brain sciences Article The Association between the Binding Processes of Working Memory and Vascular Risk Profile in Adults Eirini Bika 1, *, Despina Moraitou 1,2 , Elvira Masoura 1 , George Kolios 3 , Georgia Papantoniou 2,4,5 , Maria Sofologi 4,5 , Vasileios Papaliagkas 6 and Georgios Ntritsos 7,8   Citation: Bika, E.; Moraitou, D.; Masoura, E.; Kolios, G.; Papantoniou, G.; Sofologi, M.; Papaliagkas, V.; Ntritsos, G. The Association between the Binding Processes of Working Memory and Vascular Risk Profile in Adults. Brain Sci. 2021, 11, 1140. https://doi.org/10.3390/ brainsci11091140 Academic Editor: Dona E. Locke Received: 7 August 2021 Accepted: 26 August 2021 Published: 28 August 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Laboratory of Psychology, Section of Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, School of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; demorait@psy.auth.gr (D.M.); emasoura@psy.auth.gr (E.M.) 2 Laboratory of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation (CIRI-AUTH), Balkan Center, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Buildings A & B, 10th km Thessaloniki-Thermi Rd, P.O. Box 8318, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece; tsolakim1@gmail.com or gpapanto@uoi.gr 3 IT of the School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; georgekolios@psy.auth.gr 4 Laboratory of Psychology, Department of Early Childhood Education, School of Education, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece; m.sofologi@uoi.gr 5 Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University Research Centre of Ioannina (U.R.C.I.), 45100 Ioannina, Greece 6 Department of Biomedical Sciences, Alexander Campus, International Hellenic University, P.O. Box 141, Sindos, 57400 Thessaloniki, Greece; vpapaliagkas@mls.teithe.gr 7 Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina Medical School, 45110 Ioannina, Greece; gntritsos@uoi.gr 8 Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, School of Informatics and Telecommunications, University of Ioannina, 47150 Arta, Greece * Correspondence: irenempika@gmail.com; Tel.: +30-69-4546-2016 Abstract: Episodic buffer (EB), a key component of working memory, seems to have a rather compli- cated function as part of binding processes. Recent papers on the field claim that binding processes of working memory (WM) are assisted by attention and executive functions. On the same page, vascular pathology is gaining more ground as the main underlying cause for many brain pathologies. Hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, lack of exercise and smoking are the most common risk factors that people of all ages suffer from and constitute the main vascular risk factors responsible for a possible decline in executive functions and attention. Thus, this research is an attempt to examine the relation between the binding functions of WM and the existence of vascular risk factors via a computerized test focusing on feature binding. The study comprised adults (n = 229) with and without vascular risk factors. The main tools used were a biomarker questionnaire and a feature binding test (FBT). The results showed that participants who report suffering from one or more vascular risk factors had significantly lower performance on specific subtasks of the FBT in comparison to the participants who were healthy. This allows us to assume that there might be a positive association between feature binding and a vascular risk profile in adults, and such a test could be a useful diagnostic tool for early cognitive impairment due to incipient vascular pathology. Keywords: working memory (WM); episodic buffer (EB); feature binding test (FBT); computerized tool; vascular risk profile (VRP) 1. Introduction “Working memory (WM)” is a rather elusive concept with many questions about its function and structure still unanswered [1,2]. The most widely accepted and proved model of WM is the multicomponent model of WM, which consists of the central ex- ecutive (CE) (attention control), the phonological loop (responsible for the retention of Brain Sci. 2021, 11, 1140. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11091140 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/brainsci