Neuropsychological Evidence Research Articles

Occupational functional plasticity revealed by brain entropy: A resting-state fMRI study of seafarers.

Recently, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been increasingly used to assess brain function. Brain entropy is an effective model for evaluating the alteration of brain complexity. Specifically, the sample entropy (SampEn) provides a feasible solution for revealing the brain's complexity. Occupation is one key factor affecting the brain's activity, but the neuropsychological mechanisms are still unclear. Thus, in this article, based on fMRI and a brain entropy model, we explored the functional complexity changes engendered by occupation factors, taking the seafarer as an example. The whole-brain entropy values of two groups (i.e., the seafarers and the nonseafarers) were first calculated by SampEn and followed by a two-sample t test with AlphaSim correction (p < .05). We found that the entropy of the orbital-frontal gyrus (OFG) and superior temporal gyrus (STG) in the seafarers was significantly higher than that of the nonseafarers. In addition, the entropy of the cerebellum in the seafarers was lower than that of the nonseafarers. We conclude that (1) the lower entropy in the cerebellum implies that the seafarers' cerebellum activity had strong regularity and consistency, suggesting that the seafarer's cerebellum was possibly more specialized by the long-term career training; (2) the higher entropy in the OFG and STG possibly demonstrated that the seafarers had a relatively decreased capability for emotion control and auditory information processing. The above results imply that the seafarer occupation indeed impacted the brain's complexity, and also provided new neuropsychological evidence of functional plasticity related to one's career.

Is There Evidence for a Rostral-Caudal Gradient in Fronto-Striatal Loops and What Role Does Dopamine Play?

Research has shown that the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) may be hierarchically organized along a rostral-caudal functional gradient such that control processing becomes progressively more abstract from caudal to rostral frontal regions. Here, we briefly review the most recent functional MRI, neuropsychological, and electrophysiological evidence in support of a hierarchical LPFC organization. We extend these observations by discussing how such a rostral-caudal gradient may also exist in the striatum and how the dopaminergic system may play an important role in the hierarchical organization of fronto-striatal loops. There is evidence indicating that a rostral-caudal gradient of dopamine receptor density may exist in both frontal and striatal regions. Here we formulate the hypothesis that dopamine may be an important neuromodulator in hierarchical processing, whereby frontal and striatal regions that have higher dopamine receptor density may have a larger influence over regions that exhibit lower dopamine receptor density. We conclude by highlighting directions for future research that will help elucidating the role dopamine might play in hierarchical frontal-striatal interactions.

28. BEYOND VOICES: MULTISENSORY BODILY SELF DISTURBANCES ACROSS THE SCHIZOPHRENIA SPECTRUM

Overall : Aberrant bodily self experiences are highly salient and disruptive to individuals with schizophrenia. Given that these self disturbances are already present at prodromal stage, persist throughout the course of illness, and impact functional outcome, they should be precisely targeted for intervention. However, in contrast to the prominence of auditory hallucination in schizophrenia research, bodily self disturbances have been largely neglected. This symposium aims to bridge this gap with new theoretical and experimental advances that allow us to capture the full extent of the phenomenology, and at the same time, mechanistically specify the etiology and nature of self disorders with an eye toward implementing new treatments.Nelson & Sass will present their revised theory of self disturbances in schizophrenia that reconciles phenomenology with neuropsychological and empirical evidence. Raballo and Poletti will present a comprehensive analysis of recent developmental psychopathological studies of self disorders in the schizophrenia spectrum. Giersch and colleagues provide the crucial experimental evidence for the close link between weakened temporal expectancy and the disruption of continuous and unitary self in schizophrenia. Temporal expectancy helps to link and transform a chain of discrete events into our perceptual experience of continuous flow of time, but it is disrupted in schizophrenia. These results point toward potential intervention strategies. Park and colleagues present exteroceptive, proprioceptive and interoceptive contributions to abnormal mapping of bodily sensation and peripersonal space in the schizophrenia-spectrum and argue that the core problems may lie in prediction coding errors across multisensory systems. Potential intervention may lie in studying trained “sensorimotor experts” (athletes) who show precise and sharpened awareness of embodied sensations. The discussant (Ferri) will integrate these findings to highlight a new framework and multi-level approaches for understanding the etiologies of self disturbances in the schizophrenia-spectrum.

