• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.707-717
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was to develop and verify the effects of the exercise-cognitive combined dual-task training program on cognitive function and depression of the elderly with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: A non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used. The participants were assigned into two groups: an experimental group receiving an exercise-cognitive combined dual-task (n=20) and a control group receiving a simple-task (n=18). After 8 weeks of intervention (2 days per week), the change in depression and cognitive functions were compared between the groups. Results: General cognitive function (t=-2.81, p=.011), frontal cognitive function (Z=-3.50, p<.001), attention/working memory function (U=-2.91, p=.004), depression (t=4.96, p<.001) of the experimental group were significantly increased than those of the control group. Conclusion: The findings of the study showed that an exercise-cognitive combined dual-task program for MCI was effective in improving general cognitive function, frontal and executive function, attention/working memory function, and reducing depression.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1745-1748
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• 2005

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) can be used to monitor brain activation by measuring changes in the concentration of oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin (Hb) by their different spectra in the near-infrared range. Because NIRS is a noninvasive, highly flexible and portable device, it is very suitable to study brain activation when a human repeatedly performs a manipulative task, and possibly provides useful information to construct human adaptive mechatronics (HAM). There is some evidence that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) plays a major role in working memory and it is proposed that the use of working memory decreases as a human develops manipulative skills. In the present study, we investigated the activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of the brain in Brodmann's areas 9 and 46 in drawing tasks to examine whether NIRS can measure the changes of DLPFC activation as a human develops manipulative skills. Subjects performed a mirror image drawing task and a square drawing task by ones' left hands. In the mirror image task the subject drew following a star shape based on a mirror image of it, but square drawing did not involve mirror image and was estimated to be simpler. The changes of the concentration of oxy-Hb was higher in the mirror image drawing than the square drawing in most subjects. The changes of oxy-Hb decreased as the subject repeated the drawing task in most subjects. In conclusion, The activation of DLPFC measured by NIRS can reflect the brain activity in the development of manipulative skills.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.467-479
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• 2022

Working memory (WM), which plays a vital role in daily activities, is a memory system that temporarily stores and processes information when people are engaged in complex cognitive activities. The influence of music on WM has been widely studied. In this work, we conducted a series of n-back memory experiments with different task difficulties and multiple trials on 14 subjects under the condition of no music and Alpha wave leading music. The analysis of behavioral data show that the change of music condition has significant effect on the accuracy and time of memory reaction (p<0.01), both of which are improved after the stimulation of Alpha wave music. Behavioral results also suggest that short-term training has no significant impact on working memory. In the further analysis of electrophysiology (EEG) data recorded in the experiment, auto-regressive (AR) model is employed to extract features, after which an average classification accuracy of 82.9% is achieved with support vector machine (SVM) classifier in distinguishing between before and after WM enhancement. The above findings indicate that Alpha wave leading music can improve WM, and the combination of AR model and SVM classifier is effective in detecting the brain activity changes resulting from music stimulation.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.31-44
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• 2019

This study intended to investigate the effects of the subtitle location on the decreased working memory abilities caused by aging. A junior group (average age: 26, SD: 3.06, N=27) and a senior group (average age: 61.69, SD=4.18, N=26) participated in this study and they all performed N-back tasks which measured the working memory ability of the participants and video subtitle recognition tasks that assessed the most effectively recognized subtitle locations in the video. The results of the N-back task revealed slower response times and low accuracy rates in the senior group in comparison to the junior group, suggesting lower working memory abilities in the senior group vis-à-vis the junior group. The deterioration of working memory due to aging also negatively influenced the 'left-bottom' subtitle location in the video subtitle recognition task and positively influenced the 'left-center' location of the screen. The deterioration of working memory ability did not affect other subtitle locations. By examining the positive or negative effects of the deterioration of working memory ability as a function of age on subtitle locations, the present study suggests that the selection of suitable subtitle locations taking into account the ages of video viewers would cause information to be more effectively displayed on screen.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.155-174
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• 2005

Oh and Kim (2004) and Woodman and Lurk (2004) demonstrated that spatial working memory (SWM) load Interfered concurrent visual search and that search process also impaired the maintenance of spatial information implying that visual search and SWM task both require access to the same limited-capacity mechanism. Two obvious possibilities have been suggested about what this shared limited-capacity mechanism is: common demand for attention to the locations where the items f9r the two tasks were presented (spatial attention load hypothesis), and common use of working memory to maintain a record of locations have been processed(SWM load hypothesis). To test these two hypothetical explanations, Experiment 1 replicated the mutual interference between visual search and SWM task in spite of difference of procedure with preceding researches; possible areas where the items for two tasks were presented were not separated. In Experiment 2, we presented the items for visual search either in the same quadrants where the items for SWM task had appeared (same-location rendition) or in the different quadrants (different-location condition). As a result, search efficiency was more impaired in the different-location condition than in the same-location condition. The memory accuracy was worse in the different-location rendition than in the same-location rendition. Overall results of study indicate that the mutual interference between SWM and visual search might be related to the overload of spatial attention, but not to that of SWM.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.207-229
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• 2006

