Walking outdoors requires one to deal with a wide range of visual and cognitive perturbations, i.e., multiple object tracking and making timely decisions while ignoring irrelevant information, etc. Using dual-task gait paradigm, the purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the age effects of different types of visuospatial cognitive tasks, i.e. designed cognitive game tasks and commercial computer games on gait and cognitive performances in older adults as compared to the younger adults. A standardized dual-task assessment approach, i.e. objectively evaluating both gait and cognitive performances simultaneously, has potential to be the screening tool to detect gait and cognitive impairments in early stages. Further, evaluating the training value of commercial computer games by comparing them with the designed cognitive games with objective outcome measures will help in developing multimodal dual-task intervention platform to treat and prevent age-related physical and cognitive impairments. / October 2016

L’attention visuelle est un processus cognitif qui priorise le traitement de l’information visuelle d’une région particulière du champ visuel. En électroencéphalographie, la méthode des potentiels reliés aux évènements permet l’extraction de composantes associées à divers processus cognitifs. La N2pc, une composante latéralisée caractérisée par une déflexion négative entre 180 et 300 ms post-stimulus du côté controlatéral à l’hémichamp dans lequel l’attention est déployée, reflète les processus impliqués dans le déploiement de l’attention visuo-spatiale. De nombreuses études antérieures ont soulevé plusieurs facteurs pouvant moduler cette composante, provenant d’autant de processus de bas niveau que de processus de haut niveau. Cette présente étude comporte une série d’expériences qui approfondit les connaissances sur le rôle de l’attention sur le traitement et la représentation des items dans les champs récepteurs des aires extrastriées du cortex visuel. Ces études démontrent ainsi que l’attention peut effectivement éliminer l’influence d’un distracteur dissimilaire à la cible lorsque celui-ci se retrouve dans le même champ visuel que l’item auquel l’attention est attribuée. Cependant, lorsque l’item est similaire à la cible, son influence ne peut être éliminée. De plus, cette présente étude identifie le rôle des filtres précoces et tardifs de haut niveau sur la sélection attentionnelle. / Visual attention is a cognitive process that improves the limited capacity of the visual system by prioritising the processing of information within the attended area of the visual field. Using the event-related potentials method, components associated to such cognitive processes can be extracted from electroencephalographic activity. The N2pc, a lateralized component characterised by a negative deflection between 180 – 300 ms post-stimulus in the posterior electrodes of the hemisphere contralateral to the attended visual hemifield, reflects processes associated to the deployment of visuospatial attention. Previous studies have identified numerous factors, both from bottom-up and top-down influences, capable of modulating this component. The present study expands our understanding of attention on the processing of information from within and between receptive fields in the extrastriate visual cortex. Particularly, the present study shows that attention can be dissociated from salient items when these are dissimilar to the target and that their influence is eliminated when this particular item is located within the same receptive field as the attended item. Additionally, this study recognizes the influence of early and late target-filter processes on attentional selection.