Different aspects of facial affect recognition impairment following traumatic brain injury: The role of perceptual and interpretative abilities

ABSTRACTIt is well established that many individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are impaired at facial affect recognition, yet little is known about the mechanisms underlying such deficits. In particular, little work has examined whether the breakdown of facial affect recognition abilities occurs at the perceptual level (e.g., recognizing a smile) or at the verbal categorization stage (e.g., assigning the label “happy” to a smiling face). The aim of the current study was to investigate the integrity of these two distinct facial affect recognition subskills in a sample of 38 individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI and 24 demographically matched healthy individuals. Participants were administered an affect matching (perceptual skills) and an affect labeling (verbal categorization skills) task. Statistical analyses revealed that, while individuals with TBI showed significantly higher levels of impairment in the verbal categorization task than in the perceptual task, they performed less well than healthy comparison participants on both tasks. These findings indicate that facial affect recognition impairment can occur at different cognitive stages following TBI, suggesting the necessity of careful screening to offer targeted treatment. Moreover, they provide further neuropsychological evidence supporting the notion that distinct types of subskills are necessary to achieve successful recognition of facial affects.

The role of the right superior temporal gyrus in stimulus-centered spatial processing

Although emerging neuropsychological evidence supports the involvement of temporal areas, and in particular the right superior temporal gyrus (STG), in allocentric neglect deficits, the role of STG in healthy spatial processing remains elusive. While several functional brain imaging studies have demonstrated involvement of the STG in tasks involving explicit stimulus-centered judgments, prior rTMS studies targeting the right STG did not find the expected neglect-like rightward bias in size judgments using the conventional landmark task. The objective of the current study was to investigate whether disruption of the right STG using inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) could impact stimulus-centered, allocentric spatial processing in healthy individuals. A lateralized version of the landmark task was developed to accentuate the dissociation between viewer-centered and stimulus-centered reference frames. We predicted that inhibiting activity in the right STG would decrease accuracy because of induced rightward bias centered on the line stimulus irrespective of its viewer-centered or egocentric locations.Eleven healthy, right-handed adults underwent the lateralized landmark task. After viewing each stimulus, participants had to judge whether the line was bisected, or whether the left (left-long trials) or the right segment (right-long trials) of the line was longer. Participants repeated the task before (pre-rTMS) and after (post-rTMS) receiving 20 min of 1 Hz rTMS over the right STG, the right supramarginal gyrus (SMG), and the vertex (a control site) during three separate visits. Linear mixed models for binomial data were generated with either accuracy or judgment errors as dependent variables, to compare 1) performance across trial types (bisection, non-bisection), and 2) pre- vs. post-rTMS performance between the vertex and the STG and the vertex and the SMG.Line eccentricity (z = 4.31, p < 0.0001) and line bisection (z = 5.49, p < 0.0001) were significant predictors of accuracy. In the models comparing the effects of rTMS, a significant two-way interaction with STG (z = −3.09, p = 0.002) revealed a decrease in accuracy of 9.5% and an increase in errors of the right-long type by 10.7% on bisection trials, in both left and right viewer-centered locations. No significant changes in leftward errors were found. These findings suggested an induced stimulus-centered rightward bias in our participants after STG stimulation. Notably, accuracy or errors were not influenced by SMG stimulation compared to vertex.In line with our predictions, the findings provide compelling evidence for right STG's involvement in healthy stimulus-centered spatial processing.

Dynamics of mirror writing compared to conventional writing in typical preliterate children

In left-to-right writing cultures, spontaneous mirror writing of letters and digits in preliterate children appears more frequently on left-than right-facing characters. A compelling theory drawn on neuropsychological evidence of mirror generalization suggests that children resort to a right-orienting/writing rule when learning to write. The aim of the present study was to conceptually replicate and specify recent findings (Fischer, 2017a) on the predominant contribution of writing directionality to mirror writing in preliterate children. A training study was designed to compare on-line production of conventional versus mirror writing of 4-to-5 year-old French children (n = 30). Over a 4-week period, children were taught to write from memory words and digits. During a subsequent writing-from-memory task, a spatial constraint (Cornell, 1985) was imposed to elicit paired conventional and mirror writing of the words/digits. Spatial and kinematic data were recorded through the use of a digital pen. The results indicate a main contribution of writing directionality to letter and digit reversals. Furthermore, kinematic equivalence between conventional and mirror writing supports the neurological mirror generalization process in children. Overall, these results constitute a further illustration that the manifestation of mirror writing in typically developing children is culture-bound.

