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Working Memory. (Oxford Psychology Series No. 11.)

Article in Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry · May 1987

DOI: 10.1136/jnnp.50.5.654-a · Source: PubMed Central

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654 Book reviews

a good chapter on the present status of Gruzelier and co-workers on hemisphere what occurs in the service in which the
evoked potentials in aging and dementia. asymmetries in schizophrenia is of course authors work is a sort of "Categorical
This section is weak on somatosensory also included. Imperative". A simple clearly written
evoked potentials, and spinal evoked poten- Who should buy this book? Clearly, it account of the most commonly agreed diag-
tials. If these had been included instead of should be on every library shelf, as a current nostic categories would have been most
some of the more repetitious chapters statement of the present state of neu- helpful; the flow chart adds little and makes
relating to visual evoked responses, this ropsychophysiology. Those who have access simplistic assumptions some of which are
would have made a formidable section. to departmental grants would be well open to argument. It also seems somewhat
Section 2 deals with slow wave phenom- advised to buy a copy for their own unusual to give a schema for assessment
ena and gives a rather poor and idio- departmental bookshelves. Certainly it before clarifying the issues of diagnosis.
syncratic view of present day slow wave should be available to those of us who are Confusion is added to the confusional states
research. Although one chapter summarises involved in teaching, and I would even agree which seem to be on a continuum with the
the present position as regards the CNV and with the editors when they suggest that it dementias on one hand and yet we are
psychiatric states, with a further chapter on might be given to final year undergraduate exhorted to distinguish them carefully but
brain DC potentials, the section does not students (though I feel only the brightest not given a great deal of help in this task.
deal with the very large literature and theory ones are likely to get much out of it). As an The spurious impression of clarity, given by
underlying P300 or other CNV work. This is enthusiastic brain researcher, should you the flow charts is shown again by that
a serious omission, which weakens the sec- put your hand into your own pocket and referring to the persecutory states, in which
tion. come out with 45 shiny one pound coins? I it is suggested if the patient is undergoing
Section 3 takes a broad overview of some suspect not, provided a copy is available in "real" persecution then they cannot have
aspects of the cutting edge of EEG analysis. your departmental library, so that you can paraphrenia; would that it were as easy as
As this is such a wide field, it is a question of read (or copy) the chapters most of interest that.
editorial choice, and the selection that the to you. The question of how easily people
editors have made is relevant to the rest of I must confess to a personal prejudice untrained in psychology and psychiatry will
the book. For example, there is a good chap- against books which look as though they understand the text is problematical when in
ter on the validity of EEG and alpha sym- have been run off on a rather old and case studies we are expected to understand
metry by Butler and Glass, and a good inefficient typewriter. Surely a book of this the meaning of "hostile dependent behav-
review chapter of quantitative EEG meth- quality (and at this price) deserves to be iour" and the technical language in other
ods in human neuropsychopharmacology. properly printed? sections is also complex. Perhaps the prob-
Section 4 deals with autonomic and P FENWICK lem orientated analyses of clinical cases give
skeleto-motor activity. This is an area which the best flavour of what the authors
is usually sadly neglected in textbooks of intended to achieve, conveying aspects of
psychophysiology. The section is opened by practical and commonsense interventions.
Levy, Martin and co-workers, in an excel- Has the book achieved its aims? Only in
lent chapter on their theory of differential Practical Psychiatry of Old Age. By John part: it is aimed like a blunderbus at a wide
conditioning as a basis for psycho- Wattis and Michael Church. (Pp 195; £1995 field for many disciplines, but the expla-
physiological disorders. The section pro- h/bk; £8 95 p/bk.) London: Croom Helm nations of disease processes and the use of
ceeds through a description of the use of the Ltd, 1986. flow charts are simplistic rather than simple,
polygraph as a lie detector, and a section by though the glimpses it gives of clinical prac-
Randy Katz on understanding how the pre- The authors declare their objectives in their tice are more encouraging and helpful.
dictability of a stimulus affects the stress introduction. The book is to be a "practical K BERGMANN
that is produced. There is then a comprehen- approach", "in non technical language",
sive coverage of GSR, EMG, and the elec- "accessible to a wide range of health and
trocardiogram in psychophysiological social care workers ... and their trainees",
research. "using a problem solving approach" and
The final section, on interdisciplinary dealing with different patients as "whole Working Memory. (Oxford Psychology
study, is a lucky dip by the editors into the people interacting to their environment". Series No. 11.) By Alan Baddeley. (Pp 289;
current tub of the more exciting aspects of Few would dispute their objectives, but £30 00.) Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.
psychophysiological research. All choice have they achieved their aim? Their book
must be idiosyncratic, and their choices cer- falls into various sections; basic background Psychologists have commonly distinguished
tainly reflect this. There is a good article by information and skills, dealing with symp- between short lasting memory represent-
Wastell on the basic assumptions underlying toms and discussing the problems of care ations and more durable, longer term forms
the event related potential, which takes us to and management. of storage. The short term temporary
task for the naive view that most of us have The background information consists of a memory representations are held to be
shared to date. There is also a good descrip- useful review of the demographic and epi- strictly limited in terms of the amount of
tion of contemporary models of human demiological aspects of the problems faced information which can be stored at any one
information processing, using the tech- in caring for an ageing population, an enu- time, as well as being transient. In many
niques of psychophysiology. I was pleased meration of the types of service that have contemporary information processing mod-
to see that magnetoencephalography is at developed, but this is followed by an els of skills such as language comprehension
long last given some mention, although this unhelpful flow chart concerning patterns of and problem solving, temporary forms of
article is only an introductory one and service delivery and an accompanying storage, termed Working Memory, play a
already outdated. The mandatory article by description which gives an impression that central role. Despite the popularity of this
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Book reviews 655

