- Email: [email protected]
Memory performance and gender
158
Abstracts from the 18th Annual Meeting
OTHER TOPICS/MISCELLANEOUS II Pickholtz, J. L., & Wiliams, J. M. Memory Performance and Gender. Gender differences in brain regional specification and lateralization of functions would be expected to be associated with differences in cognitive performance. However, research on gender differences and neuropsychological performance has yielded inconsistent results. There have been some studies which suggest that differences on standardized neuropsychological measures exist, with men performing inferior to women on verbal tests and superior on visual-spatial tests. The purpose of this study was to determine whether gender differences exist on a clinical memory battery and to analyze the specific test items on which differences are found. Analyses were conducted using the MAS normative sample. This consisted of 411 female and 281 male subjects recruited from the community as neurologically unimpaired volunteers. Mean comparisons revealed that women generally performed superior to men. However, verbal subtests demonstrated the greatest performance difference. This relative verbal superiority for women was consistent with previous studies of gender and cognition. A number of previous studies found men did better on visual-spatial tasks. This was not supported by the findings of the present study. The overall effect size for these differences were small. The maximum effect was five standard score points (Mean = 100; SD = 15) on the Verbal Memory Summary Score of the MAS. Pinkston, J. B., Varney, N. R., Wu, J. C., & Gouvier, W. D. Quantitative P E T Scan Findings in Mild Head Injury: Poor Outcome in Patients with "Normal" Testing. Introduction: This study investigated P E T scan correlates of mild head injury in a select group of "poor outcome" patients. Subjects were 14 patients with mild head injury who were premorbidly very high functioning and who were unable to return to their well established successful careers (e.g., JD, PhD, MD, EdD). Their P E T scans were compared with 14 age matched normal controls. All of the 14 head injury patients had normal CT and MRI and performed at or above the 80th percentile on tests of intelligence, memory, and language. Measures: During the uptake of FDG, as part of P E T imaging, subjects completed the continuous performance test (CPT), a visual vigilance task. Approximately 45 minutes following the injection of FDG, 30 slice images were obtained on the GE2048 scanner (5.0 mm axial resolution). The scan was transformed to glucose metabolic rate. P E T scans were assigned to match the Matsui and Hirano atlas slice planes and corresponding Talairach atlas slice plane by a technician who was blind to diagnosis and condition. P E T scans were normalized for size and then averaged pixel by pixel to arrive at the mean average P E T scan for each condition. Cortical Brodmann areas and subcortical regions were defined using corresponding representative MRI and the corresponding Talairach atlas image for each Matsui and Hirano brain reference slice. Results: In this carefully pre-selected population of high functioning mild head injury patients with poor outcome, P E T findings were consistently and strikingly abnormal compared to normal controls. Specifically, the patients showed significant decreases in orbitofrontal cortex, in multiple areas of lateral frontal cortex, and in thalamic metabolism. There was an increase in striatal metabolism among brain injured patients. Conclusions: Individual P E T scan findings demonstrated a variety of areas of decreased and increased metabolism. As a group, these scans consistently showed decreases in orbitofrontal cortex, which would appear directly relevant to patient outcome
Abstracts from the 18th Annual Meeting
OTHER TOPICS/MISCELLANEOUS II Pickholtz, J. L., & Wiliams, J. M. Memory Performance and Gender. Gender differences in brain regional specification and lateralization of functions would be expected to be associated with differences in cognitive performance. However, research on gender differences and neuropsychological performance has yielded inconsistent results. There have been some studies which suggest that differences on standardized neuropsychological measures exist, with men performing inferior to women on verbal tests and superior on visual-spatial tests. The purpose of this study was to determine whether gender differences exist on a clinical memory battery and to analyze the specific test items on which differences are found. Analyses were conducted using the MAS normative sample. This consisted of 411 female and 281 male subjects recruited from the community as neurologically unimpaired volunteers. Mean comparisons revealed that women generally performed superior to men. However, verbal subtests demonstrated the greatest performance difference. This relative verbal superiority for women was consistent with previous studies of gender and cognition. A number of previous studies found men did better on visual-spatial tasks. This was not supported by the findings of the present study. The overall effect size for these differences were small. The maximum effect was five standard score points (Mean = 100; SD = 15) on the Verbal Memory Summary Score of the MAS. Pinkston, J. B., Varney, N. R., Wu, J. C., & Gouvier, W. D. Quantitative P E T Scan Findings in Mild Head Injury: Poor Outcome in Patients with "Normal" Testing. Introduction: This study investigated P E T scan correlates of mild head injury in a select group of "poor outcome" patients. Subjects were 14 patients with mild head injury who were premorbidly very high functioning and who were unable to return to their well established successful careers (e.g., JD, PhD, MD, EdD). Their P E T scans were compared with 14 age matched normal controls. All of the 14 head injury patients had normal CT and MRI and performed at or above the 80th percentile on tests of intelligence, memory, and language. Measures: During the uptake of FDG, as part of P E T imaging, subjects completed the continuous performance test (CPT), a visual vigilance task. Approximately 45 minutes following the injection of FDG, 30 slice images were obtained on the GE2048 scanner (5.0 mm axial resolution). The scan was transformed to glucose metabolic rate. P E T scans were assigned to match the Matsui and Hirano atlas slice planes and corresponding Talairach atlas slice plane by a technician who was blind to diagnosis and condition. P E T scans were normalized for size and then averaged pixel by pixel to arrive at the mean average P E T scan for each condition. Cortical Brodmann areas and subcortical regions were defined using corresponding representative MRI and the corresponding Talairach atlas image for each Matsui and Hirano brain reference slice. Results: In this carefully pre-selected population of high functioning mild head injury patients with poor outcome, P E T findings were consistently and strikingly abnormal compared to normal controls. Specifically, the patients showed significant decreases in orbitofrontal cortex, in multiple areas of lateral frontal cortex, and in thalamic metabolism. There was an increase in striatal metabolism among brain injured patients. Conclusions: Individual P E T scan findings demonstrated a variety of areas of decreased and increased metabolism. As a group, these scans consistently showed decreases in orbitofrontal cortex, which would appear directly relevant to patient outcome