Neuropsychology最新文献

Objective: Digital biomarkers can provide frequent, real-time monitoring of health-related behavior and could play an important role in the assessment of cognition in frontotemporal dementia (FTD). However, the validity and reliability of digital biomarkers as measures of cognitive function must first be determined.

Method: The Ignite cognitive app contains iPad-based measures of executive function, social cognition, and other domains affected in FTD. Here we describe the normative properties of the Ignite tests, evaluate associations with gold-standard neuropsychological tests, and investigate test-retest reliability through two healthy control studies. Over 2,000 cognitively normal adults aged 20-80 years were recruited to complete the Ignite app remotely. A separate cohort of 98 healthy controls completed Ignite at two timepoints (7 days apart), a pen and paper neuropsychology battery, and a User Experience Questionnaire.

Results: Significant associations were found between age and performance on several Ignite measures of processing speed (r = 0.42-0.56, p < .001) and executive function (r = 0.43-0.62, p < .001). With the exception of one test (Time Tap), the Ignite tests demonstrated moderate to excellent test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficients [ICC] = 0.54-0.92) and significant correlations with their pen and paper counterparts (r = 0.25-0.72, p < .05). The majority of participants (> 90%) rated the app favorably, stating it was enjoyable and easy to complete unsupervised.

Conclusions: These findings offer early support for the validity of the Ignite tests suggesting they measure the intended cognitive processes, capture a stable picture of performance over time, and are well accepted in healthy controls. This work supports the feasibility of administering the app remotely and its potential utility as a cognitive tool in FTD; however, validation is ongoing, and further work is required before Ignite can be used as an endpoint in clinical trials. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Although deficits in executive functions (EFs) have been shown to characterize individuals who exhibit externalizing behavior problems, few studies have differentiated between the influence of hot and cold EF on externalizing behavior. This study tests whether there is an interaction between performance on assessments of cold and hot EF in relation to externalizing behavior in a community sample of adolescents and adults.

Method: Analyses were conducted on 396 adolescents (M_age = 14.81 years) and 393 of their parents (M_age = 45.39 years). Cold and hot EFs were assessed in both groups using a battery of neuropsychological tests, alongside externalizing behavior in both adolescents and their parents using a variety of self-report and parent-report questionnaires.

Results: A significant Hot EF × Cold EF interaction was found in both samples, such that adolescents and adults with increased risk taking on a hot EF task, but higher cold EF scores exhibited lower levels of externalizing behavior. Adults with reduced performance on both hot and cold EF tasks exhibited the highest levels of externalizing behavior.

Conclusions: Both hot and cold EFs contribute to the propensity for externalizing behavior. Results show that in the presence of increased risky decision making, which is a domain of hot EF, higher cold EF acts as a protective factor against externalizing behavior. Notably, this is observed in both adolescents and adults. Findings point to the possibility of targeting deficits in cold EF in interventions to reduce externalizing behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: In this cross-sectional study in Zambia, we examined factors that influence cognitive performance in adults with clade C human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV) infection who were on antiretroviral therapy.

Method: We examined if detectable HIV ribonucleic acid (RNA) in blood plasma, nadir CD4+ T-cell count before antiretroviral therapy, increase in CD4+ T-cell count during antiretroviral therapy, and having pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) influenced cognitive performance. We performed a multilinear regression in which the dependent variable was the global mean cognitive T-score, an overall composite score based on 16 neuropsychological tests that were adjusted for age, sex, and education using normative data from Zambian adults without HIV infection. The 16 tests were merged into seven cognitive domains: Executive Functions, Verbal Fluency, Attention/Working Memory, Learning (immediate recall), Memory (delayed recall), Motor Control, and Speed of Information Processing.

Results: When on antiretroviral therapy, a greater increase in CD4+ T-cells was significantly associated with a better global mean cognitive T-score (p = .002). Pulmonary TB was independently associated with worse performance (p = .008). Neither nadir CD4+ T-cell count nor plasma HIV RNA during antiretroviral therapy was associated with cognitive performance.

Conclusions: Accounting for CD4+ T-cell increase after antiretroviral therapy initiation and comorbid pulmonary TB may help explain cognitive outcomes in persons with HIV infection in endemic settings. We suggest that it is essential that those with a low CD4+ T-cell count increase the number of cells as early as possible. Our data suggest that this is important for their cognitive functioning. Future research should determine whether the deleterious effect of pulmonary TB resolves after completion of TB treatment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Although the hippocampus is critical for memory processes, recent studies have suggested that amnesic patients with hippocampal lesions can still acquire some types of memory by distributed learning rather than by massed learning. However, as these studies recruited patients with developmental amnesia, whether lesion onset influenced the spacing effect was unclear. In addition, the extent to which the prefrontal cortex (PFC) supports the spacing effect has not been explored.

