults over the age 65 who living in Busan. Data were collected by the interview method, using a structured questionnaire and the testing method on the memory performance. Results: The old adults' memory performances declined in tasks of immediately word recall, delayed word recall, and face recognition and increased slightly in word recognition over 2 years. However, there was only significant difference in delayed word recall task. The significant variables to predict memory decline were age, literacy, depression, locus, and strategy. Conclusion: The memory decline of old adults wasn't more serious problem than the perceived one. There needs to be some intervention programs to prevent memory decline for the elderly.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.283-292
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• 2019

The loss of semantic knowledge and impairments in semantic associations by semantic category is gaining increasing attention, as indicators of early-stage cognitive decline. As such, we assigned semantic association task (SAT) to normal elderly (NE) and those with subjective memory impairment (SMI) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to examine their performance by semantic subcategories and the differences in error patterns. We found a significant difference in the number of correct response and reaction time under the SAT categories among the three groups, with the highest performance observed in 'function' and the lowest performance in 'superordinate' and 'part/whole'. Moreover, the error frequency was the lowest in NE, followed by those with SMI and MCI, with the latter two groups showing a significant increase in no-response. Our findings demonstrate the varying extent and process of impairments in the semantic network by category over different stages of cognitive decline. Thus, we proposed SAT performance as an indicator to detect and follow-up on cognitive decline in elderly with cognitive disorder.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 2019

Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the correlation between insufficient sleep and visuospatial memory in adolescents using a computerized neurocognitive function test. Methods: A total of 103 high school students (26 males and 77 females; mean age $17.11{\pm}8.50years$) without a serious psychiatric problem was recruited. All subjects were requested to complete a self-report questionnaire about weekday total sleep time and weekend total sleep time. The epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) and the beck depression inventory (BDI) were administered to measure daytime sleepiness and symptoms of depression. Seven subsets of the Cambridge Neuropsychological test automated battery were examined to assess visuospatial memory. Results: After controlling for age, sex, ESS, and BDI, longer weekend total sleep time was correlated with poor performance on delayed matching to sample (r = -0.312, p = 0.002) and immediate recall on pattern recognition memory (r = -0.225, p = 0.025). Increased weekend catch-up sleep time was correlated with poor performance of delayed matching to sample (r = -0.236, p = 0.018), immediate recall on pattern recognition memory (r = -0.220, p = 0.029), and delayed recall on pattern recognition memory (r = -0.211, p = 0.036) after controlling for age, sex, ESS, and BDI. Conclusion: This study showed that increased weekend catch-up sleep time reflecting insufficient weekday sleep were associated with poor performance in delayed recall tasks of visual memory. This finding suggests that insufficient sleep during adolescence might produce a decline of visuospatial memory.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.199-204
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• 2016

Objectives Although forgetfulness is a common complaint among menopausal depressed women, there is still a debate about the relationship between memory impairment and menopause. The aim of this study is to examine whether menopause is related to cognitive decline among women with depressive disorders. We hypothesized that postmenopausal depressed women show generally poorer performance than premenopausal depressed women on various cognitive function tests. Methods With a retrospective chart review, we identified a total of 87 female patients (45 premenopausal patients and 42 postmenopausal patients) who were hospitalized with depressive disorders from 2000 to 2016. Demographic and clinical variables and cognitive test results were compared between two groups. Results Education year is longer in premenopausal group than postmenopausal group whereas clinical characteristics (illness duration, recurrence, and symptom severity) and mean Intelligence Quotient (IQ) were similar between two groups. The postmenopausal group took longer time for Bender-Gestalt Test (BGT) recall, Trail Making Test (TMT)-A, and TMT-B than the premenopausal group. After controlling for age and education, significant difference was remained for BGT recall (p = 0.029). Conclusions Postmenopausal state may be related with decline of visuospatial memory function, in particular, among depressed female patients. Other areas of cognitive function including complex attention, verbal memory, auditory memory, and working memory might be interpreted while considering age and education level.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.12-20
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• 1999

In order to understand the pathogenesis and progression of some synaptic loss related neuropsychiatric diseases, We attempted to develop a computer model in this study. We made a simple autoassociative memory network remembering numbers, transformed it into a disease model by pruning synapses, and measured its memory performance as a function of synaptic deletion. Decline in performance was measured as amount of synaptic loss increases and its mode of decline is sudden or gradual according to the mode of synaptic pruning. The developed computer model demonstrated how synaptic loss could cause memory impairment through a series of computer simulations, and suggested a new way of research in neuropsychiatry.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.245-252
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• 2024

Ginseng is a traditional herbal medicine used for prevention and treatment of various diseases as a tonic. Recent scientific cohort studies on life prolongation with ginseng consumption support this record, as those who consumed ginseng for more than 5 years had reduced mortality and cognitive decline compared to those who did not. Clinical studies have also shown that acute or long-term intake of ginseng total extract improves acute working memory performance or cognitive function in healthy individuals and those with subjective memory impairment (SMI), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), or early Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia who are taking AD medication(s). Ginseng contains various components ranging from classical ginsenosides and polysaccharides to more recently described gintonin. However, it is unclear which ginseng component(s) might be the main candidate that contribute to memory or cognitive improvements or prevent cognitive decline in older individuals. This review describes recent clinical contributors to ginseng components in clinical tests and introduces emerging evidence that ginseng components could be novel candidates for cognitive improvement in older individuals, as ginseng components improve SMI cognition and exhibits add-on effects when coadministered with early AD dementia drugs. The mechanism behind the beneficial effects of ginseng components and how it improves cognition are presented. Additionally, this review shows how ginseng components can contribute to SMI, MCI, or early AD dementia when used as a supplementary food and/or medicine, and proposes a novel combination therapy of current AD medicines with ginseng component(s).

