The Memory Binding Test (MBT) allows to detect subtle memory impairment. The novelty is to target memory binding, known as early affected in prodromal Alzheimer’s disease. This study aims at adapting and validating the MBT into French (fMBT) and to explore the effect of normal aging (16 young adults and 14 older adults). The fMBT shows good to very 36good convergent validity with the RLRI-16, similar or higher than those reported for the English version. The young adults have higher performance than the older adults in almost all scores except for the immediate recall of the first list of words and the cued recalls. The fMBT is as sensitive and specific than the RL/RI-16 to discriminate healthy older adults from young adults, but the fMBT was not associated with any ceiling effect making it relevant to test memory in younger population. The present study offers the very first steps toward the validation of the fMBT. It remains to determine whether the fMBT offers a better discriminability of subtle memory impairment.

Cette étude s’intéresse à deux questions : la tendance au multitâche numérique reflète-t-elle un comportement général et impacte-t-elle les capacités cognitives ? Si tel est le cas, les utilisateurs multitâches de médias devraient adopter une organisation spontanément multitâche y compris pour réaliser quatre tâches non-numériques en vingt minutes, et devraient de fait obtenir de moins bonnes performances. Nos résultats ne supportent pas ces hypothèses, la tendance au multitâche numérique ne corrélant pas avec la performance ni avec le nombre de changements de tâche, et désignent des facteurs d’organisation propres à la nature des tâches à accomplir plutôt qu’à un comportement général. De manière intéressante, indifféremment du caractère multitâche, une consommation élevée de médias était liée à de meilleures performances à nos tâches. Ce résultat souligne la nécessité d’étudier plus profondément les déterminants de l’organisation face à des tâches multiples.

Le vieillissement biologique affecte les organes sensoriels ainsi que le cerveau et par conséquent la cognition. La littérature rapporte non seulement que ces atteintes sont concomitantes, mais aussi qu’elles sont positivement corrélées. Quatre hypothèses sont généralement proposées pour expliquer ces associations. Toutefois, aucune ne semble à même de rendre compte de l’ensemble des données existantes et les mécanismes précis en jeu restent à éclaircir. L’approche incarnée et située de la cognition pourrait fournir un cadre théorique particulièrement intéressant et adéquat pour expliquer ces liens. En effet, selon cette approche, les représentations cognitives sont ancrées dans leurs propriétés sensorimotrices. Autrement dit, les fonctionnements cognitif et perceptif seraient interdépendants. Cet article propose une revue critique des liens entre les fonctionnements sensoriel et cognitif dans le vieillissement ainsi que des hypothèses explicatives attenantes. Une lecture incarnée de cette possible interdépendance est développée. Les implications théoriques et cliniques de cette lecture seront alors considérées.

Visual perception can be modulated by the physiological potential for action. For instance, it was famously shown that a geographical slant appears steeper when wearing a heavy backpack than not wearing any. However, those results are not always replicated. In the present exploratory study, we test the hypothesis the backpack weight’s effect on perception relies on the ability of the cognitive system to integrate the physiological constraint’s change rather than the change itself. Young adults (n = 54) wore an electrocardiogram monitor and completed a computerized task in which photographs of real geographical slants were displayed on a screen while wearing a heavy vs. light backpack. The activity of the vagus nerve, as an index of physiological adaptability, was recorded as a proxy of the physiological state during the task. The participants also completed an interoception task assessing one’s ability to detect his/her own heartbeat as the index of integration ability of the cognitive system. While Bayesian analyses revealed no difference in angle estimation between carrying a heavy vs. light backpack, the results indicated that interoception predicted less accurate angle estimation only when wearing a heavy backpack. In contrast, there was anecdotal evidence that vagal activity changes predicted visual perception. Interoception might thus play a crucial role in the interplay between the physiological potential for action and action-related visual perception.

Abstract: Introduction: Stress at work and psychosocial risks are a major public health problem. Sophrology and neurolinguistic programming (NLP) have demonstrated benefits in terms of mental, physical and social health, both in the general population and in patients, and both in and out of hospital settings. However, these approaches have never been provided at the hospital for the benefit of health professionals at risk of suffering at work. In general, we aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of a hospital sophrology/NLP intervention for health care professionals at risk of stressrelated disorders. The secondary objectives are to study (i) within-group, and (ii) between-group): (1) effects on mental, physical, and social health; (2) persistence of effect; (3) relationships between job perception and mental, physical, and social health; (4) intervention success factors (personality and job perception, attendance and practice, other); (5) effects on other stress biomarkers (other measures of autonomic nervous system activity, DHEAS, cortisol, etc.). Methods: Our study will be a randomized controlled prospective study (research involving the human person of type 2). The study will be proposed to any health-care workers (HCW) or any non-HCW (NHCW) from a healthcare institution (such as CHU of Clermont-Ferrand, other hospitals, clinics, retirement homes). Participants will benefit from NLP and sophrology interventions at the hospital. For both groups: (i) heart rate variability, skin conductance and saliva biomarkers will be assessed once a week during the intervention period (6 to 8 sophrology sessions) and once by month for the rest of the time; (ii) the short questionnaire will be collected once a week during the whole protocol (1–2 min); (iii) the long questionnaire will be assessed only 5 times: at baseline (M0), month 1 (M1), month 3 (M3), month 5 (M5) and end of the protocol (M7). Ethics and dissemination: The protocol, information and consent form had received the favorable opinion from the Ethics Committee. Notification of the approval of the Ethics Committee was sent to the study sponsor and the competent authority (ANSM). The study is registered in ClinicalTrials.gov under the identification number NCT05425511 after the French Ethics Committee’s approval. The results will be reported according to the CONSORT guidelines. Strengths and limitations of this study: The psychological questionnaires in this study are self-assessed. It is also possible that responses suffer from variation. For the study, participants need to attend 6 to 8 sophrology sessions and one visit per month for 7 months, which might seem demanding. Therefore, to make sure that participants will complete the protocol, two persons will be fully in charge of the participants’ follow-up.

It has been proposed that representations emerge from a single memory system organized along a continuum of specificity. This continuum is assumed to reflect a scale between the simulation of overlapping and specific features of the traces, which depends on trace distinctiveness. More specifically, higher trace distinctiveness facilitates the simulation of trace-specific features, which increase the discriminability of traces and lead to the emergence of a more specific representation. In two experiments, participants were asked to identify match (low task discrimination demand) or mismatch (high task discrimination demand) associations between actions and characters that were visually either highly or lowly distinctive. The results of Experiment 1 show that in the high-distinctiveness context, performance was better when identifying a mismatch rather than a match, while the opposite was true in the low-distinctiveness context. The results of Experiment 2 show that using a dynamic visual noise to interfere with the participants’ ability to simulate the features of the characters also reduced the benefit of the high-distinctiveness context for the mismatch trials (Experiment 2a and 2b) and increased the benefit of the low-distinctiveness context for the match trials (Experiment 2b). Taken together, these results suggest that the simulation of trace-specific features underlies the emergence of specific representations, which can be beneficial when the discrimination demand of the task is high and detrimental when this demand is low. Memory might therefore be viewed as a scale of simulation between overlapping and specific trace features.

