Research has shown that attention can be abnormally drawn to salient threat- or trauma-related information in individuals with posttraumatic stress and related psychological symptoms. The nature of this attentional bias is thought to derive from capture of attention toward potential threat overpowering the volitional, goal-directed attentional system. However, it is unclear whether this pattern of attentional dysregulation generalizes to salient, but non-emotional types of information. Using a well-established and sensitive measure of attentional capture, the current study demonstrates that posttraumatic psychological symptom severity is associated with the capture of attention by visually salient, non-emotional distractors. Specifically, during visual search for a unique shape, the presence of a task-irrelevant but salient color singleton disrupted search efficiency, and this disruption was correlated with both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression symptom severity as assessed by self-report. These findings suggest that posttraumatic stress and depression may be characterized as involving a general alteration of the balance between salience-based and goal-directed attentional systems. (JINS, 2013, 19, 1–6)

The cerebellum is part of a neural circuit involved in procedural motor learning. We examined how congenital cerebellar malformations affect mirror drawing performance, a procedural learning task that involves learning to trace the outline of a star while looking at the reflection of the star in a mirror. Participants were 88 children with spina bifida myelomeningocele, a neural tube defect that results in lesions of the spinal cord, dysmorphology of the cerebellum, and requires shunt treatment for hydrocephalus, and 35 typically developing controls. Participants completed 10 trials in the morning and 10 trials following a 3-hr delay. Although children with spina bifida myelomeningocele were initially slower at tracing and made more errors than controls, all participants improved their performance of the task, as demonstrated by increased speed and accuracy across trials. Moreover, degree of cerebellar dysmorphology was not correlated with level of performance, rate of acquisition, or retention of mirror drawing. The results suggest that congenital cerebellar dysmorphology in spina bifida does not impair motor skill learning as measured by acquisition and retention of the mirror drawing task. (JINS, 2004, 10, 877–887.)

We examined short duration perception (400 ms), long duration estimation (30 and 60 min), and spatiotemporal estimation in long-term survivors of childhood cerebellar tumors with a mean time since diagnosis of 14.2 years. Groups of individuals with tumors treated with surgery only (astrocytoma, N = 20) were compared to those with tumors treated with surgery, focal radiation, and craniospinal radiation (medulloblastoma, N = 20), and to age- matched controls (N = 40). Childhood lesions of the cerebellum produced enduring deficits in short-duration perception, but spared the ability to functionally estimate long durations, regardless of the pathology or treatment of the tumor. Evidence did not support any functional recovery over time of the cerebellar system that underlies short-duration perception. Younger age at treatment was not a protective factor. Although no group differences were present in the functional measures of long-duration estimation, tumor-related prospective memory deficits interfered with the ability to produce long-duration prospective estimates. The utilization of sensory and somatomotor information to refine real-world spatiotemporal estimates was compromised in the medulloblastoma group only. (JINS, 2000, 6, 682–692.)

Recent research has established that individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) have impaired prospective memory (PM); however, findings regarding differential deficits on time-based versus event-based PM have been less clear. Furthermore, the diagnostic utility of PM measures has received scant attention. Healthy older adults (n = 84) and individuals with aMCI (n = 84) were compared on the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test (CAMPROMPT) and two single-trial event-based PM tasks. The aMCI participants showed global impairment on all PM measures. Measures of retrospective memory and complex attention predicted both time and event PM performance for the aMCI group. Each of the PM measures was useful for discriminating aMCI from healthy older adults and the time- and event-based scales of the CAMPROMPT were equivalent in their discriminative ability. Surprisingly, the brief PM tasks were as good as more comprehensive measures of PM (CAMPROMPT) at predicting aMCI. Results indicate that single-trial PM measures, easily integrated into clinical practice, may be useful screening tools for identifying aMCI. As PM requires retrospective memory skills along with complex attention and executive skills, the interaction between these skills may explain the global PM deficits in aMCI and the good discriminative ability of PM for diagnosing aMCI. (JINS, 2012, 18, 295–304)