construct, there is comparative-ly little agree- this book has been written for clinicians. jects at risk of preventable infections of this
ment with regard to the striucture of the Although they suggest that the readership type. The question of brain biopsy is dis-
working memory system, or tthe types, and might consist of general practitioners as well cussed in a full and honest way and there is
levels of representation that are involved as specialists, it is clear from the general a full account of the complications of com-
(see Monsell1 for discussion). level and approach of the book that it is mon infections such as varicella. The role of
Commencing with the acco unt presented really intended for neurologists and neu- electrophysiological diagnosis and of CSF
in Baddeley and Hitch,2 the a uthor and his rosurgeons, and also for pathologists with examination receives adequate attention in
co-workers have developed a particular an interest in neuropathology. Throughout relation to individual diseases, and, in the
model of Working Memory, a nd this mono- the book a commendable attempt is made to general sense in the introductory chapters
graph presents an overview off research and explain the clinical features of viral encepha- on clinical management and diagnosis. The
theory within that specific frarmework. Alan litis in relation to causative organisms and precautions to be taken in managing
Baddeley's own developments ,of this model pathological processes. The authors realise patients with Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease and,
are persuasively described, bout almost no that it is unusual for the clinician to recog- in particular, the methods of sterilisation of
consideration is given to allternative the- nise the precise viral cause of illness in any instruments coming into contact with body
ories. Working Memory is a s,tate of the art individual patient but the emphasis of the fluids of such patients, and of patients with
account of particular, albeit iinfluential, set book is on illustrating the particular features AIDS, are properly described. The book is
of constructs. It makes no r )retensions to of certain characteristic infections. Clearly, marred to some extent by the rather poor
being a critical or tutorial surn vey of the cur- in clinical practice the majority of patients index and those seeking advice on the man-
rent literature on short termi storage sys- with viral encephalitis are never diagnosed agement of encephalitis in children will find
tems, representations and pro ,cesses. in the specific terms, that is, the precise caus- that the special problems posed by this syn-
In addition to evidence fr4 om studies of ative virus is never discovered. At the drome are discussed not in one place, but
normal subjects, Baddeley disccusses some of present time it is arguable that if this infor- scattered throughout the book in relation to
the relevant neuropsychologiical literature. mation were to be available as a result of the various viral causes. There is no overall
Thus patients with a selective iimpairment of some yet to be invented rapid diagnostic discussion of the childhood encepha-
auditory verbal span are conssidered as evi- test, management would be altered in any lopathies believed to be viral that lead to so
dence for failure of one of thi[e components way and it has to be said that there appears much disability, despite the fact that they
of system. Similarly certain ty'pes of frontal to be little clinical role for the speciality of have received attention in a nationwide
lobe syndrome are identificed with dys- virology in this context. Despite this, if there study during recent years. There have been
function of another componenit. In the latter is to be any improvement in the pragmatic other publications in monograph form con-