Similar events may reduce the likelihood of the cognitive system to accurately remember a specific memory. Similarity indeed leads to overlap between mnemonic traces, which in turn interferes with the discrimination of the traces. It is therefore important to determine how and when overlapping is detrimental to the discrimination between the traces. According to the Act-In memory model, the specificity of a memory trace is determined by the sensory overlap as well as by the number of participating sensory modalities on which overlap occurs (unimodal vs. multimodal). Increasing overlap should only be critical when the memory traces are the most difficult to discriminate from each other, which is more likely for unimodal than multimodal traces. As such, multimodal events might be more efficient than unimodal events to allow memory specificity. In two experiments, participants had to reproduce visuospatial sequences in a two-by-two matrix. The level of sensory overlap (high vs. low) and the number of components on which overlap occurs in the memory traces (unimodal vs. multimodal-discrimination) were manipulated. The results showed that memory span was lower when the visual overlap was at its highest, but more significantly when trace discrimination was unimodal (Experiment 1 and 2). Moreover, for visually richer stimuli, visual overlap was shown to be detrimental to specific memory only in a condition of visual degradation. Taken together, the results suggest that the sensory overlap is essentially critical to specific memory when it is at its highest, which is the most likely for low richness unimodal stimuli.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and the first lockdown were particularly stressful with a major economic impact, but the impact on stress of company directors was not known. Therefore, this study aimed to assess that impact and the characteristics of companies the most at risk. Method: A online questionnaire was sent to 13,114 company. It assessed stress at work, number of employees, sector of activity, business activity rate and geographical location. It studied the mean stress levels, the percentage of stress > 8/10 and carried out an analysis of the characteristics of the most at-risk companies. Results: A total of 807 company directors responded. Their stress levels increased by 25.9% during lockdown and 28.7% of them had a stress > 8/10. Sectors which had the biggest increase in stress levels during lockdown were retail trade, wholesale trade, and nursing homes. Sectors the most at risk of stress >8/10 during lockdown tended to be nursing homes, pharmacies, and IT activities. Biggest companies had the highest increase in stress levels. Conclusion: The first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the stress of company directors. Directors of large companies were the most exposed to stress as well as medical and IT activities.

It has been proposed that representations emerge from a single memory system organized along a continuum of specificity. This continuum is assumed to reflect a scale between the simulation of overlapping and specific features of the traces, which depends on trace distinctiveness. More specifically, higher trace distinctiveness facilitates the simulation of trace-specific features, which increase the discriminability of traces and lead to the emergence of a more specific representation. In two experiments, participants were asked to identify match (low task discrimination demand) or mismatch (high task discrimination demand) associations between actions and characters that were visually either highly or lowly distinctive. The results of Experiment 1 show that in the high-distinctiveness context, performance was better when identifying a mismatch rather than a match, while the opposite was true in the low-distinctiveness context. The results of Experiment 2 show that using a dynamic visual noise to interfere with the participants’ ability to simulate the features of the characters also reduced the benefit of the high-distinctiveness context for the mismatch trials (Experiment 2a and 2b) and increased the benefit of the low-distinctiveness context for the match trials (Experiment 2b). Taken together, these results suggest that the simulation of trace-specific features underlies the emergence of specific representations, which can be beneficial when the discrimination demand of the task is high and detrimental when this demand is low. Memory might therefore be viewed as a scale of simulation between overlapping and specific trace features.

From simple everyday choices to life-altering decisions, decision-making is a crucial cognitive process in our daily life. Psychophysiological theories of heart-brain interactions involvement in cognition predict that general self-regulation capacities underlie cognitive processes including decision-making. Yet, in the context of decision-making, the somatic maker hypothesis postulates that the adaptability of the current physiological state should be the best predictor of advantageous decision-making. The present study tests compare self-regulation in general (indexed by resting vagal activity) and in a specific decisional context (vagal reactivity and recovery) to explain advantageous decision-making. Young adults (n = 54) completed a decision-making task while wearing a heart rate monitor. Bayesian regressions show that vagal reactivity and recovery combined is the preferred statistical model to explain advantageous decision-making (BF10 = 163.85). Those findings 1) support the somatic marker hypothesis highlighting the key role of in situ self-regulation in decision-making processes and 2) show that the popular and often used index of general self-regulation, resting vagal activity, is not the best predictor of decision-making performance, and perhaps even for other cognitive functions. A next step could be interventional studies to test whether vagal modulation of heart rate underlies decision-making through interventions that influence vagal activity, which could provide relevant clinical leads.

This study aimed to examine ageist attitudes in psychology students who may become the healthcare professionals. We also compared cultural differences between attitudes in Belgium and Quebec. We hypothesized that psychology students would have more positive attitudes toward older people in Quebec than in Belgium. Quebec has indeed more invested in age-friendly initiatives that may promote socio-economic factors associated with better attitudes toward older people. A total of 236 psychology students participated in this study (81 Belgian students and 155 Quebec students). The students completed different self-reported questionnaires to assess their attitudes toward older people. As predicted, the results showed that students in Quebec were overall less negative toward older adults. Since negative attitudes may influence students’ choice to work with older people and may also have damaging consequences in the assessment and/or healing context, we discuss different directions to improve these attitudes.

