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Inhibitory control is a fundamental mechanism for adaptive behavior and cognition that features in theories across psychology and cognitive science. Although inhibitory control is thought to regulate processes ranging from actions to memories, most neuroscientific work studies these domains of inhibition separately. Recent crossdomain comparisons have converged on the view that inhibitory control arises from common, domain-general neural mechanisms. We propose that an input inhibition mechanism, acting via fronto-subthalamic inhibitory pathways may contribute to domain-general inhibitory control by suppressing thalamic drive of cortical activity. We argue that β-band activity in local circuits constitutes a potential domain-general signature of inhibitory control. Inhibitory control is a fundamental mechanism underlying flexible behavior and features in theories across many areas of cognitive and psychological science. However, whereas many theories implicitly or explicitly assume that inhibitory control is a domain-general process, the vast majority of neuroscientific work has hitherto focused on individual domains, such as motor, mnemonic, or attentional inhibition. Here, we attempt to close this gap by highlighting recent work that demonstrates shared neuroanatomical and neurophysiological signatures of inhibitory control across domains. We propose that the regulation of thalamocortical drive by a fronto-subthalamic mechanism operating in the β band might be a domain-general mechanism for inhibitory control in the human brain. Inhibitory control is a fundamental mechanism underlying flexible behavior and features in theories across many areas of cognitive and psychological science. However, whereas many theories implicitly or explicitly assume that inhibitory control is a domain-general process, the vast majority of neuroscientific work has hitherto focused on individual domains, such as motor, mnemonic, or attentional inhibition. Here, we attempt to close this gap between by highlighting recent work that demonstrates shared neuroanatomical and neurophysiological signatures of inhibitory control across domains. We propose that the regulation of thalamocortical drive by a fronto-subthalamic mechanism operating in the β band might be a domain-general mechanism for inhibitory control in the human brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cognitive inhibition impairment is one of the causes of impulsive behaviors in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). This study aimed to investigate the effect of emotional working memory training (EWMT) on cognitive inhibition in individuals with a clinically significant borderline personality trait.Methods: In a randomized, parallel-group trial, 40 individuals with borderline personality trait, were selected out of 1000 screened individuals and were randomly assigned to the experimental (N = 20) and waiting-list control (N = 20) groups based on the score on the Borderline Personality Scale and the follow-up Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders. The experimental group underwent 10 sessions of EWMT and the control group did not receive any intervention (waiting list). Participants completed the Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT) and Go/No-Go task Before and after the intervention.Results: EWMT significantly reduced reaction time of incongruent trials in the SCWT and commission errors in the Go/No-Go task after the intervention only in the experimental group. Furthermore, the interference score in SCWT and commission error rate at the post-intervention time were significantly lower for the experimental vs the waitlist group.Limitations: The single-blind design and absence of follow-up measures.Conclusions: EWMT can improve cognitive inhibition in individuals with borderline personality trait and could be used for therapeutic purposes of impulsivity behavior in BPD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED) is an impulsive aggression disorder with self-control problems. However, the mechanisms underpinning the self-control problems in IED have not been clearly investigated. Therefore, this study examined the nature of self-control problems and their types, including cognitive inhibition, behavioral inhibition, and emotional interference in IED. Participants included three groups: IED (n = 54), psychiatric control (n = 59), and healthy control (n = 62). They were first screened with SCL-90-R, and then they were clinically interviewed. They all did computerized neurocognitive tasks, including Color-Word Stroop Task, Emotional Stroop Task, Go-NoGo Task, and Stop-Signal Task. MANOVA analyses showed that the IED group had poorer performance in cognitive inhibition, response inhibition, and increased emotional interference than the two psychiatric and healthy control groups. They performed much worse than the other two groups, particularly in action cancellation (Stop-Signal Task), and showed increasingly emotional interference. The brain reaction of individuals while doing the tasks was not examined, and some variables were not measured. Also, it is unclear how the emotional eruption interferes with cognitive content and behavioral inhibition. These findings indicate that self-control problems in IED can be due to deficient cognitive, emotional, and behavioral inhibitions, each appearing sequentially during a step-by-step process and facilitating the onset of IED signs and symptoms. Such a distinguished understanding of the role of neurocognitive mechanisms can lead to the development of accurate explanatory approaches and increase the effectiveness of treatment. • Self-control problems and its types were investigated in IED. • There are cognitive, emotional, and behavioral inhibition deficits in IED. • Findings provide important information that can be considered in IED treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent evidence highlights the critical role of effective interference inhibition for optimal memory performance, yet its function in action memory remains relatively underexplored. The current study investigated inhibitory processes in action memory during encoding and storage stages. In Experiment 1, 100 participants were divided into high and low cognitive inhibition groups using the Stroop color naming task. They performed either a subject-performed task (SPT) or a verbal task (VT) under varying semantic interference levels to assess the interaction between individual inhibitory abilities and the inhibition processing of action memory during encoding. Results indicated no significant difference in inhibition effects (IF) between high and low inhibition groups in SPT under high semantic interference, while in VT, those with high cognitive inhibition demonstrated significantly greater IF than those with low. Experiment 2, involving 57 participants, employed a point detection task and eye-tracking to explore attentional inhibition mechanisms during action memory storage. Behavioral results showed greater IF for SPT than VT under semantic interference. Eye-tracking revealed higher initial fixation rates and shorter durations for SPT subjects during the early processing stage, and significantly fewer and shorter fixations in the later stage compared to VT subjects. These findings imply stronger inhibitory processing in SPT during both encoding and storage stages under semantic interference, with attentional inhibition of action memories occurring predominantly in the later stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To date, laboratory-based experimental behavioral methods have not been used to identify factors associated with pediatric functional seizures (FS), leaving a critical gap for effective treatment development.Methods: Children ages 13-18 with video-EEG-confirmed FS were matched to controls (MCs) based on income, sex, race, and age. A modified Stroop task which included a condition requiring participants to report the ink colors in which seizure symptom words were written (e.g., "shaking" in blue) measured selective attention and cognitive inhibition through response time. The magic and turbulence task assessed sense of control in three conditions (magic, lag, turbulence). Children with FS were asked to report premonitory symptoms predicting FS.Results: Participants included 26 children with FS and 26 MCs (Meanage=15.2, 74% female, 59% white). On Stroop, children with FS had a slower reaction time (Mean=1193.83) than MCs (Mean=949.26, p = 0.022) for seizure symptom words. Children with FS had significantly poorer sense of control in the turbulence condition of the magic and turbulence task (Mean=-3.99, SD=8.83) than MCs (Mean=-11.51, SD=7.87; t(20)=-2.61, p =0.017). Children with FS (Mean=-1.80, SD=6.54) also had significantly poorer sense of control in the magic condition than MCs (Mean=-5.57, SD=6.01; p =0.028). Ninety-eight percent of patients endorsed premonitory symptoms.Conclusion: Compared with MCs, children with FS have (1) poorer selective attention and cognitive inhibition when presented with seizure-related information and (2) lower sense of control (i.e. poorer awareness that their control was manipulated). Premonitory symptoms were common. Sense of control, selective attention, and inhibition may be novel treatment targets for FS intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Cardiovascular disease is disproportionally prevalent in bipolar disorder (BD) and has been linked to cognition in preliminary studies. Herein we evaluate the association between known risk factors for cardiovascular disease and executive function in BD patients compared to healthy controls.Methods: In a sample of n=57 individuals (n=23 BD, n=34 controls) we assessed two subdomains of executive function; cognitive flexibility (using the Trail Making Test - Part B) and cognitive inhibition (using the Stroop Colour Word Interference Task). Cardiovascular risk was assessed by means of serum triglyceride levels, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference, as well as dietary saturated fat intake and a sex-specific cumulative cardiovascular risk score calculated using the Framingham Heart Study method.Results: Patients with BD had higher BMI and waist circumference, with more BD patients categorized as having central obesity than controls. In the BD group only, higher triglyceride levels were associated with worse cognitive flexibility, and elevated cumulative cardiovascular disease risk was associated with worse cognitive inhibition. No correlations between cardiovascular risk factors and executive function were evident in the control group.Limitations: The study was limited by the small sample size and should be considered hypothesis-generating CONCLUSIONS: The associations between triglyceride levels, cumulative cardiovascular disease risk and executive functioning evident in BD in this study preliminarily indicate the potential for mechanistic overlap of physical health and cognitive function in the disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Failure to inhibit interference from distracting emotional stimuli may obstruct an individual's ability to regulate their behavioural and emotional responses to environmental stressors. Few studies have examined the longitudinal association between cognitive inhibition and regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) in the natural environment. Seventy-nine healthy adults underwent two assessments 6 months apart. Participants' ability to suppress interference from distracting emotional stimuli was assessed using a negative affective priming task that included both generic and personally-relevant (i.e., participants' intimate partners) facial expressions of emotion. Poorer inhibition of personally-relevant sad and angry faces, but not generic stimuli, significantly predicted an increased cortisol awakening response (CAR) six months later. Moreover, poor inhibition of personally-relevant sad faces mediated the relation between chronic stress and an elevated CAR. Difficulties inhibiting personally-relevant emotional information may represent a key mechanism in understanding how environmental stress influences HPA functioning. • Poor cognitive inhibition may affect behavioural and emotional responses to stress. • Poor inhibition of personally relevant negative stimuli predicted cortisol reactivity at Time 2. • Cortisol reactivity's relation to chronic stress was mediated by inhibition ability. • Findings highlight the importance of using personally-relevant stimuli. • Processing of emotional stimuli may influence the stress response over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impulsivity is considered a possible phenotype underlying the expression of self-harm and suicidal behaviors. Yet impulsivity is a not a unitary construct and there is evidence that different facets of impulsivity follow different neurodevelopmental trajectories and that some facets may be more strongly associated with such behaviors than others. Moreover, it is unclear whether impulsivity is a useful predictor of self-harm or suicidal behavior in young people, a population already considered to display heightened impulsive behavior. A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies published in Medline, PubMed, PsychInfo or Embase between 1970 and 2017 that used a neurocognitive measure to assess the independent variable of impulsivity and the dependent variable of self-harm and/or suicidal behavior among young people (mean age < 30 years old). 6183 titles were identified, 141 full texts were reviewed, and 18 studies were included, with 902 young people with a self-harm or suicidal behavior and 1591 controls without a history of these behaviors. Deficits in inhibitory control (13 studies, SMD 0.21, p-value = 0.002, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.08–0.34), prediction interval (PI) = 0.06–0.35) and impulsive decision-making (14 studies, SMD 0.17, p-value = 0.008, 95% CI (0.045–0.3), PI = 0.03–0.31) were associated with self-harm or suicidal behavior. There were no significant differences between measures of different facets of impulsivity (ie. delay discounting, risky decision-making, cognitive or response inhibition) and self-harm or suicidal behavior. Multiple facets of impulsivity are associated with suicidal behavior in young people. Future suicide research should be designed to capture impulsive states and investigate the impact on different subtypes of impulsivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although cognitive inhibition deficits and attentional biases have been associated with suicidality, these findings have not been consistently reported across samples. The aim of the current study was to further investigate these variables among participants with differing suicidal risk.Methods: We compared affective go/no-go performance in 100 depressed individuals with both current suicidal ideation and a prior history of attempted suicide, 100 depressed individuals with current suicidal ideation, but no history of attempted suicide, 100 suicide attempters without current depression or suicidal ideation, and 100 healthy controls.Results: Suicide ideators with a history of attempted suicide committed more commission errors during negative word trials than any other group. Additionally, suicide ideators with no attempt history made more commission errors than did controls and previous attempters. An interaction for group status and emotional word valence revealed that suicide ideators with a history of attempted suicide responded fastest to negative words and slowest to positive words. Suicide ideators without an attempt history displayed a similar, but less pronounced pattern. Whereas, controls and previous attempters responded more quickly to positively valenced words.Limitations: The use of cross-sectional self-report data and inclusion of only female participants limits generalizability.Conclusions: Cognitive dysfunctions were apparent in all suicide vulnerable subjects, but significantly greater in suicide ideators with a history of attempted suicide. Suicidal ideation may be associated with a processing bias and inhibitory deficit for negative, mood-congruent information. These findings increase our knowledge of cognitive impairment in suicidality and may potentially help improve intervention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Binge-Eating Disorder (BED) involves anticipatory craving and urges, subjective loss-of-control during binge-eating episodes, and post-feeding psychological distress and guilt. Evidence indicates neurocognitive dysfunctions contribute to BED onset, maintenance, and treatment response. However, an integrated understanding of how cognitive processes underpin BED symptomology is lacking. We utilised a multi-stage decision-making model defining ten cognitive processes underpinning Preference Formation, Choice Implementation, Feedback Processing, and Flexibility/Shifting, to comprehensively review research published since 2013. We used preregistered PICOS criteria to assess 1966 articles identified from PubMed, PsycInfo, and Scopus database searches. This yielded 50 studies reporting behavioural cognitive tasks outcomes, comparing individuals with BED to controls with normal and higher weight. Meta-analyses revealed a unique profile of cognitive dysfunctions that spanned all decision-making stages. Significant deficits were evident in Uncertainty