Does the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Test Battery (CANTAB) Distinguish Between Cognitive Domains in Healthy Older Adults?

The Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) is a semiautomated computer interface for assessing cognitive function. We examined whether CANTAB tests measured specific cognitive functions, using established neuropsychological tests as a reference point. A sample of 500 healthy older (M = 60.28 years, SD = 6.75) participants in the Tasmanian Healthy Brain Project completed battery of CANTAB subtests and standard paper-based neuropsychological tests. Confirmatory factor analysis identified four factors: processing speed, verbal ability, episodic memory, and working memory. However, CANTAB tests did not consistently load onto the cognitive domain factors derived from traditional measures of the same function. These results indicate that five of the six CANTAB subtests examined did not load onto single cognitive functions. These CANTAB tests may lack the sensitivity to measure discrete cognitive functions in healthy populations or may measure other cognitive domains not included in the traditional neuropsychological battery

Further education improves cognitive reserve and triggers improvement in selective cognitive functions in older adults: The Tasmanian Healthy Brain Project

Introduction The strong link between early-life education and subsequent reduced risk of dementia suggests that education in later life could enhance cognitive function and may reduce age-related cognitive decline and protect against dementia. Methods Episodic memory, working memory, executive function, and language processing performances were assessed annually over 4 years in 359 healthy older adults who attended university for a minimum of 12 months (intervention) and were compared against 100 healthy adult controls. Results Multiple group latent growth curve modeling revealed a significant improvement in language processing capacity over time in the intervention group. No changes were detected for episodic memory, working memory, or executive function. Discussion These results suggest that complex mental stimulation resulting from late-life further education results in improved crystallized knowledge but no changes to fluid cognitive functions. © 2017 The Author

The assessment of executive functioning in children

Background: Executive functioning is increasingly seen as incorporating several component sub-skills and clinical assessments should reflect this complexity. Method: Tools for assessing executive functioning in children are reviewed within five key areas, across verbal and visuospatial abilities, with emphasis on batteries of tests. Results: There are many appropriate tests for children, although the choice is more limited for those under the age of 8 years. Conclusions: Whilst there are several batteries of executive functioning suitable for children, clinicians may prefer to cherry-pick from a broader range of measures that assess specific components of executive functioning

Executive functioning, motor difficulties and developmental coordination disorder

The current study assessed a comprehensive range of executive functions (EFs) in children with poor motor skills, comparing profiles of children with a diagnosis of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and those identified with motor difficulties (MD). Children in both groups performed more poorly than typically-developing controls on nonverbal measures of working memory, inhibition, planning and fluency, but not on tests of switching. The similar patterns of strengths and weaknesses in children with MD and DCD have important implications for parents, teachers and clinicians, as children with MD may struggle with EF tasks even though their motor difficulties are not identified

Excitatory repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation applied to the right inferior frontal gyrus has no effect on motor or cognitive impulsivity in healthy adults

Background: Impulsivity is a multi-faceted concept. It is a crucial feature of many neuropsychiatric disorders. Three subtypes of impulsivity have been identified: motor, temporal, and cognitive impulsivity. Existing evidence suggests that the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) plays a crucial role in impulsivity, and such a role has been elucidated using inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). There is a dearth of studies using excitatory rTMS at the rIFG, an important gap in the literature this study aimed to address. Methods: Twenty healthy male adults completed a single-blind sham-controlled randomised crossover study aimed at assessing the efficacy of rTMS in the neuromodulation of impulsivity. This involved delivering 10-Hz excitatory rTMS to the rIFG at the intensity of 100% motor threshold with 900 pulses per session. Trait impulsivity was measured at baseline using the Barrett Impulsiveness Scale and UPPS-P Impulsiveness Scale. The Stop Signal Task (SST) and Information Sampling Task (IST), administered before andafter rTMS sessions, were used as behavioural measures of impulsivity. Results: No significant changes on any measures from either SST or IST after active rTMS at the rIFG compared to the sham-controlled condition were found. Conclusions: Excitatory rTMS applied to the rIFG did not have a statistically significant effect on response inhibition and reflective/cognitive impulsivity. Further research is required before drawing firm conclusions. This may involve a larger sample of highly impulsive individuals, a different stimulation site or a different TMS modality such as theta burst stimulation

White matter integrity in dyskinetic cerebral palsy: Relationship with intelligence quotient and executive function

