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Incidental information processing: effects of mood, sex and caffeine.

This experiment assessed the effects of various parameters on incidental information processing. Participants from a nonclinical population were asked to fill out mood and personality questionnaires before completing a simple explicit and implicit memory task. It was predicted that participants with more depressive symptoms would show lower implicit memory scores. A number of sex differences were revealed: data from male participants supported the prediction; however, female participants showed a negative correlation between increasing depressive mood symptoms and implicit memory; sex differences were also present along other cognitive dimensions. Socioeconomic effects and hemispheric biases were factors considered as possible explanations for these sex differences; hemispheric bias could have resulted in differential female/male strategies being used; these may have been responsible for the consistently higher female scores found throughout the experiment. It is also suggested that implicit memory might have a separate store; this may be influenced by the default/habitual preference for a particular processing strategy (unique to the individual participant and/or the presence of depressive symptoms).

Adult↗

Acute exposures to p-xylene and toluene alter visual information processing.

Long-Evans hooded rats were exposed to single doses of toluene (PO) at 0, 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg, to p-xylene (PO) at 0, 125, 250, 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/kg, and to inhalation of p-xylene for 4 hr at 0, 800 or 1600 ppm. The functional integrity of the visual system was evaluated using flash-evoked potentials (FEPs). The data indicated a significant depression in amplitude of FEP peak N3 at 250 mg/kg and higher dosages of toluene and p-xylene. A similar depression in peak N3 amplitude was observed following inhalation exposure to 1600 ppm p-xylene. The effects produced by oral administration of 500 mg/kg p-xylene or toluene lasted at least 8 hr, while the effect of inhaled p-xylene dissipated within 75 min of removal from the exposure. FEP peak N3 is presumed to be related to arousal, such that increases in arousal from a relaxed state should decrease amplitude. Rats administered amphetamine in dosages of 0.6, 1.2 and 2.5 mg/kg (known to increase arousal) also had reduced N3 amplitude. The effects of p-xylene and toluene on FEPs, while indicative of altered processing of visual information, may be secondary to changes in arousal or excitability.

Amphetamine↗

Review of neuropsychological functioning in treated phenylketonuria: an information processing approach.

Phenylketonuria is no longer associated with mental retardation and other devastating neurological effects. Nonetheless, learning disabilities and IQ loss are common, even in early-treated individuals. Until recently, IQ was used as the sole measure of mental functioning in this population. As specific academic deficits were recognized and as a greater variety of tests became available, evaluation of children with phenylketonuria has included neuropsychological testing. A review of the 21 published reports highlights the areas of consensus and the need for additional well designed studies in the future. Problem solving, particularly abstract reasoning and executive functions, appears to be impaired in children with phenylketonuria. Reaction time, or speed of mental processing, appears to be the other important area affected in PKU. An information processing model is presented as a paradigm for further research and development of remedial strategies for children with phenylketonuria.

Age Factors↗

Social information processing and emotional understanding in children with LD.

The present study aimed to comprehensively examine social cognition processes in children with and without learning disabilities (LD), focusing on social information processing (SIP) and complex emotional understanding capabilities such as understanding complex, mixed, and hidden emotions. Participants were 50 children with LD (age range 9.4-12.7; 35 boys, 15 girls) and 50 children without LD matched on grade, age, and gender. Children analyzed 4 social vignettes using Dodge's SIP model and completed 2 emotional recognition tasks (pictures and stories) and 4 emotional knowledge tasks, such as providing definitions and examples for 5 emotions (e.g., loneliness, pride, embarrassment). Study results demonstrated that children with LD had major difficulties in SIP processes and consistent difficulties with the different tasks in the understanding of complex emotions and in higher emotional understanding capabilities, such as understanding that 2 conflicting emotions (love and hate) can be simultaneously experienced. We discuss the implications of such difficulties for the understanding of social competence in children with LD as well as their implications for social skills intervention.

Case-Control Studies↗

[Analysis of the morphological substrate of information processing in the striatum based on organizational characteristics of its afferent projections].

By the method of axonal transport of the retrograde markers, the afferent projections, coming from functionally different cortical and subcortical structures to various segments of the caudate nucleus, were investigated in the putamen and the nucleus accumbens of the dog brain. On the basis of the determined peculiarities of the spatail organization of these projections, the morphological aspects of the segregated and convergent conducting and processing of the information in the striatum, which underlie their functioning, were analyzed.

Afferent Pathways↗

[The P300 component of the event-related brain potential as an indicator in the study of information processing].

Event-related bioelectrical brain activity plays an important role in psychophysiological investigations of mental processes. One of the so-called endogenous components of ERP, the P300, occurring in the time range from 300 ms to 800 ms after stimulus presentation accompanies the selective call on cognitive processing of stimulus information. An overview of some influencing factors and of hypotheses according functional significance of P300 is given. Although functional significance of P300 is only partly known there are interesting possibilities of application, e.g. in Neurology, Psychiatry and Occupational medicine.