Neuroscientific, Neuropsychological, and Psychological Evidence Comparably Impact Legal Decision Making: Implications for Experts and Legal Practitioners

ABSTRACTNeuroscientific evidence is assuming an increasingly prominent role in criminal law, where it has considerable potential for affecting legal decision making. Our understanding of this effect is currently limited. Research initially suggested a significant impact of neuroscience on lay and legal decision making, but subsequent investigations have failed to replicate or extend these findings. The current study investigated the impact of several types of evidence in a novel criminal-sentencing paradigm that surveyed community participants (N = 896) using Amazon Mechanical Turk. No significant differences among neuroscientific, neuropsychological, and psychological evidence conditions—with or without images—were observed on mock jurors’ impressions of the evidence, sentencing decisions, or opinions of violence risk, recidivism, or culpability. These results suggest that our current understanding of the differential impact of neuroscientific and neuroimaging evidence on legal decision making may be oversimplified. An accurate understanding of this effect is imperative for researchers, practitioners, and legal professionals working with neuroscientific evidence as its prevalence continues to grow in legal decision making.

Neuropsychological evidence for the crucial role of the right arcuate fasciculus in the face-based mentalizing network: A disconnection analysis

Recent evidence from axonal stimulation mapping studies suggests that at least two white matter connectivities in the right hemisphere may be involved in face-based mentalizing, i.e. the ability to infer complex cognitive and affective states from human faces: the inferior fronto-occipital (IFOF) and the superior longitudinal/arcuate (SLF/AF) fasciculi. However, to date, only a handful of neuropsychological studies have focused on the white matter tracts subserving mentalizing in general, and face-based mentalizing in particular. Therefore, the main goal of this study was to confirm the abovementioned results by applying voxelwise and tractwise lesion-symptom analyses to a set of behavioral data obtained from a large and homogeneous group of neurological participants. More precisely, 122 patients operated on for diffuse low-grade glioma were assessed postoperatively with the well-validated “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” (RME) test. For each patient, the resection cavity and the residual tumor infiltration were mapped separately on the respective postoperative structural MRI. Behavioral data, previously controlled for sociodemographic factors, were then submitted to a standard voxel-based and to a less conservative, region-of-interest (ROI)-based, lesion-deficit analyses. Results were invariably the same: no anatomo-functional relationships were pinpointed by these investigations, making thus impossible the cortical topological localization of mentalizing deficits. In a second time, two kinds of tractwise lesion-symptom analyses based on the damaged volume and the disconnection probabilities of the white matter tracts, were performed. All results were corrected with the Bonferroni correction. Converging and strong evidence was found that resection-related disconnection of the right AF is especially deleterious for face-based mentalizing. More anecdotally, we identified the involvement of certain ventral tracts, especially the IFOF and the uncinate fasciculus (UF). Taken as a whole, the reported findings confirm the critical role of the right AF in mentalizing abilities. From a more clinical standpoint, they highlight the necessity to perform an intraoperative map of this connectivity during awake surgery in order to avoid long-lasting social cognition disorders.

Usability study and pilot validation of a computer-based emotion recognition test for older adults with Alzheimer's disease and amnestic mild cognitive impairment

ABSTRACTObjectives: This study aimed to carry out a pilot validation of Affect-GRADIOR, a computer-based emotion recognition test, with older adults. The study evaluated its usability, reliability and validity for the screening of people with Alzheimer´s disease (AD) and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI).Methods: The test was administered to 212 participants (76.37 ± 6.20 years) classified into three groups (healthy controls, n = 69; AD, n = 84; and aMCI, n = 59) on the basis of detailed neurological, neuropsychological, laboratory and neuro-imaging evidence. Data on usability were collected by means of a questionnaire and automated evaluation.Results: The validated test comprised 53 stimuli and 7 practice items (one per emotion). Participants reported that Affect-GRADIOR was accessible and user-friendly. It had high internal consistency (ordinal Cronbach's α = 0.96). Test-retest reliability correlations were significant and robust (r = 0.840, p < 0.001). Exploratory factor analysis supported a seven-factor model of the emotions assessed (neutral expression, happiness, surprise, disgust, sadness, anger and fear). Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses suggested that the test discriminated healthy older adults from AD and aMCI cases. Correct answer score improved MMSE predictive power from 0.547 to 0.560 (Cox & Snell R2, p = 0.012), and Affect-GRADIOR speed of processing score improved MMSE predictive power from 0.547 to 0.563 (Cox & Snell R2, p = 0.010).Conclusions: Affect-GRADIOR is a valid instrument for the assessment of the facial recognition of emotions in older adults with and without cognitive impairment.

