Gestural Short Term and Working Memory Task

Neuropsychology Clinical Trial

— GeSTWoM  

Official title:

Gestural Short Term and Working Memory Task

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Active, not recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02859649
• Other study ID #: P/2016/283
• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• First received: April 14, 2016
• Last updated: August 4, 2016
• Start date: April 2016
• Est. completion date: October 2016

Study information

• Verified date: August 2016
• Source: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Besancon
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: France: Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament et des produits de santé
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

According to the working memory model, which accounts for the organisation of working memory, the processing of non-meaningful gestures is not clear. Some authors suggest that working memory for non-meaningful gestures has the same characteristics as the phonological loop, made up of a phonological store and of a revival process (articulatory rehearsal). These characteristics are evidenced in memory span tasks, memory span which is itself determined by the duration of the memory trace and the time required to refresh the trace by subvocal rehearsal.

The investigators therefore aim to set up a gestural working memory task, which is specific, simple and reproducible, in the manner of verbal and visuospatial span tasks. It will first be an exploratory and descriptive study with healthy subjects.

Description:

In the first instance, each subject performs the gestural working memory test. The test is based on the model of verbal or visuospatial working memory tests. Video clips that display the movement of two, then three, then four different fingers are shown to the subject, who must then reproduce them. There are nine different sub-tests: forward span and backward span for both hands then for each hand, i.e. six sub-tests, in addition to three sub-tests with concomitant interference tasks (verbal, gestural or both). Each sub-test comes to an end when the subject fails both attempts of the same item. The entire test takes approximately 30 minutes.

A questionnaire is then handed to the subject: the subject provides their full name, date of birth, profession, education level (number of years of study post compulsory education), laterality, as well as potential professional or leisure activities that might involve fine finger movement. They also complete the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory assessment.

In order to correlate this new test with other validated tasks, each subject is then required to perform a verbal and visuospatial working memory task: the digit span test and then the spatial memory test, which last approximately 10 minutes.

The entire protocol lasts approximately 45 minutes per subject. The data is then anonymized and processed confidentially.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Enrollment: 60
• Est. completion date: October 2016
• Est. primary completion date: July 2016
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 18 Years to 50 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• healthy adult volunteers

• 18/50 years old

• they must speak fluent French and give their informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• neurological or psychiatric disorder

• uncorrected visual or hearing loss

Study Design

Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Basic Science

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Gesture
• Neuropsychology

Intervention

Behavioral:
• neuropsychological test
neuropsychological test

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
France	Eloi Magnin	Besancon

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Besancon

Country where clinical trial is conducted

France, 

References & Publications (6)

Baddeley A. The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory? Trends Cogn Sci. 2000 Nov 1;4(11):417-423. — View Citation

Baddeley AD, Allen RJ, Hitch GJ. Binding in visual working memory: the role of the episodic buffer. Neuropsychologia. 2011 May;49(6):1393-400. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.12.042. Epub 2011 Jan 20. Review. — View Citation

CONRAD R, HULL AJ. INFORMATION, ACOUSTIC CONFUSION AND MEMORY SPAN. Br J Psychol. 1964 Nov;55:429-32. — View Citation

Conway AR, Kane MJ, Bunting MF, Hambrick DZ, Wilhelm O, Engle RW. Working memory span tasks: A methodological review and user's guide. Psychon Bull Rev. 2005 Oct;12(5):769-86. Review. — View Citation

Cowan N. The magical number 4 in short-term memory: a reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behav Brain Sci. 2001 Feb;24(1):87-114; discussion 114-85. — View Citation

Wilson M, Fox G. Working memory for language is not special: evidence for an articulatory loop for novel stimuli. Psychon Bull Rev. 2007 Jun;14(3):470-3. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Gestural span	Measure and description of the gestural span during the tests of short-term memory and gestural working memory, and correlation with the verbal and visuo-spatial spans.	1 day	No