Evaluation, Attentional Inhibition, Choice Consistency, and Cognitive Flexibility/Set-shifting. We propose a novel model of dysfunctional decision-making processes in BED and describe their role in binge-eating behaviour. We further highlight the potential for cognitive interventions to target these processes and address the significant treatment gap in BED. • We meta-analysed BED cognitive dysfunctions via multi-stage decision-making theory. • People with BED show deficits relating to uncertainty, inhibition, consistency & flexibility. • Food-related contexts increase disinhibition; BMI moderates flexibility/shifting. • Findings can explain maladaptive eating choices & inform treatment targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roos and colleagues’ commentary on our recent meta-analysis examining acute stress effects on executive functions is an important delineation of the limits of meta-analyses with heterogeneous outcomes. In this response, we wish to both clarify the inferences we feel are appropriate given the analyses and address the methodological concerns they raise. Additionally, we present new analyses that answer questions raised in their commentary. We first discuss the classification of a broad array of tasks that depend upon the same construct (e.g., inhibition) and note that this allows for inferences regarding the process that underpins all of those tasks, but this does not entail that all tasks dependent upon that construct will evidence the same effect of stress. Second, we argue that requiring that a study present a significant effect of stress on cortisol for inclusion in analyses is too stringent for a number of reasons (e.g., some studies using validated stressor paradigms correctly do not assay cortisol for budgetary reasons) and we present analyses showing that even when studies that did not present a cortisol response were removed, the initially observed effects still held. Finally, we address concerns raised regarding analyses of time-dependent effects by presenting new analyses that help to allay those concerns. In sum, we applaud Roos and colleagues’ exortation for greater methodological and conceptual rigor in studies of stress and executive function, and the additional analyses prompted by their questions help to clarify observed effects and further the field of stress and executive function research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Major depressive episode (MDE) has been associated with cognitive functioning alteration and hypovitaminosis D (hypoVD), but the relationship between hypoVD, depression, and cognition is not well understood. We aimed to compare patient with MDE with or without hypoVD in regard of cognitive functioning.Methods: 91 patients (38.5 years old, 65.9% female) with MDE were included in a cross-sectional study and were evaluated with a complete cognitive battery. None of the participants were medicated at the time of the inclusion. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D was measured using LC-MS/MS method, and hypovitaminosis was defined as 25OHD < 50nmol/L. Covariates were gender, season of dosage, first MDE onset, age, body mass index and depression severity RESULTS: Patients with hypoVD demonstrated a higher stroop intereference index time underscoring that means low cognitive inhibition ability. Mutiple logistic regression confirmed that hypoVD was significantly associated with high stroop interference time index after controlling by gender, season of dosage, first MDE onset, age, body mass index and depression severity.Conclusion: Our results suggest that patient with MDE having hypoVD may be more prone to cognitive impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Overweight affects executive functions' development. • Body mass index determines the performance of abstract reasoning and set-shifting. • Inhibitory control can be developed independently of weight. • Adolescents' personality maturation and identity formation are not at risk due to weight. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents has risen dramatically increasing a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases and cognitive dysfunctions. This study aimed to analyze differences in the executive function´s development between overweight and normal-weight adolescents. As a secondary objective, we aimed to assess differences in adolescents' psychological and behavioral profiles between groups. In order to achieve the study's aim, 105 adolescent students (17.61 ± 7.43 years) completed an online questionnaire that analyzed variables regarding their executive functions' processes, their psychological and physical health as well as lifestyle habits. Results showed that executive functions development is associated with adolescent weight. A higher range of weight presents a lower ability to assess abstract reasoning and to shift cognitive strategies. Nevertheless, no differences were found between groups in the capacity to hold information in mind nor the ability to control impulsive responses. Furthermore, groups showed differences in the number of meals and gastritis, but no significant differences have been found in lifestyle variables such as mobile usage, smoking, physical activity, and hours of sleep per day. The results from the present study could be used to implement multidisciplinary programs to develop healthier habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Executive function (EF) is critical to everyday life, but it can be undermined by adverse psychological states like stress and negative affect. For example, inadequate time to perform a task is a common stressor that can disrupt EF. Although the impact of actual time pressure on EF has been established, little is known about how self-generated, perceived time pressure (PTP) affects EF in the absence of objective time limits. We chose Eriksen's Flanker task as an index of cognitive inhibition, a key component of EF, and we varied the interval between successive trials, the inter-trial interval (ITI), to proxy PTP. This manipulation strongly impacted task performance: shrinking the ITI to increase PTP diminished cognitive inhibition and increased both stress and negative affect. Subsequently lengthening the ITI to decrease PTP reversed nearly all of these effects, except stress, which persisted. Multilevel linear regression modeling revealed that ITI and stress predicted inhibition, and exploratory mediation modeling suggested that stress mediates the relationship between ITI and inhibition. These findings validate perceived time pressure as an empirical stressor and demonstrate EF's sensitivity to changes in PTP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The hormone cortisol is often believed to play a pivotal role in the effects of stress on human cognition. This meta-analysis is an attempt to determine the effects of acute cortisol administration on core executive functions. Drawing on both rodent and stress literatures, we hypothesized that acute cortisol administration would impair working memory and set-shifting but enhance inhibition. Additionally, because cortisol is thought to exert different nongenomic (rapid) and genomic (slow) effects, we further hypothesized that the effects of cortisol would differ as a function of the delay between cortisol administration and cognitive testing. Although the overall analyses were nonsignificant, after separating the rapid, nongenomic effects of cortisol from the slower, genomic effects of cortisol, the rapid effects of cortisol enhanced response inhibition, g + = 0.113, p = .016, but impaired working memory, g + = −0.315, p = .008, although these effects reversed over time. Contrary to our hypotheses, there was no effect of cortisol administration on set-shifting. Thus, although we did not find support for the idea that increases in cortisol influence set-shifting, we found that acute increases in cortisol exert differential effects on working memory and inhibition over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three components of cognitive inhibition were compared in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. Nineteen patients with schizophrenia were compared to 30 healthy controls, matched for age, sex, and educational level. Cognitive inhibition was examined by (i) access to relevant information (Reading with distraction task), (ii) suppression of no longer relevant information (Trail Making Test B), and (iii) restraint of cognitive resources to relevant information (Stroop Test, Hayling Sentence Completion Test, Go/No-Go Test). Beck Depression Inventory, and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale were also used. Compared to healthy controls, patients with schizophrenia and stabilized