The performance of 65 patients with complicated mild–severe traumatic brain injury was evaluated on the Verbal and Design Fluency subtests of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS), and compared with that of 65 demographically matched healthy controls. There were statistically significant group differences on Letter Fluency and Category Switching but not on any of the Design Fluency tasks. Combined, these two Verbal Fluency subtests had a classification accuracy of 65.39%, associated with a likelihood ratio of 1.87. The impact of length of coma on Letter Fluency performance but not Category Switching was mediated at least in part by processing speed. The findings suggest modest criterion validity of some of the D–KEFS Verbal Fluency subtests in the assessment of patients with complicated mild–severe traumatic brain injury. (JINS, 2011, 17, 230–237)

Patterns of verbal fluency deficits have been explored across different neurodegenerative disorders. This study sought to investigate the specific pattern of verbal fluency performance in cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), which is the most common cause of vascular cognitive impairment, and compare this with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Participants with SVD (n = 45), AD (n = 24) and healthy controls (n = 80) completed assessments of semantic and phonemic fluency. Mixed-model analyses of covariance were used to compare performance on the different fluency tasks between the groups, and a discriminant function analysis was conducted to examine group differentiation. The SVD group was impaired in both fluency tasks when compared to the controls. In contrast, the AD group displayed impairment in semantic fluency only. Discriminant function analysis revealed that fluency scores correctly classified 80% of SVD patients and 92% of AD patients. The pattern of performance observed in the SVD group may reflect deficits in executive function and processing speed impacting equivalently on semantic and phonemic fluency. The differences between the SVD and AD groups highlighted in this study may be useful for distinguishing between these conditions. (JINS, 2014, 20, 1–9)

Objectives: Exploring the nature of defective pantomime in apraxia. Methods: Critical review of behavioral associations and dissociations between defective pantomime, imitation of gestures, and real tool use. Analysis of congruencies between crucial lesions for pantomime, imitation, and tool use. Results: There are behavioral double dissociations between pantomime and imitation, and their cerebral substrates show very little overlap. Whereas defective pantomime is bound to temporal and inferior frontal lesions, imitation is mainly affected by parietal lesions. Pantomime usually replicates the motor actions of real use but on scrutiny there are important differences between the movements of real use and of pantomime that cast doubt on the assumption that pantomime is produced by the same motor programs as actual use. A more plausible proposal posits that pantomime is a communicative gesture that uses manual actions for conveying information about objects and their use. The manual actions are constructed by selection and combination of distinctive features of tools and actions. They frequently include replications of characteristic motor actions of real use, but the main criterion for selection and modification of features is the comprehensibility of the gestures rather than the accurate replication of the motor actions of real use. Conclusions: Pantomime of tool use is a communicative gesture rather than a replication of the motor actions of real use. (JINS, 2017, 23, 121–127)

We present the case of a 23-year-old Vietnamese male with a 2-year history of a psychotic illness marked by prominent negative symptoms, fatuousness and disturbed behavior. Neuroimaging revealed a prominent vascular flow void affecting the middle and anterior cerebral arteries, with associated increased collateral supply to the frontal cortex, consistent with Moyamoya disease. Neurological examination was unremarkable; however, neuropsychological assessment revealed significant executive dysfunction, including stimulus-driven behavior. Whilst the diagnosis of schizophrenia and Moyamoya disease may be coincidental, an interaction between the 2 diseases may have led to some of the atypical features of this case, including prominent executive dysfunction and marked sensitivity to psychotropic medication. We discuss the nature of possible interactions between the 2 conditions. This case also highlights the importance of re-evaluating patients with atypical or treatment-resistant psychoses for cerebral pathology. (JINS, 2003, 9, 806–810.)

