General Cognitive Deficits Research Articles

Impaired Reversal Learning in APPPS1-21 Mice in the Touchscreen Visual Discrimination Task.

Preclinical-clinical translation of cognitive functions has been difficult in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research but is crucial to the (predictive) validity of AD animal models. Reversal learning, a representation of flexibility and adaptability to a changing environment, might represent such a translatable feature of human cognition. We, therefore, examined visual discrimination (VD) and reversal learning in the APPPS1-21 mouse model of amyloid-based AD pathology. We used touchscreen operant cages in novel and translationally valid, as well as objective testing methodology that minimizes within- or between-trial handling. Mice were trained to associate a visual cue with a food reward (VD learning), and subsequently learned to adjust their response when this rule changed (reversal learning). We assessed performance at two different ages, namely at 6 months of age, considered an early disease stage, and at 9 months, a stage of established pathology. Both at 6 and 9 months, transgenic animals needed more sessions to reach criterion performance, compared to wild-type controls. Overall, transgenic animals do not show a general cognitive, motivational or motor deficit, but experience specific difficulties to adapt to reward contingency changes, already at an early pathology stage.

Cognitive Function in Acquired Bilateral Vestibulopathy: A Cross-Sectional Study on Cognition, Hearing, and Vestibular Loss.

BackgroundSeveral studies have demonstrated cognitive deficits in patients with bilateral vestibulopathy (BVP). So far, little attention has been paid to the hearing status of vestibular patients when evaluating their cognition. Given the well-established link between sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and cognitive decline and the high prevalence of SNHL in BVP patients, it is therefore uncertain if the cognitive deficits in BVP patients are solely due to their vestibular loss or might be, partially, explained by a concomitant SNHL.ObjectiveTo evaluate the link between cognition, hearing, and vestibular loss in BVP patients.DesignProspective cross-sectional analysis of cognitive performance in patients with BVP and control participants without vestibular loss. Both groups included subjects with a variety of hearing (dys)function. Cognition was assessed by means of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status for Hearing Impaired Individuals (RBANS-H).ResultsSixty-four BVP patients were evaluated and compared with 83 control participants. For each subscale and the totale RBANS-H scale a multiple linear regression model was fitted with the following variables: vestibular loss, hearing loss, age, gender, and education. Hearing loss seemed to be associated with worse outcome on the total RBANS-H scale and subscales immediate memory and language. Vestibular loss, on the other hand, was linked to worse performance on the attention subscale of the RBANS-H. Furthermore, we did not observe a correlation between saccular function and cognition.ConclusionThis study has found general cognitive deficits in a large sample size of BVP patients. Multiple linear regression models revealed that both vestibular and hearing dysfunction were associated with different subscales of the cognitive test battery, the RBANS-H. Whereas hearing loss was associated with worse performance on total RBANS-H score, immediate memory and language, vestibular loss was observed to negatively affect attention performance.

