Poorer Psychomotor Speed Research Articles

The Relations Among Depression, Cognition, and Brain Volume in Professional Boxers: A Preliminary Examination Using Brief Clinical Measures.

Depression, neuropathology, and cognitive decline are commonly observed with repetitive head injuries (RHIs). We examined whether in boxers (a) clinically significant depression is associated with structural brain changes and cognition; (b) minimal symptoms of depression moderate the relations among RHI and brain volumes and cognition; and (c) baseline depression is associated with longitudinal cognitive changes. Clinical Research Center. A total of 205 male professional boxers. Cross-sectional and longitudinal (subsample: n = 45; first visit to follow-up range = 1-6 years; mean = 2.61 years). Patient Health Questionnaire-9 depression; CNS Vital Signs cognitive battery; brain imaging. Clinically significant depression was associated with smaller regional volumes in insula, cingulate, orbitofrontal cortex, thalami, and middle corpus-callosum subregions; and with poorer verbal memory and psychomotor speed performance. Depression symptoms moderated the relations between RHI and bilateral thalami, left hippocampus, left medial orbitofrontal cortex, and bilateral insula volumes; but not cognition. Baseline depression was associated with poorer psychomotor speed and reaction time longitudinally and improved verbal memory performance longitudinally. Clinical depression is associated with volumetric and cognitive changes occasioning RHI exposure, and even minimal depressive symptoms may moderate the relations between exposure and brain volumes in key regions. Longitudinally, there is preliminary evidence that depression precedes cognitive changes.

Influence of Spirituality on Depression-Induced Inflammation and Executive Functioning in a Community Sample of African Americans.

African Americans (AAs) are disproportionately affected by cerebrovascular pathology and more likely to suffer from premature cognitive decline. Depression is a risk factor for poorer cognitive functioning, and research is needed to identify factors that serve to mitigate its negative effects. Studies have demonstrated positive influences of spirituality within the AA community. Determining whether spirituality attenuates the effects of depressive symptoms on cognitive functioning and the pathophysiological mechanisms that explain these relationships in AAs is paramount. This study examines the influence of daily spiritual experiences on the relationship between depressive symptoms and cognitive functioning, and how inflammatory markers may partially explain these associations. A sample of 212 (mean age= 45.6) participants completed the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Trail Making Test A and B (TMT) and Stroop Color and Word Test (Stroop). Blood samples were collected to measure inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-1a, TNF-a). Linear regression analyses were used to evaluate associations. Higher BDI-II scores were associated with poorer psychomotor speed and visual scanning, measured by TMT A (B=1.49, P=.01). IL-6 explained a significant amount of variance in this relationship (B=.24, CI 95% [.00, .64]). IL-6 also significantly mediated the relationship between depressive symptoms and psychomotor speed and mental flexibility, measured by TMT B performance (B=.03, CI 95% [.003, .095]). Frequent spiritual experiences among AAs may ameliorate the negative influence of depressive symptoms on cognitive functioning.

Increased Marijuana Use and Gender Predict Poorer Cognitive Functioning in Adolescents and Emerging Adults

This study sought to characterize neuropsychological functioning in MJ-using adolescents and emerging adults (ages 18-26) and to investigate whether gender moderated these effects. Data were collected from 59 teens and emerging adults including MJ users (n = 23, 56% female) and controls (n = 35, 50% female) aged 18-26 (M = 21 years). Exclusionary criteria included independent Axis I disorders (besides SUD), and medical and neurologic disorders. After controlling for reading ability, gender, subclinical depressive symptoms, body mass index, and alcohol and other drug use, increased MJ use was associated with slower psychomotor speed/sequencing ability (p < .01), less efficient sustained attention (p < .05), and increased cognitive inhibition errors (p < .03). Gender significantly moderated the effects of MJ on psychomotor speed/sequencing ability (p < .003) in that males had a more robust negative relationship. The current study demonstrated that MJ exposure was associated with poorer psychomotor speed, sustained attention and cognitive inhibition in a dose-dependent manner in young adults, findings that are consistent with other samples of adolescent MJ users. Male MJ users demonstrated greater cognitive slowing than females. Future studies need to examine the neural substrates underlying with these cognitive deficits and whether cognitive rehabilitation or exercise interventions may serve as a viable treatments of cognitive deficits in emerging adult MJ users.

Alcohol Drinking and Cognitive Functions: Findings from the Cardiovascular Risk Factors Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) Study

Background: Moderate alcohol drinking is suggested to be beneficial for cognitive functions, but the results of previous studies have varied greatly. Little is known about the effects of midlife alcohol drinking on the cognitive functions later in life. Methods: Participants were derived from random, population-based samples studied in Eastern Finland in 1972, 1977, 1982, or 1987. A total of 1,341 participants were reexamined in 1998, after an average follow-up period of 21 years, at ages 65–79 years. Results: The participants who did not drink alcohol at midlife had a poorer performance in episodic memory, psychomotor speed, and executive function in late life as compared with infrequent and frequent drinkers, adjusted for sociodemographic and vascular factors. Also late-life nondrinkers had poorer psychomotor speed and executive function. These findings were evident especially among nonsmokers. Further, no interactions between apolipoprotein E4 and alcohol or sex and alcohol were found. Conclusions: Alcohol drinking both at midlife and later is favorably related to the function in several cognitive domains, including episodic memory, psychomotor speed, and executive function, in late life. However, it is not clear whether the association is causal, what is the possible mechanism, and what would be a safe limit of drinking for the best cognitive function.

The relationship between brain structure and neurocognition in schizophrenia: a selective review

Both Kraepelin [1919. Dementia Praecox and Paraphrenia, Livingston, Edinburgh.] and Bleuler [1911. Dementia Praecox or the Group of Schizophrenias. Reprinted 1950 (trans. and ed. J. Zinkin). New York: International Univ. Press.] proposed that cognitive disturbances in schizophrenia are manifestations of brain abnormality. With the advent of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methodology, a number of studies have attempted to determine the relationship between brain structure and neurocognition in schizophrenia. We performed a review (1991–to date) of such studies with the aim of identifying the most consistent and compelling findings. The review revealed that whole brain volume tends to correlate with the measures of general intelligence as well as with a range of specific cognitive functions in normal controls and female schizophrenia patients, but this relationship is disrupted in male patients. The enlargement of the third ventricle, relative to the whole brain volume, is associated with deficient abstraction/flexibility, language, and attention/concentration in patients, whereas disproportionally larger lateral ventricles are associated with poorer psychomotor speed and attention/concentration in women, but not in men, with schizophrenia. Archicortical, but not paleocortical, prefrontal cortex tends to associate with the measures of executive function in both sexes regardless of diagnosis. Temporal lobe, hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus correlate with cognitive abilities such as performance speed and accuracy, memory and executive function, verbal endowment and abstraction/categorization, respectively. Some of these medial temporal lobe/neurocognition relationships appear to be specific to schizophrenia (i.e. not seen in controls). Striatal size is positively associated with goal-directed behavior, but not perseveration, in schizophrenia. Larger cerebellum is associated with higher IQ in normal controls and affected women, but this association is disrupted in affected men. Increased white matter of the vermis is associated with poorer language and immediate verbal memory in schizophrenia. Finally, the methodological limitations of the reviewed studies are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.