Gesturing helps memory encoding in aMCI

Abstract

Encoding in episodic memory is a step often impaired in patients with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI). However, procedural memory processes are still relatively preserved. In line with previous research on the enactment effect, we investigated the potential benefit of encoding words combined with imitative gestures on episodic memory. Based on the Grober and Buschke's free/cued recall procedure, we developed the Symbiosis test in which 13 patients with aMCI and 16 healthy elderly participants learned 32 words belonging to 16 different semantic categories either in a verbal encoding (A) or a bimodal (B; verbal and motor imitation) condition, using a blocked ABBA/BAAB procedure. Overall, memory retrieval was better in healthy participants than in patients with aMCI, and better for cued retrieval in the bimodal encoding (gesture cues) than the verbal encoding (category cues) condition, but there was no interaction effect between group and encoding conditions. These results show that performing concomitant gestures can enhance cued episodic memory retrieval in patients with aMCI and in healthy elderly controls. The Symbiosis test broadens the scope of the enactment effect, from action phrases to isolated words learning in patients with aMCI. Future work should investigate how bimodal encoding provides novel perspectives for memory rehabilitation in patients with aMCI. Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) is defined as a behavioural syndrome in which episodic memory is impaired but does not yet have a significant impact on a patient's autonomy in daily life (Geda, Krell-Roesch, Pink, Spangehl, & Petersen, 2017;Petersen et al., 2018). Encoding novel verbal information in episodic memory is often compromised in patients with aMCI, who exhibit shallower encoding, eventually leading to lower cued recall, and recognition scores in comparison with healthy participants

Evidence of Audience Design in Amnesia: Adaptation in Gesture but Not Speech

“…We acknowledge that these design decisions may have influenced the present results. Discussions about the merits or challenges and limitations of certain design features provide an opportunity to increase methodological rigor in the study of gesture and is of particular importance as the study of co-speech gesture is rapidly being extended to clinical populations with neurogenic disorders [ 41 , 73 , 89 , 90 , 91 ]. Although the small sample size and lack of significant interactions with the neurotypical group temper our ability to make strong generalizations about the function of the hippocampus in multimodal audience design, this work provides preliminary evidence that adaptation in gesture may be resilient to damage to the hippocampal declarative memory system and is an example of the utility of gesture to act as a window into the social cognitive processes of individuals with neurologic disorders.…”