• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.243-252
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• 2014

Objectives: This study was designed to investigate the dose-dependent effects of Gastrodia elata Blume for memory improvement. Methods: This study was a 12-weeks, double blind, and comparative clinical study. Those who were eligible worked with a group of healthy seniors, all 60 years of age or older. 22 subjects were randomized either to Gastrodia elata Blume powder form that was steeped in hot water or placebo. We measured the faculty of memory by using MMSE-K, Digit Span, Letter Fluency Test, Word List Memory Test, and Trail Making Test, and again after 12 weeks. Results: 1) Neither Gastrodia elata Blume groups nor control have a difference in MMSE-K, Digit Span, Letter Fluency Test, and Trail Making Test. 2) Gastrodia elata Blume group showed significant advances in immediate recall 1 and 2 of Word List Memory Test, and 3 g group show better results than the 4 g group. 3) 4 g Gastrodia elata Blume group showed significant advances in the recognition of Word List Memory Test. Conclusions: The results suggest that positive effects on memory improvement due to Gastrodia elata Blume depend on the amount.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.27-44
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• 2013

Objectives : This study was designed to investigate the effects of Gastrodia elata Blume on the improvement of memory. Methods : This study was a 12 week, double blind, comparative clinical study. There were eligible who worked with a group of healthy seniors, all 60 years of age or older. 50 subjects were randomized either to Gastrodia elata Blume in powder form and steep in hot water or placebo. We measured the faculty of memory by using K-DRS, MMSE-K, Digit Span, Letter Fluency Test, Word List Memory Test, and the Trail Making Test, and after 12 weeks we measured the faculty of memory again using the same methods. Results : Gastrodia elata Blume steeps in the hot water group significantly increased. Initiation, perseveration level, and Memory level of K-DRS and MMSE-K score. There were no considerable differences between three groups in Digit Span and Trail Making Test score. Gastrodia elata Blume group showed significant advances in Letter Fluency Test and recognition of Word List Memory Test. Conclusions : The results suggest that Gastrodia elata Blume may have positive effects on memory improvement and function of the frontal lobe activation.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.175-181
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• 2014

Objectives It was the aim to examine the association of the thyroid-related hormones with cognitive function, depression, and subjective memory impairment in community-dwelling elders with questionable dementia. Methods The sample consisted of 399 community residents with 'questionable dementia' aged 60 or over in whom serum thyroid-related hormones [thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and thyroxine] had been assayed. Cognitive impairment was defined using the Korean version of the Consortium Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease. Depression was diagnosed using the Korean version of Geriatric Depression Scale and subjective memory complaint (SMC) was checked using the subjective memory complaints questionnaire (SMCQ). Age, gender, education, and the presence of apolipoprotein E {\varepsilon}4 were included as covariates. Results There was a significant positive association between verbal fluency test (VFT) score and serum TSH levels (p = 0.01). There was a significant negative association between SMCQ total score and word list memory test (WLMT)(p = 0.002) or word list recall test (WLRT) score (p = 0.013). Conclusions Lower serum TSH levels were associated with semantic memory (VFT), and we found that SMC was associated with episodic memory (WLMT and WLRT) in this sample.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.61-74
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• 2022

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the short-term effects of bilateral masticatory training using an intraoral device on memory and concentration, which is an advanced form of Gochi, compared to the unilateral form with gum. Methods: Thirty young healthy participants (age, 16-30 years) were screened and randomly assigned to one of two sequences in a crossover design. The participants assigned to sequence A (n=15) performed bilateral mastication using an intraoral device with a total of 300 taps, followed by unilateral mastication using gum with the same number of repetitions and frequency, separated by a 7-day washout period. A reverse order was used for sequence B. The primary and secondary outcomes were the digit span test result and the symbol digit modality test and the word list recall results, respectively, which were conducted before and after each intervention. Results: Symbol digit modality test scores increased by 12.03±8.33 with bilateral mastication, which was significantly higher than that obtained with chewing gum (5.17 points;95% confidence interval: 0.99, 9.34; p<0.05). Changes in the digit span test and word list recall scores were not significantly different between the two groups. In the digit span test forward, symbol digit modality test, and word list recall test, bilateral mastication was not inferior to unilateral mastication in improving memory and concentration. Conclusions: Bilateral masticatory exercises using an intraoral device are not inferior to unilateral mastication with gum for improving memory in healthy young individuals. Further research is needed to determine the efficacy of bilateral masticatory training on cognitive function.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.104-110
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• 2013

Objectives : The aim of this study was to examine the prospective impact of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ${\varepsilon}4$ on cognitive performance in the community-dwelling elderly individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods : The total number of subjects was 30 (12 men and 18 women) who were diagnosed with AD from a Korean project of "Early Detection of Dementia". People aged 65-85 years were included in the analysis. The eight neuropsychological domains from the Korean version of Consortium to Establish a Registry of Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD-K) were conducted to test subjects. They have been followed at 24-month intervals with the same assessments at each interval. Their cognitive performance at 2 year intervals was compared by the occurrence of the APOE ${\varepsilon}4$. Results : The impact of ${\varepsilon}4$ allele was significant in the Word List Memory Test (WLMT, F = 4.345, df = 1, p = 0.021) and Word List Recall Test (WLRT, F = 5.569, df = 1, p = 0.033). Conclusions : The APOE ${\varepsilon}4$ allele was significantly correlated especially with verbal episodic memory domain in community-dwelling elders diagnosed with AD.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.401-408
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• 2017