A memória para a ordem dos eventos em uma sequência está relacionada com muitos domínios cognitivos, como direcionar o comportamento a um objetivo, reconhecer uma ação e prever eventos do ambiente. A codificação da ordem serial tem sido, portanto, um tema polêmico a ser explicado pelos modelos de memória de trabalho visuoespacial. Neste estudo investigamos a codificação incidental da ordem serial de eventos em tarefas de reconhecimento de sequências, nas quais a dimensão relevante para a resposta poderia ser a aparência visual, a localização espacial ou a conjunção visuoespacial dos eventos. A tarefa exigia que os participantes (n=60) detectassem uma mudança em um dos estímulos da sequência e ignorassem mudanças na dimensão irrelevante: a ordem na qual os eventos eram apresentados. De maneira geral, o desempenho foi mais prejudicado nas sequências em que a ordem dos itens mudava. A comparação das três condições de memória (aparência visual, localização espacial e conjunção visuoespacial) revelou que houve melhor desempenho na tarefa espacial. Nesta condição, ocorreu uma interação entre os fatores mudança na dimensão relevante (localização espacial) e mudança na dimensão irrelevante (ordem serial). Estes resultados revelam que a ordem foi codificada de forma incidental com as informações relevantes para a tarefa. A diferença do efeito da mudança da dimensão irrelevante para os três tipos de sequências sugere que a ordem foi codificada em um estágio inicial do processamento de informações e, por isto, incluída na comparação de características, gerando diferentes padrões de respostas conforme a modalidade do estímulo. A interação entre localização e ordem serial indica que a informação espacial foi registrada de maneira integrada à ordem dos eventos na sequência, em uma representação espaço-temporal unitária. Supõe-se que um mecanismo de manutenção da informação espacial tenha operado recitando os eventos na ordem em que foram apresentados na sequência. Considera-se, também, a possibilidade de a apresentação sequencial dos estímulos ter gerado uma representação visuoespacial baseada em uma organização temporal das informações. Neste caso, é provável que um mecanismo de integração de informações tenha operado para realizar a interface entre uma estrutura temporal previamente armazenada na memória de longo prazo e o conteúdo da memória de trabalho. Estes achados sugerem a existência de um sistema responsável pela conjunção de informações de diferentes dimensões e integração de conteúdos da memória de trabalho e memória de longo prazo. As evidências obtidas neste estudo têm implicações em diferentes áreas do conhecimento. Na perspectiva da psicologia cognitiva experimental são discutidos os modelos atuais de memória de trabalho. No âmbito da psicologia cognitiva aplicada são fornecidos subsídios teóricos para o desenvolvimento de ferramentas diagnósticas para caracterização de déficits de aprendizagem e lesões neurológicas relacionados com o processamento de sequências de informações visuoespaciais. Além disso, é possível estabelecer uma relação entre os processos de memória e os mecanismos de organização do comportamento em contextos clínicos. / The memory for the events order in a sequence is related to many cognitive domains, such as managing behavior to a goal, to recognize an action and anticipate events in the real world. The encoding of serial order has been a controversial topic to be explained by the models of visuospatial working memory. We investigated the incidental encoding of events serial order in recognition tasks sequences, in which a relevant dimension to the response could be the visual appearance, the spatial location or visuospatial conjunction of events. The task required that participants (n = 60) to detect a change in a sequence of stimuli and ignore changes in irrelevant dimension: the order in which events were presented. In general, performance was more impaired in the sequences where the order of items changed. The comparison of the three memory conditions (visual appearance, spatial location and visuospatial conjunction) revealed that there was better performance in spatial task. In this condition, there was an interaction between change in the relevant dimension (spatial location) and change in the irrelevant dimension (serial order). These results show that the order was codified indirectly with relevant information to the task. The difference in the effect of changing the dimension irrelevant to the three types of sequences suggests that the order was codified in an early stage of information processing and, therefore, included in feature comparison, generating different patterns of responses depending on the modality of the stimulus. The interaction between location and serial order indicates that the spatial information was registered in an integrated manner to the order of events following in a unitary space-time representation. It is assumed that a mechanism for maintenance of spatial information has operated reciting the events in the order they were presented in sequence. It is considered also the possibility that the sequential presentation of stimuli have generated a visuospatial representation based on information temporal organization. In this case, it is likely that a mechanism of information integration has operated to achieve the interface between a temporal structure previously stored in long-term memory and the contents of working memory. These findings suggest the existence of a system responsible for the combination of information from different dimensions and integration of working memory contents and long-term memory. Data obtained in this study have implications in different areas of knowledge. In view of experimental cognitive psychology current models of working memory are discussed. Within the cognitive psychology applied theoretical support are provided for the development of diagnostic tools for characterizing learning deficits and neurological injuries related to the processing of visuospatial information sequences. Furthermore, it is possible to establish a relationship between memory processes and the mechanisms of organization of behavior in clinical settings.

