Group Of Healthy Control Participants Research Articles

Abnormal Scanning Patterns Based on Eye Movement Entropy in Early Psychosis

BackgroundRestricted scan path mode is hypothesized to explain abnormal scanning patterns in patients with schizophrenia. Here, we calculated entropy scores (drawing on gaze data to measure the statistical randomness of eye movements) to quantify how strategical and random participants were when processing image stimuli. MethodsEighty-six patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FES), 124 individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis, and 115 healthy control participants (HCs) completed an eye-tracking examination while freely viewing 35 static images (each presented for 10 seconds) and cognitive assessments. We compared group differences in the overall entropy score, as well as entropy scores under various conditions. We also investigated the correlations between entropy scores and symptoms and cognitive function. ResultsIncreased overall entropy scores were noted in the FES and CHR groups compared with the HC group, and these differences were already apparent within 0 to 2.5 seconds. In addition, the CHR group exhibited higher entropy than the HC group when viewing low-meaning images. Moreover, the entropy within 0 to 2.5 seconds showed significant correlations with negative symptoms in the FES group, attention/vigilance scores in the CHR group, and speed of processing and attention/vigilance scores across all 3 groups. ConclusionsThe results indicate that individuals with FES and CHR individuals scanned pictures more randomly and less strategically than HCs. These patterns also correlated with clinical symptoms and neurocognition. The current study highlights the potential of the eye movement entropy measure as a neurophysiological marker for early psychosis.

Functional connectivity alterations in the thalamus among patients with bronchial asthma.

Bronchial Asthma (BA) is a common chronic respiratory disease worldwide. Earlier research has demonstrated abnormal functional connectivity (FC) in multiple cognition-related cortices in asthma patients. The thalamus (Thal) serves as a relay center for transmitting sensory signals, yet the modifications in the thalamic FC among individuals with asthma remain uncertain. This research employed the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) approach to explore alterations in thalamic functional connectivity among individuals with BA. After excluding participants who did not meet the criteria, this study finally included 31 patients with BA, with a gender distribution of 16 males and 15 females. Subsequently, we recruited 31 healthy control participants (HC) matched for age, gender, and educational background. All participants underwent the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) assessment. Following this, both groups underwent head magnetic resonance imaging scans, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data was collected. Based on the AAL (Automated Anatomical Labeling) template, the bilateral thalamic regions were used as seed points (ROI) for subsequent rsFC research. Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the relationship between thalamic functional connectivity and neuropsychological scales in both groups. After controlling for potential confounding factors such as age, gender, intelligence, and emotional level, a two-sample t-test was further used to explore differences in thalamic functional connectivity between the two groups of participants. Compared to the HC group, the BA group demonstrated heightened functional connectivity (FC) between the left thalamus and the left cerebellar posterior lobe (CPL), left postcentral gyrus (PCG), and right superior frontal gyrus (SFG). Concurrently, there was a decrease in FC with both the Lentiform Nucleus (LN) and the left corpus callosum (CC). Performing FC analysis with the right thalamus as the Region of Interest (ROI) revealed an increase in FC between the right thalamus and the right SFG as well as the left CPL. Conversely, a decrease in FC was observed between the right thalamus and the right LN as well as the left CC. In our study, we have verified the presence of aberrant FC patterns in the thalamus of BA patients. When compared to HCs, BA patients exhibit aberrant alterations in FC between the thalamus and various brain areas connected to vision, hearing, emotional regulation, cognitive control, somatic sensations, and wakefulness. This provides further confirmation of the substantial role played by the thalamus in the advancement of BA.