Method: Patients with hippocampal lesions at early onset and late onset and PFC lesions were enrolled. The participants learned face-scene pairs under single learning (i.e., once in 1 day), massed learning (i.e., four times in 1 day), and distributed learning (i.e., four times in 2 days, twice per day). Then, they performed associative recognition tasks 20 min and 1 day later.

Results: The results showed that the spacing effect was significantly higher than baseline (d = 2.91) and comparable with the control groups for hippocampal lesions at early onset patients at 1 day. However, the spacing effect was significantly impaired for hippocampal lesions at late onset (d = -1.84) and PFC patients (d = -1.48) when compared with the normal groups. The repetition effect (massed vs. single learning) was significantly impaired for PFC patients at 20 min when compared with the controls (d = -1.15).

Conclusions: These findings clarified the roles of the hippocampus and PFC in distributed learning and repetitive learning and suggest that early-onset hippocampal damage induces a significant reorganization in the human brain to support memory formation and retention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Rats with visceral hypersensitivity often exhibit impaired decision-making abilities. Functional heartburn (FH) is a functional esophageal disease that belongs to the category of gut-brain interaction disorders, associated with visceral hypersensitivity. However, the decision-making ability of patients with FH remains unclear.

Method: We recruited 30 patients diagnosed with FH based on the Rome IV criteria and 30 healthy controls (HCs). All patients were evaluated using the Hamilton Anxiety Scale and the 17-item Hamilton Depression Scale-17. Patients with FH also completed the gastroesophageal reflux disease and modified gastrointestinal symptom score questionnaires. We employed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Game of Dice Task (GDT) to evaluate decision making.

Results: In the IGT, patients with FH exhibited a lower total net score and made more unfavorable choices compared to healthy controls (HCs). Specifically, statistically significant differences were observed in the net scores of the last three blocks, the differences were of large effect sizes. In the GDT, patients with FH demonstrated a lower total net score, higher risk score, and lower utilization of negative feedback than the HCs, the differences were of middle-large effect sizes. Even after controlling for the effects of anxiety, depression, and the coexistence of functional dyspepsia, patients with FH exhibited lower net scores than HCs, in both the IGT and GDTs.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that patients with FH showed worse decision-making abilities than HCs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: In Huntington's disease (HD), cognitive symptoms, sleep fragmentation, and daily activity pattern alterations can occur up to 15 years before diagnosis in premanifest HD (Pre-HD). Whether sleep and rest-activity patterns relate to cognitive function in Pre-HD, however, remains unclear. We investigated the relationships between rest-activity patterns, sleep, and cognitive function in Pre-HD compared to healthy controls (HCs).

Method: All participants completed 14 days of actigraphy, online questionnaires, and remote cognitive assessments.

Results: The Pre-HD group (n = 36) performed worse on Speeded Tapping than the HC group (n = 42). Pre-HD participants with heightened sleep fragmentation performed more poorly on the Trail Making Test (TMT) and Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R). In Pre-HD, lower intra-daily variability and higher interdaily stability (more stable, less fragmented rest-activity patterns) were associated with poorer performance on the trail making test Part B, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Emotion Recognition Task, Rey Complex Figure Test, visual memory task, paced tapping, and HVLT-R total trial. Higher interdaily stability was also linked to poorer HVLT-R performance. Relative amplitude and sleep regularity index were not related to performance. Poorer sleep quality on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index correlated with worse HVLT-R delayed and paced tapping scores. More severe insomnia (higher Insomnia Severity Index scores) correlated with lower Rey Complex Figure Test copy.

Conclusions: Our findings emphasize the importance of uninterrupted sleep on cognitive function in Pre-HD and reveal targets for interventions aimed at improving cognitive symptoms. Larger cohorts stratified by proximity to diagnosis are critical to improving our understanding of these relationships across the premanifest period. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) often show deficits in recognition of facial emotion, but their ability to remember emotions is poorly understood. Furthermore, there are no practicable tasks that measure this ability. This study examined the construct of memory for emotions using a novel Facial Recognition and Memory for Emotion (FRAME) test.

Method: Participants were 53 adults with complicated mild-to-severe TBI and a comparison group of 64 neurologically healthy adults. The FRAME and a neuropsychological battery were administered to participants. Analyses included zero-order and partial correlations, as well as group comparisons. A series of hierarchical logistic regressions evaluated the incremental utility of the FRAME in distinguishing adults with and without TBI.