Introduction: Idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is characterised by motor symptoms. However, there is increasing awareness that a range of neuropsychiatric and cognitive problems also accompanys PD. The objective of this thesis was to examine the profile of neuropsychiatric and cognitive problems for patients with PD without dementia. Parkinson's disease patients who could be identified at the time of this study were invited to participate. Each patient was individually matched to a healthy control in terms of age, premorbid intelligence, and years of education. Results: Neuropsychiatric symptoms were common for this patient group, over 40% self reported symptoms consistent with depression, 40% with physical fatigue, 38% with mental fatigue, 38% with apathy and 32% with sleep problems. More than 77% of patients with PD reported symptoms associated with at least one problem and over 46% with 3 or more problems. Increased symptoms consistent with depression and anxiety and the presence of hallucinations also predicted poorer quality of life after controlling for motor symptoms. However, the of level agreement between patient report and that of a person who know them well was low: 40.9% for apathy, 28% for hallucinations, 39% for depression, 25% for sleep problems and only 7.7% agreement for the presence of anxiety. To obtain an accurate profile of cognitive impairments patients were assessed on measures of higher order language ability and a broad range of commonly used cognitive tests. Overall, PD patients were impaired on aspects of higher-order language. However, results indicated that these deficits were not a primary effect of PD, but could be explained in terms of deficits in speed of information processing associated with the disease. Compared to healthy controls, PD patients also showed deficits on measures of executive function, working memory, problem solving, and visuospatial skills. However, they were unimpaired on measures of planning, attention and memory/learning. Deficits in problem solving were only evident for tasks with a high visuospatial content and were no longer significant when visuospatial skills were controlled for. Further investigation indicated that planning in PD patients was not impaired in general and was dependent on the sensitivity of tests used. To further examine cognitive deficits, patients were divided into groups according to their cognitive performance. Three sub-groups of patients were identified that formed a continuum of cognitive impairment from none/mild to severe. Compared to controls, one subgroup showed no or minimal impairment (PD-NCI), a second group showed a more variable pattern of severe and mild impairments (PD-UCI), and a third group had evidence of severe impairment across most of the cognitive domains tested. This latter group was labelled PD-Mild Cognitive Impairment (PD-MCI). The PD-UCI and PD-MCI groups were also significantly different from their controls with respect to their ability to carry out functional activities of everyday living. The PD-MCI group had evidence of global cognitive decline, possibly reflecting a stage of pre-clinical dementia. The severity of cognitive deficits was not associated with other clinical and demographic characteristics such as motor impairments, age or disease duration. These results were confirmed when patients were retested one year later. Conclusions: Comorbid neuropsychiatric and cognitive problems are common for patients with PD prior to any overt signs of dementia. However, PD patients are heterogeneous with regard to their presentation and different subgroups of patients are identifiable based on cognitive performance. This information has both theoretical and clinical relevance.

Episodic memory is a key feature in learning. One must remember past events to act upon a present situation. Episodic memory has been reported to be impaired in individuals with schizophrenia. In order to have an intact episodic memory the contextual features (context) must be bound to the content of the event; this mechanism is referred to as contextual binding. It is proposed that binding errors during the encoding process are responsible for episodic memory impairments in schizophrenia. Since the hippocampal formation is considered to be the central element for contextual binding, it is hypothesized that the synaptic disorganization described in this condition results in such a deficit. Moreover, the hippocampus mediates and influences other cognitive processes such as learning and executive functioning. Hence, a contextual binding deficit can have important consequences on cognition, behaviour and emotions. The object of this dissertation was to investigate the neurofunctioning, neuroanatomy and neurofunctional connectivity of the hippocampus while performing a task that utilized contextual binding mechanisms. Since spatial relational processing is part of contextual binding and is rooted in the hippocampal regions, visuospatial navigation, more precisely a wayfinding task, was used as a probe to activate the hippocampus and its associated regions in a group of patients with schizophrenia and matched healthy controls. The following dissertation presents three original research papers contributing to our understanding of the contextual binding and hippocampal deficits in schizophrenia. The first paper investigates the neurofunctioning of the hippocampus with a wayfinding task. The second paper investigates the hippocampal structural abnormality in schizophrenia and how it relates to performance during the wayfinding task. The third paper explores effective connectivity of the hippocampus with other brain regions involved in navigation in schizophrenia with a particular interest in the prefrontal cortex. These three studies demonstrate significant neurofunctional, neuroanatomical, and neurofunctional connectivity deficits in the hippocampus of the patients with schizophrenia compared to a healthy control population. Results of all three papers are further discussed in terms of research and clinical implications.

