Cognitive impairment in the early phase of multiple sclerosis and its relationship with mood, demographic and clinical variables

Our aim was to study cognitive performance in the early phase of MS. In addition, we studied whether depression, demographic and clinical variables differentiate cognitively impaired patients from non-impaired patients. A group of 52 MS-RR patients with mild level of neurological disability and 51 healthy controls were administered a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. The MS group performed significantly worse on several measures of attention and processing speed and visuoperceptive/visuoconstructive tasks. Verbal memory is characterized by working memory deficits, whereas the visual memory impairment is attributable to deficits in acquisition and consolidation/recuperation. Results shows that cognitive impairment is evident even in MS patients in the early course of their disease. Depression scores were higher in cognitively impaired patients as compared with unimpaired patients. The effect of educational level suggests that higher education delays the onset of cognitive decline.     

Behavioral and ERP measures of holistic face processing in a composite task

Holistic processing of faces is characterized by encoding of the face as a single stimulus. This study employed a composite face task to examine whether holistic processing varies when attention is restricted to the top as compared to the bottom half of the face, and whether evidence of holistic processing would be observed in event-related potentials. Analyses of behavioral data showed that spatial misalignment of the face halves disrupted holistic processing and enhanced detection of repeated attended halves. Effects of misalignment on the N170, VPP and N250 ERP components resembled effects of face inversion. Attention to the top half of the face was associated with faster P1, N170, VPP, and P2 latencies than attending to the bottom, suggesting automatic processing of the eye region. Further, N170 latency effects suggested that structural encoding of the face is facilitated during holistic processing. N250 latency effects reflected task difficulty. Finally, an overall right hemispheric asymmetry was most pronounced when holistic face processing was greatest. Results are discussed in light of recent proposals that holistic face processing is a subtype of configural face processing.     

How does bilingualism improve executive control? A comparison of active and reactive inhibition mechanisms

It has been claimed that bilingualism enhances inhibitory control, but the available evidence is equivocal. The authors evaluated several possible versions of the inhibition hypothesis by comparing monolinguals and bilinguals with regard to stop signal performance, inhibition of return, and the attentional blink. These three phenomena, it can be argued, tap into different aspects of inhibition. Monolinguals and bilinguals did not differ in stop signal reaction time and thus were comparable in terms of active-inhibitory efficiency. However, bilinguals showed no facilitation from spatial cues, showed a strong inhibition of return effect, and exhibited a more pronounced attentional blink. These results suggest that bilinguals do not differ from monolinguals in terms of active inhibition but have acquired a better ability to maintain action goals and to use them to bias goal-related information. Under some circumstances, this ability may indirectly lead to more pronounced reactive inhibition of irrelevant information.     

Hemodynamic response to featural changes in the occipital and inferior temporal cortex in infants: a preliminary methodological exploration

Over the past 30 years researchers have learned a great deal about the development of object processing in infancy. In contrast, little is understood about the neural mechanisms that underlie this capacity, in large part because there are few techniques available to measure brain functioning in human infants. The present research examined the extent to which near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), an optical imaging technique, could be used to assess the relation between object processing and brain functioning. Infants aged 6.5 months were presented with an occlusion event involving objects that differed on many feature dimensions (multi-featural change), differed on shape only (shape change) or color only (color change), or did not differ (control). NIRS data were collected in the occipital and inferior temporal cortex. In the occipital cortex, a significant increase in oxyhemoglobin (HbO(2)) was observed in response to all four events and these responses did not differ significantly from each other. In the inferior temporal cortex, a significant increase in HbO(2 )was observed in the multi-featural and the shape change condition but not in the control condition. An increase was also observed in the color change condition but this increase did not differ significantly from baseline nor did it differ significantly from the response obtained in the control condition. These data were discussed in terms of (a) what they suggest about the neural basis of feature processing in infants and (b) the viability of using NIRS to study brain-behavior relations in infants.     

Affect, Social Behavior, and the Brain in Williams Syndrome

ABSTRACT— Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by intellectual impairment and a distinctive physical and neuropsychological profile. Relative to their level of intellectual functioning, individuals with WS exhibit strengths in language and face recognition, with deficits in visual-spatial cognition. A heightened appetitive drive toward social interaction is a strong behavioral feature. Relative to other neurodevelopmental disorders, WS has a clearly defined genetic basis, together with a consistent neurocognitive profile of strengths and deficits. Thus, this disorder offers unique opportunities for elucidating gene–brain–behavior relationships. We focus on manifestations of the unusual social profile in WS, by examining data within and across levels of cognition, brain, and molecular genetics.     

Cognitive processes involved in blame and blame-like judgments and in forgiveness and forgiveness-like judgments

Experiment 1 compared the cognitive processes involved in blame and forgiveness judgments under identical experimental conditions. Experiment 2 was a replication of Experiment 1 with 4 judgment scales: willingness to prosecute, willingness to avenge, resentment level, and willingness to make up. Participants were presented with 32 scenarios in which a doctor made a medical error. These situations contained 5 items: the degree of proximity with the doctor (e.g., a family doctor known since childhood), the degree of negligence, the severity of consequences, apologies or contrition, and cancellation of consequences. Functional cognitive analysis grouped judgments into 2 categories: blame-like judgments (blame, prosecution, and revenge) and forgiveness-like judgments (resentment, forgiveness, and reconciliation). Blame-like judgments were characterized by additive integration rules, with negligence followed by apologies as the 2 main cues. Forgiveness-like judgments were characterized by an interactive integration rule, with apologies followed by negligence as the 2 main cues.     

Stress reactivity and coping in seasonal and nonseasonal depression

Stress, stress reactivity, and coping skill use were examined in individuals with seasonal depression, nonseasonal depression, and nondepressed controls. Although participants in the two depressed groups reported using more avoidance coping strategies than controls, only participants in the seasonal depressed group reported using more season-specific coping (i.e., light-related strategies) than participants in the nonseasonal depressed and control groups. Individuals in the seasonal depressed group also reporting using acceptance coping strategies less frequently than individuals in the control group. Only participants in the nonseasonal depressed group, however, exhibited greater psychophysiological arousal in reaction to a laboratory stressor (i.e., unsolvable anagram task) when compared to participants in the seasonal and nondepressed control groups. Participants in both depressed groups reported greater impact of negative life events during the past 6 months than did controls. Similarities and differences in the two types of depression may have implications for the conceptualization and treatment of seasonal depression.     

Young children's reasoning about the order of past events

Four studies are reported that employed an object location task to assess temporal-causal reasoning. In Experiments 1-3, successfully locating the object required a retrospective consideration of the order in which two events had occurred. In Experiment 1, 5- but not 4-year-olds were successful; 4-year-olds also failed to perform at above-chance levels in modified versions of the task in Experiments 2 and 3. However, in Experiment 4, 3-year-olds were successful when they were able to see the object being placed first in one location and then in the other, rather than having to consider retrospectively the sequence in which two events had happened. The results suggest that reasoning about the causal significance of the temporal order of events may not be fully developed before 5 years.