Introduction. There has been a growing interest towards cognitive-training programmes to improve cognition and prevent cognitive impairment despite discrepant findings. Physical activity has been recognised in maintaining or improving cognitive ability. Based on a psychoneurophysiological approach, physiological indexes should partly determine neuronal dynamics and influence cognition as any effects of cognitive training. This study’s primary aim was to examine if improved physiological indexes predict improved cognitive variables in the context of a clinical intervention programme for type 2 diabetes (T2D). Method and analysis. PhyCog will be a 22-week randomised controlled trial comparing cognitive performance between three arms: (1) physical activity (1 month), a 15-day wash-out, then cognitive training (1 month), (2) cognitive training (1 month), a 15-day wash-out and physical activity (1 month), and (3) an active breathing condition (psychoeducation and resonance frequency breathing for 1 month), then a 15-day wash-out, and combined physical activity and cognitive training (1 month), allowing to determine the most effective intervention to prevent cognitive impairment associated with T2D. All participants will be observed for 3 months following the intervention. The study will include a total of 81 patients with T2D. Cognitive performance and physiological variables will be assessed at baseline (week 0—W0), during the washout (W5, 72–96 hours after week 4), at the end of the intervention (W10), and at the end of the follow-up (W22). The main variables of interest will be executive function, memory and attention. Physiological testing will involve allostatic load such as heart rate variability, microcirculation, cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate levels. Sociodemographic and body composition will also be a consideration. Assessors will all be blinded to outcomes. To test the primary hypothesis, the relationship between improvement in physiological variables and improvement in cognitive variables (executive, memory and attention) will be collected. Ethics and dissemination. This protocol was approved by the Est III French Ethics Committee (2020-A03228-31). Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals. Trial registration number NCT04915339.

Le vieillissement est un processus complexe, caractérisé par des changements physiques, psychologiques et sociaux. Les interactions entre ces différents aspects sont naturellement expliquées par l’approche incarnée et située de la cognition qui offre une compréhension globale, intégrée et unifiée du vieillissement. Elle propose une cognition dynamique émergente de l’interaction des composants sensori-moteurs (aspect incarné) et du contexte de la situation présente (aspect situé). Cependant, très peu d’études se sont intéressées à cet aspect situé de la cognition dans l’étude du vieillissement cognitif. Pourtant, le vieillissement est aussi un processus social, associé à de nombreuses représentations souvent négatives ayant des effets sur les comportements de santé et la cognition. Cet article propose que les variations cognitives observées au cours du vieillissement résultent en partie de modifications physiques, liées à des changements comportementaux répétés, provoqués par l’effet des représentations du vieillissement. Dans cette perspective, le passage à la retraite représente une situation unique pour étudier les répercussions d’un changement de contexte social et physique majeur sur le fonctionnement cognitif. Il agirait comme un catalyseur de l’effet des représentations du vieillissement en marquant les transitions sociales vers le vieillissement et la retraite. Différentes possibilités de recherches appliquées sont également discutées.

Embodied approach postulates that knowledge and conceptual representations are grounded in action and perception. In order to investigate the involvement of sensorimotor information in conceptual and cognitive processing, researchers have collected various norms in young adults. For instance, the perceptual strength (PS) assesses perceptual experience (i.e. visual, auditory, haptic, gustatory, olfactory) associated with a concept and the body-object-interaction (BOI) assesses the ease with which a human body can interact with the referent of a word. The importance of both BOI and PS in the multimodal composition of word meaning is today well recognized. However, given the sensorimotor development of the individual from childhood to later life, it is likely that different age periods are associated with different perceptual experience and capacity to interact with objects. The purpose of this research is to investigate exploratory the effect of age on PS and BOI by comparing the evaluation of 270 French language words by young adults and healthy older people. The results showed that older adults presented similar or even higher PS for some modalities (e.g. gustatory and olfactory) and in particular for certain categories of words, while the BOI decreases. In addition to the importance of adjusting the verbal stimuli used in aging studies when dealing with multimodal representations, our results will lead us to discuss the evolution of sensorimotor representations with age.

Background: Despite there is no recommendations for assessing symptoms of sick building syndrome, the use of visual analog scales (VAS) seems attractive and appropriate. We aimed to demonstrate the benefits of using VAS for evaluating subjective symptoms of sick building syndrome. Method: We compared an exposed group to a control group with a one-year follow-up. To assess chronology of symptoms, employees were asked to complete four VAS at different times: after vacations (time 1), beginning of the week—beginning of the day (time 2), beginning of the week—end of the day (time 3), and end of the week—end of the day (time 4). Measurements were repeated before and after ventilation work for the exposed group and at the same time in the control group without intervention. Confounding factors were assessed. Results: We included 36 employees (21 in the exposed group and 15 in the control group). Both groups were comparable. Prior to ventilation work, the exposed group had more subjective symptoms than the control group with a chronology of symptoms. After ventilation work, symptoms did not differ between groups, and most symptoms decreased within the exposed group. Practical Implication: The use of VAS provided reliable data for assessing sick building syndrome and showed a dose-response relationship between occupational exposure and symptoms.

Despite the consequences of night-shift work, the diet of night-shift workers has not been widely studied. To date, there are no studies related to food intake among emergency healthcare workers (HCWs). We performed a prospective observational study to assess the influence of night work on the diet of emergency HCWs. We monitored 24-h food intake during a day shift and the consecutive night, and during night work and the daytime beforehand. We analyzed 184 emergency HCWs’ food intakes. Emergency HCWs had 14.7% lower (−206 kcal) of their 24-h energy intake during night shifts compared to their day-shift colleagues (1606.7 ± 748.2 vs. 1400.4 ± 708.3 kcal, p = 0.049) and a 16.7% decrease in water consumption (1451.4 ± 496.8 vs. 1208.3 ± 513.9 mL/day, p = 0.010). Compared to day shifts, night-shift had 8.7% lower carbohydrates, 17.6% proteins, and 18.7% lipids. During the night shift the proportion of emergency HCWs who did not drink for 4 h, 8 h and 12 h increased by 20.5%, 17.5%, and 9.1%, respectively. For those who did not eat for 4 h, 8 h and 12 h increased by 46.8%, 27.7%, and 17.7%, respectively. A night shift has a huge negative impact on both the amount and quality of nutrients consumed by emergency healthcare workers.

Background and Aims: The World Health Organization considers ageism as an important barrier to age-appropriate care for older adults. An Ageism Scale for Dental Students (ASDS) has been validated in the United States, Brazil, Greece, Romania and in France. At present, the convergent validity of ASDS has never been evaluated. Moreover, a specialized and disciplinary tool as the ASDS may not overlap with more general ageism assessment which may highlight the need for specific courses during the education of the future health professionals.   Method: All the undergraduate students of the last three years of study at the dental school of Clermont-Ferrand were invited to complete both scales. 216 students were randomly divided into two equal groups. The first group answered first Ageing Semantic Differential- ASD then ASDS, the second in reverse order. The convergent validity between ASDS and ASD was assessed by computing a Pearson correlation coefficient and discriminant analysis between each component of the two scales. Results: The response rate was of 53.7%. The correlation analysis conducted on the total scores of the ASDS and of the ASD shows a significant, yet weak relationship. The discriminant analysis indicates that only the first component of the ASDS is significantly associated with each dimension of the ASD, whereas the second component is totally independent from the ASD and the third component almost independent from the ASD, except for the integrity dimension. Conclusions: This specialized questionnaire may assess a form of ageism that is not captured at all in more general scales. Such a scale may help to identify the different dimensions of ageism among dental students which is required to reduce ageism in medical care. This reduction should pass by adapted courses in gerodontology.