Le jeu de « Tetris » peut-il vraiment diminuer la survenue des intrusions traumatiques ? C’est ce qu’indique une étude récente de Holmes et al. (2009). Les intrusions traumatiques représentent un des trois symptômes majeurs de l’état de stress post traumatique. Lors de l’exposition à un évènement traumatique, le traitement de l’information ne s’effectue pas de la même manière que dans une situation quotidienne. Les informations sont principalement traitées dans leurs composantes perceptives et sensorielles et manquent à la fois de conceptualisation et de contextualisation. Ce déséquilibre empêche l’intégration de la représentation de l’événement traumatique au sein de la mémoire autobiographique. Riches en détails sensori-perceptifs, les intrusions traumatiques contribuent à la survenue des manifestations d’hyperactivation neurovégétatives et induisent une détresse émotionnelle et psychique importante lors de leur réactivation en mémoire. Les connaissances actuelles des sciences cognitives nous permettent une meilleure compréhension des processus à l’œuvre lors de la formation des intrusions. Au travers de cette recherche, nous proposons d’approfondir la compréhension de la genèse des intrusions traumatiques. Nous souhaitons poursuivre les travaux publiés par l’équipe de recherche du Professeur Emily Holmes indiquant que la réalisation d’une tâche visuo-spatiale permettrait de diminuer la survenue des intrusions traumatiques / Can Tetris game really reduce analogue traumatic intrusions? A recent research conducted by Holmes et al. (2009) show this conclusion. Traumatic intrusions are one of three main symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder. During exposition to a traumatic event, information processing is not the same that usually. Under extreme stress, perceptual information is mainly processed leading to a lack of conceptual framework. This maladjustment prevent the build of integrate representation to autobiographical memory. Full of sensorial and perceptive details, traumatic intrusions lead to neurovegetative hyperarousal, emotional and psychological distress when reactivated. Current know to cognitive sciences we allow better understanding to processing at work in build of traumatic intrusions. We want to continue the research of Holmes et al. indicating that the realization of visuospatial task reduces traumatic intrusions

Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T20:49:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-09-24. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2015-08-11T03:25:34Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 Publico-017.pdf: 1297043 bytes, checksum: 1c07f97bbf8c4bb508620341eee9116b (MD5) / Associação Fundo de Incentivo à Psicofarmacologia (AFIP) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Justificativa: Drogas colinérgicas como 0 donepezil aumentam a disponibilidade de acetilcolina (ACh) e consequentemente melhoram a cognção em uma variedade de disfunções clínicas. Contudo, não há consenso quanta ao potencial nootrópico agudo desta droga quando administrada a voluntários jovens sadios. Em estudos que investigaram os efeitos agudos do donepezil a avaliação cognitiva foi feita antes que 0 pica de concentração plasmático fosse atingido. Portanto, a falta de resultados consistentes pode refletir concentações subótimas e/ou variáveis de ACh. Objetivo: avaliar 0 curso temporal dos efeitos cognitivos de uma dose oral aguda do donepezil em voluntários jovens sadios. Método: Este foi um estudo duplo cego, controlado por placebo, em grupos paralelos de tratamento que avaliou os efeitos agudos de 5 mg de donepezil por via oral em voluntários sadios jovens. Os sujeitos foram testados duas vezes após a ingestão do donepezil: aos 90 min. (tempo que coincide com as testagens prévias na literatura) e aos 210 min. (tempo que coincide com 0 pica de concentração plasmático teórico do donepezil). A bateria de testes incluiu tarefas que avaliam domínios cognitivos sensíveis a manipulações colinérgicas: processamento visuospacial, memória episódica, e subcomponentes de memória operacional, além de avaliações do humor. Resultados: a maior parte de efeitos do donepezil foi observada em ambos os tempos de testagem e incluíram melhora do humor, recordação tardia de uma história, recordação (imediata e tardia) de objetos, de posições espaciais