Results: Adults with TBI performed worse than healthy participants across FRAME indices. Processing speed was the strongest correlate of both emotion recognition and memory for emotion. The FRAME demonstrated a pattern of correlations with cognitive tests supporting convergent and discriminant validity of the concept that memory for emotion is distinct from the simple perception of it. Hierarchical logistic regression models showed that memory for emotion accounted for unique variance in group membership beyond emotion recognition accuracy, memory for nonemotional faces, and verbal delayed recall.

Conclusions: Support was found for the construct validity of a novel performance-based assessment measure of recognition and memory for facial displays of emotion. We conclude that memory for facial emotions represents a unique aspect of social cognition, distinct from accurate recognition of facial emotions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Unlike adults, children often fail to coordinate their behavior away from unnecessary cognitive demands to conserve effort. The present study investigated whether greater conflict monitoring may contribute to metacognitive monitoring of cognitive demands, which in turn may support greater cognitive demand avoidance with age.

Method: Electroencephalogram data were recorded while 54 adults and fifty-four 5- to 10-year-old children completed a demand selection task, where they chose between versions of a task with either higher or lower demands on cognitive control.

Results: Both adults and children avoided the high-demand task, showing that, in some circumstances, children as young as 5 years can avoid unnecessary cognitive demands. Critically, midfrontal theta power predicted awareness of cognitive demand variations, which in turn predicted demand avoidance. The relationship between midfrontal theta power and demand awareness was negative and did not change between age groups.

Conclusion: Together, these findings suggest that metacognitive monitoring and control are based in part on conflict monitoring in both children and adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: The present study intended to improve understanding of cognitive factors contributing to age-related differences in cognitive ability to shift between goal-directed (i.e., purposeful) and habitual (i.e., automatic) behavior.

Method: Fifty participants, divided into two age groups (older: n = 25, M_age = 67.35, 15 female; younger: n = 25, M_age = 20.84, 18 female), were included. They completed behavioral measures of mood and well-being, as well as a cognitive battery of measures related to memory, reaction time, and speed of processing. Goal-directed and habitual responding was measured using the symmetrical outcome-revaluation task. Response window lengths were varied with overall longer response windows for older (800 ms short/1,100 ms long) compared to younger adults (500 ms short/800 ms long). Independent sample t tests, mixed analyses of variance, and analyses of covariance were used to compare age groups on behavioral and cognitive measures and the symmetrical outcome-revaluation task.

Results: When given short response windows, both age groups displayed a reliance on habitual behavior over goal-directed responding. Interestingly, when provided longer response windows, younger adults were able to update responding to exercise goal-directed behavior and significantly improved their task performance compared to older adults who continued to rely on incorrect habitual responses. Working memory did not appear to be a significant driver of performance differences.

Conclusions: These findings provide a better understanding of the balance between goal-directed and habitual behaviors in aging, suggesting that age-related slowing and memory changes do not fully account for older adults' reliance on habitual responding and warrant further research into practical implications of addressing healthy behavioral change in older adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a genetic disorder marked by a range of clinical symptoms, including neurocognitive deficits, particularly in executive functions (EF), which are crucial for adaptive behavior. This study aimed to comprehensively evaluate core EF domains-such as inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning-in children with NF1 using the Child Executive Functions Battery (CEF-B). Additionally, it compared these findings with parent and teacher evaluations from the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and examined the role of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Method: Sixty-four children with NF1, aged 7-16 years (M = 10.20, SD = 2.11), were recruited from a university hospital's NF1 referral center between May 2013 and March 2016. The children completed the CEF-B, with results compared to normative data via t tests. Parents and teachers provided BRIEF assessments.

Results: Significant EF deficits were observed across all CEF-B components, and both parents and teachers reported substantial EF difficulties. Cohen's kappa indicated mild to moderate agreement between CEF-B and BRIEF scores (κ = -0.11-0.63). ADHD did not affect CEF-B performance, but children with ADHD were rated as having greater difficulties on the BRIEF than those without ADHD.

Conclusions: NF1 significantly impairs EF across all domains in children, with most showing multiple concurrent EF impairments. These deficits appear to be partially independent of ADHD comorbidity. The CEF-B showed greater sensitivity than questionnaires in detecting EF deficits in NF1, but both performance-based assessments and real-world evaluations are necessary for a comprehensive understanding of these impairments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).