Sleep disturbance and impulsivity are key components of mood vulnerability in bipolar disorder (BD), but few studies have assessed the association between these two symptoms among patients with BD.

Forty-seven euthymic patients with bipolar I disorder (BDI) or bipolar II disorder (BDII) and 58 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Trait impulsivity was measured using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale Version 11 (BIS-11), which yielded 3 second-order factors: attention, motor, and non-planning. Subjective sleep quality was assessed using the self-reported Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). General linear models (GLMs) were used to assess the associations between subjective poor sleep and trait impulsivity with multiple testing corrections.

Patients with BD scored higher in BIS-11 and PSQI than healthy controls. PSQI total scores positively correlated with BIS-11 total scores, while sleep disturbance and daytime dysfunction were associated with attentional impulsiveness after controlling for covariates. Participants with higher PSQI total scores (>10) had higher scores in BIS-11 total, attention, and non-planning than those with low PSQI scores (≤5).

These findings support the hypothesis that poor sleep quality might lead to impulsivity and add to the growing evidence that improving sleep quality may be a therapeutic target for patients with BD.

To examine whether objective sleep parameters are associated with cognitive function (CF) in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) with chronic insomnia (CI) and whether the severity of these disorders is related to CF.

Thirty patients with MDD with CI attending a tertiary care institution underwent two consecutive nights of polysomnographic (PSG) recording and a battery of neuropsychological tests, which included episodic memory, sustained attention, working memory, and executive function. The severity of MDD and CI was assessed by clinical scales. We examined the relationship between PSG parameters and CF, as well as whether the severity of the disorders is related to CF.

Linear regression analysis revealed that total sleep time (TST) was positively associated with higher learning and recall of episodic memory, as well as better attention. Slow-wave sleep (SWS) showed a positive association with better working memory. Furthermore, wake after sleep onset (WASO) was negatively associated with episodic memory and lower attention. No significant relationships were found between the severity of MDD or CI with CF.

Both sleep duration and depth are positively associated with several aspects of CF in patients with MDD with CI. Conversely, a lack of sleep maintenance is negatively related to CF in these patients. These findings could help identify modifiable therapeutic targets to reduce CF impairment.

People with schizophrenia (PSZ) are impaired in attentional prioritization of non-salient but relevant stimuli over salient distractors during visual working memory (VWM) encoding. Conversely, guidance of top–down attention by external predictive cues is intact. Yet, it is unknown whether this preserved ability can help PSZ encode more information in the presence of salient distractors.

We employed a visuospatial change-detection task using four Gabor patches with differing orientations in 66 PSZ and 74 healthy controls (HCS). Two Gabor patches flickered which were designated either as targets or distractors and either a predictive or a non-predictive cue was displayed to manipulate top–down attention, resulting in four conditions.

We observed significant effects of group, salience and cue as well as significant interactions of salience by cue, group by salience and group by cue. Across all conditions, PSZ stored significantly less information in VWM than HCS. PSZ stored significantly less non-flickering than flickering information with a non-predictive cue. However, PSZ stored significantly more flickering and non-flickering information with a predictive cue.

Our findings indicate that control of attentional selection is impaired in schizophrenia. We demonstrate that additional top–down information significantly improves performance in PSZ. The observed deficit in attentional control suggests a disturbance of GABAergic inhibition in early visual areas. Moreover, our findings are indicative of a mechanism for enhancing attentional control in PSZ, which could be utilized by pro-cognitive interventions. Thus, the current paradigm is suitable to reveal both preserved and compromised cognitive component processes in schizophrenia.

The efficacy of probiotics as a therapeutic alternative for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) remain unclear.

To investigate the effectiveness of probiotics for symptoms of ADHD and identify possible factors affecting their efficacy.

Randomised placebo-controlled trials were identified through searching major databases from inception to April 2023, using the main keywords ‘probiotics’ and ‘ADHD’ without limitation on languages or geographic locations. The outcome of interest included improvement in total symptoms of ADHD, symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, and drop-out rate. Continuous and categorical data were expressed as effect sizes based on standardised mean differences (SMDs) and odds ratios, respectively, with 95% confidence intervals.

