The consequences of congenital brain disorders for adult cognitive function are poorly understood. We studied different forms of memory in 29 young adults with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM), a common and severely disabling neural tube defect. Nondeclarative and semantic memory functions were intact. Working memory was intact with low maintenance and manipulation requirements, but impaired on tasks demanding high information maintenance or manipulation load. Prospective memory for intentions to be executed in the future was impaired. Immediate and delayed episodic memory were poor. Memory deficits were exacerbated by an increased number of lifetime shunt revisions, a marker for unstable hydrocephalus. Memory status was positively correlated with functional independence, an important component of quality of life.

Learning and performance on a ballistic task were investigated in children with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM), with either upper level spinal lesions (n = 21) or lower level spinal lesions (n = 81), and in typically developing controls (n = 35). Participants completed three phases (20 trials each) of an elbow goniometer task that required a ballistic arm movement to move a cursor to one of two target positions on a screen, including (1) an initial learning phase, (2) an adaptation phase with a gain change such that recalibration of the ballistic arm movement was required, and (3) a learning reactivation phase under the original gain condition. Initial error rate, asymptotic error rate, and learning rate did not differ significantly between the SBM and control groups. Relative to controls, the SBM group had reduced volumes in the cerebellar hemispheres and pericallosal gray matter (the region including the basal ganglia), although only the pericallosal gray matter was significantly correlated with motor adaptation. Congenital cerebellar dysmorphology is associated with preserved motor skill learning on voluntary, nonreflexive tasks in children with SBM, in whom the relative roles of the cerebellum and basal ganglia may differ from those in the adult brain.

Two experiments explored 5-month-old infants' recognition of selfmovement in the context of imperfect contingencies between felt and seen movement. Previous work has shown that infants can discriminate a display of another child's movements from an on-line video display of their own movements, even when featural information is removed. These earlier findings were extended by demonstrating self versus other discrimination when the visual information for movement was an unrelated object (a fluorescent mobile) directly attached to the child's leg, thus producing imperfect spatial and temporal contingency information. In contrast, intermodal recognition failed when the mobile was indirectly attached to infants' legs, thus eliminating spatial contingencies altogether and further weakening temporal contingencies. Together, these studies reveal that even imperfect contingency information can drive intermodal perception, given appropriate levels of spatial and temporal contingency information. ß 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 49: 387-398, 2007.

© Springer-Verlag 2009Correspondence to: M. Dennis, maureen.dennis@sickkids.ca. Objective-The objective of the study was to measure upper limb motor function in young adults with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) and typically developing age peers. NIH Public AccessMethod-Participants were 26 young adults with SBM, with a Verbal or Performance IQ score of at least 70 on the Wechsler scales, and 27 age-and gender-matched controls. Four upper limb motor function tasks were performed under four different visual and cognitive challenge conditions. Motor independence was assessed by questionnaire.Results-Fewer SBM than control participants obtained perfect posture and rebound scores. The SBM group performed less accurately and was more disrupted by cognitive challenge than controls on limb dysmetria tasks. The SBM group was slower than controls on the diadochokinesis task. Adaptive motor independence was related to one upper limb motor task, arm posture, and upper rather than lower spinal lesions were associated with less motor independence. Conclusions-Young

Introduction-Individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders have been observed to show accelerated cognitive aging or even dementia as early as 30 and 40 years of age. Memory deficits are an important component of age-related cognitive loss.