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to obtain the differential variable and learning effect of the serial position effect, targeting individuals aged 60 years and over. A total of 89 individuals were categorized into the following groups: Alzheimer's group, vascular dementia group, elderly depression group, and normal group. Methods: Considering the size of the groups used for comparison, of the total 89 participants, 28 were in the Alzheimer's group, 24 in the vascular dementia group, 16 in the elderly depression group, and 21 were randomly chosen for the normal group. In the CERAD-K word list memory test, 10 words were shown to the subjects. We then asked them to freely recall the words. After changing the order of the words three times, the same process was followed. Results: First, a significant difference was observed among the groups in terms of word recalling rate. The analysis conducted afterward showed that, as predicted, the depressed group showed significantly better performance in recalling the words. Second, the vascular dementia patients and the Alzheimer's patients showed, as predicted, better recall of the largest recency region of words shown. Third, the normal group and the elderly depressed group showed a high-performance rate, proving that the reiterative method can contribute to the recalling process. Thus, we demonstrated that the Alzheimer's group showed the deterioration of short memory recalling skills and the elderly depressed showed deteriorated output performance skill.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.105-115
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• 2004

The 60 subjects of this study were 3rd, and 6th grade elementary and undergraduate university students. The instrument of 44 items had two typical and two atypical exemplars from 11 semantic categories. Each subject was exposed individually to the word list and asked to categorize each item. At test, subjects generated five items that came to mind in each category. Data was analyzed by 2-way ANOVA, age (3) $\times$ category of typicality (2). All main effects and the interaction effect between age and typicality were significant. There were no significant differences among age groups on typical lists while significant differences between university and elementary school students (Grades 3 and 6) were found on atypical lists. Thus, the knowledge base might be an important factor in implicit memory.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.63-68
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• 2016

Objectives Haenyeo are Korean professional women breath-hold divers in Jeju island. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics of depressed Haenyeo group, compared to non-Haenyeo depressed group. Methods This study included 75 Haenyeo and 340 non-Haenyeo with depressive disorders recruited from the Dementia Early Detection Program in Jeju island. Structural diagnostic interviews were performed using the Korean version of Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. All patients completed the questionnaires, including the Subjective Memory Complaints Questionnaire (SMCQ), the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15), and the Blessed dementia scale. Depression was evaluated by the Korean version of short form the Geriatric Depression Scale (K-SGDS) and cognition was assessed by the Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) assessment packet. Results Although the mean scores of the K-SGDS were similar between Haenyeo and non-Haenyeo depressed groups, the Haenyeo group showed a higher mean score on the PSQ-15 (p < 0.001, ANCOVA adjusting for age, the K-SGDS and education). The Haenyeo group showed poorer performance on the Korean Version of Frontal Assessment Batter (p < 0.001), the Mini-Mental State Examination in the Korean version of the CERAD Assessment Packet (p < 0.018), the word fluency test (p < 0.001), and the word list memory test (p = 0.012) in ANCOVA adjusting for age and education. The mean SMCQ score was higher in the Haenyeo depressed group than in the non-Haenyeo depressed group. Conclusions The Haenyeo depressed group shows cognitive dysfunction, especially frontal lobe dysfunction, compared to the non-Haenyeo depressed group, indicating the Haenyeo depressed group may have more severe frontolimbic dysfunction due to chronic exposure to hypoxia. The Haenyeo depressed group suffers more somatic symptoms than the non-Haenyeo depressed group.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.385-416
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• 2014

In this study, memory for emotional words was compared between extraverts and introverts, employing signal detection analysis to distinguish differences in discriminative memory and response bias. Subjects were presented with a study list of emotional words in an encoding session, followed by a recognition session. Effects of task difficulty were examined by varying the nature of the encoding task and the intervals between study and test. For an easy task, with a retention interval of 5 minutes (Study I), introverts exhibited better memory (i.e., higher d') than extraverts, particularly for low-frequency words, and response biases did not differ between these two groups. For a difficult task, with a one-month retention period (Study II), performance was poor overall, and only high-frequency words were remembered; also extraverts adopted a more liberal criterion for 'old' responses (i.e., more hits and more false alarms) for positive emotional-valence words. These results suggest that as task difficulty drives down performance, effects of internal control processes become more apparent, revealing differences in response biases for positive words between extraverts and introverts. These results show that extraversion can distort memory performance for words, depending on their emotional valence.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.155-163
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• 2019

Objectives : The aim of this study was to compare severity, neurocognitive functions, and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) according to the degree of temporal lobe atrophy (MTA) in Korean patients with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease. Methods : Participants were 114 elderly subjects diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment in this cross-sectional study. MTA in brain MRI was rated with standardized visual rating scales (Scheltens scale) and the subjects were divided into two groups according to Scheltens scale. Severity was evaluated with Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) and Global Deterioration Scale (GDS). Neurocognitive functions was evaluated with the Korean version of Short Blessed Test (SBT-K) and the Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease assessment packet (CERAD-K). BPSD was evaluated with the Korean version of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (K-NPI). Independent t-test was performed to compare severity, neurocognitive functions, and BPSD between two groups. Results : The group with high severity of MTA showed significantly lower scores in CDR, SBT-K, MMSE-KC, modified Boston naming test, word list recognition, and word list memory (p<0.05). There were no differences in K-NPI scores between two groups. Conclusions : Severity and neurocognitive functions of dementia had significant positive association with MTA, but BPSD had no association with MTA. Evaluating MTA seems to have potential benefit in diagnosing and treating neurocognitive impairments in the elderly. Further evaluation is needed to confirm the association between certain brain structures and BPSD.