Background: Dyskinetic cerebral palsy (CP) is one of the most disabling motor types of CP and has been classically associated with injury to the basal ganglia and thalamus. Although cognitive dysfunction is common in CP, there is a paucity of published quantitative analyses investigating the relationship between white matter (WM) microstructure and cognition in this CP type. Aims: This study aims (1) to compare brain WM microstructure between people with dyskinetic CP and healthy controls, (2) to identify brain regions where WM microstructure is related to intelligence and (3) to identify brain regions where WM microstructure is related to executive function in people with dyskinetic CP and (4) to identify brain regions where the correlations are different between controls and people with CP in IQ and executive functions. Patients and methods: Thirty-three participants with dyskinetic CP (mean ± SD age: 24.42 ± 12.61, 15 female) were age and sex matched with 33 controls. Participants underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological battery to assess intelligence quotient (IQ) and four executive function domains (attentional control, cognitive flexibility, goal setting and information processing). Diffusion weighted MRI scans were acquired at 3T. Voxel-based whole brain groupwise analyses were used to compare fractional anisotropy (FA) and of the CP group to the matched controls using a general lineal model. Further general linear models were used to identify regions where white matter FA correlated with IQ and each of the executive function domains. Results: White matter FA was significantly reduced in the CP group in all cerebral lobes, predominantly in regions connected with the parietal and to a lesser extent the temporal lobes. There was no significant correlation between IQ or any of the four executive function domains and WM microstructure in the control group. In participants with CP, lower IQ was associated with lower FA in all cerebral lobes, predominantly in locations that also showed reduced FA compared to controls. Attentional control, goal setting and information processing did not correlate with WM microstructure in the CP group. Cognitive flexibility was associated with FA in regions known to contain connections with the frontal lobe (such as the superior longitudinal fasciculus and cingulum) as well as regions not known to contain tracts directly connected with the frontal lobe (such as the posterior corona radiata, posterior thalamic radiation, retrolenticular part of internal capsule, tapetum, body and splenium of corpus callosum). Conclusion:The widespread loss in the integrity of WM tissue is mainly located in the parietal lobe and related to IQ in dyskinetic CP. Unexpectedly, executive functions are only related with WM microstructure in regions containing fronto-cortical and posterior cortico-subcortical pathways, and not being specifically related to the state of fronto-striatal pathways which might be due to brain reorganization. Further studies of this nature may improve our understanding of the neurobiological bases of cognitive impairments after early brain insult

Cognitive Flexibility in ASD; Task Switching with Emotional Faces

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) show daily cognitive flexibility deficits, but laboratory data are unconvincing. The current study aimed to bridge this gap. Thirty-one children with ASD (8–12 years) and 31 age- and IQ-matched typically developing children performed a gender emotion switch task. Unannounced switches and complex stimuli (emotional faces) improved ecological validity; minimal working memory-load prevented bias in the findings. Overall performance did not differ between groups, but in a part of the ASD group performance was slow and inaccurate. Moreover, within the ASD group switching from emotion to gender trials was slower than vice versa. Children with ASD do not show difficulties on an ecological valid switch task, but have difficulty disengaging from an emotional task set

Functional magnetic resonance imaging data of brain area activity when recognising facial expressions

Data resulting from an experiment which used brain scanning or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the brain areas active when recognising facial expressions and to learn about how they are connected and how they communicate with each other. The dataset consists of volumetric 3D scans of brains, necessarily stored in a special, purpose-made file format. The dataset also contains information necessary for analysing the data, i.e. stimuli and their onsets times. The dataset lastly contains participant ratings of the stimuli collected in a behavioural testing session, following scanning. Our analyses of these data are reported in papers: (1) Furl N, Henson RN, Friston KJ, Calder AJ. 2013. Top-down control of visual responses to fear by the amygdala. J Neurosci 33:17435-43. (2) Furl N, Henson RN, Friston KJ, Calder AJ. 2013. Network Interactions Explain Sensitivity to Dynamic Faces in the Superior Temporal Sulcus. Cereb Cortex. 2015 Sep; 25(9): 2876–2882. Although a person's facial identity is immutable, faces are dynamic and undergo complex movements which signal critical social cues (viewpoint, eye gaze, speech movements, expressions of emotion and pain).&nbsp; These movements can confuse automated systems, yet humans recognise moving faces robustly. Our objective is to discover the stimulus information, neural representations and computational mechanisms that the human brain uses when recognising social categories from moving faces. We will use human brain imaging to put an existing theory to the test. This theory proposes that recognition of changeable attributes (eg, expression) and facial identity are each recognised separately by two different brain pathways, each in a different part of the temporal lobe of the brain. The evidence we provide might indeed support and fill in many gaps in this theory. Nevertheless, we expect instead to instantiate a new alternative theory. By this new theory, some brain areas can recognise both identities and expressions, using unified representations, with one of the two pathways specialised for representing movement. Thus, the successful completion of our project will provide a new theoretical framework sufficient to motivate improved automated visual systems and advance new directions of research on human social perception. </p