Seasonal affective disorder has a particularly apt acronym: In the
fall andwinter months, lack of sunlight leaves those afflicted with SAD
feeling gloomy, tired, and irritable. But their mood may not be all that
suffers. Cognitive processes like memory may also be impaired--and these
mental malfunctions seem resistant to light therapy, the main weapon
against SAD.
Gail Eskes, Ph.D., and her colleagues at Canada's Dalhousie
University found that SAD sufferers were less able to follow through on
their everyday intentions and plans. Also impaired were visual memory and
construction (visual memory helps us recall an object's location; visual
construction lets us draw an object that we're viewing).
With the coming of summer or exposure to light therapy, a SAD
sufferer's depression usually lifts. But visual memory and construction
problems seem to resist both therapy and the sun, while difficulties in
completing goals persist through therapy but improve in the summertime.
Eskes speculates that these mental blocks could actually be caused by the
lack of motivation that is often associated with SAD, or by central
nervous system dysfunction. In any case, she says, there's a lot more to
SAD than feeling low.
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Visual Memory