Arousal↗

Survey of ACCP members regarding use of computers and information processing.

A questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 480 members of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy to determine their opinions on various issues relating to computer technology and the future role of computers in information processing in pharmacy. Results from the 335 evaluable responses revealed nearly universal use of computers. Word processing was the most common application and IBM or compatible computers were the dominant machines. Respondents used a wide variety of generalized and specialized programs, especially electronic communication products. Computer technology is expected to have a major impact on routine aspects of pharmacy practice, although, respondents were split on its impact on more cognitively intensive functions.

Clinical Pharmacy Information Systems↗

Rapid information processing and concomitant event-related brain potentials in smokers differing in CO absorption.

The present study relates subject-paced rapid information processing to different components of event-related brain potentials in an attempt to gain more information about changes in mental performance in relation to alveolar smoke absorption as assessed by expired air CO measurement. The task consisted in the presentation of pseudorandom sequences of single digits, and the subjects had to respond to each sequence of three odd or three even digits. The triplets evoked a typical late negativity in the event-related potential between the second and third digit as well as a P300 component following the third digit. In 21 smokers, task performance, event-related potentials and tidal air CO concentration were measured before and after smoking a cigarette. The results revealed increases in performance and P300 magnitude from pre- to postsmoking which were unaffected by the amount of CO absorption. A differential trend was seen, however, with the late negativity, which increased from pre- to postsmoking only in subjects with a large amount of CO absorption. The results support the assumption of the distraction arousal model used as an interpretation of these effects on contingent negative variation and suggest that high CO absorbing smokers possibly depend more on neuropharmacological effects of smoking than smokers with a low amount of CO absorption.

Adolescent↗

The effects of benzodiazepines on short-term memory and information processing.

The effects of flunitrazepam 1 mg, triazolam 0.25 mg, lormetazepam 1 mg and placebo on stages of information processing in a Sternberg memory scanning task were investigated in ten normal volunteers. Overall reaction times for the task were increased 1 h following treatment with triazolam and both 1 h and 10 h following treatment with flunitrazepam. Response latencies were not appreciably altered by lormetazepam or placebo. The effects of flunitrazepam and triazolam were found to be localised in the stimulus encoding and serial comparison stages of the reaction process and not in response-selection organisation.

Adult↗

Incoherent noise and quantum information processing.

Incoherence in the controlled Hamiltonian is an important limitation on the precision of coherent control in quantum information processing. Incoherence can typically be modeled as a distribution of unitary processes arising from slowly varying experimental parameters. We show how it introduces artifacts in quantum process tomography and we explain how the resulting estimate of the superoperator may not be completely positive. We then go on to attack the inverse problem of extracting an effective distribution of unitaries that characterizes the incoherence via a perturbation theory analysis of the superoperator eigenvalue spectra.

Journal Article↗

Alpha sleep and information processing, perception of sleep, pain, and arousability in fibromyalgia.

This study examined the relationship between alpha sleep and information processing during sleep, perception of sleep, musculoskeletal pain, and arousability in patients with fibromyalgia. Patients (n = 20) were allowed to sleep undisturbed for the first 60 minutes of the study to assess amount of alpha sleep and were classified as high or low alpha generators based on quantitative analyses of alpha activity during this period. The groups were compared for performance on two memory tasks, perceptions of polysomnographically-defined sleep and EEG arousals in response to auditory stimuli. Correlations between symptoms of fibromyalgia and alpha activity were also examined. Alpha activity during sleep in fibromyalgic patients was associated with the perception of shallow sleep and an increased tendency to arouse in relation to auditory stimuli. Alpha activity was not associated with increased memory for auditory stimuli presented during sleep, sleep state misperception, or with myalgia symptoms. Alpha sleep appears to be, electrophysiologically, a shallow form of sleep. Our results suggest that it is perceived as such phenomenologically and that it is also associated with increased arousability.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

[Are early stages of visual information processing in schizophrenic patients disturbed? Results of an experimental study].

In a study of early stages of visual information processing in schizophrenic patients, twenty acute schizophrenics, twenty remitted schizophrenics and twenty chronic schizophrenics were compared with control groups consisting of twenty healthy subjects and twenty depressive patients (psychiatric controls). The groups tested were matched for age, sex, and educational level. The psychiatric groups were selected according to the research diagnostic criteria (RDC) of Spitzer et al. Performance in a picture integration task and a backward masking task were measured. Chronic and acute schizophrenics showed similarly poor performance in the masking task compared to both control groups. The remitted schizophrenics, however, did not differ from the healthy controls or from the psychiatric controls. This finding contradicts the claim recently made by Merritt et al., that poor performance in backward masking is a trait marker for schizophrenia.

