Date of Award

12-18-2013

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Tricia Z. King

Second Advisor

Robin Morris

Third Advisor

Christopher Henrich

Abstract

Verbal memory (VM) has been shown to be impacted in brain tumor (BT) survivors, but the nature of VM problems and underlying neuropathology are poorly understood and a long-term outlook is lacking. Our study examined hippocampus volume (HV) and VM in adult survivors of pediatric BT (n=32) and controls (n=48). Results indicate that disruption to a maturing brain in childhood is detectable 17 years (mean) after diagnosis, as HV is significantly lower in survivors compared to controls. Analysis of the VM scores shows that survivors have significantly lower overall immediate recall compared to controls, but learning slope, retention, and recognition are not different across the groups. Survivors’ memory profile indicates that auditory attention and retrieval difficulties could be contributing to their lower immediate recall. For survivors, HV is significantly correlated with delayed free recall but not with other VM indices. Implications of these findings are discussed.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/4854805

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