Previous studies showed that cortex in the anterior portions of the left frontal and temporal lobes participates in generating words with emotional connotations and processing pictures with emotional content. If these cortices process the semantic attribute of emotional connotation, they should be active whenever processing emotional connotation, without respect to modality of input or mode of output. Thus, we hypothesized that they would activate during monitoring of words with emotional connotations. Sixteen normal subjects performed semantic monitoring of words with emotional connotations, animal names, and implement names during fMRI. Cortex in the anterior left frontal lobe demonstrated significant activity for monitoring words with emotional connotations compared to monitoring tone sequences, animal names, or implement names. Together, the current and previous results implicate cortex in the anterior left frontal lobe in semantic processing of emotional connotation, consistent with connections of this cortex to paralimbic association areas. Current findings also indicate that neural substrates for processing emotional connotation are independent of substrates for processing the categories of living and nonliving things.

Even though frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) is a relatively common seizure type, no formal psychometric studies of children with FLE have been reported. We compared 12 children with FLE and 15 children with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) on neuropsychological tests of attention, memory, executive functioning, and adaptive functioning. The results of these tests indicated that the children with FLE had deficits in planning and executive functions, whereas their verbal and nonverbal memory was intact. The opposite pattern was observed in children with TLE. Measures of executive functioning and impulse control were the best predictors of adaptive functioning. The findings suggest that children with FLE have a pattern of cognitive deficits that differs markedly from the pattern seen in children with TLE. Children with FLE have prominent deficits in executive functioning that appear to be related to poor behavioral adaptation.

Unawareness of deficit is a common feature of degenerative dementia. The present study explored awareness and correction of naturalistic action errors in 54 dementia participants and 10 healthy controls while they performed a series of everyday tasks, such as toast preparation and gift-wrapping. Awareness for everyday task performance and cognitive functioning was also assessed with questionnaire discrepancy scores, and a neuropsychological test protocol was administered. Dementia participants were aware of and corrected a significantly smaller proportion of errors compared to controls (z = 4.59, p < 001). Awareness and correction of action errors was not significantly correlated with the number of naturalistic errors committed, questionnaire discrepancy scores, or neuropsychological test data. Within-group analyses showed awareness differed across error types, such that participants were aware of a greater proportion of substitution and sequence errors compared to omissions, perseverations, and action addition (i.e., utilization behavior) errors (z ≤ −3.2,p≤.002 for all analyses). Taken together these data suggest that error awareness and correction during the course of action is not related to error production or awareness measured via questionnaire discrepancy scores. Rather, direct assessment of error detection and correction may provide novel information about behavioral monitoring that can not be extrapolated from measures of dementia severity or traditional neuropsychological assessment.

Prospective remembering has been relatively underinvestigated in neurological patients. This paper describes a group study in which the prospective memory performance of 36 people with brain injury and 28 control participants is compared. We used a new instrument, the Cambridge Behaviour Prospective Memory Test (CBPMT) to assess prospective memory. This comprises 4 time-based and 4 event-based tasks. Participants were allowed to take notes to help them remember the tasks. The relationships between CBPMT scores, scores on formal tests and subjective reports on memory, attention and executive functioning were analyzed. The key findings were that (1) note-taking significantly benefited prospective memory performance, (2) significant relationships were found between scores on the prospective memory test and scores on tests of memory and executive functions, and (3) participants had more difficulty with the time-based than with the event-based prospective memory tasks. The results suggest that compensatory strategies improve prospective memory functioning; memory for content as well as attention and executive functioning processes are involved in prospective memory; and that time-based tasks are more difficult than event-based tasks because they place higher demands on inhibitory control mechanisms. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results for neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation.

Past studies find that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) creates a higher risk for adverse driving outcomes. This study comprehensively evaluated driving in adults with ADHD by comparing 105 young adults with the disorder (age 17–28) to 64 community control (CC) adults on five domains of driving ability and a battery of executive function tasks. The ADHD group self-reported significantly more traffic citations, particularly for speeding, vehicular crashes, and license suspensions than the CC group, with most of these differences corroborated in the official DMV records. Cognitively, the ADHD group was less attentive and made more errors during a visual reaction task under rule-reversed conditions than the CC group. The ADHD group also obtained lower scores on a test of driving rules and decision-making but not on a simple driving simulator. Both self- and other-ratings showed the CC group employed safer routine driving habits than the ADHD group. Relationships between the cognitive and driving measures and the adverse outcomes were limited or absent, calling into question their use in screening ADHD adults for driving risks. Several executive functions also were significantly yet modestly related to accident frequency and total traffic violations after controlling for severity of ADHD. These results are consistent with earlier studies showing significant driving problems are associated with ADHD. This study found that these driving difficulties were not a function of comorbid oppositional defiant disorder, depression, anxiety, or frequency of alcohol or illegal drug use. Findings to date argue for the development of interventions to reduce driving risks among adults with ADHD.

