Chemotherapy and Cognition: The Effect of Chemotherapy on Encoding and Recall (2024)

Undergraduate: Brenna Curtis

Faculty Advisor: Jessica Cohen
Department: Psychology and Neuroscience

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Self-reported rates of cognitive decline in chemotherapy patients are often higher than what can be confirmed through cognitive testing. To find more specifically where cognitive differences lie and how this relates to self-report, this study compares the cognitive performance of 20 breast cancer survivors who have undergone chemotherapy (BCS) to that of 19 healthy controls (HC) who have never had a cancer diagnosis. This study assessed encoding and recall ability across item-specific and relational stimuli, using the Relational and Item Specific Encoding Task (RISE). Eight t-test comparisons were made between the two groups to assess reaction time and accuracy differences on all four measures of the RISE task. We found a tendency toward longer response times in the BCS group during both item-specific and relational encoding. There were no other differences in performances across the groups. To assess self-reported measures of memory decline, the Broadbent Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) was used to assess differences between the BCS group and the HC group. There was a significant difference in self-reported cognitive failures, with the BCS group reporting significantly more memory issues. Scores on the CFQ in the BCS group were found not to correlate with any measures of the cognitive testing on the RISE task.