S66. THEORY OF MIND IN A FIRST-EPISODE PSYCHOSIS POPULATION USING THE HINTING TASK

BackgroundImpaired social functioning is one of the most apparent features of psychotic disorders. Deficits in social cognition may explain impaired functioning even more than the other cognitive deficits related to psychosis. Of the areas of social cognition, especially relevant to psychosis appear to be deficiencies in theory of mind (ToM), the ability to perceive and interpret the mental states of others, or “mentalizing”. Currently, it is unclear to what extent general cognitive deficits explain impairment in ToM.We wanted to explore 1) the possible difference in ToM between first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients and controls, 2) whether diagnosis group (schizophrenia vs. other psychotic disorders) and level of functioning are associated with ToM, and 3) to what extent these differences are explained by general cognitive performance.MethodsThis study examined ToM in young adults with FEP (n=66). Of those, 25 had schizophrenia and the rest were diagnosed with other psychotic disorders. Age- and gender-matched controls were identified from the Population Information System (n=62). The participants were administered a broad neuropsychological assessment, part of which was the Hinting Task assessing ToM. With 10 short discussions in everyday situations, the Hinting Task assesses the ability to conclude, from indirect speech, what another person really means.A factor score of the Hinting Task was formed, taking into account the varying difficulty level and relevance of the 10 items. To investigate the association between ToM and general cognitive functions, we summarized non-social cognitive performance constructing a “g factor”, which was used as an overall index of general cognitive performance.ResultsThe internal consistency of the Hinting Task calculated from the dichotomized data was modest, with McDonald’s categorical omega estimated at .57 (95 % CI .36, .71). In the single dimensional factor solution, items 8 and 9 had the weakest loadings and item 10 the strongest. Items 9 and 10 of the Hinting Task were the easiest, and items 1 and 8 were the most difficult.Participants with FEP (mean score 16.0) performed worse than controls (mean score 17.4) on the Hinting Task (Cohen’s d=0.50 calculated from factor scores). However, the difference between FEP and control groups was no longer significant when general cognition was controlled for. 75 % of the variance between the groups was explained by general cognitive deficits, especially impaired processing speed (WAIS-III Digit Symbol) and episodic memory (WMS-III Logical Memory).When the FEP group was divided according to diagnosis, those with schizophrenia scored lower on the Hinting Task than the other psychosis patients. The ToM difference between individuals with schizophrenia and controls (Cohen’s d=1.1) remained significant even when general cognitive performance was controlled for. In contrast, those with other psychotic disorders than schizophrenia did not differ from controls.ToM performance of the best functioning patient group (20 patients who had a GAF score ≥50, Hinting Task mean score 17.8) did not differ from that of the control group.DiscussionBased on this study, and supporting previous findings (Bora & Pantelis, Schizophr. Res. 2013), deficits in ToM were already present in early psychosis. They were largely overlapping with deficits in general cognitive processes. However, and in line with previous meta-analytical findings (Sprong et al., Br. J. Psychiatry 2007), in a subgroup of the FEP patients with schizophrenia, impairments in ToM remained after controlling for overall cognitive functioning. In conclusion, specific deficits in ToM could be found in schizophrenia, independent from general cognitive deficits.

Multivariate Relationships Between Cognition and Brain Anatomy Across the Psychosis Spectrum

BackgroundCognitive and structural brain abnormalities range from mild to severe in psychosis. The relationships of specific cognitive functions to specific brain structures across the psychosis spectrum is less certain. MethodsParticipants (n = 678) with bipolar, schizoaffective, or schizophrenia psychoses and healthy control subjects were recruited via the Bipolar-Schizophrenia Network for Intermediate Phenotypes. The Schizo-Bipolar Scale was used to create a psychosis continuum (from purely affective to purely nonaffective). Canonical correlation between 14 cognitive measures and structural brain measures (gray matter volume, cortical thickness, cortical surface area, and local gyrification indices) for 68 neocortical regions yielded constructs that defined shared cognition–brain structure relationships. Canonical discriminant analysis was used to integrate these constructs and efficiently summarize cognition–brain structure relationships across the psychosis continuum. ResultsGeneral cognition was associated with larger gray matter volumes and thicker cortices but smaller cortical surface area in frontoparietal regions. Working memory was associated with larger volume and surface area in frontotemporal regions. Faster response speed was associated with thicker frontal cortices. Constructs that captured general cognitive ability and working memory and their relationship to cortical volumes primarily defined an ordered psychosis spectrum (purely affective, least abnormal through purely nonaffective, and most abnormal). A construct that captured general cognitive ability and its relationship to cortical surface area differentiated purely affective cases from other groups. ConclusionsGeneral cognition and working memory with cortical volume deviations characterized more nonaffective psychoses. Alternatively, affective psychosis cases with general cognitive deficits had deviations in cortical surface area, perhaps accounting for heterogeneous findings across previous studies.