Background: Executive deficits are a core characteristic of schizophrenia. Yet, the origin of these impairments remains unclear as they may be caused by processing slowing. This issue is of particular interest for aging insofar as cognitive aging is also associated with decline in executive functioning and a slowing of processing speed. As schizophrenia patients’ life expectancy increases, a better understanding of the origin of older patients’ cognitive deficits becomes essential so that healthcare can be adapted to suit them. This study aims to determine whether processing speed mediates how schizophrenia affects executive functions, and whether these relationships are moderated by age. Methods: Sixty-two schizophrenia patients (27 women) and 62 healthy comparison subjects matched for age (range: 18 to 76 years), gender and education performed neurocognitive tests to evaluate their executive functions (shifting, updating, inhibition and access) and processing speed. Results: Processing speed mediated the effect of schizophrenia on the four specific executive functions, and age moderated this mediation for shifting, updating and access, but in different ways. Age moderated the effect of processing speed on shifting, the direct effect of schizophrenia on access, and both the effect of processing speed and direct effect of schizophrenia on updating. Conclusions: This research highlights the need to evaluate processing speed routinely during therapeutic follow-up, as it is easy and simple to assess and appears to be at the heart of the cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Finally, processing speed abilities yield information about the evolution of cognition with aging in schizophrenia.

**The constructive nature of memory implies a possible confusion between details of similar events. Memory interventions should thus target the reduction of memory errors. We postulate that a brief intervention called Episodic Specificity Induction (ESI) facilitates the sensorimotor simulation of event-related details by improving the distinctiveness of the event memory trace. As such, ESI should reduce memory errors only when event memory traces are strongly overlapping based on their sensorimotor features. Participants memorised videos showing characters performing an action on a given object. The characters were either visually very similar to each other or very distinct (low vs. high distinctiveness condition). Next, participants performed either an imagination version of the ESI or a control induction. Finally, a voice announced one of the actions seen and a character was then briefly displayed. The participants had to indicate whether the association was correct. For incorrect associations, in the low distinctiveness condition, false alarms were more likely than in the high distinctiveness condition and were reduced after the ESI. It suggests that facilitating the simulation of specific details through the ESI increased trace distinctiveness and reduced memory errors at the critical time of event reconstruction. Future clinical applications might be possible.

Background: Understanding the experiences of general practice (GP) residents caring for dependent elderly people during the first lockdown as part of the countries COVID-19 pandemic strategy. The aim was to explore themes that could explain the gap between the missions and values at the heart of GP practice during this period of strict isolation. Method: Qualitative study using an iterative approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 GP residents using a pre-established interview guide. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed according to a coding grid, developed using Nvivo software (NVivo Qualitative Data Analysis Software; QSR International Pty Ltd. Version Release 1.5.1 (940) 2021), to identify emerging themes. Results: Three themes emerged from this qualitative research: cognitive dissonance, psychosocial risks, and fear. General practice residents have lived in the paradox between care and deprivation of liberty of dependent elderly people. Conclusion: The results suggest that the GP residents experienced a form of work-related suffering in this situation of deprivation of liberty of dependent elderly people. The present research serves as a pilot study to explore how GP residents experienced their care of locked-up dependent elderly people.

Benzodiazepines have proven to be highly effective for treating insomnia and anxiety. Although considered safe when taken for a short period of time, a major risk–benefit dilemma arises in the context of long-term use, relating to addiction, withdrawal symptoms, and potential side effects. For these reasons, benzodiazepines are not recommended for treating chronic sleep disorders, anxiety disorders, nor for people over the age of 65, and withdrawal among long-term users is a public health issue. Indeed, only 5% of patients manage to discontinue using these drugs on their own. Even with the help of a general practitioner, this rate does not exceed 25 to 30% of patients, of which approximately 7% manage to remain drug-free in the long term. Cognitive Behavioral Therapies (CBT) offer a crucial solution to this problem, having been shown to increase abstinence success to 70–80%. This article examines traditional and novel CBT techniques in this regard, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which address both the underlying condition (insomnia/anxiety) and the substance-related disorder. The theoretical framework and evidence supporting the use of these approaches are reviewed. Finally, current research gaps are discussed, and key research perspectives are proposed.

Anxiety is recognized as a major health issue is quite prevalent among older adults. An efficient way to manage anxiety is abdominal breathing. Breathing exercises seem to reduce anxiety and to increase parasympathetic activity assessed by HRV indexes. Yet, the effect of abdominal breathing on physiological stress (HRV) and anxiety in older adults remains poorly understood. Therefore, the aim of this study is to test the effects of deep and slow breathing (DSB, low inhale/exhale ratio) on physiological stress and anxiety in older adults (n = 22) in comparison with younger ones (n = 25). DSB increased significantly HFpower and reduced state anxiety in both younger and older adults. Interestingly, the increased in HF power was significantly higher among older adults than younger ones. As expected, the ratio inhale/exhale being not equal, RMSSD did not increase following DSB. Thus, we provide evidence suggesting that DSB is more beneficial to older adults than younger ones to restore vagal outflow. Despite future work being required, those results provide relevant clinical application leads to manage state anxiety among older adults and to promote successfull aging.

Consistent with embodied cognition, a growing evidence in young adults show thatsensorimotor processing is at the core of cognition. Considering that this approachpredicts direct interaction between sensorimotor processing and cognition, embodiedcognition may thus be particularly relevant to study aging, since this population ischaracterized by concomitant changes in sensorimotor and cognitive processing. Thepresent perspective aims at showing the value and interest to explore normal agingthroughout embodiment by focusing on the neurophysiological and cognitive changesoccurring in aging. To this end, we report some of the neurophysiological substratesunderpinning the perceptual and memory interactions in older adults, from the lowand high perceptual processing to the conjunction in the medial temporal lobe. Wethen explore how these changes could explain more broadly the cognitive changesassociated with aging in terms of losses and gains.