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in a variable degree of cerebral atrophy that is not always related to cognitive measures across studies. However, the use of different methods for examining atrophy may be a reason why differences exist. The purpose of this manuscript was to examine the predictive utility of seven magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) -derived brain volume or indices of atrophy for a large cohort of TBI patients (n = 65). The seven quantitative MRI (qMRI) measures included uncorrected whole brain volume, brain volume corrected by total intracranial volume, brain volume corrected by the ratio of the individual TICV by group TICV, a ventricle to brain ratio, total ventricular volume, ventricular volume corrected by TICV, and a direct measure of parenchymal volume loss. Results demonstrated that the various qMRI measures were highly interrelated and that corrected measures proved to be the most robust measures related to neuropsychological performance. Similar to an earlier study that examined cerebral atrophy in aging and dementia, these results suggest that a single corrected brain volume measure is all that is necessary in studies examining global MRI indicators of cerebral atrophy in relationship to cognitive function making additional measures of global atrophy redundant and unnecessary. (JINS, 2011, 17, 308–316)

Prior studies suggest that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with a domain-specific memory impairment for faces. The underlying cause of this problem and its relation to impaired visual scanning of faces—particularly of the eyes—remains to be determined. We recorded eye movements while 22 high-functioning ASD and 21 typically developing (TD) adolescents encoded and later recognized faces and objects from a single, nonsocial object category (electric fans). Relative to TD subjects, ASD individuals had poorer memory for faces, but not fans. Correlational analyses showed significant relationships between recognition memory and fixations. Eye tracking during encoding revealed that TD subjects made more fixations to faces than fans, whereas ASD individuals did not differ in number of fixations made to each stimulus type. Moreover, although both the TD and ASD groups showed a strong preference for fixating the eyes more than the mouth, the ASD subjects were less likely than TD subjects to scan regions of the face outside of the primary facial features (i.e., eyes, nose, and mouth). We concluded that ASD individuals have a domain-specific memory impairment for faces relative to mechanical objects and that this impairment may be related to abnormal scanning during encoding. (JINS, 2011, 17, 1021–1029)

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) frequently results in memory problems, and the degree of memory impairment is related to injury severity and is commonly associated with lesions in frontal and temporal brain areas. This study examined the relationship among injury severity, brain lesions, and memory in children with moderate to severe TBI using Donders' (1999) 5-factor model of performance on the California Verbal Learning Test–Children's Version (CVLT–C). Seventy-six children underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans 3 months post-TBI and testing 1 year post-TBI. Results showed injury severity (Glasgow Coma Scale) was not predictive of performance on 4 of the 5 factors. Volume of frontal and/or temporal brain lesions was significantly predictive of performance on 3 of the 5 factors. Unexpectedly, lesion volume outside these areas (extra-frontotemporal) was predictive of performance on all 5 factors. In contrast, Verbal IQ at 1 year was most strongly associated with preinjury factors (socioeconomic status and special education involvement), although extra-frontotemporal lesions also contributed to the variability in this measure. Results suggest that in children with moderate to severe TBI, extra-frontal/temporal lesions are predictive of memory outcome 1 year postinjury above and beyond initial severity or frontal/temporal contusions. This finding may relate to widespread diffuse axonal injury, which potentially disconnects brain circuits mediating memory following moderate to severe TBI. (JINS, 2005, 11, 686–696.)

Studies assessing cognitive functioning in women treated for breast cancer have used primarily standardized neuropsychological tests and examined accuracy and/or reaction time as outcome measures: they have been inconsistent in identifying the cognitive domains affected and the severity of deficits. In other contexts of neural development and disorders, measures of Intra-individual variability (IIV) have proven useful in identifying subtleties in performance deficits that are not captured by measures of central tendency. This article presents proof of concept that assessing IIV may also increase understanding of the cognitive effects of cancer treatment. We analyzed mean accuracy and reaction time, as well as IIV from 65 women with breast cancer and 28 age and education matched controls who performed the Conner's Continuous Performance Test, a “Go-NoGo” task. Although there were no significant differences between groups using measures of central tendency, there was a group × inter-stimulus interval (ISI) interaction for IIV Dispersion (p < .001). Patient Dispersion was more variable at shorter ISI than controls and less variable at long ISI, suggesting greater sensitivity to presentation speed. Interpretation of IIV differences requires further investigation. Our results suggest that future studies would benefit from designs that allow analysis of IIV measures in studies assessing cognition in cancer survivors. (JINS, 2014, 20, 1–11)

