Ben Spielberg

Verbal and spatial working memory among drug-using hiv-infected men and women

• Authors Details :  
• Eileen Martin,  
• M. K. Keutmann,  
• J. S. Fogel,  
• P. M. Maki,  
• R. Gonzalez,  
• J. Vassileva,  
• D. Hardy,  
• L. H. Rubin

Journal title : Journal of NeuroVirology

Publisher : Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Online ISSN : 1538-2443

Page Number : 488-497

Journal volume : 24

Journal issue : 4

255 Views Research reports

Working memory (WM) is a critical component of many neurocognitive functions. The literature has demonstrated consistently that WM impairment is more frequent and severe among substance-dependent individuals (SDIs) infected with HIV compared with uninfected SDIs; however, the SDIs who participated in these previous studies were primarily male. There are few published data on WM performance among HIV+ women with or without substance use disorders, and essentially no direct comparisons of WM performance between HIV+ men and women, regardless of substance use. We investigated potential sex and serostatus effects on WM among a sample of 360 SDIs (114 with HIV; 66% female) verified abstinent from alcohol and drugs of abuse at testing and generally comparable on substance use and comorbid characteristics. Participants were tested with the n-back task, a well-established WM measure that is sensitive to HIV-associated cognitive impairment. HIV+ men and women performed spatial and verbal versions of the n-back significantly less accurately compared with HIV− participants. Women showed slower response times compared with men on both versions, regardless of HIV serostatus. Individuals dependent on cocaine showed faster RTs compared with non-dependent users, but this effect was not apparent among opioid- or alcohol-dependent groups. Findings on n-back accuracy are consistent with our previous proposal that WM impairment represents a signature deficit among HIV+ SDIs; however, WM impairment appears less common among HIV+ women without a substance use history. The pattern of sex differences in response speed but serostatus effects on response accuracy is comparable to a recent report by our group of sex differences in learning speed but serostatus effects on delayed recall.

Article DOI & Crossmark Data

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s13365-018-0639-z

Article Subject Details

• HIV
• Novel drug delivery systems

Article Keywords Details

• Drug-using
• HIV-infected men and women
• Working memory

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Article References

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