Meta-analysis of seven trials involving 379 participants (mean age 10.37 years, range 4–18 years) showed no significant improvement in total symptoms of ADHD (SMD = 0.25; P = 0.12), symptoms of inattention (SMD = 0.14; P = 0.3) or hyperactivity/impulsivity (SMD = 0.08; P = 0.54) between the probiotic and placebo groups. Despite non-significance on subgroup analyses, there was a large difference in effect size between studies using probiotics as an adjunct to methylphenidate and those using probiotics as supplementation (SMD = 0.84 v. 0.07; P = 0.16), and a moderate difference in effect size between studies using multiple strains of probiotics and those using single-strain regimens (SMD = 0.45 v. 0.03; P = 0.19).

Current evidence shows no significant difference in therapeutic efficacy between probiotics and placebos for treatment of ADHD symptoms. However, albeit statistically non-significant, higher therapeutic efficacies associated with multiple-strain probiotics or combining probiotics with methylphenidate may provide direction for further research.

Numerous studies have shown a decrease in executive functions (EF) associated with aging. However, few investigations examined whether this decrease is similar between sexes throughout adulthood. The present study investigated if age-related decline in EF differs between men and women from early to late adulthood.

A total of 302 participants (181 women) aged between 18 and 78 years old completed four computer-based cognitive tasks at home: an arrow-based Flanker task, a letter-based Visual search task, the Trail Making Test, and the Corsi task. These tasks measured inhibition, attention, cognitive flexibility, and working memory, respectively. To investigate the potential effects of age, sex, and their interaction on specific EF and a global EF score, we divided the sample population into five age groups (i.e., 18–30, 31–44, 45–54, 55–64, 65–78) and conducted analyses of covariance (MANCOVA and ANCOVA) with education and pointing device as control variables.

Sex did not significantly affect EF performance across age groups. However, in every task, participants from the three youngest groups (< 55 y/o) outperformed the ones from the two oldest. Results from the global score also suggest that an EF decrease is distinctly noticeable from 55 years old onward.

Our results suggest that age-related decline in EF, including inhibition, attention, cognitive flexibility, and working memory, becomes apparent around the age of 55 and does not differ between sexes at any age. This study provides additional data regarding the effects of age and sex on EF across adulthood, filling a significant gap in the existing literature.

To examine neurocognitive correlates of oculomotor performance among U.S. military personnel with history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).

A series of studies (total n=356) were conducted to examine saccadic eye movements and manual button presses collected in response to attention stimuli, and to compare these findings to the results of standardized neuropsychological tests. Study 1 included n=27 with remote mTBI and n=54 controls who completed the Bethesda Eye and Attention Measure (BEAM), an eye tracking task that was designed to measure visual attention and executive function. In Study 2, n=51 with chronic mTBI and n=33 controls completed the Fusion n-Back task, an eye tracking task that was designed to assess the impact of working memory load on visual attention performance. Study 3 examined psychometric characteristics of BEAM among n=191 military personnel with remote mTBI. In all studies, participants completed eye tracking tasks, a structured TBI diagnostic interview, and a brief battery of standardized neuropsychological tests.

In Study 1, BEAM saccadic and manual metrics demonstrated strong reliability and high sensitivity to multiple cognitive cues designed to elicit spatial orienting, temporal alerting, executive interference, perceptual release (gap) and inhibition (n2p=.76, p<.001). However, corresponding saccadic and manual measurements were weakly related to each other, and only manual (not saccadic) measurements were related to estimated verbal intelligence or years of education. Standardized neuropsychological measures did not differ between groups, but mTBI participants were more likely to be impaired on saccadic metrics than controls.

In Study 2, Standardized cognitive measures and estimated premorbid intelligence were positively associated with all manual metrics from the Fusion n-Back test, but were not associated with mTBI history or with saccadic metrics. Fusion n-Back saccadic and manual metrics had strong reliability and complementary sensitivity to chronic mTBI, with combined predictive power of PPV=.78, NPV=.72, r2=.44 for classification of remote mild TBI vs. controls on the more cognitively-challenging 1-back task condition.