Objectives: Although motor adaptation is a highly relevant process for both everyday life as well as rehabilitation many details of this process are still unresolved. To evaluate the contribution of primary motor (M1), parietal and cerebellar areas to motor adaptation processes transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been applied. We hypothesized that anodal stimulation of the cerebellum and the M1 improves the learning process in mirror drawing, a task involving fine grained and spatially well-organized hand movements. Methods: High definition tDCS (HD-tDCS) allows a focal stimulation to modulate brain processes. In a single-session double-blind study, we compared the effects of different anodal stimulation procedures. The groups received stimulation either at the cerebellum (CER), at right parietal (PAR), or at left M1, and a SHAM group was included. Participants (n=83) had to complete several mirror drawing tasks before, during, and after stimulation. They were instructed to re-trace a line in the shape of a pentagonal star as fast and accurate as possible. Tracing time (seconds) and accuracy (deviation in mm) have been evaluated. Results: The results indicated that cerebellar HD-tDCS can facilitate motor adaptation in a single session. The stimulation at M1 showed only a tendency to increase motor adaptation and these effects were visible only during the first part of the stimulation. Stimulating the right parietal area, relevant for visuospatial processing did not lead to increased performance. Conclusions: Our results suggest that motor adaptation relies to a great extent on cerebellar functions and HD-tDCS can speed up this process. (JINS, 2016, 22, 928–936)

Earlier findings in patients with a small supratentorial white matter infarct demonstrated subtle impairments of cognition. This is in line with reported difficulties in regaining premorbid level of functioning in daily life activities, even though any physical neurological deficits are no longer present. Either a “bystander effect” of adjoining gray matter or a long distance effect through hypometabolism or other neurochemical changes might underlie these impairments. To find the best explanation, a group of 17 patients with a lacunar infarct in the brainstem was neuropsychologically evaluated and compared with a closely matched control group. The patients demonstrated significantly impaired task performance on a constellation of neuropsychological tasks that was very similar to the findings previously found in patients with a supratentorial lacunar infarct (Boston Naming Test, TEA visual elevator, category fluency, Trailmaking Test). We conclude that a small white-matter infarct may affect cognitive functioning in a nonspecific way independently of its location. (JINS, 2003, 9, 490–494.)

Deficits in inhibitory abilities are frequently observed in normal aging. However, few studies have explored the generality of these deficits in a single group of participants. Here, we used an adaptation of the Simon task to differentially assess perceptual and motor inhibition using the same stimuli and task design and to determine whether these processes use separate or shared cognitive resources. We were interested in determining whether (1) normal aging is associated with the use of separate (as previously evidenced in young participants) or similar cognitive resources to perform perceptual and motor inhibition tasks; (2) older participants present a specific impairment in one of these two processes. Analyses of reaction times indicated that motor and perceptual inhibitory processes share some cognitive resources and both are impaired in normal aging. These results can be interpreted by considering that a dedifferentiation process is responsible for the inhibitory deficits presented by older participants. (JINS, 2008, 14, 1014–1021.)