Impaired eye movements in Parkinson's disease and their relationship to top–down and bottom–up neural processing

AbstractIntroductionEye movement disorder in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) is less likely to appear when observing complex images compared with simple images. However, in case of auditory stimuli, meaningful stimuli can promote PD movement. Thus, we measured visual search movements with an eye tracker to investigate whether visual search changes in PD depending on the meaningfulness of visual stimuli; additionally, we measured event‐related potentials (ERPs) to neurophysiologically examine visual information processing in PD.MethodsData from 11 patients with cognitively unimpaired PD and 10 neurologically healthy individuals (controls) were used in this study. We simultaneously measured eye tracking and ERPs during the observation of three types of images: operation, noun, and meaningless figures. We compared intergroup differences in visual search parameters, such as saccade count, fixation time, and saccade amplitude, as well as in ERPs vertex‐to‐vertex amplitudes and latency among P1, N1, P2, and N2 at the posterior regions. These ERPs reflect different stages of visual information processing and provide insights into the underlying neural mechanisms of visual search in PD.ResultsAll visual search parameters were consistently smaller in the PD group than in the control group, regardless of visual stimulus. The saccade count in the PD group was significantly lower than in the control group for operation and meaningless figures but not for noun figures. Further, P1 and N1 amplitudes—bottom–up processing—were smaller in PD group when viewing operation figures and N2 amplitudes—top–down processing—were larger in PD group when viewing operation and meaningless figures.ConclusionsPD's visual search movements may change depending on the meaningfulness of visual stimuli. Further, the abnormal visual search movements in PD may be due to insufficient bottom–up processing and excessive top–down processing.Plain Language SummaryParkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that can cause eye movement disorders. People with PD may have difficulty searching for and processing visual information. In this study, we investigated how meaningfulness affects visual search movements and visual information processing in people with PD. We measured eye movements and brain activity in response to different types of visual stimuli, including meaningful and meaningless images, and compared them to a group of healthy control participants. Our results showed that PD patients had fewer eye movements and different brain activity patterns compared to healthy controls, regardless of the meaningfulness of the visual stimuli. However, we also found that the meaningfulness of visual stimuli had an effect on visual search movements in PD patients. This suggests that meaningfulness can impact the way people with PD process visual information. Understanding these differences could help in the development of new therapies to improve visual processing in people with PD.

The production of adjectives in narratives by individuals with primary progressive aphasia

Adjectives (e.g., hungry) are an important part of language, but have been little studied in individuals with impaired language. Adjectives are used in two different ways in English: attributively, to modify a noun (the hungry dog); or predicatively, after a verb (the dog is hungry). Attributive adjectives have a more complex grammatical structure than predicative adjectives, and may therefore be particularly prone to disruption in individuals with grammatical impairments. We investigated adjective production in three subtypes of primary progressive aphasia (PPA: agrammatic, semantic, logopenic), as well as in agrammatic stroke aphasia and a group of healthy control participants. Participants produced narratives based on picture books, and we coded every adjective they produced for its syntactic structure. Compared to healthy controls, the two agrammatic groups, but not the other two patient groups, produced significantly fewer attributive adjectives per sentence. All four patient groups were similar to controls for their rate of predicative adjective production. In addition, we found a significant correlation in the agrammatic PPA participants between their rate of producing attributive adjectives and impaired production of sentences with complex syntactic structure (subject cleft sentences like It was the boy that chased the girl); no such correlation was found for predicative adjectives. Irrespective of structure, we examined the lexical characteristics of the adjectives that were produced, including length, frequency, semantic diversity and neighborhood density. Overall, the lexical characteristics of the produced adjectives were largely consistent with the language profile of each group. In sum, the results suggest that attributive adjectives present a particular challenge for individuals with agrammatic language production, and add a new dimension to the description of agrammatism. Our results further suggest that attributive adjectives may be a fruitful target for improved treatment and recovery of agrammatic language.

Shape features of working memory-related deep-brain regions differentiate high and low community functioning in schizophrenia