In Study 3, BEAM metrics including manual RT latency and consistency, saccadic RT consistency, and saccadic inhibition errors showed consistent correlations with standardized measures of visual attention, processing speed, task switching, working memory, and executive functions. Hierarchical regressions showed that BEAM saccadic and manual metrics were independently predictive of cognitive test performance, above and beyond effects of demographic factors and clinical characteristics.

Results demonstrated some surprising findings related to neurocognitive influences on oculomotor performance. While both saccadic and manual performance were strongly and similarly influenced by attention cues, these two modalities were only weakly correlated to one another. Additionally, manual metrics were more strongly and consistently related to standardized cognitive test performance and premorbid intelligence than saccadic metrics. However, saccadic metrics demonstrated superior sensitivity to remote/chronic mTBI relative to manual metrics and standardized neuropsychological measures. Overall, these results suggest that saccadic eye tracking measures may provide unique value in assessment of mTBI and neurocognitive functions that is complementary with more common forms of assessment relying upon somatomotor response modalities.

HSCT is increasingly used for curative therapy for patients with high risk hematologic diseases. Existing research regarding the neurocognitive impact of HSCT on pediatric patients is notably variable. One area of identified risk is attention/working memory (WM) [Perkins et al., 2007]. The current study examines the degree to which difficulties in attention/WM are present prior to HSCT, as assessed using parent-report of working memory and cognitive tests of attention span and working memory.

Participants were 19 children and adolescents ages 6-17 years (M= 9.63, SD= 3.22) who were enrolled in a prospective longitudinal study monitoring neurocognitive outcomes in children undergoing HSCT. Participants were eligible for this study if they were 2-18 years old at the time of transplant and had a diagnosis that qualified for an allogenic HSCT. Participants were ineligible if they had a pre-HSCT developmental delay, were non-English speaking, and had a prior HSCT or prior CAR T-cell therapy. Participants were 53% female and 95% Caucasian. Diagnoses in the current study sample included acute lymphoblastic leukemia (n=10), acute myeloid leukemia (n=8), and myelodysplastic syndrome (n=1).

Measures included were the Working Memory Index score from the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF; Gioia et al., 2000) and the Digit Span subtest from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition (WISC-IV; Wechsler, 2003) and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV; Wechsler, 2008).

Mean scores on parent-reported WM scores and cognitive measures of attention/WM fell within normal limits, including the Digit Span Total score (M = 48.42, SD= 6.33), Digit Span Forward score (M = 47.28, SD = 9.9.83), and Digit Span Backward score (M = 48.94, SD = 6.31). However, further analyses suggested that between 11-32% of patients had scores falling at least one standard deviation below the mean on these measures, with more than half of the sample (52.6%) identified with at least one measured weakness in attention and WM. The most commonly identified weakness (33.3% of patients) was Digit Span Forward. Correlations between parent-reported WM issues and cognitive measures of attention and WM were generally strong, with parent report of WM significantly correlated with the Digit Span Total score (r(18)= -0.52, p=.02) and the Digit Span Forward score (r(18) = -0.51, p=.03). No correlations were found between Digit Span Backward and other measures of attention and WM.

There were no significant differences in WM scores between patients with ALL and AML. Additional analyses will examine potential contribution of medical factors (e.g., pre-HSCT treatment) to pre-HSCT performance on measures of attention and WM.

These results suggest that, prior to undergoing HSCT, pediatric patients present with attention and WM issues. This finding has implications for research related to neurocognitive outcomes in HSCT, indicating the need to obtain pre-HSCT cognitive data in this area in order to fully understand potential change after HSCT. In addition, providers may need to consider adapting communication methods with patients during their transplant stay, given potential attention and WM issues within this population.