Background: Currently, sedentariness is assessed over a short period of time, thus it isdifficult to study its cognitive implications. To investigate the cognitive consequences of a sedentarylifestyle, the past level (i.e., the sedentary time accumulated over the years) and current level ofsedentariness should be considered. This pilot study aimed to investigate the negative associationbetween a sedentary lifestyle and cognition by considering both the current and past sedentariness.It was expected that the physical activity level moderates the potential negative association betweensedentariness and cognition. Methods: 52 college students (Mage= 20.19,SDage= 2; 36 women)participated in the study. Current sedentariness (ratio of sedentary time in the last year), pastsedentariness (ratio of sedentary time accumulated in previous years), and physical activity (ratio oftime spent in physical activity in years) were assessed using a questionnaire. Cognitive inhibition,cognitive flexibility, and working memory updating were measured through three specific tests. Results: Past sedentariness significantly explained the inhibition performance when controlledfor physical activity, whereas current sedentariness did not. More precisely, past sedentarinessonly negatively predicted cognitive inhibition when the physical activity level was low (β=−3.15,z(48) =−2.62,p= 0.01). Conclusions: The impact of sedentariness on cognitive functioning mightonly be revealed when past sedentariness and physical activity are controlled.

La cognition est ancrée dans le corps selon l’approche incarnée de la cognition. L’étude du corps dans les travaux s’inscrivant dans cette approche s’est toutefois généralement limitée à le considérer comme un objet moteur (e.g. effet du geste ou de la posture). Les études réalisées dans le champ de la psycho-physiologie qui ont plus spécifiquement exploré le rôle des variables physiologiques dans le fonctionnement du système nerveux central et de la cognition ne s’inscrivent pas dans un cadre de cognition incarnée. Les passerelles entre ces champs pourraient être établies grâce à une approche intégrative de ces données dans un cadre épistémique incarné. Cet article propose ainsi une interprétation intégrative des mécanismes psycho-physiologiques impliqués dans l’autorégulation du système cognitif lors de l’interaction avec le milieu (i.e. autopoïèse). La principale originalité de cette proposition est de défendre l’épigénétique en tant que mémoire corporelle qui serait l’un des principaux moteurs de cette autorégulation du fait de son influence sur la physiologie suite à l’interaction avec le milieu et de la possible répercussion de cette influence sur le système cognitif.

L’approche incarnée et située prédit des interactions directes entre les traitements sensorimoteurs et cognitifs. Cet article présente les arguments en faveur de telles interactions en se concentrant sur le fonctionnement sensoriel et mnésique chez le jeune adulte, ainsi que sur la question des mécanismes qui sous-tendent ces interactions. Ces mécanismes incarnés et situés s’accompagnent non seulement d’interrogations épistémologiques fondamentales sur la notion de représentation et de modularité des fonctions cognitives, mais aussi d’enjeux d’ordre appliqué, en particulier lorsque l’approche incarnée et située est appréhendée selon un critère de fécondité épistémique. Cette fécondité est illustrée avec l’étude du vieillissement cognitif, car le vieillissement est marqué par des changements concomitants dans le traitement sensorimoteur et mnésique.

Background: Stress is a significant public health concern that can be self-evaluated using the job control demands model from Karasek. Emergency health care workers are particularly exposed to stress because of the intrinsic characteristics associated with the job (i.e., life-threatening emergencies, overcrowding, lack of bed spaces). However, these attributes have never been studied using the Karasek model. Methods: An observational, prospective, multicentric study in French Emergency Departments will be conducted using a cohort of emergency health care workers. Four questionnaires before a control day and after a nightshift will be assessed every 5 years in the same emergency departments. Also, the Karasek questionnaire, a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory scale, the Hospital Anxiety, Depression Scale, and a food intake questionnaire will be evaluated. Salivary biomarkers (cortisol, immunoglobulin A, lysozyme) will be collected from every emergency health care worker who consents to participating in the study. Conclusion: This study will provide a point of care for the emergency health care workers’ stress situation every 5 years. Ethics: This protocol was registered in Clinical Trials under the identification NCT02401607 after the French Ethics Committee’s approval.

This study examined the judgment of the passage of time in elderly people living in retirement homes, focusing on the passage of time experienced in the present and that judged retrospectively for short periods (last day, week, month) and longer periods of life (year, now compared with 5 years before, as we get older). Participants’ cognitive abilities and feeling of happiness were also assessed among other dimensions. Results showed no significant relationship between these three forms of judgment of the passage of time, except between the judgment of the passage of time for the present and for the day. In addition, the level of happiness was a significant predictor of both the momentary judgment of the passage of time and the retrospective judgment of the passage of time for shorter periods. In contrast, the individual differences in cognitive abilities better explained differences in the retrospective judgment of the passage of time for longer periods. As discussed, the different forms of judgments of the passage of time are therefore based on different cognitive mechanisms.

In this cross-sectional study, we have sought to examine the additive vs synergistic contribution of beta-amyloid (Aβ) and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) across seven cognitive domains in 104 cognitively normal elderly individuals. A primary objective was to measure the extent to which age-related differences in cognition are driven by measurable brain pathology. All participants underwent neuropsychological assessment along with PET-MRI imaging using 11C-Pittsburgh Compound B for Aβ quantification. WMH severity was quantified using the ARWMC scale. Stepwise regressions, moderation and mediation modelling were performed. Our findings indicate that Aβ and WMH contribute additively to poorer performance in working memory and language while they carry synergistic associations with executive functions and attention. We also found that Aβ deposition single-handedly predicted poorer episodic memory performance. Most importantly, we demonstrated through mediation modelling that age’s influence over episodic memory, working memory, executive functions and language is fully mediated by brain pathology. This study permits to conclude that, in the healthy elderly; 1) Aβ burden and WMH have synergistic associations with cognition and; 2) age-related differences in cognitive performance are for the most part driven by brain pathology associated with dementia.

There are common cognitive and brain abnormalities in schizophrenia and healthy aging which may cumulate in schizophrenia aging. However, the course of executive deficits in late-life schizophrenia is still controversial as it remains unclear whether schizophrenia patients show accelerated aging. The use of specific models of executive functions might help to shed new lights on this issue. The aim of this study was then to determine how each of the four specific executive functions (shifting, updating, inhibition and access to long-term memory) is affected by aging in schizophrenia compared to healthy aging. 20 younger (age 18-34), 17 middle-aged (age 35-49) and 25 older (age 59-76) schizophrenia patients and 62 healthy comparison participants matched for gender, age and education performed a neurocognitive battery evaluating the four specific executive functions. Schizophrenia patients performed worse than comparison participants on shifting, updating and access, whereas inhibition appeared preserved. Age affected the four functions with increased degradation of shifting and access in schizophrenia patients, whereas updating and inhibition showed a normal decline with age. These results suggest a vulnerability of prefrontal and cingulate cortexes in schizophrenia aging. Moreover, as age affected the specific executive functions differently, remediation programs should be adapted to older patients. Models of specific executive functions are useful for understanding the complexity of cognition in schizophrenia and its course during later life so that healthcare can be adapted accordingly.