We have previously shown that schizophrenia (SCZ) participants with high community functioning demonstrate better verbal working memory (vWM) performance relative to those with low community functioning. In the present study, we investigated whether neuroanatomical differences in regions supporting vWM also exist between schizophrenia groups that vary on community functioning. Utilizing magnetic resonance imaging, shape features of deep-brain nuclei known to be involved in vWM were calculated in samples of high functioning (HF-SCZ, n = 23) and low functioning schizophrenia participants (LF-SCZ, n = 18), as well as in a group of healthy control participants (CON, n = 45). Large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping was employed to characterize surface anatomy of the caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, hippocampus, and thalamus. Statistical analyses involved linear mixed-effects models and vertex-wise contrast mapping to assess between-group differences in structural shape features, and Pearson correlations to evaluate relationships between shape metrics and vWM performance. We found significant between-group main effects in deep-brain surface anatomy across all structures. Post-hoc comparisons revealed HF-SCZ and LF-SCZ groups significantly differed on both caudate and hippocampal shape, however, significant correlations with vWM were only observed in hippocampal shape for both SCZ groups. Specifically, more abnormal hippocampal deformation was associated with lower vWM suggesting hippocampal shape is both a neural substrate for vWM deficits and a potential biomarker to predict or monitor the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation. These findings add to a growing body of literature related to functional outcomes in schizophrenia by demonstrating unique shape patterns across the spectrum of community functioning in SCZ.

Updates and Original Case Studies Focused on the NMR-Linked Metabolomics Analysis of Human Oral Fluids Part I: Emerging Platforms and Perspectives

1H NMR-based metabolomics analysis of human saliva, other oral fluids, and/or tissue biopsies serves as a valuable technique for the exploration of metabolic processes, and when associated with ’state-of-the-art’ multivariate (MV) statistical analysis strategies, provides a powerful means of examining the identification of characteristic metabolite patterns, which may serve to differentiate between patients with oral health conditions (e.g., periodontitis, dental caries, and oral cancers) and age-matched heathy controls. This approach may also be employed to explore such discriminatory signatures in the salivary 1H NMR profiles of patients with systemic diseases, and to date, these have included diabetes, Sjörgen’s syndrome, cancers, neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, and viral infections. However, such investigations are complicated in view of quite a large number of serious inconsistencies between the different studies performed by independent research groups globally; these include differing protocols and routes for saliva sample collection (e.g., stimulated versus unstimulated samples), their timings (particularly the oral activity abstention period involved, which may range from one to 12 h or more), and methods for sample transport, storage, and preparation for NMR analysis, not to mention a very wide variety of demographic variables that may influence salivary metabolite concentrations, notably the age, gender, ethnic origin, salivary flow-rate, lifestyles, diets, and smoking status of participant donors, together with their exposure to any other possible convoluting environmental factors. In view of the explosive increase in reported salivary metabolomics investigations, in this update, we critically review a wide range of critical considerations for the successful performance of such experiments. These include the nature, composite sources, and biomolecular status of human saliva samples; the merits of these samples as media for the screening of disease biomarkers, notably their facile, unsupervised collection; and the different classes of such metabolomics investigations possible. Also encompassed is an account of the history of NMR-based salivary metabolomics; our recommended regimens for the collection, transport, and storage of saliva samples, along with their preparation for NMR analysis; frequently employed pulse sequences for the NMR analysis of these samples; the supreme resonance assignment benefits offered by homo- and heteronuclear two-dimensional NMR techniques; deliberations regarding salivary biomolecule quantification approaches employed for such studies, including the preprocessing and bucketing of multianalyte salivary NMR spectra, and the normalization, transformation, and scaling of datasets therefrom; salivary phenotype analysis, featuring the segregation of a range of different metabolites into ‘pools’ grouped according to their potential physiological sources; and lastly, future prospects afforded by the applications of LF benchtop NMR spectrometers for direct evaluations of the oral or systemic health status of patients at clinical ‘point-of-contact’ sites, e.g., dental surgeries. This commentary is then concluded with appropriate recommendations for the conduct of future salivary metabolomics studies. Also included are two original case studies featuring investigations of (1) the 1H NMR resonance line-widths of selected biomolecules and their possible dependence on biomacromolecular binding equilibria, and (2) the combined univariate (UV) and MV analysis of saliva specimens collected from a large group of healthy control participants in order to potentially delineate the possible origins of biomolecules therein, particularly host- versus oral microbiome-derived sources. In a follow-up publication, Part II of this series, we conduct censorious reviews of reported observations acquired from a diversity of salivary metabolomics investigations performed to evaluate both localized oral and non-oral diseases. Perplexing problems encountered with these again include those arising from sample collection and preparation protocols, along with 1H NMR spectral misassignments.