Theory of mind in a first-episode psychosis population using the Hinting Task

Deficiencies in theory of mind (ToM) are common in psychosis and may largely explain impaired social functioning. Currently, it is unclear whether impairments in ToM are explained by the more general cognitive deficits related to psychosis or whether ToM is impaired in psychosis independently of other cognitive deficits. This study examined ToM using the Hinting Task in young adults (n = 66) with first-episode psychosis and matched controls (n = 62). The participants were administered a broad neuropsychological assessment. Participants with psychosis performed worse than controls on the Hinting Task. However, 75% of the variance between the groups was explained by general cognitive deficits, especially impaired processing speed and episodic memory. Hinting Task performance of the best functioning patient group did not differ from that of the control group. When the psychosis group was divided according to diagnosis, the Hinting Task difference between individuals with schizophrenia and controls remained significant even when general cognitive performance was controlled for, suggesting specific verbal ToM deficits in schizophrenia. In contrast, those with other psychotic disorders did not differ from controls. Our results suggest that ToM deficits can be seen in early phases of psychotic disorders, schizophrenia in particular, and are partly independent of other cognitive functions.

Relationship between social-cognitive and social-perceptual aspects of theory of mind and neurocognitive deficits, insight level and schizotypal traits in obsessive-compulsive disorder

ObjectiveThe primary aim of the current study was to investigate different aspects of theory of mind (ToM), including social-cognitive (ToM-reasoning) and social-perceptual (ToM-decoding) in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We also aimed to investigate the relationship between ToM, neurocognition and a number of clinical variables including overvalued ideas, schizotypal personality traits, level of insight, and disease severity. MethodThirty-four patients who have been diagnosed with OCD according to DSM-IV and 30 healthy controls were included in the study. All participants were given a neuropsychological battery including tasks measuring ToM-reasoning, ToM-decoding and other neurocognitive functions. Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), Yale Brown Obsession and Compulsion Scale (YBOC-S) and Overvalued Ideas Scale (OVIS) were also administered to the participants. ResultsPatients with OCD showed significant deficits in both aspects of ToM. ToM performances of patients showed a significant positive correlation with neurocognitive functions. When controlled for general cognition factor, patient-control difference for ToM-reasoning (F = 3,917; p = 0,05), but not ToM-decoding, remained statistically significant. ToM-reasoning impairment of patients was significantly related to the severity of OCD symptoms and poor insight (p = 0,026 and p = 0,045, respectively). On the other hand, general cognitive factor (β = 0,778; t = 3,146; p = 0,04) was found to be the only significant predictor of ToM-reasoning in OCD patients in the multiple linear regression model. ConclusionOCD is associated with ToM impairment, which is related to schizotypal traits, disease severity and poor insight, yet neurocognitive deficits also significantly contribute to this finding. However, ToM-reasoning impairment could be considered as a relatively distinct feature of OCD, which is partly separate from general cognitive deficits.

Trajectories of general cognition and dementia in English older population: An exploration

BackgroundWhile the challenge of dementia in the older English population is widely shared; opposing views are expressed about its trend. We aimed to estimate current dementia prevalence, explored recent trajectory of cognition likeliest to lead to dementia, and examine cohort effects. SettingThe English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2002–2015) is the primary nationwide longitudinal ageing study, which in the latest wave collected for the first time dementia status in the population. The previous six waves provided instead measures of general cognition to establish decade-long trajectories of cognition (n=12,196). Materials and methodsDementia is ascertained using the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status. Dementia in wave seven is predicted by latent trajectories of general cognition over the previous six waves, while controlling for contemporaneous confounders including age, sex, cohort, education, wealth, occupation, marital status, comorbidities, health behaviours, sensory function and social connections (offline and online). Logistic regression with standard errors adjustment for latent trajectories as covariates is used. ResultsThe prevalence of dementia in the older English population aged 60–89 is 9.0% (confidence interval, 9.0–9.1%). Risk factors for general cognitive deficits are also responsible for dementia including sedentary behaviour, presence of comorbidities and lack of social connections. In contrast to cohort effects, which show no association, past trajectories of general cognition has the strongest association with dementia in the last wave. ConclusionConsistent with the long prodromal stage of dementia, decade-long trajectories of cognition are strongly consequential. Also, online social connections deserve further examination for its potential.