estáticas e integração da identidade de objetos com as suas posições espaciais. Contudo, a melhora de desempenho na medida de funcionamento do executivo central (digit span ordem inversa) ocorreu apenas aos 210 min. Conclusão: os efeitos cognitivos benéficos do donepezil após administração aguda foram observados em vários domínios cognitivos em voluntários jovens sadios, mas 0 seu potencial nootrópico completo e mais claramente encontrado próximo ao pico de concentração plasmático esta droga. / Rationale: Drugs such as donepezil that increase the availability of acetylcholine (Ach) are known to improve cognition. However, there is no consensus as to the acute nootropic potential of this drug when administered to young, healthy volunteers. In the studies that have investigated this issue donepezil effects were evaluated before peak-plasma concentration was reached. Hence, lack of consistent results may reflect performance at suboptimal and/or variable concentrations of ACh. Objective: To evaluate the time course of cognitive effects of an acute oral dose of donepezil in young, healthy volunteers. Methods: This was a double-blind, placebo controlled, parallel group study of cognitive effects of acute oral donepezil (5 mg). Subjects were tested twice after donepezil ingestion: 90 min (time that coincides with previous testing in the literature) and 210 min. (theoretical peak-plasma concentration). The test battery included tasks that tap cognitive domains that have been shown to be sensitive to ACh manipulations: visuospatial processing, episodic memory, and subcomponents of working memory, in addition to evaluations of mood. Results: Most of donepezil’s effects were observed at both testing times and included improvement in mood, long-term recall of prose, objects recall, recall of static spatial locations and integration of objects with their locations. However, improvement of performance in the central executive measure (backward digit span) occurred only at 210 min. Conclusion: positive cognitive effects of acute donepezil can be observed in various cognitive domains in young, healthy volunteers but its full nootropic potential is more clearly found close to peak-plasma concentration. / TEDE / BV UNIFESP: Teses e dissertações

Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T20:50:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-11-24 / A Doença de Alzheimer é a causa mais frequente de demência. Os sintomas clínicos da doença se iniciam com um comprometimento da memória e da função executiva, gradativamente há um envolvimento de outras funções como a linguagem, conhecimento semântico, pensamento abstrato, atenção e habilidades visuoespaciais. A função visuoespacial consiste na identificação de um estímulo e sua localização, e pode estar comprometida no início do quadro clínico. A bateria “Visual Object and Space Perception” (VOSP) se propõe a avaliar as funções visuoespaciais minimizando a interferência de outras funções cognitivas. Objetivos: Avaliar as funções visuoespaciais na doença de Alzheimer de intensidade leve; Avaliar a sensibilidade desta bateria em uma amostra brasileira; Determinar escores de corte preliminares para diferenciar idosos saudáveis de pacientes com doença de Alzheimer. Métodos: 31 pacientes com Doença de Alzheimer leve e 44 idosos saudáveis foram avaliados com uma bateria de testes neuropsicológicos e com a VOSP. Resultados: Controles tiveram melhor desempenho em todos os testes neuropsicológicos. Na VOSP, os pacientes com Doença de Alzheimer mostraram pior desempenho em todos os testes de percepção de objeto, e em dois testes de percepção de espaço (Localização de Numero e Análise de Cubos). Conclusões: A função visuoespacial mostra-se comprometida em estágios iniciais da doença de Alzheimer. A bateria VOSP demonstrou ser sensível a déficits visuoespaciais. / TEDE / BV UNIFESP: Teses e dissertações

