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At least 1,279 records · Page 71Linked to original sources
PubMed2003

Neurocognitive dysfunction in children with neurofibromatosis type 1.

The cognitive dysfunction associated with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an intriguing aspect of this phenotypically heterogeneous genetic neurocutaneous disorder. A broad range of both nonverbal and verbal learning disabilities are evident in approximately 30% to 65% of children with NF1. Deficits in IQ, executive function, attention, and motor skills have also been documented. Current challenges lie in discovering the underlying multifactorial etiologies of the cognitive abnormalities found in NF1. Likely answers lie in neuroanatomic correlates as seen on neuroimaging as well as in molecular and genetic advances into the role of neurofibromin, the protein product of the NF1 gene. The development of NF1 animal models with learning and memory difficulties similar to those seen in humans demonstrates promising preliminary evidence that medical treatment of cognitive abnormalities may one day be possible.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

New perspectives on schizotypal personality disorder.

Schizotypal personality disorder is the prototype of the schizophrenia-related personality disorders and has been demonstrated to have phenomenologic, biologic, treatment, and outcome characteristics similar to those of schizophrenic patients. These studies suggest that patients with schizotypal personality disorder, like schizophrenic patients, show cognitive impairment, but the impairment is more focal and involves primarily working memory, verbal learning, and sustained attention rather than generalized intellectual deficits. Schizotypal patients, like schizophrenic patients show reductions in temporal lobe volume, but seem to be spared the frontal volume reductions found in some studies of schizophrenic patients and in our laboratory. Better frontal "buffering" may prevent the more severe cognitive and social deterioration associated with schizophrenia. Furthermore, schizotypal patients appear to show less susceptibility to psychotic symptoms, in part perhaps because of better buffered subcortical dopaminergic activity as suggested by recent data from a SPECT/amphetamine paradigm, glucose metabolic study, and structural studies of basal ganglia. These findings are discussed in terms of a model of schizotypal personality disorder where schizotypal patients have better capacity for compensatory buffering in lateral and subcortical brain regions, protecting them from the more severe symptoms of chronic schizophrenia.

Amphetamines↗
PubMed2004

Cognitive effects of cytotoxic cancer chemotherapy: predisposing risk factors and potential treatments.

Increasing evidence suggests that systemic cancer chemotherapy can have significant long-term effects on cognition, particularly on verbal learning, memory, attention, and speed of information processing. These deficits can be a source of significant distress to survivors. There is much less known about the mechanisms, predisposing vulnerabilities, and treatment of these deficits. We will summarize current knowledge of chemotherapy-associated cognitive deficits. Emerging theories about the role of selected genetic polymorphisms in heightening the vulnerability to chemotherapy-induced cognitive decline will be described.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols↗
PubMed1991

Memory effects of clomipramine treatment: relationship to CSF monoamine metabolites and drug concentrations in plasma.

Performance on tasks tapping automatic and voluntary aspects of memory, attention, and motor speed was examined in 14 patients with major depressive disorder, before and after 3 weeks of treatment with clomipramine (150 mg/day), a potent serotonin and noradrenaline uptake blocker with anticholinergic side effects. Performance on tasks requiring frontal functions improved or did not change, whereas verbal learning and retention, where hippocampal functioning is critical, were impaired. The latter tasks were negatively related to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) 5-HIAA levels and plasma concentration of clomipramine. The results provide further support for the regulatory role of monoaminergic systems in cognition. Furthermore, we found the automatic-voluntary capacity distinction less heuristically useful. Physiological mechanisms regulating different aspects of cognition and memory appeared to be more closely related to the type of task used than to its capacity-demanding properties.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

A developmental, interactive activation model of the word superiority effect.

Parallel distributed processing (PDP) models of reading developed out of an appreciation of the role that context plays in letter and word perception. Adult readers can more accurately identify letters in a word than alone or in other random display contexts, a phenomenon known as the Word Superiority Effect (WSE). We examined the effects of orthographic context on the letter recognition skills of dyslexic children, comparing their performance to adults, and chronological- and reading-age matched groups. Consistent with previous studies, results showed adults better able to identify letters in the context of words and pseudowords than in random letter strings. Young normal readers demonstrated the WSE, but their pseudoword advantage was less than adults. The dyslexic children showed no WSE at all. PDP computer simulations for the experimental data using the Interactive Activation model (IA) suggested that the orthographic components of the lexical system of normal children are interactive and distributed as they are in adults but provide less bottom-up activation. In addition, top-down processing increases with age and reading skill, but may be absent for dyslexic readers.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Naming speed deficits in reading disability: multiple measures of a singular process.