The Endocannabinoid System and Autism Spectrum Disorders: Insights from Animal Models.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) defines a group of neurodevelopmental disorders whose symptoms include impaired communication and social interaction with restricted or repetitive motor movements, frequently associated with general cognitive deficits. Although it is among the most severe chronic childhood disorders in terms of prevalence, morbidity, and impact to the society, no effective treatment for ASD is yet available, possibly because its neurobiological basis is not clearly understood hence specific drugs have not yet been developed. The endocannabinoid (EC) system represents a major neuromodulatory system involved in the regulation of emotional responses, behavioral reactivity to context, and social interaction. Furthermore, the EC system is also affected in conditions often present in subsets of patients diagnosed with ASD, such as seizures, anxiety, intellectual disabilities, and sleep pattern disturbances. Despite the indirect evidence suggestive of an involvement of the EC system in ASD, only a few studies have specifically addressed the role of the EC system in the context of ASD. This review describes the available data on the investigation of the presence of alterations of the EC system as well as the effects of its pharmacological manipulations in animal models of ASD-like behaviors.

Deficits in visual working-memory capacity and general cognition in African Americans with psychosis

On average, patients with psychosis perform worse than controls on visual change-detection tasks, implying that psychosis is associated with reduced capacity of visual working memory (WM). In the present study, 79 patients diagnosed with various psychotic disorders and 166 controls, all African Americans, completed a change-detection task and several other neurocognitive measures. The aims of the study were to (1) determine whether we could observe a between-group difference in performance on the change-detection task in this sample; (2) establish whether such a difference could be specifically attributed to reduced WM capacity (k); and (3) estimate k in the context of the general cognitive deficit in psychosis. Consistent with previous studies, patients performed worse than controls on the change-detection task, on average. Bayesian hierarchical cognitive modeling of the data suggested that this between-group difference was driven by reduced k in patients, rather than differences in other psychologically meaningful model parameters (guessing behavior and lapse rate). Using the same modeling framework, we estimated the effect of psychosis on k while controlling for general intellectual ability (g, obtained from the other neurocognitive measures). The results suggested that reduced k in patients was stronger than predicted by the between-group difference in g. Moreover, a mediation analysis suggested that the relationship between psychosis and g (i.e., the general cognitive deficit) was mediated by k. The results were consistent with the idea that reduced k is a specific deficit in psychosis, which contributes to the general cognitive deficit.

Electrophysiological evidence for detrimental impact of a reappraisal emotion regulation strategy on subsequent cognitive control in schizophrenia.

In healthy individuals, there is evidence that effective implementation of an emotion regulation strategy has beneficial effects on temporally proximal cognitive control task performance. This effect occurs because both of these processes rely heavily on the prefrontal cortex. Individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) have impairments in both emotion regulation and cognitive control that are driven by structural and functional abnormalities of the prefrontal cortex; however, it is unknown whether emotion regulation attempts fail to benefit subsequently performed cognitive control tasks in people with SZ. The present study examined whether attempts to increase or decrease negative emotion via reappraisal have differential effects on subsequent cognitive control in a sample of outpatients diagnosed with SZ (n = 30) and demographically matched healthy controls (CN; n = 29). Participants completed a combined emotion regulation and cognitive control task in which numerical Stroop trials were presented immediately after unpleasant or neutral images that were either increased via reappraisal, decreased via reappraisal, or passively viewed. The electroencephalogram was recorded while participants performed the reappraisal-Stroop task and event related potentials (ERPs) were used to index emotion regulation effectiveness (late positive potential: LPP) and cognitive control (sustained potential: SP). Both CN and SZ evidenced higher LPP amplitude for unpleasant than neutral stimuli consistent with robust neural response to unpleasant stimuli. Although CN demonstrated neurophysiological evidence of effective use of reappraisal to increase and decrease negative emotion, SZ only showed an effective ability to increase negative emotion via reappraisal. CN displayed enhanced cognitive control following increase trials and impaired cognitive control following decrease trials, as indicated by modulation of SP amplitude. In SZ, increase instructions impaired cognitive control and decrease instructions had no effect on cognitive control. Findings suggest that emotion regulation abnormalities may play an underrecognized role in general cognitive control deficits that occur in SZ. (PsycINFO Database Record