• 한국노년학
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.1109-1124
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• 2016

We examined the effect of stereotype threat (STT) on spatial working memory and facial emotion recognition in Korean elderly. In addition, we investigated the role of expected moderator such as self-perception of aging. Seventeen seniors (male=7) received basic cognitive tests including K-WMS-IV, MMSE and answered self-report questionnaires including self-perception of aging, anxiety of aging, attitude toward aging and age identity on the first visit. On the second visit, they were exposed to negative stereotype by reading a script detailing cognitive decline related to aging while a control group was exposed to a neutral content. Following the exposure, they were tested on a spatial-working memory task (Corsi-block tapping task) and emotion recognition task (facial expression identification task). The results showed that the seniors exposed to STT showed significantly lower performance on emotion recognition task (p < .05) (i.e., especially on the more difficult facial stimuli). In addition, there was a significant interaction between STT and self-perception of aging (p< .05), indicating that those who have positive self-perception of aging did not show impairment in emotion recognition task and difficult spatial working memory task under STT. On the other hand, those with negative self-perception of aging showed impaired performance under STT. Taken together, the current study suggests that being exposed to STT could negatively influence cognitive and emotional functioning of elderly. Interestingly, having a positive self-perception of aging could protect the underperformance caused by STT.

• 한국노년학
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.751-763
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• 2016

In this article, we conducted a literature review about cognitive aging and social-psychological factors that influence cognitive function in old age. As getting older, cognitive function was mostly seen as declining, even though the effect of aging is differential across domains of cognitive ability. The negative view about cognitive aging might be reflecting social-psychological factors such as age stereotypes. Age stereotypes vary among different cultures, but appear to be negative in general. Negative age stereotypes are related to lower level of memory performances. Older adults who were experimentally presented with positive age stereotypes exhibited better memory performances than those with negative age stereotypes. Self-referent belief, appraisals of one's own cognitive abilities, could also affect actual performance in cognitive tasks. Older adults showed lower self-referent belief than younger adults, and it might explain memory decline in old age. Theoretical explanation and implication about the relationship between social-psychological factors and cognitive abilities were discussed.

• Dementia and Neurocognitive Disorders
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.158-168
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• 2023

Background and Purpose: Facial emotion recognition deficits impact the daily life, particularly of Alzheimer's disease patients. We aimed to assess these deficits in the following three groups: subjective cognitive decline (SCD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and mild Alzheimer's dementia (AD). Additionally, we explored the associations between facial emotion recognition and cognitive performance. Methods: We used the Korean version of the Florida Facial Affect Battery (K-FAB) in 72 SCD, 76 MCI, and 76 mild AD subjects. The comparison was conducted using the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), with adjustments being made for age and sex. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was utilized to gauge the overall cognitive status, while the Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery (SNSB) was employed to evaluate the performance in the following five cognitive domains: attention, language, visuospatial abilities, memory, and frontal executive functions. Results: The ANCOVA results showed significant differences in K-FAB subtests 3, 4, and 5 (p=0.001, p=0.003, and p=0.004, respectively), especially for anger and fearful emotions. Recognition of 'anger' in the FAB subtest 5 declined from SCD to MCI to mild AD. Correlations were observed with age and education, and after controlling for these factors, MMSE and frontal executive function were associated with FAB tests, particularly in the FAB subtest 5 (r=0.507, p<0.001 and r=-0.288, p=0.026, respectively). Conclusions: Emotion recognition deficits worsened from SCD to MCI to mild AD, especially for negative emotions. Complex tasks, such as matching, selection, and naming, showed greater deficits, with a connection to cognitive impairment, especially frontal executive dysfunction.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.143-154
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• 2020

Purpose : This study aims to investigate the effect of instrument-activities daily living training through client-centered home visitation on the cognitive functions, occupational performance, and instrument-activities daily living of elderly at the cognitive support grade(Grade6). Methods : The subject of this study was a 66-year-old woman living in G Metropolitan City, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and mild dementia. The study period was from March 17, 2020 through June 12, 2020, and the A-B-A' design, among the individual case experiments, was adopted as the study design. For the data analysis, descriptive statistic and visual analysis using graph were used for the change of cognitive functions, occupational performance, and instrument-activities daily living. Results : The instrument-activities daily living provided through client-centered home visitation improved the subject's cognitive functions, occupational performance(performance, satisfaction) and instrument-activities daily living. Conclusion : This study showed that daily life training through client-centered home visitation can help elderly people at the cognitive support grade select for themselves the problems of daily life caused by cognitive decline and practice specific action plans, thereby enabling them to maintain and improve the cognitive functions necessary for the performance of activities, such as comprehension, memory, and thinking skills. In addition, it is thought that the activities based on the subject's preferences, performance, and sense of importance assured the subject of feelings of motivation and the possibility of participation, and had a positive effect on the subject's performance speed and rate. With the above in mind, Instrument-activities daily living client-centered home visitation is proposed as a potential practical intervention program for individuals. It can help elderly people at cognitive support grade to maintain and improve their functions, thereby delaying the progress of their condition to severe dementia.