Past research has shown that lesions in the left cerebral hemisphere often result in aphasia, while lesions in the right hemisphere frequently impair the production of emotional prosody and facial expression. At least 3 processing deficits might account for these affective symptoms: (1) failure to understand the conditions that evoke emotional response; (2) inability to experience emotions; (3) disruption in the capacity to encode non-verbal signals. To better understand these disorders and their underlying mechanisms, we investigated spontaneous affective communication in right hemisphere damaged (RHD) stroke patients with aprosody and left hemisphere damaged (LHD) stroke patients with aphasia. Nine aprosodic RHD patients and 14 aphasic LHD patients participated in a videotaped interview within a larger treatment protocol. Two naïve raters viewed segments of videotape and rated facial expressivity. Verbal affect production was tabulated using specialized software. Results indicated that RHD patients smiled and laughed significantly less than LHD patients. In contrast, RHD patients produced a greater percentage of emotion words relative to total words than did LHD patients. These findings suggest that impairments in emotional prosodic production and facial expressivity associated with RHD are not induced by affective–conceptual deficits or an inability to experience emotions. Rather, they likely represent channel-specific nonverbal encoding abnormalities. (JINS, 2005, 11, 677–685.)

Arithmetic skills and their cognitive correlates were studied in 24 children with myelomeningocele and shunted hydrocephalus (MM), 27 children with severe traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and 26 children with orthopedic injuries (OI). Their average age was 11.56 years (SD = 2.36). They completed the WRAT–3 Arithmetic subtest and a subtraction task consisting of 20 problems of varying difficulty, as well as measures of working memory, declarative memory, processing speed, planning skills, and visuospatial abilities. The MM group performed more poorly on the WRAT–3 Arithmetic subtest and the subtraction task than the other two groups, which did not differ from each other on either measure. The groups did not differ in the number of math fact errors or visual-spatial errors on the subtraction task, but the MM group made more procedural errors than the OI group. The five cognitive abilities explained substantial variance in performance on both arithmetic tests; processing speed, working memory, declarative memory, and planning accounted for unique variance. Exploratory analyses showed that the cognitive correlates of arithmetic skills varied across groups and ages. Congenital and acquired brain disorders are associated with distinct patterns of arithmetic skills, which are related to specific cognitive abilities. (JINS, 2005, 11, 249–262.)

Our objective in the present study was to conduct the first empirical study of the effects of regular physical activity habits and their relationship with brain volume and cortical thickness in patients in the early phase of schizophrenia. Relationships between larger brain volumes and higher physical activity levels have been reported in samples of healthy and aging populations, but have never been explored in first-episode schizophrenia patients. Method: We collected MRI structural scans in 14 first-episode schizophrenia patients with either self-reported low or high physical activity levels. We found a reduction in total gray matter volume, prefrontal cortex (PFC), and hippocampal gray matter volumes in the low physical activity group compared to the high activity group. Cortical thickness in the dorsolateral and orbitofrontal PFC were also significantly reduced in the low physical activity group compared to the high activity group. In the combined sample, greater overall physical activity levels showed a non-significant tendency with better performance on tests of verbal memory and social cognition. Together these pilot study findings suggest that greater amounts of physical activity may have a positive influence on brain health and cognition in first-episode schizophrenia patients and support the implementation of physical exercise interventions in this patient population to improve brain plasticity and cognitive functioning. (JINS, 2015, 21, 868–879)

The goal of this study was to understand factors related to humor comprehension in old age. This study proposes that, in contrast to younger adults, older adults have greater difficulty with humor comprehension due to age-related cognitive decline. Tests of verbal and nonverbal humor comprehension and tests of cognitive flexibility, abstract reasoning, and short-term memory were administered to 40 younger and 41 older adults. In general, older adults scored lower than younger adults on tests of humor and cognitive abilities. Regression analyses support the idea that cognition affects humor comprehension, but the relative contribution of each specific mechanism remains unclear. The results of this study suggest that there may be age-related deficits in humor comprehension, but more importantly, that a more sophisticated model is needed to clarify the role of cognition in humor comprehension. Humor comprehension warrants further study because of the potential physical and psychological benefits of humor. (JINS, 2007, 13, 606–614.)