Orientador: Prof. Dr. André Mascioli Cravo / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Neurociência e Cognição, 2016. / Uma série de estudos tem mostrado que saber onde determinado alvo será apresentado facilita seu processamento. Em muitos desses trabalhos, uma pista simbólica (como uma seta) é utilizada para guiar a orientação da atenção espacial. Entretanto, os mecanismos que regem o aprendizado e a atualização de pistas simbólicas visuoespaciais ainda são amplamente desconhecidos. Para esclarecermos melhor estes mecanismos, investigamos: (1) os padrões comportamentais da aprendizagem e atualização de pistas simbólicas e (2) os mecanismos neurais subjacentes a estes processos. Foi utilizada uma versão modificada do paradigma de orientação de atenção espacial de Posner juntamente com registro eletroencefalográfico. Nessa tarefa, os participantes deviam aprender a cada bloco qual das cores em um anel de cores servia de pista simbólica e utilizá-la para orientar a atenção e fazer a discriminação de um alvo. A tarefa incluía uma condição rara de pista inválida. Os resultados apontaram rápida aprendizagem da pista simbólica, porém a interpretação dos correlatos eletrofisiológicos ficou prejudicada por aparente contaminação das tentativas válidas pelas inválidas. Um novo experimento foi feito sem pistas inválidas e com a utilização de um distrator em metade dos blocos. Novamente, efeitos da aprendizagem da pista foram observados após uma única exposição, com ganhos em tempo de reação e acurácia. A presença do distrator limitou o benefício da pista. Como correlatos eletrofisiológicos foram identificados dois componentes no período entre pista e alvo: um componente semelhante à negatividade precoce de direcionamento atencional (EDAN) e uma negatividade tardia. Esses potenciais se intensificavam ao longo do bloco. Também foi observada tendência de dessincronização contralateral na banda alfa em eletrodos parieto-occipitais com intensificação com o avanço do bloco. Esses resultados sugerem que alguns correlatos eletrofisiológicos típicos da utilização de pistas simbólicas não se estabelecem imediatamente com sua aprendizagem, estando ausentes nas primeiras utilizações componentes como a negatividade anterior de direcionamento atencional (ADAN) e a positividade tardia de direcionamento atencional (LDAP), enquanto outros (EDAN e dessincronização contralateral de alfa) já são identificáveis. Adicionalmente, o padrão dos correlatos eletrofisiológicos permite levantar a hipótese de que nessa etapa inicial haja um papel preponderante da memória operacional para utilização das pistas simbólicas ainda não estabelecidas completamente. / Several studies have shown that knowing where a target will be presented facilitates its processing. Many of these works use symbolic cues (for instance, arrows) to guide spatial attention orienting. However, the mechanisms that rule the learning and updating of symbolic visuospatial cues are still unknown. To clarify these mechanisms, we investigated: (1) behavioral patterns of learning and updating symbolic cues and (2) neural mechanisms underlying these processes. A modified version of Posner¿s paradigm of attention orienting was used, along with eletroencephalografic recording. Participants had to learn which color from a colorwheel was the cue on each experimental block and use it to guide attention to facilitate the discrimination of a target. The task included a rare condition of invalid cues. Results showed fast learning of symbolic cues, however the interpretation of eletrphysiological correlates was impaired by an apparent contamination of the valid condition by the invalid one. A new experiment was done without invalid cues and including a distractor on half of the blocks. Once again, effects of cue learning were present after a single exposition, with gains in reaction time and accuracy. Distractor presence limited cueing benefits. As neural correlates, two components in the period between cue and target were identified: a component similar to the early directing attention negativity (EDAN) and a late negativity. These potentials were enhanced throughout the block. A tendency of contralateral desyncronization on parieto-occipital electrodes, increasing along the block, was also present. These results suggest that some typical eletrophysiological correlates of symbolic cueing in visuospatial attention are not immediately established with learning, since the anterior directing attention negativity (ADAN) and the late directing attention positivity (LDAP) are absent, while others (EDAN and alpha desynchronization) are already identifiable. Additionally, the pattern of eletrophysiological correlates found allows us to hypothesize that, in this initial stage, there is a heavy role for working memory in using symbolic cues that are not completely established.