Processing Argument Structure and Syntactic Complexity in People with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

IntroductionDeficits in language comprehension and production have been repeatedly observed in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders (SSD). However, the characterization of the language profile of this population is far from complete, and the relationship between language deficits, impaired thinking and cognitive functions is widely debated. ObjectiveThe aims of the present study were to assess production and comprehension of verbs with different argument structures, as well as production and comprehension of sentences with canonical and non-canonical word order in people with SSD. In addition, the study investigated the relationship between language deficits and cognitive functions. MethodsThirty-four participants with a diagnosis of SSD and a group of healthy control participants (HC) were recruited and evaluated using the Italian version of the Northwestern Assessment of Verbs and Sentences (NAVS, Cho-Reyes & Thompson, 2012; Barbieri et al., 2019). ResultsResults showed that participants with SSD were impaired – compared to HC – on both verb and sentence production, as well as on comprehension of syntactically complex (but not simple) sentences. While verb production was equally affected by verb-argument structure complexity in both SSD and HC, sentence comprehension was disproportionately more affected by syntactic complexity in SSD than in HC. In addition, in the SSD group, verb production deficits were predicted by performance on a measure of visual attention, while sentence production and comprehension deficits were explained by performance on measures of executive functions and working memory, respectively. DiscussionOur findings support the hypothesis that language deficits in SSD may be one aspect of a more generalized, multi-domain, cognitive impairment, and are consistent with previous findings pointing to reduced inter- and intra-hemispheric connectivity as a possible substrate for such deficits. The study provides a systematic characterization of lexical and syntactic deficits in SSD and demonstrates that psycholinguistically-based assessment tools may be able to capture language deficits in this population.

EEG event related potentials in sustained, focused and divided attention tasks: Potential biomarkers for cognitive impairment in HIV patients

ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to assess the usability of event-related-potentials (ERPs) during sustained, focused, and divided attention tasks as biomarkers for cognitive decline in HIV patients. MethodsEEG was acquired using a mobile/wireless 9-channel system in 39 persons with HIV, with well-controlled immune function and 63 healthy control participants (HCs) during three ERP tasks: sustained attention, focused attention, and divided attention. ResultsThe HIV-group evidenced smaller late positive potential (LPP) and larger P200 amplitudes across the tasks compared to the HC group. P200 amplitude was correlated (r = 0.56) with the estimated duration of infection. Both groups showed higher P200 and LPP amplitudes in response to infrequent stimuli; this effect was not significantly different between groups. In the sustained attention task, the HIV-group showed significantly slower reaction time than controls while maintaining the same level of accuracy. In the divided attention task, the HIV-group showed a trend towards faster/less accurate responses. ConclusionsHIV seropositive participants receiving anti-retroviral treatment (ART) demonstrated significantly larger P200 amplitude during three different attention tasks. This may reflect attentional deficits characterized by over-attending to non-target/distracting stimuli. SignificanceThese findings demonstrate the potential benefits of EEG-ERP metrics derived from attention tasks as neurocognitive biomarkers for HIV. This approach may reveal underlying causes of attentional deficits in HIV patients.

Exposure to food in anorexia nervosa and brain correlates of food-related anxiety: findings from a pilot study

Background: Although the primary target of treatment for anorexia nervosa (AN) is weight gain, established psychological interventions focus on maintaining factors of AN, and do not specifically address eating behaviours. We have previously reported results of a case series investigating in-vivo food exposure in AN, demonstrating the feasibility and acceptability of this treatment together with evidence of significant clinical change (Cardi, Leppanen, Mataix‐Cols, Campbell, & Treasure, 2019). The current study examined the neural circuitry of food-related anxiety. Methods: We examined neural reactivity (fMRI) to food images pre- and post-food exposure therapy (n=16), and compared it to a group of healthy control participants (HC n=21) who were scanned on two occasions. Results: Prior to treatment, the AN group (compared to HC) showed less reactivity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Following exposure treatment, patients (compared to HC), show increased activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, decreased activity in the superior parietal lobe and no differences in the ACC. The level of activation of the insula (pre-treatment) predicted the degree of post-treatment reduction in self-reported food anxiety in AN. Changes in food-related anxiety were also associated with changes in neural activation in a cluster located in the middle temporal gyrus/lateral parietal cortex. Limitations: The primary limitations of this work are the small sample size and lack of patient comparison group. Conclusions: Exposure to food in AN may be associated with changes in neural circuitries implicated in emotion regulation and attentional processes. However, these findings need replication in larger and controlled studies.

