| Literature DB >> 29276494 |
Agnieszka Sorokowska1,2, Maciej Karwowski2.
Abstract
Blindness can be a driving force behind a variety of changes in sensory systems. When vision is missing, other modalities and higher cognitive functions can become hyper-developed through a mechanism called sensory compensation. Overall, previous studies suggest that olfactory memory in blind people can be better than that of the sighted individuals. Better performance of blind individuals in other-sensory modalities was hypothesized to be a result of, among others, intense perceptual training. At the same time, if the superiority of blind people in olfactory abilities indeed results from training, their scores should not decrease with age to such an extent as among the sighted people. Here, this hypothesis was tested in a large sample of 94 blind individuals. Olfactory memory was assessed using the Test for Olfactory Memory, comprising episodic odor recognition (discriminating previously presented odors from new odors) and two forms of semantic memory (cued and free identification of odors). Regarding episodic olfactory memory, we observed an age-related decline in correct hits in blind participants, but an age-related increase in false alarms in sighted participants. Further, age moderated the between-group differences for correct hits, but the direction of the observed effect was contrary to our expectations. The difference between blind and sighted individuals younger than 40 years old was non-significant, but older sighted individuals outperformed their blind counterparts. In conclusion, we found no positive effect of visual impairment on olfactory memory. We suggest that daily perceptual training is not enough to increase olfactory memory function in blind people.Entities:
Keywords: aging; blindness; olfaction; olfactory memory; sensory compensation; visual impairment
Year: 2017 PMID: 29276494 PMCID: PMC5727095 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02127
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Front Psychol ISSN: 1664-1078
Descriptive statistics and intercorrelations between recognition and semantic memory scores.
| Blind | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | ||||
| 1 | Hit rate | 0.83 | 0.14 | 1 | 0.03 | -0.03 | –1 | 0.75 | -0.73 | 0.25 | -0.01 | 0.31 | -0.01 | 0.24 | -0.29 |
| 2 | Correct rejection rate | 0.76 | 0.16 | 0.25 | 1 | –1 | -0.04 | 0.68 | 0.66 | 0.23 | -0.14 | 0.07 | -0.22 | 0.05 | 0.01 |
| 3 | False alarm rate | 0.24 | 0.16 | -0.26 | -0.99 | 1 | 0.03 | -0.68 | -0.66 | -0.23 | 0.14 | -0.07 | 0.22 | -0.06 | -0.02 |
| 4 | Miss rate | 0.17 | 0.14 | -0.99 | -0.25 | 0.24 | 1 | -0.75 | 0.73 | -0.25 | 0.02 | -0.31 | 0.01 | -0.23 | 0.30 |
| 5 | d′ | -0.12 | 1.38 | 0.77 | 0.81 | -0.82 | -0.74 | 1 | -0.10 | 0.34 | -0.10 | 0.28 | -0.15 | 0.22 | -0.20 |
| 6 | Response bias | 0.09 | 0.67 | -0.54 | 0.67 | -0.67 | 0.55 | 0.12 | 1 | -0.03 | -0.08 | -0.18 | -0.15 | -0.14 | 0.24 |
| 7 | Free identification | 5.78 | 2.46 | 0.32 | 0.27 | -0.28 | -0.31 | 0.38 | 0.00 | 1 | 0.03 | 0.52 | -0.12 | 0.30 | -0.11 |
| 8 | Free identification time | 3.57 | 2.13 | -0.23 | -0.17 | 0.15 | 0.26 | -0.24 | 0.05 | -0.06 | 1 | 0.00 | 0.65 | 0.09 | 0.10 |
| 9 | Cued identification | 13.53 | 2.05 | 0.48 | 0.29 | -0.29 | -0.47 | 0.48 | -0.12 | 0.46 | -0.31 | 1 | -0.06 | 0.23 | -0.01 |
| 10 | Cued identification time | 5.04 | 2.44 | -0.21 | -0.17 | 0.16 | 0.22 | -0.23 | 0.02 | -0.11 | 0.44 | -0.16 | 1 | -0.12 | 0.27 |
| 11 | Verbal memory | 21.47 | 4.37 | 0.16 | 0.11 | -0.13 | -0.13 | 0.18 | -0.01 | 0.32 | -0.02 | 0.32 | 0.05 | 1 | -0.25 |
| 12 | Age | 41.7 | 13.02 | 0.09 | -0.23 | 0.21 | -0.07 | -0.08 | -0.25 | -0.08 | -0.01 | -0.07 | 0.02 | -0.05 | 1 |
| Sighted | – | – | 0.87 | 0.75 | 0.25 | 0.14 | 0.13 | -0.09 | 6.13 | 3.23 | 14.10 | 4.24 | 21.71 | 38.38 | |
| Sighted | – | – | 0.14 | 0.19 | 0.19 | 0.14 | 1.64 | 0.63 | 2.63 | 1.89 | 1.61 | 2.54 | 5.47 | 12.12 | |
A summary of moderated regression models predicting recognition memory scores.
| Dependent variables: recognition memory scores | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Predictors | Hit rate | False alarm rate | Correct rejection rate | Miss rate | d′ | Response bias |
| Group (1 = sighted) | 0.27* (0.14) | 0.08 (0.15) | -0.11 (0.15) | -0.26ˆ (0.14) | 0.14 (0.14) | -0.27* (0.14) |
| Age | -0.06 (0.07) | 0.10 (0.07) | -0.12 (0.07) | 0.08 (0.07) | -0.11 (0.07) | 0.22* (0.10) |
| 0.34* (0.14) | 0.27ˆ (0.14) | -0.28ˆ (0.14) | -0.34* (0.14) | 0.04 (0.14) | -0.48** (0.14) | |
| Gender | -0.15 (0.13) | 0.06 (0.14) | -0.05 (0.14) | 0.14 (0.13) | -0.13 (0.14) | 0.07 (0.13) |
| Verbal memory | 0.16* (0.07) | -0.10 (0.07) | 0.08 (0.07) | -0.13ˆ (0.07) | 0.17** (0.07) | -0.05 (0.07) |
| 0.10 | 0.04 | 0.04 | 0.09 | 0.06 | 0.08 | |
A summary of moderated regression models predicting semantic memory scores.
| Dependent variables: semantic memory scores | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Predictors | Free identification | Free identification response time | Cued identification | Cued identification response time |
| Group (1 = sighted) | 0.12 (0.14) | -0.15 (0.14) | 0.30* (0.14) | -0.27ˆ (0.14) |
| Age | -0.04 (0.10) | 0.11 (0.10) | 0.05 (0.10) | 0.25* (0.10) |
| -0.03 (0.14) | -0.10 (0.10) | -0.09 (0.14) | -0.22 (0.14) | |
| Gender | -0.01 (0.14) | 0.36* (0.14) | 0.10 (0.14) | 0.19 (0.14) |
| Verbal memory | 0.30*** (0.07) | 0.05 (0.07) | 0.27*** (0.07) | 0.01 (0.07) |
| 0.10 | 0.05 | 0.10 | 0.06 | |