Orientadora: Profa. Dra. Maria Teresa Carthery-Goulart / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Neurociência e Cognição, São Bernardo do Campo, 2017. / Apesar de bastante explorada na literatura, a memória operacional (MO) ainda tem lacunas não preenchidas, principalmente em seu componente não verbal. O modelo de MO de múltiplos componentes de Baddeley e Hitch (1974) é o mais completo e amplamente usado. Fundamentada neste modelo, esta pesquisa teve como objetivo principal explorar uma amostra de idosos saudáveis com diferentes níveis de escolaridade, de forma a ser a mais representativa possível da população. A tarefa verbal de span utilizada foi o digit span auditivo da escala Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale ¿ terceira edição (WAIS-III) e a tarefa visuoespacial foi um teste de rastreio cognitivo computadorizado ¿ CompCog (Computerized Cognitive Screening Test), similar à tarefa Blocos de Corsi. Além da extensão de cada componente da MO, houve também o registro do tempo de reação mediano na tarefa computadorizada. Participaram da pesquisa 87 idosos e 42 jovens universitários. Foram realizadas comparações intra e intergrupos. No estudo 1, comparouse um grupo de idosos (N=32) com o de jovens (N=42), ambos com escolaridade igual ou superior a 12 anos. Foram observados efeitos da idade nas medidas de MO e percebeuse que o declínio da MO com a idade é mais evidente no componente visuoespacial. Houve diferença significativa entre jovens e idosos, com melhor desempenho dos jovens em todas as tarefas. Entretanto, no tempo de reação, o grupo de idosos apresentou desempenho inesperado através da diminuição do tempo na tarefa visuoespacial mais complexa. No estudo 2, 87 idosos foram subdivididos em faixas de escolaridades (variação entre 0 e 17 anos de escolaridade). Foram feitas correlações entre as variáveis escolaridade e nível socioeconômico. Foram testados modelos de regressão linear que puderam explicar, parcialmente, algumas das medidas de MO. A idade não influenciou os desempenhos, mas a escolaridade e a pontuação socioeconômica atuaram como preditoras destas medidas. Na comparação entre os grupos, houve diferença de desempenho nas tarefas de span inverso explicadas pela escolaridade. Os idosos mais escolarizados também foram, em média, mais rápidos que os demais. As maiores diferenças estão entre o grupo de analfabetos quando comparados com os demais, indicando ligação entre a preservação do funcionamento do executivo central e a escolarização. / In spite of widely explored, working memory (WM) data still has few unexplored components, specially the non-verbal one. The WM multicomponent model proposed by Baddeley & Hitch (1974) is considered the most complete and it is vastly found in previous literature. The present study is grounded on this multicomponent model and had as main objective analyse the performance of a group of health elders with different educational levels at 2 WM tasks. This group was selected in a way that fully represented Brazilian population, including low to high educational levels. The 2 applied tasks were: (1) verbal span task - the auditive digit span of the third edition Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III) and (2) visuospatial task - a cognitive screening test was used, the CompCog (Computerized Cognitive Screening Test), similar to Corsi blocks task. Besides the extension of each WM component, the median reaction time at the computerized task was also considered. 87 Elders and 42 undergraduate students participated in the present study. Analysis were ran considering within and between-group factors. At study 1, one Elder group (N=32) was compared to the undergraduate group (N=42), both groups having participants with 12 or higher education years. Main effects of age were observed at WM measures and the WM decline is more evident at the visuospatial component. There was a significant difference between young and elders, where younger participants showed better performance in all tasks. However, analyzing reaction time, the elders¿ group showed an unexpected performance with faster reaction times at the most complex visuospatial task. At study 2, 87 elders were subdivided in schooling levels (varying between 0 and 17 years of study). Analysis were performed considering educational levels and socioeconomic status as variables. Linear regression models were tested, and they could partially explain WM measures. Age did not influence performance, but education years and socioeconomic status were found to be predictors of these measures. In between-group analysis there was a difference in performance at inverse span tasks, explained by educational levels. Elders with more study years showed faster reaction times than the others. The more pronounced difference was between the illiterates group and the other groups, indicating a link between executive centre functions preservation and educational levels.