Two experiments examined the relation of working memory capacity and the inhibition mechanism in working memory. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the high WM span group inhibited irrelevant information selectively and the low WM span group maintained both relevant and irrelevant information within WM. Experiment 2 showed that there were similar patterns of response time between high and low WM span groups in the lexical decision task. These results suggest that the ability to maintain relevant information and inhibit irrelevant information selectively in WM is an important factor of individual differences in working memory.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Emotion and Sensibility Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.101-104
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• 2009

This study investigated compensatory mechanisms in the brain during a verbal working memory task among people with Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD). A total of 21 college male students participated in the study: eleven AUD participants and 10 normal controls. Study participants were asked to complete the Korean version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (K-WAIS-III) prior to the fMRI experiment. Verbal 0-back and 2-back tasks were used to assess brain activities of the participants' verbal working memory. Brain scanning was performed on Siemens SONATA 1.5T Scanner while participants were performing the 0-back and 2-back tasks. Within the AUD group, participants with greater dependency to alcohol (based on DSM-IV criteria) in the past 1 year showed lower mean score on the 'Similarities' of the K-WAIS-III (r=-0.63, p<0.05, N=11). The more participants experienced alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the past 1 year, the lower the score they received on the K-WAIS-III 'Picture Arrangement' (r=-0.69, p<0.05, n=11). The fMRI regression results showed that individuals who present greater degree of alcohol dependency symptoms are likely to show greater brain activation in the bilateral middle frontal gyri (BA 9) during the verbal working memory task. The degree of alcohol withdrawal symptoms were associated with increased brain activation in the left superior and middle frontal gyri (BA8), left precentral gyrus (BA 6), and left inferior parietal lobule (BA 40). The study findings showed that the degree of alcohol abuse/dependence and withdrawal symptoms were associated with decreased cognitive function and increased activations in brain regions particularly important for abstract reasoning (BA 9), central executive (BA 9), or spatial storage (BA 40) during a working memory task. Therefore, these results could support previous studies suggesting that the neural system of people with ADD may adopt a brain compensatory mechanism to maintain normal level of cognitive functions.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.320-327
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• 2008

Several lines of evidence indicate that adenosine $A_{2A}$ agonist disrupts spatial working memory. However, it is unclear which stages of learning and memory are affected by the stimulation of adenosine $A_{2A}$ receptor. To clarify these points, we employed CV-1808 as adenosine $A_{2A}$ agonist and investigated its effects on acquisition, consolidation, and retrieval phases of learning and memory using passive avoidance and the Morris water maze tasks. During the acquisition phase, CV-1808 (2-phenylaminoadenosine, 1 and 2 mg/kg, i.p.) decreased the latency time in passive avoidance task and the mean savings in the Morris water maze task, respectively. During the consolidation and retrieval phase tests, CV-1808 did not exhibited any effects on latency time in passive avoidance task and the mean savings in the Morris water maze task. These results suggest that CV-1808 as an adenosine $A_{2A}$ agonist impairs memory acquisition but not consolidation or retrieval.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.191-206
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• 2006

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of verbal working memory and the spatial working memory on children's text comprehension. The reading span and the operation span of the reading deficient children were smaller than that of the reading normal children, but the two groups did not differ in the visual span. Reading deficient children got lower score in the comprehension tests than reading normal children, and the difference was larger for the expository text than the narrative text. The involvement of visual working memory in reading narrative texts were more directly tested in Experiment 2 by asking the children do a secondary memory task before they answered the comprehension test. Reading normal children suffered more under auditory secondary memory condition for both narrative and expository texts, whereas reading deficient children suffered under visual secondary memory condition for narrative texts as well. The results of the two experiments suggested that the spatial working memory can be involved in text comprehension process, especially with reading deficient children.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.64-70
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• 2023

Purpose: This study investigated the influence of attention-demanding tasks on gait and measured differences in the temporal, spatial and kinematic characteristics between young healthy adults and elderly healthy adults. Methods: We recruited 16 healthy young adults and 15 healthy elderly adults in this study. All participants performed two cognitive tasks: a subtraction dual-task (SDT) and working memory dual-task (WMDT) during gait plus one normal gait. Using the LEGSys+ system, knee and hip-joint kinematic data during stance and swing phase and spatiotemporal parameter data were assessed in this study. Results: In the elderly adult group, attention-demanding tasks with gait showed a significant decrease in hip-joint motion during the stance phase, compared to the normal gait. Step length, stride length and stride velocity of the elderly adult group were significantly decreased in WMDT gait compared to normal gait (p<0.05). In the young adult group, kinematic data did not show any significant difference. However, stride velocity and cadence during SDT and WMDT gaits were significantly decreased compared to those of normal gait (p<0.05). Conclusion: We determined that attention-demanding tasks during gait in elderly adults can induce decreased hip-joint motion during stance phase and decreased gait speed and stride length to maintain balance and prevent risk of falling. We believe that understanding the changes during gait in older ages, particularly during attention-demanding tasks, would be helpful for intervention strategies and improved risk assessment.