Introduction: Stress and obesity are two public health issues. The relationship between obesity and stress is biological through the actions of stress on the major hormones that regulate appetite (leptin, ghrelin). Many spa resorts in France are specialised in the treatment of obesity, but no thermal spa currently proposes a specific programme to manage stress in obesity. The ObesiStress protocol has been designed to offer a new residential stress management programme. This thermal spa treatment of obesity implement stress management strategies as suggested by International recommendations. Methods and analysis: 140 overweight or obese participants with a Body Mass Index (BMI) >25kg.m-2 and aged over 18 years will be recruited. Participants will be randomised into two groups: a control group of usual practice (restrictive diet, physical activity and thermal spa treatment) and an intervention group with stress management in addition to the usual practice. In the present protocol, parameters will be measured on five occasions (at inclusion, at the beginning of the spa (day 0), at the end of the spa (day 21), and at 6 and 12 months). The study will assess the participants’ heart rate variability, cardiac remodelling and function, electrodermal activity, blood markers, anthropometric profile, body composition, psychology and quality of life via the use of questionnaires and bone parameters. Ethics and dissemination: The ObesiStress protocol complies with the ethics guidelines for Clinical Research and has been approved by the ethics committee (CPP Sud-Est VI, Clermont-Ferrand - ANSM: 2016-A01774-47). This study aims to highlight the efficacy of a 21-day thermal spa residential programme of stress management in obesity through objective measurements of well-being and cardiovascular morbidity. Results will be disseminated during several research conferences and articles published in peer-reviewed journals Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT 03578757)

Objective: Work-related stress is a public health issue. Stress has multiple physical and psychological consequences, the most serious of which are increased mortality and cardiovascular morbidity. The ThermStress protocol was designed to offer a short residential thermal spa program for work-related stress prevention that is compatible with a professional context. Methods: Participants will be 56 male and female workers aged 18 years or above. All participants will undergo a 6-day residential spa program comprising psychological intervention, physical activity, thermal spa treatment, health education, eating disorder therapy and a follow-up. On six occasions, participants’ heart rate variability, cardiac remodelling and function, electrodermal activity, blood markers, anthropometry and body composition, psychology and quality of life will be measured using questionnaires and bone parameters. Results: This study protocol reports the planned and ongoing research for this intervention. Discussion: The ThermStress protocol has been approved by an institutional ethics committee (ANSM: 2016 A02082 49). It is expected that this proof of concept study will highlight the effect of a short-term specific residential thermal spa program on the prevention of occupational burnout and work-related stress. The findings will be disseminated at several research conferences and in published articles in peer-reviewed journals. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT 03536624, 24/05/2018)

The current study explored whether education, a proxy of cognitive reserve, modifies the association between episodic memory performance and βeta-amyloid load (Aβ), a biomarker of Alzheimer’s disease, in a cohort of cognitively normal elderly adults. One hundred and four participants (mean age 73.3 years) evenly spread out in three bands of education were recruited. Participants underwent neuropsychological assessment, structural MRI as well as PET imaging to quantify Aβ load. Moderation analyses and the Johnson-Neyman technique were carried out to examine the interaction of education with Aβ load to predict episodic memory performance. Linear regressions were then performed within each group of education to better illustrate the interaction effect (all analyses were controlled for age and sex). The interaction between education and Aβ load was significant (p<0.05) for years of education, reaching a cut-off point of 13.5 years, above which the relationship between Aβ load and episodic memory was no longer significant. Similarly, significant associations were found between Aβ and episodic memory among participants with secondary (p<0.01) and pre-university education (p<0.01), but not with a university degree (p=0.253). Episodic memory performance is associated with Aβ load in cognitively normal elderly individuals, and this relationship is moderated by educational attainment.

How sleep affects memory in older adults is a critical topic, since age significantly impacts both sleep and memory. For declarative memory, previous research reports contradictory results, with some studies showing sleep-dependent memory consolidation and some other not. We hypothesize that this discrepancy may be due to the use of recall as the memory measure, a demanding task for older adults. The present paper focuses on the effect of sleep on relearning, a measure that proved useful to reveal subtle, implicit memory effects. Previous research in young adults showed that sleeping after learning was more beneficial to relearning the same Swahili-French word pairs 12 hours later, compared with the same interval spent awake. In particular, those words that could not be recalled were relearned faster when participants previously slept. The effect of sleep was also beneficial for retention after a one-week and a 6-month delay. The present study used the same experimental design in older adults aged 71 on average but showed no significant effect of sleep on consolidation, on relearning, or on long-term retention. Thus, even when using relearning speed as the memory measure, the consolidating effect of sleep in older adults was not demonstrated, in alignment with some previous findings.

Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a neurodegenerative disease affecting the posterior region of the brain. Little is known about both the impact of PCA on functioning and how to support patients on a daily basis. The purpose of this study was to describe the functional profile of DD, a woman diagnosed with PCA, as well as to explore a pilot cognitive rehabilitation program designed to optimize functioning in daily living. The ADL Profile was used to assess the daily tasks that DD chose to undertake. Four operations, i.e. formulate a goal, plan, carry out and verify goal attainment, were scored for each task. Difficulties were observed during the execution of all tasks, as she struggled to find items or showed unsafe behaviors. Impairments were also seen in formulating a goal and planning, especially for less routine tasks. DD identified two tasks to be addressed in rehabilitation: setting the table and dealing cards. Learning was optimized using errorless learning and compensatory aids when setting the table, while dealing cards received no intervention. Only setting the table improved significantly with time. Further studies should be conducted to portray a wider functional profile of people living with PCA and develop effective rehabilitation programs.

Memories are not frozen in the past. Instead, they can be dynamically combined to allow individuals to adapt to the present or even imagine the future. This recombination, called event construction, also means that it might be possible to improve memory through specific interventions such as episodic specificity induction (ESI). ESI provides brief training in recollecting the details of a past event that boosts the retrieval of specific details in subsequent tasks if these tasks involve the recombination of memories. However, very little is known about how event construction is accomplished, and this is essential if we are (1) to understand how episodic memory might work and (2) to promote a specific mechanism that will help people remember the past better. The present study assesses the sensorimotor simulation hypothesis, which has been proposed within the embodied approaches to cognition. According to these approaches, access to and the recombination of memories occur through the simulation of the sensory and motor propreties of our past experiences. This hypothesis was tested using a sensory interference paradigm. In a first phase, the participants watched videos and then received a specificity or a control induction. In a second phase, they described their memories of the videos while simultaneously viewing an interfering stimulus (dynamic visual noise; DVN) or a gray control screen. In line with a sensorimotor simulation account, the presentation of a DVN during the description of the videos led to a decrease in the number of internal details (details specific to the event) only after the specificity induction rather than the control induction. The findings provide evidence that the specificity induction targets and facilitates the sensorimotor simulation mechanism, thus confirming the crucial involvement of a mechanism of this sort in the constructive functioning of memory.