Differences between monolinguals and bilinguals have been documented in neuropsychological test performance. Various explanations have been provided to explain why differences exist among these language groups. Hispanic-Americans are individuals born and reside in the United States and have a family background extending to one of the Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America or Spain. Furthermore, Hispanic-American children from Hispanic homes where Spanish is their first language find themselves academically at a disadvantage because their English vocabulary may be lower than English monolinguals. Time perspective (TP) refers to an individual’s orientation towards the past, present, or future. One’s ability to change their TP in order to adapt to changes in cultural context can result in optimal psychological well-being. In one study, researchers reported no relationship existed between ethnicity and TP on cognition. To our knowledge, no study has examined the relationship between language and TP in Hispanic-Americans’ speed attention performance. Therefore, it was predicted that monolinguals would outperform bilinguals on speed attention tasks. Next, it was predicted that monolinguals would report higher scores on future time orientation compared to bilinguals, and bilinguals would report higher scores on past and present time orientation compared to monolinguals. Finally, differences in TP would correlate with speed attention tasks between language groups.

The sample consisted of 119 Hispanic-Americans with a mean age of 19.45 (SD = 1.43). Participants were broken into three groups: English first language monolingual (EFLM), English first language bilingual (EFLB), and English second language bilingual (ESLB). The Comalli Stroop part A and B, Trail Making Test part A, and Symbol Digit Modalities Test written and oral parts were used to evaluate speed attention and the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory was used to evaluate time orientation in our sample.

ANOVAs revealed the EFLM group outperformed the ESLB group on the Comalli Stroop part B, p = .020, np2 = .07. Next, we also found on the Symbol Digit Modalities Test written part the EFLB group outperformed both bilingual groups, p = .025, np2 = .06. Regarding TP, the EFLB group reported higher past negative orientation compared to the EFLM group, p = .033, np2 = .06. Additionally, we found the bilingual groups reported higher present-fatalistic compared to the EFLM group, p = .023, np2 = .06. Pearson’s correlation revealed no significant correlations between TP and speed attention tasks on any of our language groups.

As expected, the EFLM group outperformed the ESLB group on several speed attention tasks, but the EFLM group only outperformed the EFLB group on the Symbol Digit Modalities Test written part. Additionally, we found that our EFLB sample reported higher orientation of the past and present compared to monolinguals. Our sample level of acculturation could have been a factor influencing the relationship between TP and speed attention. Future studies using larger representative samples should include measures of acculturation and examine if TP influences other cognitive domains (e.g., executive function) in Hispanic-American monolingual and bilingual speakers.

Mind-wandering is defined as a spontaneous shift of attention away from the external environment to inner thoughts. With mind-wandering being a ubiquitous phenomenon, there has been increasing interest in examining the role these spontaneous, and often unintentional, thought processes may have for metrics of cognitive and psychological health. However, much of this literature is mired with inconsistencies, potentially stemming from the use of variegated experimental methods and quantification of mind-wandering through different metrics. For example, mind-wandering has been investigated through endorsement of self-report probes embedded in tasks of sustained attention, with participants asking to endorse whether they were engaging in task-unrelated thoughts or task-related, but evaluative thoughts about the task (task-related interference). Other studies have instead focused on behavioral metrics of task performance, like omission and commission errors, the variability in response time (RTCV), and speeding or slowing prior to errors to quantify mind-wandering. In this study, employing a large sample of older adults, and implementing the novel technique of partial least squares regression, we examined the combined and simultaneous effect of different mind-wandering metrics in explaining variance in fluid cognition and psychological health in older adults.

One hundred and fifty older adults with normal cognition or mild cognitive impairment were administered a Go/No-Go Task (GNG) with embedded mind-wandering probes, the Conners CPT-3, the NIH Toolbox-Cognition Battery, and the WHO Quality of Life Assessment Brief Version at baseline in a clinical trial examining the impact of two mind-body interventions on aging. Based on previous research, the following variables were considered behavioral measures of mind-wandering: quantity of omission and commission errors, RTCV, pre-error speeding, and post-error slowing. Percentage of self-reported task-related interference (i.e. evaluating current performance) and task-unrelated thoughts were included as self-report measures of mind-wandering. These mind-wandering measures, along with demographic variables (age, sex, and education), were regressed using Partial Least Squares Regression to determine the impact of mind-wandering measures on fluid cognition (NIHT-CB) and perceived psychological well-being (WHOQOL-BBREF). Validation tests were completed to assess model fit.