Transdiagnostic Associations Between Functional Brain Network Integrity and Cognition

Cognitive impairment occurs across the psychosis spectrum and is associated with functional outcome. However, it is unknown whether these shared manifestations of cognitive dysfunction across diagnostic categories also reflect shared neurobiological mechanisms or whether the source of impairment differs. To examine whether the general cognitive deficit observed across psychotic disorders is similarly associated with functional integrity of 2 brain networks widely implicated in supporting many cognitive domains. A total of 201 healthy control participants and 375 patients with psychotic disorders from the Bipolar-Schizophrenia Network on Intermediate Phenotypes (B-SNIP) consortium were studied from September 29, 2007, to May 31, 2011. The B-SNIP recruited healthy controls and stable outpatients from 6 sites: Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Detroit, Michigan; and Hartford, Connecticut. All participants underwent cognitive testing and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Data analysis was performed from April 28, 2015, to February 21, 2017. The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was used to measure cognitive ability. A principal axis factor analysis on the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia battery yielded a single factor (54% variance explained) that served as the measure of general cognitive ability. Functional network integrity measures included global and local efficiency of the whole brain, cingulo-opercular network (CON), frontoparietal network, and auditory network and exploratory analyses of all networks from the Power atlas. Group differences in network measures, associations between cognition and network measures, and mediation models were tested. The final sample for the current study included 201 healthy controls, 143 patients with schizophrenia, 103 patients with schizoaffective disorder, and 129 patients with psychotic bipolar disorder (mean [SD] age, 35.1 [12.0] years; 281 male [48.8%] and 295 female [51.2%]; 181 white [31.4%], 348 black [60.4%], and 47 other [8.2%]). Patients with schizophrenia (Cohen d = 0.36, P < .001) and psychotic bipolar disorder (Cohen d = 0.33, P = .002) had significantly reduced CON global efficiency compared with healthy controls. All patients with psychotic disorders had significantly reduced CON local efficiency, but the clinical groups did not differ from one another. The CON global efficiency was significantly associated with general cognitive ability across all groups (β = 0.099, P = .009) and significantly mediated the association between psychotic disorder status and general cognition (β = -0.037; 95% CI, -0.076 to -0.014). Subcortical network global efficiency was also significantly reduced in psychotic disorders (F3,587 = 4.01, P = .008) and positively predicted cognitive ability (β = 0.094, P = .009). These findings provide evidence that reduced CON and subcortical network efficiency play a role in the general cognitive deficit observed across the psychosis spectrum. They provide new support for the dimensional hypothesis that a shared neurobiological mechanism underlies cognitive impairment in psychotic disorders.

Belief-bias reasoning in non-clinical delusion-prone individuals

Background and ObjectivesIt has been proposed that people with delusions have difficulty inhibiting beliefs (i.e., “doxastic inhibition”) so as to reason about them as if they might not be true. We used a continuity approach to test this proposal in non-clinical adults scoring high and low in psychometrically assessed delusion-proneness. High delusion-prone individuals were expected to show greater difficulty than low delusion-prone individuals on “conflict” items of a “belief-bias” reasoning task (i.e. when required to reason logically about statements that conflicted with reality), but not on “non-conflict” items. MethodsTwenty high delusion-prone and twenty low delusion-prone participants (according to the Peters et al. Delusions Inventory) completed a belief-bias reasoning task and tests of IQ, working memory and general inhibition (Excluded Letter Fluency, Stroop and Hayling Sentence Completion). ResultsHigh delusion-prone individuals showed greater difficulty than low delusion-prone individuals on the Stroop and Excluded Letter Fluency tests of inhibition, but no greater difficulty on the conflict versus non-conflict items of the belief-bias task. They did, however, make significantly more errors overall on the belief-bias task, despite controlling for IQ, working memory and general inhibitory control. LimitationsThe study had a relatively small sample size and used non-clinical participants to test a theory of cognitive processing in individuals with clinically diagnosed delusions. ConclusionsResults failed to support a role for doxastic inhibitory failure in non-clinical delusion-prone individuals. These individuals did, however, show difficulty with conditional reasoning about statements that may or may not conflict with reality, independent of any general cognitive or inhibitory deficits.

