It is shown that visuo-spatial working memory is better characterized as processes operating on sensory information (visual appearance) and on spatial location (environmental coordinates) in a distributed network than as unitary slave system. Results from passive (short-term) and active memory tasks (imagery) disclose the properties (capacity, content) and the components of this network. The pr...

OBJECTIVES Healthy aging is associated with a decline in visuospatial working memory. The nature of the changes leading to this decline in response of the eye and/or hand is still under debate. This study aims to establish whether impairments observed in performance on cognitive tasks are due to actual cognitive effects or are caused by motor-related eye-hand coordination. METHODS We implemen...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most frequent cause of dementia, accounting for 55% of all cases. AD patients gradually lose functional capacity, manifesting deficits in attention, language, temporal and direction orientation, mood, socialization and visuospatial function. The visuospatial function entails identification of a stimulus and its location. AD patients can present deficits in visuo-...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to compare 'cool' [working memory (WM) and response inhibition] and 'hot' (delay aversion) executive functions (EFs) in children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHOD A total of 100 ADHD children (45 with family history of ADHD and 55 with no family history) and 100 healthy controls, all medication free, were tested on tasks relat...

Age-related working memory decline is associated with functional cerebral changes within prefrontal cortex (PFC). Kind and meaning of these changes are heavily discussed since they depend on performance level and task load. Hence, we investigated the effects of age, performance level, and load on spatial working memory retrieval-related brain activation in different subregions of the PFC. 19 yo...

Background: Two case reports of patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) are presented with the aim to study Theory of Mind (ToM) in the evolution from successful to unsuccessful neurocognitive aging. Methods: A 75-year-old man, six years of education, who converted to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) (Case 1), and a 60year-old woman, five years of education, who reverted to near-normal aging (Cas...

Several studies have shown that the capacity of visuo-spatial working memory is limited by complexity. Using a variant of the Corsi blocks task, this paper investigates the effect of complexity of the to-be-remembered path on visuo-spatial memory span. Redundancy was determined by three Gestalt principles: symmetry, repetition, and continuation. Experiment 1 revealed an effect of path complexit...

Many everyday tasks, such as remembering where you parked, require the capacity to store and manipulate information about the visual and spatial properties of the world. The ability to represent, remember, and manipulate spatial information is known as visuospatial working memory (VSWM). Despite substantial interest in VSWM the mechanisms responsible for this ability remain debated. One influen...

Chinese calligraphic handwriting (CCH) is a traditional art form that requires high levels of concentration and motor control. Previous research has linked short-term training in CCH to improvements in attention and memory. Little is known about the potential impacts of long-term CCH practice on a broader array of executive functions and their potential neural substrates. In this cross-sectiona...

Recent behavioural and biological evidence indicates common mechanisms serving working memory and attention (e.g., Awh et al, 2006 Neuroscience 139 201-208). This study explored the role of spatial attention and visual search in an adapted Corsi spatial memory task. Eye movements and touch responses were recorded from participants who recalled locations (signalled by colour or shape change) fro...