S-045 | Semantic memory navigation in HIV: Conceptual associations and word selection patterns

Cognition, Behavior, and Memory
Author: Carolina Gattei | Email: carogattei@utdt.edu

Carolina Gattei^1°2°3°, Franco Ferrante^3°4°, Bárbara Sampedro^2°,  Lucas Sterpin^4°, Valeria Abusamra^4°, Lorena Abusamra, Paola Lorena Cañataro,  Adolfo García^4°

^1° Escuela de Gobierno, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
^2° Instituto de Lingüística, FFyL, Universidad de Buenos Aires
^3° Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
^4° Centro de Neurociencia Cognitiva, Universidad de San Andrés

Objective: This study aimed to characterize semantic memory in individuals with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and mild neurocognitive impairment.
Method: Using a semantic relatedness task, we explored conceptual association and word selection patterns in people living with HIV ( PLWH; n = 50) relative to people living without HIV (n = 46). We also studied whether, within the group of PLWH, word selection patterns were associated with measures of working memory capacity, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control and viral load.
Results: While accuracy did not differ between groups, PLWH produced significantly longer responses than controls (r = .32) , with fewer hypernyms (d = .47), more troponyms (r = .37), and words that were more frequent (r = .39) and had more phonological neighbors (r = .22). None of these patterns correlated with measures of working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control or viral load (all correlation coefficients < .36) . Together, these results suggest that PLWH might use alternative word finding strategies when involved in tasks that require semantic memory navigation, irrespective of the severity of other cognitive symptoms. Such findings contribute to the characterization of cognitive deficits in HIV and to the search of novel markers of the condition.