Mentalizing Vocational Training increases mentalization interest in professionals and young people with the need for learning support: Results of a pilot study

The present pilot study focuses on the evaluation of the prevention program “Mentalizing Vocational Training” (MVT). The program aimed to increase the effectiveness of vocational rehabilitation by improving the interaction among professionals and between professionals and trainees. Professionals of Vocational Training Centres in Germany are facing an increasing number of adolescents diagnosed with learning disability, showing a severe lack of motivation to participate actively in the training. Within the framework of MVT, problems in daily routines were assumed to be related to mentalizing failure. The prevention program consisted of four modules: psychoeducational training and teambuilding for all professionals, mentalization-based supervision for two selected teams of professionals, two mentalizing training groups for selected trainees and a reflection group among the research team to tailor the intervention to the needs of the Training Centre on an ongoing basis. To assess outcome, we conducted a pre-post-study on mentalization interest, attachment styles and self-efficacy of both trainees and professionals. Additionally, we assessed trainees’ mentalization, personality organisation, adverse childhood experiences and intelligence. Results showed that trainees had significantly less interest in mentalization and more attachment anxiety and avoidance than professionals. In addition to general cognitive deficits, trainees’ mentalization was impaired together with low personality organisation and a high prevalence of adverse childhood experiences at a level comparable to clinical samples. After one year of MVT-program implementation, the comparison of pre- and post-survey data revealed a significant increase in the trainees’ and professionals’ mentalization interest as well as in trainees’ self-efficacy. Professionals reported goal attainment in eight of nine goals of the program and gave positive overall feedback to the program. We interpret the data as a successful implementation of the MVT program and a promising way of promoting mentalization in multi-professional teams with clients that are difficult to reach.

Heterogeneity of Developmental Dyscalculia: Cases with Different Deficit Profiles.

Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) has long been thought to be a monolithic learning disorder that can be attributed to a specific neurocognitive dysfunction. However, recent research has increasingly recognized the heterogeneity of DD, where DD can be differentiated into subtypes in which the underlying cognitive deficits and neural dysfunctions may differ. The aim was to further understand the heterogeneity of developmental dyscalculia (DD) from a cognitive psychological perspective. Utilizing four children (8–9 year-old) we administered a comprehensive cognitive test battery that shed light on the cognitive-behavioral profile of each child. The children were compared against norm groups of aged-matched peers. Performance was then contrasted against predominant hypotheses of DD, which would also give insight into candidate neurocognitive correlates. Despite showing similar mathematical deficits, these children showed remarkable interindividual variability regarding cognitive profile and deficits. Two cases were consistent with the approximate number system deficit account and also the general magnitude-processing deficit account. These cases showed indications of having domain-general deficits as well. One case had an access deficit in combination with a general cognitive deficit. One case suffered from general cognitive deficits only. The results showed that DD cannot be attributed to a single explanatory factor. These findings support a multiple deficits account of DD and suggest that some cases have multiple deficits, whereas other cases have a single deficit. We discuss a previously proposed distinction between primary DD and secondary DD, and suggest hypotheses of dysfunctional neurocognitive correlates responsible for the displayed deficits.

Functional connectivity differences in autism during face and car recognition: underconnectivity and atypical age-related changes.

