Short-term Memory Impairment: Evidence from Aphasia

To determine the mechanism of STM decline following brain damage, patients with left hemisphere damage and aphasia (LHD+), patients with left hemisphere damage without aphasia (LHD-), and persons with right hemisphere dysfunction (RHD) were examined. An auditory-verbal memory task, as well as a series of visual memory tasks, consisting of designs, objects and pictures, were used. Patients with LHD+ performed the auditory memory task significantly worse than those with LHDand RHD. Although the groups did not differ with regard to nonverbal STM measurement, the visual task performance suggested a better memory in aphasics for sensory rather than meaningful features of the visual stimulus. There was no effect of localization of a lesion within the left hemisphere on short-term memory.