Visual working memory deficits following right brain damage

Visual working memory (VWM) involves the encoding and maintenance of visual information over time, with the requirement that object features be accurately bound to spatial locations. We and others have shown that damage to the right hemisphere leads to impaired spatial working memory. Here, we test the notion that right brain damage (RBD) may have consequences for domain general VWM. We had eight RBD patients and a group of healthy control participants perform a VWM task under different loads (1 to 3 items to recall) and spatial competition (high vs. low). All participants were asked to remember the colour of target items presented on the right side of space. Patients showed impaired encoding of information evident in poor precision of memory representations and increased guessing rates even at a set size of only one item. Our data suggests that VWM capacity is severely limited following RBD. Although five of the eight patients presented with neglect, it is not clear whether this deficit in VWM is unique to the syndrome. We suggest that future work should directly pit attention and VWM demands against one another in the same patients to determine whether the confluence of deficits in these domains is the critical determinant of the neglect syndrome. Regardless of the implications for the neglect syndrome, however, our data show that VWM deficits in RBD patients extend into non-spatial feature space.

Validation of a Behavioral Measure of Acquiring and Discarding in Hoarding Disorder.

Behavioral assessment is an important component of evidence-based assessment and treatment in anxiety and related disorders. The purpose of the current study was to validate a behavioral measure of difficulty discarding and acquiring, the core features of hoarding disorder (HD). Seventy-eight patients with a primary diagnosis of HD completed a computerized acquiring and discarding task; the task consisted of making simulated decisions about acquiring and discarding items of varying monetary value. A subset of patients (n = 42) went on to receive cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for HD and completed the computer tasks again after treatment. An additional 30 age- and sex-matched healthy control participants (HCs) also completed the acquiring and discarding tasks. Results showed that HD patients saved and acquired more items than the HC group, and had longer response times during the tasks. In support of the convergent validity of the tasks, item decisions and reaction times were positively correlated with established measures of HD symptoms. Among treatment completers, items saved and acquired and response times decreased from pre- to post-CBT, suggesting that the tasks were sensitive to detect treatment-related changes in difficulty discarding and acquiring behaviors. The findings support the validity of the discarding and acquiring tasks in measuring HD symptoms, and are discussed in terms of the potential advantages of behavioral measures in HD treatment and research.

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder are less prone to false memories

Previous research on memory and metamemory processes in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) almost exclusively addressed veridical memory. The present study investigated veridical and false memory (recall and recognition of nonpresented information) as well as confidence in OCD. We compared checker OCD, non-checker OCD, and healthy control participants (HC) by using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) false memory paradigm. Participants were given word lists, each of which consisted of semantically related words which were strong associates of a non-presented critical target word. They were then given a free recall and a recognition task. Although both OCD groups showed comparable correct recall and recognition performance to that of the HC group, OCD groups were less prone to false memories and reported lower confidence for these false memories than the HC group. Accuracy of global recognition estimates were similar across three groups. This pattern of results may partly be due to OCD groups’ reliance on item-based rather than relational processing at encoding.

Nightmares affect the experience of sleep quality but not sleep architecture: an ambulatory polysomnographic study.

BackgroundNightmares and bad dreams are common in people with emotional disturbances. For example, nightmares are a core symptom in posttraumatic stress disorder and about 50% of borderline personality disorder patients suffer from frequent nightmares. Independent of mental disorders, nightmares are often associated with sleep problems such as prolonged sleep latencies, poorer sleep quality, and daytime sleepiness. It has not been well documented whether this is reflected in objectively quantifiable physiological indices of sleep quality.MethodsQuestionnaires regarding subjective sleep quality and ambulatory polysomnographic recordings of objective sleep parameters were collected during three consecutive nights in 17 individuals with frequent nightmares (NM) and 17 healthy control participants (HC).ResultsNM participants reported worse sleep quality, more waking problems and more severe insomnia compared to HC group. However, sleep measures obtained by ambulatory polysomnographic recordings revealed no group differences in (a) overall sleep architecture, (b) sleep cycle duration as well as REM density and REM duration in each cycle and (c) sleep architecture when only nights with nightmares were analyzed.ConclusionsOur findings support the observation that nightmares result in significant impairment which is independent from disturbed sleep architecture. Thus, these specific problems require specific attention and appropriate treatment.

