Information processing speed in Friedreich's ataxia

Abstract

Three patients with Friedreich's ataxia and six controls matched by age and vocabulary and information scores on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale‐Revised were administered a measure of short‐term memory scanning. Patients with Friedreich's ataxia demonstrated a deficit in information processing speed in the relative absence of impairment in attention, memory, language, judgement, reasoning, and other cognitive functions. The short term memory scanning procedure may be useful in documenting cognitive slowing and in distinguishing this impairment from the motor abnormality often associated with a subcortical brain disorder.