A single latent factor explained 26% of the variance in fluid cognition (p=0.0001). Higher levels of age, errors of omission on both tasks, and task-related interference were all associated with worse fluid cognition, whereas task-unrelated thoughts were associated with better fluid cognition.

A two-factor latent model explained 12% of the variance in perceived psychological well-being (p=0.0004). Age and task-unrelated thoughts were positively associated with psychological well-being. In contrast, errors of omission on both tasks, response time variability on the CPT, and task-related interference were negatively associated with perceived psychological well-being.

Mind-wandering is associated with fluid cognition and perceived psychological well-being in older adults. Select behavioral measures were better than self-report measures at linking mind-wandering to fluid cognition and perceived psychological well-being. Interestingly task-unrelated thoughts, but not task-related interference, was positively associated with fluid cognition, supporting the cognitive resource-based account of mind-wandering. The result of our study provides novel insights into differential relationships between various metrics of mind-wandering and cognitive and psychological health.

Translatability of preclinical results remains a major obstacle in neuropsychiatric research. Even when cognitive tests in preclinical models show translational validity for human testing, with sensitivity to clinical deficits, there remains the issue of heterogeneity among human participants. Norming of performance on cognitive tasks enable corrections for any differences in performance that may arise from the influence of socioeconomic factors, and thus a more direct comparison with preclinical testing results. The 5-choice continuous performance task (5C-CPT) is a test sensitive to changes in sustained attention and cognitive control in rodent manipulations and clinical populations, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Herein, we present normed results of 5C-CPT data from a cohort of human participants, enabling greater comparison to future clinical and rodent testing.

5C-CPT data were generated from a range of participants from the Translational Methamphetamine AIDS Research Center (n=82) and a study of bipolar disorder (n=45). Participant demographics were as follows: Age M=38.5, SD=16.7, Education: M=14.5, SD=1.9, 45% female, 10% Asian, 17% African American, 27% Hispanic, and 46% non-Hispanic White. We used the test2norm R-package to create norms for each of the major outcomes from the 5C-CPT. Non-normally distributed raw scores were transformed to generate more normally distributed data needed for the norming process. Raw scores were first converted into uniform scaled scores that range from 0-20 where a higher score indicated better performance. We then generated T-score formulas, which are standardized residuals and scaled to have a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10. The residuals are obtained from regressions, modeled using multiple fractional polynomial method (MFP), which regresses scaled scores on demographic variables, which a user wishes to control for (gender, age, education, ethnicity, etc.). MFP models allow to fit non-linear effects for numeric demographic factors (e.g., age), if such effects exist.

New, demographically corrected T-score formulas were calculated for each major outcome of the 5C-CPT: reaction time (MCL), reaction time variability (VarRT), dprime, hit rate (HR) and false-alarm rate (FAR). MFP models showed that age had a significant effect on MCL, VarRT, dprime, and HR (all p<0.01), while gender only showed a significant effect for MCL and VarRT (all p<0.05). Interestingly, education and ethnicity did not show a significant effect for any MFP model and none of the demographic factors (age, education, gender, ethnicity) were significant in the model for FAR. As defined in the test2norm package, all scaled scores had a mean of 10 and SD of 3 and all T-scores had a mean of 50 and SD of 10.

The 5C-CPT is a test of attention and cognitive control available for human testing, reverse-translated from rodent studies. The normative data generated here will enable future comparisons of data without the need for additional control studies. Furthermore, comparing these normative data to manipulations will enable further comparisons to rodent testing, with manipulations relative to baseline becoming more meaningful. Thus, the 5C-CPT is a viable tool for conducting cross-species translational research toward developing novel therapeutics that treat dysfunctional attentional and cognitive control.