Face recognition abilities improve between adolescence and adulthood over typical development (TD), but plateau in autism, leading to increasing face recognition deficits in autism later in life. Developmental differences between autism and TD may reflect changes between neural systems involved in the development of face encoding and recognition. Here, we focused on whole-brain connectivity with the fusiform face area (FFA), a well-established face-preferential brain region. Older children, adolescents, and adults with and without autism completed the Cambridge Face Memory Test, and a matched car memory test, during fMRI scanning. We then examined task-based functional connectivity between the FFA and the rest of the brain, comparing autism and TD groups during encoding and recognition of face and car stimuli. The autism group exhibited underconnectivity, relative to the TD group, between the FFA and frontal and primary visual cortices, independent of age. Underconnectivity with the medial and rostral lateral prefrontal cortex was face-specific during encoding and recognition, respectively. Conversely, underconnectivity with the L orbitofrontal cortex was evident for both face and car encoding. Atypical age-related changes in connectivity emerged between the FFA and the R temporoparietal junction, and R dorsal striatum for face stimuli only. Similar differences in age-related changes in autism emerged for FFA connectivity with the amygdala across both face and car recognition. Thus, underconnectivity and atypical development of functional connectivity may lead to a less optimal face-processing network in the context of increasing general and social cognitive deficits in autism.

Belief-bias reasoning in non-clinical delusion-prone individuals

Background and ObjectivesIt has been proposed that people with delusions have difficulty inhibiting beliefs (i.e., “doxastic inhibition”) so as to reason about them as if they might not be true. We used a continuity approach to test this proposal in non-clinical adults scoring high and low in psychometrically assessed delusion-proneness. High delusion-prone individuals were expected to show greater difficulty than low delusion-prone individuals on “conflict” items of a “belief-bias” reasoning task (i.e. when required to reason logically about statements that conflicted with reality), but not on “non-conflict” items. MethodsTwenty high delusion-prone and twenty low delusion-prone participants (according to the Peters et al. Delusions Inventory) completed a belief-bias reasoning task and tests of IQ, working memory and general inhibition (Excluded Letter Fluency, Stroop and Hayling Sentence Completion). ResultsHigh delusion-prone individuals showed greater difficulty than low delusion-prone individuals on the Stroop and Excluded Letter Fluency tests of inhibition, but no greater difficulty on the conflict versus non-conflict items of the belief-bias task. They did, however, make significantly more errors overall on the belief-bias task, despite controlling for IQ, working memory and general inhibitory control. LimitationsThe study had a relatively small sample size and used non-clinical participants to test a theory of cognitive processing in individuals with clinically diagnosed delusions. ConclusionsResults failed to support a role for doxastic inhibitory failure in non-clinical delusion-prone individuals. These individuals did, however, show difficulty with conditional reasoning about statements that may or may not conflict with reality, independent of any general cognitive or inhibitory deficits.

ASSESSING SYMPTOMS OF COGNITIVE AND LINGUISTIC DECLINE IN PRODROMAL ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE: A NEW STUDY OF MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT

Current clinical diagnostics of cognitive impairments potentially leading to AD focus primarily on memory, supplemented by assessments of executive functioning and visuospatial processing. Recent research provides evidence that other cognitive domains, especially language, also may reveal early indicators of prodromal AD. However, the relationship between language and cognitive deficits in this prodromal group has not been explored. Through interdisciplinary, cross-institutional collaboration, we compare results from a new study of an MCI population (N=21) to a matched Healthy Aging (HA) (N=21 and a Healthy Young Adult (HY) (N=10) population on a new series of linguistic tests (complex sentence production) as well as on a clinically established multi-domain cognitive screen (ACE-R). We compare and contrast results across these various neuropsychological cognitive and linguistic results to provide a profile of which deficits do and do not differentiate MCI from HA across this extended cognitive-linguistic testing. Subjects in the three groups differed in total ACE-R score and on our novel linguistic tasks. However, total ACE-R score significantly predicts performance on linguistic tasks only in the HA (T 2.46, df 41, p .02) and not in HY or MCI. Similarly, performance on the ACE-R naming task predicted performance on linguistic measures for HA, not for MCI or HY. Overall cognitive functioning, as measured by screening measures such as the ACE-R does not appear to predict language function in MCI. This suggests that difficulties with language functioning in MCI may be independent of more general cognitive deficits. This in turn suggests that language and cognition may be dissociated in MCI more than in healthy aging or young.

Behavior and Attention Problems in Eight-Year-Old Children with Prenatal Opiate and Poly-Substance Exposure: A Longitudinal Study.