Speed of word identification is important in the theories of reading proposed by La Berge and Samuels (1974) and Perfetti (1985), and is substantially correlated with reading skill. However, there is controversy about whether disabled readers have a speed deficit that is restricted to the identification of printed words, or if instead, they have a more general speed deficit in retrieving names of even single digits. To investigate this issue, poor and average readers (N = 43) in grade 2 were assessed on several indices of speed of digit and letter naming, using both continuous-list and discrete-trial methodologies. MANCOVA indicated clear effects of reader group on discrete-trial latencies, as well as an interaction between reader group and the speed with which to-be-named items were presented. A series of hierarchical regression analyses explored the amount of shared variance between various measures of digit naming speed and five indices of reading skill. Latency for word identification shares considerable variance with latency for digit naming, and, in general, accounts for the shared variance of naming speed and several other measures of reading skill. Naming speed contributed variance in reading skill. Naming speed contributed variance in reading skill independently of measures of phonological awareness.

Attention↗
PubMed1991

Speech, "inner speech," and the development of short-term memory: effects of picture labeling on recall.

Three experiments explored the effect of overt speech on children's use of "inner speech' in short-term memory (STM). Experiments 1 and 2 compared recall of a series of pictured objects when 5- and 11-year-olds either labeled stimuli at presentation or remained silent. Use of inner speech was assessed by manipulating word length of the picture names (Experiment 1) or phonemic similarity (Experiment 2). Word length and phonemic similarity had greater effects in the older children and when pictures were labeled at presentation. These tendencies were such that 5-year-olds were sensitive to word length and phonemic similarity only with labeling. Experiment 3 compared labeling by the child with labeling by the experimenter in 5-year-olds. There were no significant differences with respect to overall performance or effects of word length and phonemic similarity. It is suggested that speaking or listening to speech activates and internal "articulatory loop,' and that such activation is especially important when the child's ability to use inner speech in STM has not fully developed.

Attention↗
PubMed1991

Enhancement of 4-year-old children's memory span for phonologically similar and dissimilar word lists.

Previous research suggests that preschool children are deficient in rehearsal and that stimulus list repetitions can improve their recall, presumably by substituting for the products of rehearsal. However, the previous research included interitem or postlist retention intervals of several seconds or more. We examined the utility of list repetitions with reference to an ordinary span task in which spoken words were presented 1 s apart for immediate recall. Lists with phonologically similar versus dissimilar items were included, to determine if the overall pattern of recall could be made more similar to what is ordinarily obtained in older children. Cumulative repetition was found to cause a moderate increase in both memory span and the phonological similarity effect. Other types of list repetition provided more insight into types of stimulus redundancy that were helpful (e.g., repeated serial order information) or not helpful (e.g., forced articulatory coding) to children attempting to recall spoken lists. The underlying mnemonic processes are discussed.

Child Development↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Experimental evidence for two dimensions of cognitive disorders in depressives.

Three neuropsychological tests (Rey's auditory verbal learning test, word fluency and signal detection test for words) were administered to 36 depressed patients (medicated and non-medicated) and 26 controls and compared to scale scores for depression severity and psychomotor retardation to examine how retardation was related to cognitive performance. As expected, compared to controls depressives exhibited non-specific "cognitive inefficiency", that is, consistently deficient performance in all cognitive tasks. Results on all three tests were correlated with one other and with depressive severity (measured by the Montgomery & Asberg Depression Rating Scale, MADRS). One notable exception, however, was the score for commission errors ("false alarms") in the signal detection test, which correlated negatively with psychomotor retardation (measured by a subscale of the Salpétrière Retardation Rating Scale, SRRS) but not at all with depressive severity. Lack of commission errors thus seemed to index a dimension of retardation of ideation that seemed distinct from the non-specific cognitive inefficiency dimension. Conversely, omission errors in the same test strongly correlated with the other two cognitive tests and with depressive severity but not with psychomotor retardation. Cognitive performance in depressives might thus be explainable in terms of two overlapping dimensions of depressive pathology (global cognitive impairment vs. specific effect of retardation). Further studies with non-medicated patients are needed to determine to what extent these findings may be due to medication effects.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Modelling dementia: effects of scopolamine on memory and attention.

Scopolamine, a muscarinic cholinergic antagonist, is capable of inducing transient memory impairment in normal subjects. Against the background of the cholinergic hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) the present study was designed to investigate the effects of low oral doses of scopolamine on a range of cognitive functions known or hypothesized to be affected in AD. Twenty healthy volunteers (18-48 yr) performed a battery of automated cognitive tasks under each of five treatments: oral scopolamine 0.3 mg, 0.6 mg, 1.2 mg; oral methylscopolamine 0.6 mg; placebo. Alongside analogous tests of verbal and non-verbal memory, the battery enabled assessments of a range of attentional functions: alerting, sustained attention, selective attention, and covert orientation. A profile of effects was observed within and beyond the realm of memory. While some functions were unaffected by the drug (e.g. alerting) and others were impaired at the highest dose (e.g. verbal learning) still others were affected in a linear dose-dependent manner (sustained attention; visual contrast sensitivity). These observations are discussed in the context of the "scopolamine model" of AD.

Adolescent↗