Abstract T P59: Brain Atrophy Rates Not Affected By Stroke Thrombolysis

Introduction: Despite clear outcome benefits, some physicians remain concerned about theoretical deleterious effects of intravenous thrombolysis. In the CANVAS study (Cognition and Neocortical Volume After Stroke) we have reported brain volume changes in patients following stroke. We sought here to compare brain atrophy rates of 3 groups of patients presenting with MCA stroke, versus a group of healthy control participants. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that IV thrombolysis would not affect brain atrophy rates following stroke. Methods: Three groups of patients with acute ischemic MCA stroke were included, 2 of whom received thrombolysis: 10 patients were imaged at 2 hours and at 3 months (Copenhagen cohort) and 9 patients imaged within 30 days of symptom onset and at 3 months (Melbourne CANVAS cohort). We compared regional and global brain volume and atrophy rates with 10 patients who did not receive thrombolysis and a group of 10 healthy control participants were also imaged at these timepoints. 3D MPRAGE images were acquired on a Siemens Trio 3T MRI scanner. Images were processed using Freesurfer V 5.1 with default settings. We compared baseline and 3 month average regional cortical thickness. Ipsilesional and contralesional results were analyzed separately. Paired sample t-tests were used to assess significant change. Results: There was no significant difference in brain volume between the 2 timepoints in our control participants. Ipsilesional white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM) volume declined over the 3 month period in all 3 stroke groups. There was no significant difference in brain atrophy rates between stroke patients who received IV thrombolysis and those who didn’t. Conclusions: In this pilot study, we found that thrombolysis did not affect brain atrophy rates in the stroke patients studied.

Nature and extent of person recognition impairments associated with Capgras syndrome in Lewy body dementia.

Patients with Capgras syndrome (CS) adopt the delusional belief that persons well-known to them have been replaced by an imposter. Several current theoretical models of CS attribute such misidentification problems to deficits in covert recognition processes related to the generation of appropriate affective autonomic signals. These models assume intact overt recognition processes for the imposter and, more broadly, for other individuals. As such, it has been suggested that CS could reflect the “mirror-image” of prosopagnosia. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether overt person recognition abilities are indeed always spared in CS. Furthermore, we examined whether CS might be associated with any impairments in overt affective judgments of facial expressions. We pursued these goals by studying a patient with Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) who showed clear signs of CS, and by comparing him to another patient with DLB who did not experience CS, as well as to a group of healthy control participants. Clinical magnetic resonance imaging scans revealed medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) atrophy that appeared to be uniquely associated with the presence CS. We assessed overt person recognition with three fame recognition tasks, using faces, voices, and names as cues. We also included measures of confidence and probed pertinent semantic knowledge. In addition, participants rated the intensity of fearful facial expressions. We found that CS was associated with overt person recognition deficits when probed with faces and voices, but not with names. Critically, these deficits were not present in the DLB patient without CS. In addition, CS was associated with impairments in overt judgments of affect intensity. Taken together, our findings cast doubt on the traditional view that CS is the mirror-image of prosopagnosia and that it spares overt recognition abilities. These findings can still be accommodated by models of CS that emphasize deficits in autonomic responding, to the extent that the potential role of interoceptive awareness in overt judgments is taken into account.

Physical, emotional, and social health differences between posttreatment young adults with cancer and matched healthy controls.

