Brain Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Brain Cancer, including details on symptoms, benign and malignant tumors, gliomas, treatment.

Attention and memory functioning among pediatric patients with medulloblastoma.

Reeves CB, Palmer SL, Reddick WE, Merchant TE, Buchanan GM, Gajjar A, Mulhern RK

Division of Behavioral Medicine, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 332 North Lauderdale Street, Memphis, Tennessee 38105-2794, USA. barber24@aol.com

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypotheses that memory and attention deficits are prevalent in survivors of childhood medulloblastoma (MB) and that these deficits are associated with problems with academic achievement. METHODS: The medical charts of 38 child survivors of MB, who were administered the California Verbal Learning Test, Child Version (CVLT-C), Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT), and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) as part of a comprehensive neurocognitive test battery, were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Although no significant verbal memory deficits were found, 8 of 11 CPT variables were significantly below the standardization mean (p < or = .01). Additionally, stepwise regression analyses found that increased omission errors were significantly associated with lower reading and math performance (p < or = .01). CONCLUSIONS: These findings confirm previous reports of attention deficits among survivors of MB and provide a better understanding of how the dysfunction of particular attentional substrates (e.g., perceptual sensitivity, response bias) may result in learning problems in this population.

Published 9 March 2006 in J Pediatr Psychol, 31(3): 272-80.
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