L’Induction de Spécificité Épisodique (ISE) est un court entraînement à la récupération des détails d’une expérience permettant d’augmenter la production de détails épisodiques (internes) lors de la description subséquente d’un nouvel événement. L’ISE s’est avérée efficace pour différentes populations, dont les personnes âgées, et dans de nombreuses tâches (remémoration, imagination, résolution de problèmes…). Cependant, l’ISE n’a pas encore été adaptée et validée en français. Cette étude propose de réaliser ce travail auprès de jeunes adultes sans trouble cognitif. Les participants ont reçu une ISE ou une Induction Contrôle (IC) avant une tâche de remémoration et d’imagination. Les participants ont produit davantage de détails internes et moins de détails externes (sémantiques) après l’ISE qu’après l’IC aux deux tâches. Cette méthode permettrait d’étudier l’influence des processus épisodiques sur une tâche donnée, et d’envisager le développement d’un protocole de stimulation cognitive bénéficiant aux individus présentant une spécificité réduite comme observé pour les personnes âgées.

Perceptual experience plays a critical role in the conceptual representation of words. Higher levels of semantic variables such as imageability, concreteness, and sensory experience are generally associated with faster and more accurate word processing. Nevertheless, these variables tend to be assessed based mostly on visual experience. This underestimates the potential contribution of other perceptual modalities. Accordingly, recent evidence stresses the importance of providing modality-specific perceptual strength norms. In the present study, we developed French Canadian norms of visual and auditory perceptual strength (i.e., the modalities that have a major impact on word processing) for 3,596 nouns. We then explored the relationship between these newly developed variables and other lexical, orthographic and semantic variables. Finally, we demonstrated the contribution of visual and auditory perceptual strength ratings to visual word processing beyond that of other semantic variables related to perceptual experience (e.g., concreteness, imageability and sensory experience ratings). The ratings developed in this study are a meaningful contribution toward the implementation of new studies that will shed further light on the interaction between linguistic, semantic and perceptual systems.

In the present study, we used a complex span task to explore how memory traces resulting from Self-Performed Task (SPT) and Verbal Task (VT) are maintained in working memory. Participants memorised series of five sentences describing an action either through SPT or VT. Between pairs of sentences, participants performed a concurrent task that varied according to its nature and its cognitive load. The concurrent task was either a verbal task, a low cognitive load motor task or a high cognitive load motor task. A control condition served as a baseline. First, we observed that performance in SPT and VT did not decrease with verbal or motor suppression, but was lower with an increase of the cognitive load. This suggests that memory traces are maintained through attentional refreshing whatever the encoding (SPT or VT). Second, while the enactment effect was replicated in the control condition, it tended to vanish with a verbal concurrent task; moreover, it was reversed with motor concurrent tasks. Surprisingly, the latter effect resulted from an increase of VT memory performance when participants repeated the same gesture between sentences. Finally, our results provide additional evidence that the enactment effect does not rely on attention.

La cognition a longtemps été pensée comme opérant dans la tour d’ivoire que serait le cerveau, le corps et l’environnement tenant un rôle secondaire. Pourtant, nos connaissances exprimées par le langage attribuent une place essentielle aux états corporels.

Background: Work addiction is a significant public health problem with a growing prevalence. The Work Addiction Risk Test (WART) is the gold standard questionnaire to detect workaholism. Objective: The main objective of this study was to validate the French version of the WART. Methods: Questionnaires were proposed to voluntary French workers using the WittyFit software. There were no exclusion criteria. The questionnaire was administered anonymously for initial validity testing and readministered one week later for test-retest reliability. We also assessed the workers’ sociodemographic characteristics, as well as other measurements for external validity, such as stress, well-being, and coaddictions to tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis. Several psychometric properties of the French-WART were explored: acceptability, reliability (internal consistency [Cronbach alpha coefficient] and reproducibility [Lin concordance coefficient]), construct validity (correlation coefficients and principal component analysis), and external validity (correlation coefficients). Results: Among the 1580 workers using WittyFit, 187 (11.83%) agreed to complete the WART questionnaire. Of those, 128 completed the test-retest survey (68.4%). Acceptability found that all respondents had fully completed the questionnaire, with few floor or ceiling effects. Reliability was very good with a Cronbach alpha coefficient at .90 (internal consistency) and Lin concordance coefficient at .90 (95% CI .87-.94] with a difference on the retest of .04 (SD 4.9) (95% CI −9.6 to 9.7) (reproducibility). We identified three main dimensions (construct validity). Relationships between WART and stress and well-being confirmed its external validity<; Conclusions: The French version of the WART is a valid and reliable instrument to assess work addiction with satisfactory psychometric properties. Used in occupational medicine, this tool would allow the diagnosis of work addiction and can be easily implemented in current practice.

Numerous studies have explored the effect of sleep on memory. It is well known that a period of sleep, compared to a similar period of wakefulness, protects memories from interference, improves performance, and might also reorganize memory traces in a way that encourages creativity and rule extraction.

Embodiment has highlighted the importance of sensory-motor components in cognition. Perception and memory are thus very tightly bound together, and episodic and semantic memories should rely on the same groundedmemory traces. Reduced perception should then directly reduce the ability to encode and retrieve an episodic memory, as in normal aging. Multimodal integration deficits, as in Alzheimer’s disease, should lead to more severe episodic memory impairment. The present study introduces a new memory test developed to take into account these assumptions. The SEMEP (SEMantic-Episodic) memory test proposes to assess conjointly semantic and episodic knowledge across multiple tasks: semantic matching, naming, free recall, and recognition. The performance of young adults is compared to healthy elderly adults (HE), patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and patients with semantic dementia (SD). The results show specific patterns of performance between the groups. HE commit memory errors only for presented but not to be remembered items. AD patients present the worst episodic memory performance associated with intrusion errors (recall or recognition of items never presented). They were the only group to not benefit from a visual isolation (addition of a yellow background), a method known to increase the distinctiveness of the memory traces. Finally, SD patients suffer from the most severe semantic impairment. To conclude, confusion errors are common across all the elderly groups, whereas AD was the only group to exhibit regular intrusion errors and SD patients to show severe semantic impairment.