Young adults (YAs; ages 18-39 years) with cancer face interrupted developmental milestones and increased stressors that can adversely influence psychosocial adjustment. Transitioning from active treatment to posttreatment survivorship can be particularly challenging. The purpose of this study is to describe the health-related quality of life (HRQL) and psychological adaptation of YAs after treatment, relative to young adults without cancer. Three cohorts of YAs of mixed cancer diagnoses (N = 120, 0-12 months after treatment; N = 102, 13-24 months after treatment; and N = 113, 25-60 months after treatment; combined M = 31.8 years old, combined sex = 68% women) and an age-, education-, sex-, and partner status-matched group of healthy control participants (HCs; N = 335) were recruited via an online research panel. All participants completed measures assessing demographic and clinical characteristics, HRQL (physical, emotional, social, and spiritual), and psychological adaptation (anxiety, depression, positive affect, posttraumatic growth). Measure content was slightly modified for applicability to HCs without a cancer history. Multivariate analysis of covariance found a significant main effect for group (YAs versus HCs) and a significant group-by-cohort interaction. YAs reported poorer physical (P = .005, d = .22) and emotional well-being (P = .011, d = .20) but better social well-being (P < .001, d = .49). YAs reported comparatively stable scores (P = .74) for posttraumatic growth compared to HCs, who reported greater posttraumatic growth across cohorts (P = .01, d = 16). Findings underscore the negative and positive sequelae for YAs and highlight the need for comprehensive assessment among YA survivors of cancer. A matched, HC group allows the HRQL and psychological adaptation of YAs to be placed in context, enabling a more precise determination of the impact of cancer on YAs.

Memory for between-list and within-list information in amnesic patients with temporal lobe and diencephalic lesions

Patients with medial temporal lobe damage and diencephalic damage were compared on two tests of verbal temporal order memory: between-list discrimination and within-list discrimination. Both patient groups were impaired relative to a group of healthy control participants. In addition, despite comparable levels of item recognition, the diencephalic group was impaired relative to the medial temporal lobe group on both within-list and between-list discrimination. Temporal order memory for between-list information showed a significant correlation with a composite measure of recognition memory, and the results are discussed in terms of the patients' reliance on familiarity and distance-based processes to make temporal order judgments.

Substantia nigra/ventral tegmental reward prediction error disruption in psychosis

While dopamine systems have been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and psychosis for many years, how dopamine dysfunction generates psychotic symptoms remains unknown. Recent theoretical interest has been directed at relating the known role of midbrain dopamine neurons in reinforcement learning, motivational salience and prediction error to explain the abnormal mental experience of psychosis. However, this theoretical model has yet to be explored empirically. To examine a link between psychotic experience, reward learning and dysfunction of the dopaminergic midbrain and associated target regions, we asked a group of first episode psychosis patients suffering from active positive symptoms and a group of healthy control participants to perform an instrumental reward conditioning experiment. We characterized neural responses using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We observed that patients with psychosis exhibit abnormal physiological responses associated with reward prediction error in the dopaminergic midbrain, striatum and limbic system, and we demonstrated subtle abnormalities in the ability of psychosis patients to discriminate between motivationally salient and neutral stimuli. This study provides the first evidence linking abnormal mesolimbic activity, reward learning and psychosis.

Successful computer-assisted cognitive remediation therapy in patients with unipolar depression: a proof of principle study

Despite increasing awareness of the extent and severity of cognitive deficits in major depressive disorder (MDD), trials of cognitive remediation have not been conducted. We conducted a 10-week course of cognitive remediation in patients with long-term MDD to probe whether deficits in four targeted cognitive domains, (i) memory, (ii) attention, (iii) executive functioning and (iv) psychomotor speed, could be improved by this intervention. We administered a computerized cognitive retraining package (PSSCogReHab) with demonstrated efficacy to 12 stable patients with recurrent MDD. Twelve matched patients with MDD and a group of healthy control participants were included for comparison; neither comparator group received the intervention that involved stimulation of cognitive functions through targeted, repetitive exercises in each domain. Patients who received cognitive training improved on a range of neuropsychological tests targeting attention, verbal learning and memory, psychomotor speed and executive function. This improvement exceeded that observed over the same time period in a group of matched comparisons. There was no change in depressive symptom scores over the course of the trial, thus improvement in cognitive performance occurred independent of other illness variables. These results provide preliminary evidence that improvement of cognitive functions through targeted, repetitive exercises is a viable method of cognitive remediation in patients with recurrent MDD.