Chapter 27 - Contributions of the ventral parietal cortex to declarative memory

Our understanding of the role that ventral parietal cortex (VPC) plays in declarative memory processes has changed dramatically over the last two decades. The goal of this chapter is to provide a concise overview data concerning VPC involvement in episodic memory (EM), and to connect this data to several key theories of VPC function. We review evidence from five methodological domains in cognitive neuroscience: neuropsychological lesion evidence, univariate activation studies, multivoxel pattern analyses, functional connectivity studies, and brain stimulation experiments. We discuss how the body of empirical work bears on putative mnemonic functions of VPC related to attention and stimulus representation, and detail the strengths and weaknesses of related theories. Lastly, we identify several broad conceptual questions raised by recent investigations, and outline directions for future research.

Metacognitive Beliefs and Their Relation with Symptoms in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Metacognitive constructs have shown promise in explaining the symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Few studies have examined the role of metacognitions in symptom dimensions of OCD, despite mounting clinical, neuropsychological and imaging evidence for the distinctiveness of these dimensions. Metacognitions were assessed using the Metacognitions Questionnaire (MCQ-30) in 51 participants with DSM IV OCD and 46 healthy controls. The Maudsley Obsessional Compulsive Inventory (MOCI) was used to quantify symptom dimensions, along with the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) for anxiety, and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) for depression. Individuals with OCD differed from healthy controls on beliefs of uncontrollability and danger when depression and anxiety were controlled for. Correlations between metacognitive beliefs and obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions were largely similar across the OCD and healthy control groups. Hierarchical regression showed that need to control thoughts contributed to checking, cleaning and rumination symptoms; cognitive self-consciousness to symptoms of slowness; uncontrollability and danger to doubt symptoms; positive beliefs to checking symptoms. Specific associations between metacognitive variables and the different symptom dimensions of OCD are evident, however, severity of anxiety and depression also contribute to these associations.

Why episodic memory may not be for communication.

Three serious challenges to Mahr & Csibra's (M&C's) proposal are presented. First, we argue that the epistemic attitude that they claim is unique to remembering also applies to some forms of imaginative simulations that aren't memories. Second, we argue that their account cannot accommodate critical neuropsychological evidence. Finally, we argue that their proposal looks unconvincing when compared to more parsimonious evolutionary accounts.

"Truth be told"-Semantic memory as the scaffold for veridical communication.

Theoretical accounts placing episodic memory as central to constructive and communicative functions neglect the role of semantic memory. We argue that the decontextualized nature of semantic schemas largely supersedes the computational bottleneck and error-prone nature of episodic memory. Rather, neuroimaging and neuropsychological evidence of episodic-semantic interactions suggest that an integrative framework more accurately captures the mechanisms underpinning social communication.

Chemotherapy and cognitive impairment: An animal model approach.

A substantial number of cancer survivors who undergo chemotherapy report cognitive disturbances that severely limit daily function (chemobrain). Despite supportive neuropsychological evidence, there is controversy over whether cognitive impairment is caused by the chemotherapy or is the result of potentially confounding factors that include the disease itself, age, and psychological stress. Our research program, conducted on rodents, has confirmed that a range of cognitive processes, mediated in particular by hippocampal and prefrontal brain regions, are affected by anticancer drugs in combination with tumor development and that many of the effects are long lasting. This work has also provided evidence of protective factors (cognitive reserve, physical exercise, environmental enrichment) and the potential of pharmacological treatment (donepezil) interventions in reducing these effects. (PsycINFO Database Record

Binswanger's disease: biomarkers in the inflammatory form of vascular cognitive impairment and dementia.

Vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) is a major public health concern because of the increased incidence of vascular disease in the aging population and the impact of vascular disease on Alzheimer's disease. VCID is a heterogeneous group of diseases for which there are no proven treatments. Biomarkers can be used to select more homogeneous populations. Small vessel disease is the most prevalent form of VCID and is the optimal form for treatment trials because there is a progressive course with characteristic pathological changes. Subcortical ischemic vascular disease of the Binswanger type (SIVD-BD) has a characteristic set of features that can be used both to identify patients and to follow treatment. SIVD-BD patients have clinical, neuropsychological, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and imaging features that can be used as biomarkers. No one feature is diagnostic, but a multimodal approach defines the SIVD-BD spectrum disorder. The most important features are large white matter lesions with axonal damage, blood-brain barrier disruption as shown by magnetic resonance imaging and CSF, and neuropsychological evidence of executive dysfunction. We have used these features to create a Binswanger Disease Scale and a probability of SIVD-BD, using a machine-learning algorithm. The patients discussed in this review are derived from published studies. Biomarkers not only aid in early diagnosis before the disease process has progressed too far for treatment, but also can indicate response to treatment. Refining the use of biomarkers will allow dementia treatment to enter the era of precision medicine. This article is part of the Special Issue "Vascular Dementia".