How do we represent the meaning of words? The present study assesses whether access to conceptual knowledge requires the reenactment of the sensory components of a concept. The reenactment—that is, simulation—was tested in a word categorisation task using an innovative masking paradigm. We hypothesised that a meaningless reactivated visual mask should interfere with the simulation of the visual dimension of concrete words. This assumption was tested in a paradigm in which participants were not aware of the link between the visual mask and the words to be processed. In the first phase, participants created a tone–visual mask or tone–control stimulus association. In the test phase, they categorised words that were presented with 1 of the tones. Results showed that words were processed more slowly when they were presented with the reactivated mask. This interference effect was only correlated with and explained by the value of the visual perceptual strength of the words (i.e., our experience with the visual dimensions associated with concepts) and not with other characteristics. We interpret these findings in terms of word access, which may involve the simulation of sensory features associated with the concept, even if participants were not explicitly required to access visual properties

The aim of this study was to investigate the comprehension of concrete, abstract and abstract emotional words in semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and healthy elderly adults (HE) Three groups of participants (9 svPPA, 12 AD, 11 HE) underwent a general neuropsy- chological assessment, a similarity judgment task, and structural brain MRI. The three types of words were processed similarly in the group of AD participants. In contrast, patients in the svPPA group were significantly more impaired at processing concrete words than abstract words, while comprehension of abstract emotional words was in between. VBM analyses showed that comprehension of concrete words relative to abstract words was significantly correlated with atrophy in the left anterior temporal lobe. These results support the view that concrete words are disproportionately impaired in svPPA, and that concrete and abstract words may rely upon partly dissociable brain regions.

Objective: Episodic memory impairment is at the core of amnestic mild cognitive impair- ment (aMCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The origin of memory deficits may result either from an encoding deficit or from an accelerated decline of the memory trace.

Prevalent face recognition difficulties in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have typically been attributed to the underlying episodic and semantic memory impairment. The aim of the current study was to determine if AD patients are also impaired at the perceptual level for faces, more specifically at extracting a visual representation of an individual face.

OBJECTIVE: Verbal fluency tasks are principally used to assess lexical access and have shown usefulness for differential diagnosis. The purpose of Study 1 was to provide normative data in the adult French-Quebec population (Canada) for semantic verbal fluency (animals), for two sets of phonemic verbal fluency (TNP and PFL), and for letter P alone (60 seconds per category/letter).

Embodiment is revolutionizing the way we consider cognition by incorporating the influence of our body and of the current context within cognitive processing. A growing number of studies which support this view of cognition in young adults stands in stark contrast with the lack of evidence in favor of this view in the field of normal aging and neurocognitive disorders.

The relationship between perceptual and memory processing is at the core of cognition. Growing evidence suggests reciprocal influences between them so that memory features should lead to an actual perceptual bias.

According to grounded theories of cognition, knowledge is grounded in its sensory-motor features. Therefore, perceptual and conceptual processing should be based on the same distributed system so that conceptual and perceptual processes should interact.

This study aims at identifying the effect of training in the acquisition of the alphabetic principle in 5-year-old children. We compared the effect of multisensory training of letters in visual, haptic, graphomotor, visuo-haptic, and visuo-graphomotor groups.

The present article proposes a new memory model called Act-In (Activation-Integration). Act-In extends the multiple trace memory models by placing them within the situated cognition perspective. Act-In considers that the activation and integration mechanisms play a key role in memory processes.

Two experiments examine whether people overestimate the benefits provided by tool use in motor tasks. Participants had to move different quantities of objects by hand (two at a time) or with a tool (four at a time).

A sound’s duration provides important information about the event producing it. Although many of the sounds we hear every day are ‘percussive’ in nature (ie resulting from two objects impacting) and therefore exhibit decaying/damped amplitude envelopes, perceptual experiments frequently use tones synthesized with ‘flat’ or abruptly ending envelopes.

Performance on verbal memory tests is generally associated with socio-demographic variables such as age, sex, and education level. Performance also varies between different cultural groups. The present study aimed to establish normative data for the Rappel libre/Rappel indicé à 16 items (16-item Free and Cued Recall; RL/RI-16), a French adaptation of the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (Buschke, 1984 ; Grober, Buschke, Crystal, Bang, & Dresner, 1988 ).

Résumé. L’objectif de cette étude est de comparer la performance de personnes âgées sans trouble cognitif (n = 40) et de patients atteints de démence de type Alzheimer (DTA, n = 40) à l’épreuve de rappel libre/rappel indicé à 16 items (RL/RI 16) et au test des 15 mots de Rey (RAVLT).

Implicit memory is generally supposed to be preserved in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Yet, some implicit priming effects are impaired and others are not. The preserved/impaired priming effects are often interpreted according to the perceptual/conceptual or identification/production distinctions.

Audiovisual interactions for familiar objects are at the core of perception. The nature of these interactions de- pends on the amodal – sensory abstracted – or modal – sensory-dependent – approach of knowledge.

The goal of the present study was to find evidence for a multisensory generalization effect (i.e., generalization from one sensory modality to another sensory modality). The authors used an innovative paradigm (adapted from Brunel, Labeye, Lesourd, & Versace, 2009) involving three phases: a learning phase, consisting in the categorization of geometrical shapes, which manipulated the rules of association between shapes and a sound feature, and two test phases.

Reacting quickly is a crucial ability for survival in many situations. Results in research on forperiod effects show that this ability could be reduced in older people. In these experiments, participants must react as quickly as possible to a presented stimulus.

Résumé. Une question fondamentale concernant l’étude des connaissances en mémoire est de savoir si elles relèvent de différentes natures de connaissances ou si toutes les connaissances sont basées sur des traces sensori-motrices.

The nature of knowledge, i.e. sensory-dependent or abstract, is controversial. Growing evidence supports the existence of sensory-dependent knowledge in young individuals, but this question remains unexplored in elderly individu- als. Thus the first objective of this study was to assess sensory-dependent knowledge in normal aging using a cross-modal priming paradigm.

The nature of audio-visual interactions is poorly understood for meaningful objects. These interactions would be indirect through semantic memory according to the amodal nature of knowledge, whereas these interactions would be direct accord- ing to the modal nature of knowledge.

The aim of this study was to demonstrate that the cross-modal priming effect is perceptual and therefore consistent with the idea that knowledge is modality dependent. We used a two-way cross-modal priming paradigm in two experiments.

The aim of the present study was to show the perceptual nature of conceptual knowledge and the dialectic between conceptual and episodic knowledge. We used an original paradigm adapted from Brunel, Labeye, Lesourd, Versace study (in press) .