chapters of this book Alan Baddeley dis- forms of management currently used in the cerned with the general problem of viral
cusses the relevance of Worlking Memory treatment of viral meningitis then informa- encephalitis and the present book compares
for a range of topics includinig fluent read- tion of this type will need to be made avail- well with these, although it is perhaps some-
ing, the development of memoory span, aging able since this should lead to a better charac- what lacking in discussion of the basic sci-
and dementia. terisation of individual viral syndromes, at ence aspects of the processes of viral
Working Memory providi[es an intro- present lost within the overall clinical fea- invasion of cells, and especially of the ner-
duction to the framework wlhich has been tures. In this book the syndromes of viral vous system, and the mechanisms of the
developed by the author whic' h would make infection of the nervous system are treated acquisition of immunity.
a good introductory source for psycho- as sporadic, epidemic, parainfectious, brain M SWASH
logists. It is insufficiently gene ral in scope to stem, or sub-acute and chronic. The special
appeal to a non-specialist audlience. situations of encephalitis and immu-
nocompromised patients, including AIDS
References and in Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease receive
chapters of their own. The book begins with Benzodiazepine/GABA Receptors and Chlo-
I Monsell S. Components of Working Memory ride Channels: Structural and Functional
conventional accounts of the pathological
underlying verbal skills: and clinical features with advice on manage- Properties. Receptor Biochenistry and Meth-
Capacities" view. In: Boum H, Bouwhuis ment before
a
odology Vol 5. Edited by Richard W Olsen
D, eds. Attention and Perfo)rmance X. Hill- launching into detailed
sdale N.J., Lawrence Erlbaaun Associates, accounts of the various forms of encephalitis and J Craig Venter. (Pp 366; £42-50.) New
1984. under the headings enumerated above. This York: Alan R Liss Inc, 1986.
2 Baddeley A, Hitch G. Workitng Memory. In: is a successful approach although it has to
Bower G, ed. The Psychol4 'ogy of Learning be said that the sub-division of sporadic and Investigations of GABA receptors and the
and Motivation. Vol 8. New'York: Academic epidemic encephalitis seems to this reviewer actions of benzodiazepine drugs has pro-
Press, 1974. to be arbitrary in the context of the clinician vided a model by which other receptor sys-
RA MCCARTHY confronted with a patient with encephalitis tems should be investigated. The importance
late on a Sunday night when all the viro- of drug action alone at these receptor sites in
logists are safely in bed! The book is to be the treatment of seizures and anxiety might
commended in the detailed approach taken have warranted the intensity of study
Viral Encephalitis: Pathology, Diagnosis and in the descriptions of the different types of GABA and benzodiazepine receptors have
Management. By John Booss and Margaret viral infection. It is thoroughly well refer- received. However, the advances made are
M Esiri. (Pp 365; £39 50.) Oxford: Blackwell enced and sound advice is given on basic also a tribute to the consistent efforts of a
Scientific Publications, 1986. matters such as the management of animal small number of individual scientists over
bites in relation to rabies exposure and in the the past decade. The present volume charts
The authors emphasise in theiir Preface that appropriate methods of safeguarding sub- progress in our understanding of the
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Working Memory. (Oxford

Psychology Series No. 11.)
RA McCarthy

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1987 50: 654-655

doi: 10.1136/jnnp.50.5.654-a

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