Remedial interventions for developmental dyslexia: how neuropsychological evidence can inspire and support a rehabilitation training

Remedial interventions for developmental dyslexia: how neuropsychological evidence can inspire and support a rehabilitation training

Role of Glutamatergic System in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder with Possible Therapeutic Implications.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic psychiatric illness and 1 of the most common anxiety disorders with the prevalence of 3%. Although its pathogenesis remains unclear, the traditional model focused on alternations in the serotonin system. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors provide the most effective treatment; however, as much as 40-60% of patients do not respond to antidepressants therapy. Thus, attention has shifted towards other neurotransmitter systems and related neuroanatomical structures. Recently, there is extensive evidence showing a key role of glutamate pathways abnormalities within the cortico-striatal-thalamo-cortical circuitry and temporal lobes in OCD pathogenesis. In this review, we link together the existent neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, and neuropsychological evidence to argue for potential benefits of adjuvant treatment with glutamatergic agents, especially memantine. By a targeted de-excitation effect on the glutamatergic system in the temporal lobes and connected brain regions, memantine might further alleviate OCD symptoms. This effect should be even more pronounced in certain subtypes of patients with specific cognitive deficits and maladaptive compensatory memory processes (e.g., checkers).

A neuronal retuning hypothesis of sentence-specificity in Broca's area.

It is clear that the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) contributes in some fashion to sentence processing. While neuroimaging and neuropsychological evidence support a domain-general working memory function, recent neuroimaging data show that particular subregions of the LIFG, particularly the pars triangularis (pTri), show selective activation for sentences relative to verbal working memory and cognitive control tasks. These data suggest a language-specific function rather than a domain-general one. To resolve this apparent conflict, I propose separating claims ofdomain-generality and specificity independently for computations and representations-a given brain region may respond to a specific representation while performing a general computation over that representation, one shared with other systems. I hypothesize that the pTri underlies a language-specific working memory system, comprised of general memory retrieval/attention operations specialized for syntactic representations. There is a parallelism of top-down retrieval function among the phonological and semantic levels, localized to the pars opercularis and pars orbitalis, respectively. I further explore the idea of how such a system emerges in the human brain through the framework of neuronal retuning: the "borrowing" of domain-general mechanisms for language, either in evolution or development. The empirical data appear to tentativelysupport a developmental account of language-specificity in the pTri, possibly through connections to the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), a region that is both anatomically distinct for humans and functionally essential for language. Evidence of representational response specificity obtained from neuroimaging studies is useful in understanding how cognition is implemented in the brain. However, understanding the shared computations across domains and neural systems is necessary for a fuller understanding of this problem, providing potential answers to questions of how specialized systems, such as language, are implemented in the brain.

Management practices used to reduce the impact of seasonal infertility on sow productivity in Romania

In the last decade, a considerable amount of studies investigated different neuropsychological syndromes related to the disorder of body awareness. In this paper, we shall review neuropsychological evidence of pathological embodiment/disembodiment conditions with the aim of describing the major common features, and the complementary characteristics, that may suggest the structure and function of a shared body representation. In particular, we shall first discuss experimental studies conducted on a bizarre disorder of body ownership we recently described [i.e., brain-damaged patients claiming that another person's hand belongs to them (Pathological Embodiment, PE)]. Then complementary syndromes, with an apparent opposite attitude with respect to the PE (i.e., somatoparaphrenia and xenomelia, which is part of the Body Integrity Identity Disorders) will be also considered. We shall discuss the behavioural similarities/differences between these complementary disturbances also referring to already existing conceptual knowledge and proposals about body representation.

Neuropsychology and the Criminal Responsibility of Psychopaths: Reconsidering the Evidence

Recently it has been argued that certain neuropsychological findings on the decision-making, instrumental learning, and moral understanding in psychopathic offenders offer reasons to consider them not criminally responsible, due to certain epistemic and volitional impairments. We reply to this family of arguments, that collectively we call the irresponsibility of the psychopath argument (IPA for short). This type of argument has a premise that describes or prescribes the deficiencies that grant or should grant partial or complete criminal exculpation. The other premise contends that neuropsychological evidence shows that psychopaths have incapacitates that are sufficient to ascribe complete or partially exculpatory deficiencies. The focus of our criticism is this latter premise. We argue that it requires that psychopathy should correlate significantly with certain rational incapacities that manifest across contexts. We show that the available neuropsychological data do not support the claim that psychopaths have such general exculpatory incapacities.