Recovery of cognitive function after mild head injury (MHI) is thought to be relatively swift and complete. The present study replicates and extends previous work in which university students with self-reported concussion demonstrated reduced P300 amplitude on a set of easy and difficult attention tasks, in addition to performing more poorly than controls on demanding cognitive tasks many years after injury. In the present study, 13 students with self-reported concussion (MHI group: M time since injury 5 8 years) and 10 controls were matched for age, sex, education, and a variety of cognitive, physical and emotional complaints. Controls outperformed the MHI group on the Digit Symbol substitution task and on a difficult dual task involving tone discrimination and visual working memory. Additionally, controls exhibited larger P300 amplitudes on both an easy and a difficult auditory discrimination task. A combination of electrophysiological, neuropsychological and self-report indices predicted group membership (MHI vs. control) with 88% accuracy. The present results, coupled with previous work, offer preliminary evidence that the combination of event-related potentials and demanding behavioral measures might reveal long-lasting, subtle cognitive problems associated with MHI. These findings may challenge existing notions of complete recovery after MHI.

In this retrospective cohort study we examined the independent and interactive effects of drinking and smoking on cognition in a sample of 3361 males, ages 31 to 49, with varying lifetime histories of alcohol and cigarette use. Dependent variables were neuropsychological measures of global and specific cognitive abilities. Comparison of the ability scores of seven groups, defined by their drinking and smoking histories, explained only 5.4% of the multivariate variance in cognitive ability and less than 2% in any individual cognitive measure. Regression analyses for current drinkers and smokers showed only a single significant, but negligible, effect of pack-years of smoking on a measure of global cognitive ability. Differences in cognitive function in groups defined by intensity of alcohol and cigarette use revealed no significant effect for drinking and a significant, but very small, effect for smoking.

We investigated sex difference across a number of olfactory tasks. Thirty-six men and 35 women ranging in age from 19 to 36 years were assessed in 6 different tasks: absolute sensitivity for n-butanol, intensity discrimination, quality discrimination, episodic recognition memory for familiar and unfamiliar odors, and odor identification. No sex differences were observed in the tasks tapping primarily sensory acuity (i.e., odor sensitivity, intensity discrimination, and quality discrimination) or in episodic memory for unfamiliar odors. By contrast, women outperformed men in the tasks involving verbal processing (i.e., memory for familiar odors and odor identification). Interestingly, controlling for odor naming ability resulted in that the observed sex difference in episodic odor memory for familiar odors disappeared. This outcome suggests that women's superiority in episodic odor memory is largely mediated by their higher proficiency in odor identification.

In this paper, we present a review of semantic priming experiments in schizophrenia. Semantic priming paradigms show utility in assessing the role of deficits in semantic memory network access in the pathology of schizophrenia. The studies are placed in the context of current models of information processing. In this review we include all English-language reports (from peer-reviewed journals) of single-word semantic priming studies involving participants with schizophrenia. The studies to date show schizophrenic patients to exhibit variable semantic priming effects under automatic processing conditions, and consistent impairments under controlled0attentional conditions. We also describe associations with other neurocognitive dysfunction, neurochemical and electrophysiological disturbances, and clinical manifestations (such as thought disorder).

Isosceles triangular backgrounds influence line bisection performance in normal control participants and patients with hemispatial neglect. When the triangles are oriented asymmetrically with the vertex in 1 visual field, and the base in the other, the perceived midpoint of horizontal lines within the triangle is shifted towards the base, and away from the vertex. The current study examines this illusion further by systematically varying the extent of the triangle presented. With only fragments of the triangle in the background of the line, the vertex is the critical component driving the illusory shift in perceived midpoint. Patients with neglect and controls are equally sensitive to the illusion. Similar geometric illusions that are also intact in neglect, along with these results, suggest that preattentive, implicit visual processing is preserved in neglect and drives these illusions.