Adult↗

Effects of one-week lithium treatment on skilled performance, information processing, and mood in healthy volunteers.

In a double-blind study, effects of lithium on skilled performance, information processing, and mood were studied in 12 healthy men. Lithium was administered for 1 week and the average, steady state, serum lithium concentration on the morning of testing was 0.8 mEq/liter. Lithium had a non-specific, minor, but consistent effect of prolonging reaction times. Most subjects reported increased anxiety, faintness-dizziness, nervousness-shakiness, and feeling "blue" during and immediately after lithium treatment.

Adult↗

Reflective and impulsive children: strategies of information processing underlying differences in problem solving.

The hypothesis that impulsive children differ from reflective children in their preferred strategy of information processing, based on extent of stimulus analysis, was investigated. The experiments employed different age groups and a variety of tasks, including matching, grouping, recall, and concept attainment. Stimuli were presented both visually and auditorily and included both visually and aduitorily and included both verbal and pictorial matrials. The tasks required verbal and nonverbal responses and varied in the level of stimulus analysis necessary for successful performance. The subjects' strategy was assessed by the quality of their performance on tasks requiring detail versus global processing, and by the strategy they chose to adopt in tasks where either detail or global processing led to successful performance. While reflective children performed better on tasks requiring detail analysis than on tasks requiring global analysis, impulsive children showed the reverse trend. Furthermore, when successful solutions could be reached via either a global- or a detail-processing strategy, impulsive children who adopted the former were equally as successful as reflective children who adopted the latter strategy. It was concluded that, contrary to existing views, impulsive children are not inferior to reflective children in general potential or problem-solving ability. Rather, the inferior performance of impulsive children frequently reported in the literature may be due to incompatibility between their preferred global-processing strategy and the detail analysis typically required for successful performance.

Auditory Perception↗

Neuropsychological and information processing deficits following mild traumatic brain injury.

Neuroradiological and neuropathological investigations have found evidence of diffuse brain damage in the frontal and temporal lobes, corpus callosum, and fornices in patients who have sustained a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, neuropsychological assessments of these patients do not typically target many of the subtle information processing deficits that may arise from diffuse damage involving the frontotemporal regions of the brain as well as white matter pathology, including the corpus callosum. Consequently, we have a limited understanding of the deficits that may be attributable to temporary or permanent disruptions to these functional pathways. This study assessed a group of mild TBI patients (N = 40) and a matched control group (N = 40) on a number of standard neuropsychological tests of selective and sustained attention, verbal and non-verbal fluency, and verbal memory. In addition, reaction time (RT) tasks, requiring both the inter- and intra-hemispheric processing of visual and tactile information, were used to assess the functional integrity of the tracts that are likely to be affected by diffuse damage. In the 1st month after sustaining their injury, the mild TBI group demonstrated deficits in attention, non-verbal fluency, and verbal memory. They also demonstrated slower visual and tactile RTs, with the visual RTs of mild TBI patients being more affected by increased task difficulty and the need to transfer information across the corpus callosum, than did their matched controls.

Adolescent↗

Information processing biases in eating disorders.

Research has supported a link between emotional disorders (such as depression and anxiety) and information processing biases of attention and memory. This article reviews the extension of this approach to such biases in eating disorders. Two paradigms are considered in detail: the modified Stroop task and the dot probe task. In addition, the relative merits and problems associated with both approaches are considered. The limitations of the current research for clinical practice are discussed and suggestions are made for ways in which the research may be made more ecologically valid.

Affective Symptoms↗

The effect of clozapine on the speed and accuracy of information processing in schizophrenia.

1. The study aimed to investigate the effects of clozapine on the speed and accuracy of information processing in patients with schizophrenia. Data are reported from 13 subjects with schizophrenia, treated with clozapine for 6.8 (+/- 1.8) months. 2. Reaction time and accuracy of target detection on a tone detection task were measured before and during clozapine treatment, and these results were compared with a matched control group. 3. Symptom severity and performance on three timed tests of cognitive function were also measured prior to clozapine treatment in the schizophrenia group, and these measures were repeated during treatment with clozapine. 4. Treatment with clozapine was found to significantly improve reaction time and the accuracy of target detection in patients with schizophrenia. Despite this improvement their performance remained significantly inferior to that of a matched control group. Both positive and negative symptoms improved with clozapine treatment, as did performance on the WAIS-R digit symbol substitution test. 5. Improved performance on the WAIS-R digit symbol substitution test correlated with reduction in negative symptoms, and faster reaction time showed some correlation with reduction in positive symptoms. 6. The results of this pilot study indicate that treatment with clozapine can produce limited improvement in cognitive function in schizophrenia.

Acoustic Stimulation↗