Multiple studies have found that children born to mothers with opioid or poly-substance use during pregnancy have more behavior and attention problems and lower cognitive functioning than non-exposed children. The present study aimed to investigate whether behavior and attention problems are more prominent than general cognitive deficits in this risk group and whether the problems wane or increase over time. This prospective longitudinal cross-informant study compared 72 children who were prenatally exposed to heroin and multiple drugs with a group of 58 children without known prenatal risk factors. Group differences in caregivers’ and teachers’ reports of the children’s behavior and attention problems based on the Child Behavior Check List and the ADHD Rating Scale were compared based on group differences in general cognitive functioning at 4 ½ and 8 ½ years of age. Both parent and teacher reports suggest that the exposed group has significantly more problems in several behavioral areas than the comparison group, particularly with regard to attention problems. The preschool teachers had already reported these problems when the children were 4 ½ years old, whereas the caregivers reported these problems mainly when the children were 8 ½ years old. The group differences in behavioral and attentional problems were not significantly greater and some were even significantly smaller than the group differences in general cognitive abilities. These findings suggest that children subject to prenatally drug exposure have increasing problems in multiple areas related to behavior from preschool age to 8 ½ years but that these problems do not seem to be specific; i.e., they are not more severe than the problems with general cognitive abilities found for this group.

Performances on a cognitive theory of mind task: specific decline or general cognitive deficits? Evidence from normal aging.

Compromised theory of mind (ToM) can be explained either by a failure to implement specific representational capacities (mental state representations) or by more general executive selection demands. In older adult populations, evidence supporting affected executive functioning and cognitive ToM in normal aging are reported. However, links between these two functions remain unclear. In the present paper, we address these shortcomings by using a specific task of ToM and classical executive tasks. We studied, using an original cognitive ToM task, the effect of age on ToM performances, in link with the progressive executive decline. 96 elderly participants were recruited. They were asked to perform a cognitive ToM task, and 5 executive tests (Stroop test and Hayling Sentence Completion Test to appreciate inhibitory process, Trail Making Test and Verbal Fluency for shifting assessment and backward span dedicated to estimate working memory capacity). The results show changes in cognitive ToM performance according to executive demands. Correlational studies indicate a significant relationship between ToM performance and the selected executive measures. Regression analyzes demonstrates that level of vocabulary and age as the best predictors of ToM performance. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that ToM deficits are related to age-related domain-general decline rather than as to a breakdown in specialized representational system. The implications of these findings for the nature of social cognition tests in normal aging are also discussed.

The Cognitive Deficits Associated with Second-Hand Smoking.

Exposure to second-hand smoke (SHS), also known as “passive smoking,” refers to a situation where a non-smoker inhales another person’s smoke either by sidestream or by mainstream exposure to tobacco smoke. Previous research has suggested that not only is prolonged exposure to SHS associated with a range of health-related problems similar to those found in smokers (1, 2) but is also linked to detrimental effects upon cognitive performance in children, adolescents, and adults. For example, children exposed to SHS show reduced vocabulary and reasoning skills when compared with non-exposed children (3) as well as more general cognitive and intellectual deficits (4). More recently, research using serum cotinine as a biomarker of exposure to SHS found that higher levels of serum cotinine were associated with significant reductions in performance in reading, mathematics, and visual and spatial abilities in children and adolescents (5) indicating that higher levels of SHS exposure is associated with poorer cognitive performance. In adults, exposure to SHS in those who had no history of smoking showed significantly reduced performance in processing speed (how quickly one can process information and perform tasks) and executive function (which includes the ability to organize memory, cognitive flexibility, and problem-solving ability) when compared with non-exposed, never smokers (6, 7). In addition, never smokers who lived with smokers for several decades showed a 30% increase in their risk of dementia (8). Recent work has also revealed everyday memory impairments in never smokers with a history of living with smokers for several years; for example, deficits in everyday prospective memory (memory for future actions), such as remembering to carry out everyday activities, keeping appointments with others, or remembering to post a letter on time (7, 9). What is less clear is the mechanism by which SHS might compromise cognitive performance.