H.M.'s personal crossword puzzles: Understanding memory and language

Skotko, Brian G.; Rubin, David C.; Tupler, Larry A.

doi:10.1080/09658210701864580

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Relative sparing of skills such as ability to play music or games has been described even in patients with advanced AD (Cowles et al, 2003; Baird & Samson, 2009), which could result from enhanced cognitive reserve or sparing of brain areas serving these skills by disease pathology. Similarly, the medial temporal structures affected early in the course of AD do not appear to be critical in preserving ability to do crossword puzzles (Skotko, Rubin, & Tupler, 2008) and mental representations learned previously could help anchor new semantic knowledge (Skotko et al, 2004). We also note the case of the famous amnesiac patient, H.M., who lost his ability to remember new events and facts after bilateral medial temporal resection during epilepsy surgery; strikingly, his language ability and performance of standard motor tasks acquired before surgery remained intact (Corkin, 1984).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association of Crossword Puzzle Participation with Memory Decline in Persons Who Develop Dementia

Pillai

Hall

Dickson

et al. 2011

J Int Neuropsychol Soc

115

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Participation in cognitively stimulating leisure activities such as crossword puzzles may delay onset of the memory decline in the preclinical stages of dementia, possibly via its effect on improving cognitive reserve. We followed 488 initially cognitively intact community residing individuals with clinical and cognitive assessments every 12–18 months in the Bronx Aging Study. We assessed the influence of crossword puzzle participation on the onset of accelerated memory decline as measured by the Buschke Selective Reminding Test in 101 individuals who developed incident dementia using a change point model. Crossword puzzle participation at baseline delayed onset of accelerated memory decline by 2.54 years. Inclusion of education or participation in other cognitively stimulating activities did not significantly add to the fit of the model beyond the effect of puzzles. Our findings show that late life crossword puzzle participation, independent of education, was associated with delayed onset of memory decline in persons who developed dementia. Given the wide availability and accessibility of crossword puzzles, their role in preventing cognitive decline should be validated in future clinical trials.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association of Crossword Puzzle Participation with Memory Decline in Persons Who Develop Dementia

Pillai

Hall

Dickson

et al. 2011

J Int Neuropsychol Soc

115

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“…Third, because the field has recognized the theoretical significance of speech errors since Lashley [ 13 ], why did the many researchers interacting informally with H.M. since then overlook his aphasia-like errors and assume that his language skills were “normal” or even “erudite” (see [ 14 ])?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compensating for Language Deficits in Amnesia I: H.M.’s Spared Retrieval Categories

et al. 2013

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Three studies examined amnesic H.M.’s use of words, phrases, and propositions on the Test of Language Competence (TLC). In Study 1, H.M. used 19 lexical categories (e.g., common nouns, verbs) and one syntactic category (noun phrases) with the same relative frequency as memory-normal controls, he used no lexical or syntactic category with less-than-normal frequency, and he used proper names (e.g., Melanie) and coordinative conjunctions (e.g., and) with reliably greater-than-normal frequency. In Study 2, H.M. overused proper names relative to controls when answering episodic memory questions about childhood experiences in speech and writing, replicating and extending Study 1 results for proper names. Based on detailed analyses of the use (and misuse) of coordinating conjunctions on the TLC, Study 3 developed a syntax-level “compensation hypothesis” for explaining why H.M. overused coordinating conjunctions relative to controls in Study 1. Present results suggested that (a) frontal mechanisms for retrieving word-, phrase-, and propositional-categories are intact in H.M., unlike in category-specific aphasia, (b) using his intact retrieval mechanisms, H.M. has developed a never-previously-observed proposition-level free association strategy to compensate for the hippocampal region damage that has impaired his mechanisms for encoding novel linguistic structures, and (c) H.M.’s overuse of proper names warrants further research.

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“…In literature, there is the report of a patient with amnesia who solved 277 crosswords; by analyzing such crosswords solved, the researchers found that patients had a greater number of errors (54%) to complete the crossword puzzle that had hints horizontally, compared with those displayed vertically (45%). However, researchers justify that difference may only be a matter of personal preference on how to solve the puzzle, since the patient studied solved the tips arranged in horizontal lines before the vertical lines (SKOTKO, RUBIN and TUPLER, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An alternative methodology for teaching and evaluation in medical education: crosswords

et al. 2015

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Introduction: Crosswords have been used to complement medical education in a fun way, yet they were not used as a method for the evaluation of students' performance. Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the development of crosswords and verify their validity as a method of performance evaluation in embryology. Materials and Methods: We used crossword based on subjects about stages of embryonic development with different levels of difficulty. To validate the crossword as the evaluation method of teaching, two evaluation methods were applied (the traditional and with crosswords, simultaneously) on students of Federal University of Piaui. The performance of students was analyzed with Pearson's correlation coefficient and data were analyzed to check for normal distribution through the Shapiro-Wilk test with significance level of 0.05. The tests were performed on the BioEstat statistical software version 5.0. Results: As result a total of 28 students were evaluated. It was observed that the resulting score of both the traditional and crossword evaluation methods demonstrating normal distribution (p=0.4127 and p=0.7016, respectively), did not present vices and tendencies. The average scores were 7.1 ± 2.0 and 6.9 ± 1.7 for the traditional and crossword evaluation methods, respectively, showing statistically significant difference (p=0.0001; r=0.67), demonstrating a moderate Pearson's correlation between the methods. Conclusion: In conclusion, crosswords may be used as supplementary material for teaching embryology. Also, crossword functioned as validated and reproducible method of performance evaluation that can be used in as alternative and/or complementary teaching of embryology or other disciplines in the medical ield.

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H.M.'s personal crossword puzzles: Understanding memory and language

Cited by 9 publications

References 20 publications

Association of Crossword Puzzle Participation with Memory Decline in Persons Who Develop Dementia

Association of Crossword Puzzle Participation with Memory Decline in Persons Who Develop Dementia

Compensating for Language Deficits in Amnesia I: H.M.’s Spared Retrieval Categories

An alternative methodology for teaching and evaluation in medical education: crosswords

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