for at least 6 months were slower in the inhibition condition at the Stroop task, read more distractors at the RWD, and made more perseverative errors at the TMT, even after controlling for age, Mini-Mental State Examination score, information speed processing, and accuracy. This difference remained significant after taking into account the level of depressive symptoms and the severity of psychotic symptoms. In multivariate analyses, only the Stroop interference index explained cognitive inhibition deficit in patients with schizophrenia. The abnormal cognitive inhibition process observed in patients with schizophrenia could therefore concerns the ability to restraint, rather than the access or the suppression processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Patients with schizophrenia (SZ) have deficits of facial emotion processing and cognitive inhibition, but the brain pathophysiology underlying these deficits and their interaction are not clearly understood. We tested brain activity during an emotional face go/no-go task that requires rapid executive control affected by emotional stimuli in patients with SZ using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Methods Twenty-five patients with SZ and 28 healthy control subjects were studied. We evaluated behavioral performance and used fNIRS to measure oxygenated hemoglobin concentration changes in fronto-temporal areas during the emotional go/no-go task with emotional and non-emotional blocks. Results Patients with SZ made more errors and had longer reaction times in both test blocks compared with healthy subjects. Significantly greater activation in the inferior, superior, middle, and orbital frontal regions were observed in healthy subjects during the emotional go/no-go block compared to the non-emotional go/no-go block, but this difference was not observed in patients with SZ. Relative to healthy subjects, patients with SZ showed less activation in the superior and orbital frontal and middle temporal regions during the emotional go/no-go block. Discussion Our results suggest that fronto-temporal dysfunction in patients with SZ is due to an interaction between abnormal processing of emotional facial expressions with negative valence and cognitive inhibition, especially during the rapid selection of rule-based associations that override automatic emotional response tendencies. They indicate that fronto-temporal dysfunction is involved in the pathophysiology of emotional–cognitive deficits in patients with SZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the neural mechanisms underlying the ability to cope in atypical or novel situations using tools. We hypothesized that two cognitive components support this ability: adaptive coordination (for adapting to situational demands) and cognitive inhibition (for inhibiting the incongruent actions afforded by tools). We had subjects choose novel tools for a given task or choose among familiar tools in an atypical situation, during which we examined cortical activation in their brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Neural activation during adaptive coordination was observed in the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus and sulcus, middle and medial frontal gyrus, intraparietal sulcus, precentral sulcus, inferior temporal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, the bilateral insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and the right callosal sulcus. Activation indicating cognitive inhibition was observed in the right middle and inferior frontal gyrus. These findings demonstrate that the left parietal region shapes basic action, whereas the right frontal region inhibits stereotypical action. The left frontal regions are thought to be linked to the processing of ambiguous actions and play key roles in coordinating actions, whereas other regions are involved in processing situational contexts. Our results may be important for understanding the neural systems underlying adaptability to daily social situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Introduction Le risque de développer une maladie d’Alzheimer augmente avec l’âge. Le rôle de celle-ci comme un facteur de risque indépendant de suicide n’est pas bien compris et demeure complexe et mal élucidé. L’objectif de cet article est d’envisager une compréhension neuropsychologique de la crise suicidaire dans le cas d’une maladie d’Alzheimer débutante. Méthode Une évaluation cognitive globale (Mini-Mental State Examination, Batterie Rapide d’Évaluation Frontale) complétée de l’exploration de l’inhibition cognitive selon ses fonctions d’accès (tâche de lecture en présence de distracteurs), de suppression (Trail Making Test), et de freinage (Stroop, Hayling, Go/No-Go) a été réalisée chez une femme souffrant d’une maladie d’Alzheimer (MMSE à 21/30) avant et après réalisation d’une tentative de suicide dans un contexte de dépression. Résultats L’échelle d’Hamilton était cotée à 24/52, l’échelle de dépression de Cornell à 21/38. L’intentionnalité suicidaire était modérée avec un score à 15/25 à l’échelle d’intentionnalité suicidaire de Beck. Initialement préservées, le déclin des fonctions exécutives a coïncidé avec l’émergence d’une crise suicidaire dans un contexte de dépression chez une patiente souffrant de maladie d’Alzheimer. Les fonctions de l’inhibition cognitive étaient altérées dans ses trois composantes, après ajustement des facteurs de confusion. Conclusion Une évaluation détaillée des fonctions exécutives et singulièrement de l’inhibition cognitive dans la population des patients atteints d’une maladie d’Alzheimer permettrait de détecter les personnes les plus à risque de passage à l’acte et de proposer une surveillance plus étroite dans le cadre des soins généraux de leur maladie. Introduction The role of Alzheimer's disease as a risk factor for suicide is unclear. The aim of this study was to understand neuropsychological component of the suicidal crisis in Alzheimer's disease. Method Using an extensive neuropsychological battery, different aspects of cognitive inhibition were particularly examined: Access to relevant information (using the Reading with distraction task), suppression of no longer relevant information (Trail Making Test, Rule Shift Cards), and restraint of cognitive resources to relevant information (Stroop test, Hayling Sentence Completion test, Go/No-Go). One female Alzheimer depressed case was assessed before and after a suicide attempt. Results Ten days after the patient's suicide attempt, dementia was still moderate with a MMSE score at 21/30 but with a worsening of executive functions (FAB at 8/18) in the context of depression and suicide. The Hamilton-Depression Rating Scale was at 24 (maximal score at 52), and the Cornell Scale for Depression was at 21 (maximal score at 38). Suicidal intent was moderate with a score of 9 on the Beck Suicide Intent Scale (maximal score at 25). The patient did not present a delirium, psychotic symptoms, or anosognosia. Her episodic memory was altered as shown by her semantic performance on verbal fluency (naming 12 animals in 120 seconds) and on lexical fluency (naming 8 words beginning with the letter P). Initially preserved, executive function declined during a suicidal crisis in a context of depression in Alzheimer's disease case. Neuropsychological testing confirmed a dysexecutive syndrome (FAS at 8/18), with an impairment in her conceptualization capacity (MCST) and a deficit in cognitive inhibition and its access (reading task in the presence of distractors), deletion (TMT) and restraint (Stroop, Go/No-Go, Hayling) functions. Computed tomography has shown no signs of intracranial expansive process. Conclusion Assessing predictors of suicide and means of completion in patients with dementia may help the development of interventions to reduce risk of suicide among the growing population of individuals with dementia. Because of Alzheimer's-related cognitive inhibition impairment, identification and intervention addressing the complex issues of depression, executive dysfunction and dementia may help clinicians to mitigate the risk of suicide in patients with Alzheimer's disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background and objectives: Interference from irrelevant negative material might be a key mechanism underlying intrusive ruminative thoughts in depression. Considering commonalities between depression and social anxiety and the presence of similar intrusive thoughts in social anxiety, the current study was designed to assess whether interference from irrelevant material in working memory is specific to depression or is also present in social anxiety disorder. Methods: To examine the effects of irrelevant emotional material on working memory performance, participants memorized two lists of words on each trial and were subsequently instructed to ignore one of the lists. Participants were then asked to indicate whether a probe word belonged to the relevant list or not. Results: Compared to control and social anxiety groups, the depression groups (both pure and comorbid with social anxiety disorder) exhibited greater difficulties removing irrelevant emotional material from working memory (i.e., greater intrusion effects). Greater intrusion effects were also associated with increased rumination. Limitations: Although we included three clinical groups (depression, social anxiety, and the comorbid groups), the results are based on a relatively small number of participants. Conclusions: The results indicate that difficulties removing irrelevant material from working memory might be unique to depression, and the ability to inhibit irrelevant information is relatively preserved in social anxiety disorder. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objective: The literature suggests that many suicide attempters show impairment in both decision-making and cognitive control. However, it is not clear if these deficits are linked to each other, and if they may be related to more basic alterations in attention. This is a relevant question in the perspective of future interventions targeting cognitive deficits to prevent suicidal acts. Method: Two different populations of patients with histories of suicide attempts were assessed (N=142 and 119). The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) was used to measure decision-making in both populations. We used a D2 cancellation task and a verbal working memory task in population 1; the Stroop test, the N-Back task, the Trail Making Test, and the Hayling Sentence Completion test in population 2. Results: Regarding decision-making, we only found a small negative correlation between the Hayling test error score (r=−0.24; p=0.01), and the net score from the second half of the IGT. In contrast, working memory, cognitive flexibility and cognitive inhibition measures were largely inter-correlated. Limitation: Most patients were medicated. Only patients with mood disorders. Conclusion: These results add to previous findings suggesting that the neurocognitive vulnerability to suicidal behavior may rely on impairments in two distinct anatomical systems, one processing value-based decision-making (associated with ventral prefrontal cortex, among others) and one underlying cognitive control (associated with more dorsal prefrontal regions). This distinction may result in tailored-made cognitive interventions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] We use RIF paradigm to measure inhibitory control in retrieval of concepts. [•] We differentiate open- versus closed-ended creative problem solving. [•] Open-ended divergent thinking is negatively related to cognitive inhibition. [•] Successful closed-ended 2-4-6 problem solvers exhibit reliable RIF effects. [•] Reduced cognitive inhibition is not a general mechanism for different creativities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Amphetamine abuse may lead to a psychotic state, its symptomatology being very similar to what is seen in paranoid schizophrenia. Failure of attentional inhibition of irrelevant information is thought to be associated with the psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia. Negative priming (NP) paradigm is believed to measure this impairment. Several studies have shown impaired NP in schizophrenia. In the present study a spatial NP task was used to assess attentional inhibition in a group of amphetamine-induced psychosis patients. Nineteen patients with amphetamine-induced psychotic disorder and 20 healthy subjects participated in this study. Severity of psychotic symptoms was measured prior to testing using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). Patients showed no deficit in NP, and the amount of their NP effect was not significantly different from healthy subjects. Besides, we did not find any correlation between the amount of NP effect and severity of symptoms. Our results may indicate that cognitive mechanisms underlying NP might not be affected in amphetamine psychosis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Background: Patients with panic disorder (PD) are known to report impaired sleep quality and symptoms of insomnia. PD is an anxiety disorder characterised by deficient physiological regulation as measured by heart rate variability (HRV), and reduced HRV, PD and insomnia have all been related to impaired inhibitory ability. The present study aimed to investigate the interrelationships between subjectively reported sleep impairment, cognitive inhibition and vagally mediated HRV in a sample characterised by variability on measures of all these constructs. Methods: Thirty-six patients with PD with or without agoraphobia were included. Cognitive inhibition was assessed with the Color–Word Interference Test from the Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS), HRV was measured using high frequency (HF) power (ms2), and subjectively reported sleep quality was measured with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Results: Cognitive inhibition was related to both Sleep latency and Sleep disturbances, whereas HRV was only related to Sleep disturbances. These relationships were significant also after controlling for depression. Limitations: Correlational design. Conclusion: Cognitive inhibition is related to key insomnia symptoms: sleep initiation and sleep maintenance. The data supports the psychobiological inhibition model of insomnia, and extends previous findings. Possible clinical implications of these findings are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We tested whether suppressing disgust related thoughts, compared with no suppression, differentially affected target thought frequency and emotional responses, and whether this was related to participants'' cognitive inhibition abilities. We also tested whether different control instructions during a thought control task would affect performance on a subsequent behavioural avoidance task involving disgust related stimuli. Sixty university students, pre-selected on their level of disgust propensity/sensitivity, were instructed to either suppress or not to suppress all target-related thoughts following viewing of a disgust-related film fragment. Thought suppression immediately reduced target thought frequency, but only for participants with good inhibitory control. Thought suppression led to sustained thought frequency and levels of disgust after suppression was lifted, whereas a significant drop was observed for these measures in the no-suppression group. Thought control instructions did not affect performance on the behavioural avoidance task at the group level. However, regression analyses showed that changes in thought frequency during thought suppression interacted with beliefs concerning importance of thoughts and thought control when predicting fear and disgust reactions during the behavioural task. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The contribution of movement-related activity to Go/NoGo ERP differences has been debated for 25years. In this study, we examined ERP and fMRI measures of activity in twenty adults performing non-motor (count) and motor (right-handed button press) trials of the Go/NoGo task. Task performance was highly accurate and similar in the ERP and fMRI environments. No significant task-related effects were observed for the N2 component; however, we observed a substantial increase in positivity for Press NoGo compared to Count NoGo trials. The fMRI results also revealed significant deactivations for Press NoGo relative to Count NoGo trials in several left-lateralised motor-related areas, including the inferior frontal gyrus, precentral gyrus and supplementary motor area. Together, the results indicate that the P3 NoGo>Go effect in motor tasks is caused not by movement-related negativity on Go trials but by inhibition-related positivity on NoGo trials, and that this is associated with deactivation of motor areas involved in the Go response. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Aim: To compare cognitive inhibition and quality of life in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. Methods: Ten patients with schizophrenia were compared to 10 healthy controls, matched for age, sex, and educational level. Cognitive inhibition was examined by: 1) access to relevant information (Reading with distraction task), 2) suppression of no longer relevant information (Trail Making Test), and 3) restraint of cognitive resources to relevant information (Stroop Test, Hayling Sentence Completion Test, Go/No-Go Test). Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, and Schizophrenia-Quality of Life scale (S-QoL) were also used. Results: Patients with schizophrenia showed a significant impairment in the suppression function of cognitive inhibition only, in comparison to the control group. Their access and restraint functions of cognitive inhibition were preserved. No relationship between quality of life and cognitive inhibition was found in patients with schizophrenia. Conclusions: During the stabilization phase of schizophrenia, the ability to inhibit neutral information access to working memory, and to restrain and suppress irrelevant information may not impair the patient''s capacity to respond adequately to stressful situations, and thus would do not impact their quality of life. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The cognitive profile of individuals with Down syndrome (DS) is known to be characterized by an impaired executive functioning, but inhibition-related processes have not been extensively examined in this setting. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether individuals with DS have any specific or general deficit in inhibitory processes. Tasks measuring prepotent response inhibition (the animal Stroop test), proactive interference (proactive interference task and intrusion errors), and response to distracters (directed forgetting task) were administered together with a working memory test to 19 individuals with DS and 19 typically developing (TD) children matched for mental age. Confirming previous findings, our results showed that the DS group performed less well in a verbal working memory task than the TD children. Analyzing our findings for the three inhibitory tasks yielded a picture of the DS children having a generalized difficulty in suppressing information that is irrelevant, or no longer relevant, to the goals of the task. These results suggest that DS is related not to specific, but rather to generalized inhibitory difficulties. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The concept of mental toughness has been found to be related to outcome performance measures in sport and other competitive situations. Despite this, little attention has been devoted to understanding the cognitive mechanisms that underlie mental toughness. The current study attempted to identify the cognitive underpinnings of mental toughness using the directed forgetting paradigm, in which participants are given a surprise memory test for material they were previously instructed to forget. Regression analyses showed that mental toughness, as measured by the MTQ48 ( Clough, Earle, & Sewell, 2002 ), did not influence the recall of a to-be-forgotten list, but participants with high mental toughness showed better recall of a to-be-remembered list following instructions to forget the previous list. The superior recall of the to-be-remembered list suggests that mentally tough individuals have an enhanced ability to prevent unwanted information from interfering with current goals. These findings support the proposal that cognitive inhibition is one of the mechanisms underpinning mental toughness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Cognitive deficits, in relation to ventral and dorsal prefrontal cortex dysfunctions, have been associated with a higher risk of suicidal acts in young adult patients. Although a public health concern, much less is known about the neurocognitive basis of suicidal behavior in elderly. Here, we aimed at assessing alterations in cognitive inhibition, a suspected major mechanism of the suicidal vulnerability, in suicidal depressed elderly. Methods: We compared 20 currently depressed patients, aged 65 and older who recently attempted suicide to 20 elderly subjects with a current depression but no personal history of suicide attempt and 20 elderly controls. Using an extensive neuropsychological battery, we particularly examined different aspects of cognitive inhibition: access to relevant information (using the Reading with distraction task), suppression of no longer relevant information (Trail Making Test, Rule Shift Cards), and restraint of cognitive resources to relevant information (Stroop test, Hayling Sentence Completion test, Go/No-Go). Results: After adjustment for age, intensity of depression, Mini-Mental State Examination score and speed of information processing, suicidal depressed elderly showed significant impairments in all 3 domains of cognitive inhibition in comparison to both control groups. Limitations: Our results need replication in a larger sample size. Conclusions: Our study suggests that the inability to inhibit neutral information access to working memory, restrain and delete irrelevant information may impair the patient''s capacity to respond adequately to stressful situations subsequently leading to an increased risk of suicidal behavior during late-life depression. Interventions may be developed to specifically target cognitive impairment in the prevention of suicide in depressed elderly. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The present study presents a comparison of the cognitive inhibition abilities of dyslexic, dyscalculic, and control students. The participants were 45 dyslexic students, 45 dyscalculic students, and 45 age-, gender-, and IQ-matched control students. The major evaluation tools included six cognitive inhibition tasks which were restructured during principal component analysis into three categories: graph inhibition, number inhibition, and word inhibition. Comparisons of the 3 groups of students revealed that in graph inhibition, dyscalculic students performed worst of the 3 groups, with dyslexic students also performing worse than control students in this category. For number inhibition, the control students’ performances were equal to those of dyslexic students, with both groups performing better than dyscalculic students. For word inhibition, control students’ performances were equal to those of dyscalculic students; both groups had shorter response times and lower incorrect rates than dyslexic students. These results suggest the complexity of the different cognitive inhibition abilities displayed by dyslexic, dyscalculic, and control students. However, some regular patterns occurred. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Patients with fibromyalgia frequently report cognitive complaints. In this study we examined performance on 2 cognitive inhibition tests, the Stroop Color-Word Test (SCWT) and the Multi-Source Interference Test (MSIT), in 35 female patients with fibromyalgia and 35 age-matched healthy female controls. Experimental pressure pain thresholds (PPT) were determined, and fibromyalgia patients rated their current pain on a visual analog scale and completed the pain and fatigue subscales of the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire. Further, all subjects completed questionnaires assessing symptoms of pain catastrophizing, depression, and anxiety. Significant group differences were found for SCWT and MSIT performance in both the neutral (N) and interference (I) conditions with slower reaction times in patients versus controls. However, no significant group differences were found for the difference (I–N) or proportion (I/N) scores, or on the number of errors made. For patients, pain experienced during PPT correlated significantly to several indices of cognition. Psychosocial variables were not related to cognitive test performance. Fibromyalgia patients performed worse on both tests but to a similar extent for the neutral condition and the interference condition, indicating that there is no specific problem in cognitive inhibition. Evidence of decreased mental processing and/or psychomotor speed was found in patients with fibromyalgia. Perspective: Fibromyalgia patients performed worse on interference tests, but no specific problem in cognitive inhibition was found. Decreased reaction time performance may instead point to an underlying problem of psychomotor or mental processing speed in fibromyalgia. Future studies should examine potential deficits in psychomotor function in fibromyalgia patients in more detail. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We examined differences in a visual search-based latent inhibition (LI) task in 48 non-treatment seeking individuals diagnosed with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and 26 non-OCD controls, using a visual search-based LI task as a function of participants’ primary obsessional presentation based on the autogenous–reactive subtype model of obsessions (). We hypothesized that LI would be significantly attenuated among OCD participants whose primary obsessions were characterized by aversive impulses, images, or thoughts with sexual, aggressive, blasphemous, and repulsive themes (autogenous obsessions) due to their weakened attentional inhibitory mechanisms and elevated schizotypal personality features, as compared with those whose primary obsessions were characterized by somewhat realistic aversive mental intrusions about contamination, mistakes, accidents, or disarray (reactive obsession) and non-OCD controls. Results showed that those primarily displaying autogenous obsessions failed to display LI, whereas those primarily displaying reactive obsessions and non-OCD controls displayed significant LI effects. Our data suggest that the magnitude of LI varies as a function of primary obsessional presentations among individuals with OCD. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Previous research has suggested that children with specific reading comprehension deficits (poor comprehenders) show an impaired ability to suppress irrelevant information from working memory, with this deficit detrimentally impacting on their working memory ability, and consequently limiting their reading comprehension performance. However, the extent to which these suppression deficits are specific to the verbal domain has not yet been explored. Experiment 1 examined the memory profiles of poor comprehenders and demonstrated a memory deficit specific to working memory, and the verbal domain within working memory. Experiment 2 compared the same poor comprehenders and controls on both verbal and non-verbal versions of a proactive interference task designed to assess their ability to suppress no-longer-relevant information from working memory. The poor comprehenders showed domain-specific suppression deficits, demonstrating impairments relative to the controls only in the verbal version of the task. Experiment 3 replicated these findings after the response modes of the verbal and non-verbal tasks were equated, confirming the domain specificity of our sample of poor comprehenders’ suppression deficits. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Background: Over the past decade, evidence has accumulated to suggest that people suffering from Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) present impairment in attention, working memory, executive function, including cognitive inhibition, problem- and task-planning. The aim of the current study was to assess inhibitory mechanisms within working memory with emotionally neutral material in a group of patients suffering from MDD. We hypothesized that impairment in cognitive inhibition is global and not only due to the emotional valence of the stimuli employed for the tasks. Methods: Twenty patients with MDD (DSM-IV) and 20 healthy controls were recruited. To assess cognitive inhibition, we used neutral material, in the form of the Prose Distraction Task (PDT) (Connelly SL, 1991), Trail Making Test (TMT), Modified Card Sorting Test (MCST), Rule Shift Cards (RSC), Stroop test and Hayling Sentence Completion test (HSC). The Modified 6 elements test, the Brixton Spatial Anticipation test, the dual task performance and the verbal fluencies test were also used to assess other executive function such as flexibility, planning tasks and memory. Results: Individuals with depression showed impairment in cognitive inhibition. They made more errors on the PDT, alongside slower response times. Slower response times were also observed on the Stroop, TMT and RSC. The MDD group made more errors in HSC and performed worse than controls in the semantic part of verbal fluency and Modified 6 elements tasks. The impairment of access function was significantly associated with the level of depression. Conclusion: Depressed patients showed inability to inhibit neutral information access to working memory, restrain and delete irrelevant information. This impairment in cognitive inhibition could underlie cognitive slowness and attentional deficits in depression. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Theories that postulate cognitive inhibition are very common in psychology and cognitive neuroscience [e.g., Hasher, L., Lustig, C., & Zacks, R. T. (2007). Inhibitory mechanisms and the control of attention. In A. Conway, C. Jarrold, M. Kane, A. Miyake, A. Towse, & J. Towse (Eds.), Variation in working memory (pp. 227–249). New York, NY: Oxford, University Press], although they have recently been severely criticized [e.g., MacLeod, C. M., Dodd, M. D., Sheard, E. D., Wilson, D. E., & Bibi, U. (2003). In opposition to inhibition. In H. Ross (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 43, pp. 163–214). Elsevier Science]. This paper poses and attempts to answer the question whether a research program with cognitive inhibition as its main theoretical assumption is still worth pursuing. We present a set of empirical data from a modified Stroop paradigm that replicates previously reported findings. These findings refer to between-trial effects previously described in the literature on Stroop, negative priming, and inhibition-of-return. Existing theoretical accounts fail to explain all these effects in an integrated way. A repetition-suppression mechanism is proposed in order to account for these data. This mechanism is instantiated as a computational cognitive model. The theoretical implications of this model are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objective: The neural correlates of inhibitory deficits for emotional semantic material in persons with major depressive disorder (MDD) were investigated. Methods: Individuals (n =15) with a diagnosis of MDD or MDD in partial remission, and healthy controls (n =14) underwent recording of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) while performing a computerized emotional Stroop task. Results: There were no group performance differences on the emotional Stroop task. However, the analysis of ERP waveforms revealed a larger negative wave peaking at about 170ms over the left than the right hemisphere only in controls; a negative displacement (N450) at parietal sites for positive and negative words only for persons with MDD; in both groups, processing negative and positive words was associated with a positive displacement that peaked at about 450ms and was larger over the left lateral frontal region; and, the N450 modulation correlated with negative automatic thinking and depressive symptoms. Conclusions: The electrophysiological data reveal early changes in neural activity associated with word processing as well as valence-related changes in the N450 component at parietal sites in MDD. Significance: This valence-related increase in N450 amplitude at parietal sites may reflect an automatic capture of attention by words with emotional valence. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Several lines of evidence have highlighted the role of the serotonergic system in working memory (WM) processes. The X-linked Mono-Amine Oxidase A (MAO A) gene, coding for an enzyme especially involved in the serotonin (5-HT) catabolism, presents a well-characterized functional polymorphism consisting in a variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) in the promoter region with high activity and low activity variants. The high activity allele carriers have been associated with higher enzyme expression, lower amine concentration and altered prefrontal cortex (PFC) function during motor inhibition, but a direct effect of MAO A genotype on WM-related brain activity has not been demonstrated. We have studied the relationship of this polymorphism to brain activity elicited by a spatial working memory task (n-back) using blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging in 30 healthy male individuals matched for a series of demographic and genetic variables (COMT Val108/158Met). We show that the high activity allele was significantly (p-level<0,001) associated with increased activity of the right ventro-lateral PFC (VLPFC, BA 47) during the high load condition of the n-back task. Our data reveal pronounced genotype-related functional changes in specific prefrontal region (VLPFC) subserving spatial working memory. Moreover, given the well-known role of this area in inhibitory control, our finding also provides new evidence for the involvement of 5-HT in PFC-mediated WM function. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Studies examining negative priming in dissociative identity disorder (DID) using the flanker task have reported emotional context effects. Significant negative priming is evident when individuals with DID are assessed in a context deemed emotionally neutral, while in contexts designed to elevate anxiety, DID samples display reduced negative priming. Limitations and considerations are discussed around statistical power, generalizability and reliability, and the use of diagnostic groups over specific clinical symptoms. The negative priming findings in this growing body of work have been interpreted with reference to the functioning of cognitive inhibitory mechanisms. Explored is how the episodic retrieval account of negative priming, with its reliance on memory mechanisms, could account for the DID findings. Encoding and retrieval possibilities are discussed and it is concluded that a failure to encode the prime trial distractor stimulus, in contexts of heightened anxiety, could explain the experimental findings from an episodic retrieval perspective. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This research examines the role of cognitive inhibition in individual differences in need for cognitive closure. It was expected that cognitive inhibition is related to need for closure and its four facets (preference for order, predictability, intolerance of ambiguity and closed-mindedness) (Experiment 1). It was also assumed that under cognitive load, high need for closure participants would show an increased level of inhibition to compare to the low need for closure ones (Experiment 2). Across these experiments, individual differences in need for closure correspond to the ability to handle irrelevant information efficiently; that individuals scored high (vs. low) in need for closure revealed this process more strongly, also in a more cognitively demanding condition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Reduced working memory capacity seems to characterize the memory system of individuals from the schizophrenia spectrum. A probabilistic category learning task was designed in order to empirically test the hypothesis that deficient inhibitory control over the contents of working memory may be a fundamental cognitive abnormality of psychometrically identified schizotypal individuals. Two groups of participants were recruited on the basis of their responses on scales measuring psychotic-like experiences in a self-report schizotypy questionnaire. Simple stimuli were presented visually, and participants were instructed to glean the strength of the connection between pairs of stimuli. The experimental task comprised several learning conditions which were designed to assess predictions derived from the inhibition-deficit hypothesis. Working memory-dependent and working memory-independent task conditions allowed to examine the specificity of the putative inhibition deficit. The subjective strength of connections between pairs of stimuli was doubly dissociated as a function of schizotypy (low scorers, high scorers) and learning condition (discriminative, non-discriminative), but only when there was a delay between the to-be-associated stimuli, i.e. when the task was working memory-dependent. The pattern of results is consistent with the inhibition-deficit hypothesis which conjectures that the flow of information through short-term memory features one serious flaw in individuals from the schizophrenia spectrum, namely the occurrence of mnemonic intrusions from long-term memory into working memory. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Eppendorf Schizophrenia Inventory (ESI) is a new clinical questionnaire designed to measure schizophrenia-specific subjective experiences. Our study evaluated the suitability of the ESI for schizotypy research by comparison with several well-established schizotypy scales. A factor analysis with the data of N =159 healthy adults including ESI, Schizotypal Personality Scale (STA), Perceptual Aberration Scale (PAS), Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), and Schizotypal Personality Inventory yielded six factors which could be interpreted as positve, negative, and disorganized schizotypy, magical thinking, social anxiety, and psychotic experiences (PSY). PSY consisted of ESI, PAS, STA, and the SPQ subscale of Unusual Perceptual Experiences. Only PSY correlated with cognitive inhibition; only PSY and disorganized schizotypy correlated with mixed-handedness. The results suggest the ESI to be a promising additional method for schizotypy studies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: The present study is aimed to examine the neuronal correlates of Stroop interference in medication-free patients with major depressive disorder. Methods: Sixteen patients fulfilling Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) criteria for unipolar depression and 16 healthy control subjects matched for age, gender, and education were included. All subjects underwent an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design with an adapted version of the Stroop task including congruent and incongruent task conditions. The fMRI experiment was conducted on a 1.5 T magnetic resonance (MR) scanner, and item responses were given manually by the subjects. Results: With regard to behavioral performance, patients revealed no differences in both reaction time and accuracy relative to control subjects. With regard to brain activations, direct comparison of patients with control subjects in the interference condition revealed hyperactivity in rostral anterior cingulate gyrus (rACG) and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in depressive patients, which correlated strongly with the Stroop interference. Conclusions: The study provides new evidence for the functioning and dissociation of the anterior cingulate in depressed patients. The greater prefrontal activation may reflect a cortical inefficiency due to hyperactivity in rACG enhancing the cognitive interferences from the emotional state. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Using an experimentally based, computer-presented task, this study assessed cognitive inhibition and interference in individuals from the dissociative identity disorder (DID; ), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; ) and non-clinical () populations. Participants were assessed in a neutral and emotionally negative (anxiety provoking) context, manipulated by experimental instructions and word stimuli. The DID sample displayed effective cognitive inhibition in the neutral but not the anxious context. The GAD sample displayed the opposite findings. However, the interaction between group and context failed to reach significance. There was no indication of an attentional bias to non-schema specific negative words in any sample. Results are discussed in terms of the potential benefit of weakened cognitive inhibition during anxious arousal in dissociative individuals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Background: this study explored the longitudinal course of the relationship between delusions and different aspects of cognitive functioning. Methods: deluded patients were compared to psychiatric and non-clinical controls on three tasks: negative priming, a probabilistic judgement task (the ‘beads’ task), and the pragmatic inference task (PIT). All groups were tested at two time points, once when actively symptomatic, and once when in remission. Results: deluded individuals exhibited a ‘jump-to-conclusions’ (JTC) reasoning bias: i.e., they made decisions on the basis of limited evidence and were more likely to revise their estimates when faced with disconfirmatory evidence. This JTC bias remained stable over time, although probability judgments seemed to normalise in remission. No deficits in cognitive inhibition were found on negative priming. The deluded group displayed an excessive self-focus on the PIT at both time points, but did not show a depressive attributional style. Only a small sub-sample, characterised by the “bad-me” type of paranoia [Trower & Chadwick, 1995 Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 2, 263–278.], demonstrated depressive schemas when symptomatic, but no longer did so when remitted. Few relationships were found between tasks, suggesting that different areas of functioning are relatively independent. The only measures associated with delusion symptom scores were from the ‘beads’ task. Conclusions: overall these findings suggest that the JTC bias is a stable factor associated with delusional thinking, while the depressive attributional style characteristic of a small sub-sample of paranoid patients fluctuates with delusional course. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Event-related brain potential (ERP) correlates of the negative priming (NP) effect were studied in this experiment. One task required responses to targets which were or were not distractors in the preceding trial (identity priming); in the other task, the location of the distractor in the preceding trial was or was not the same as the location of the actual target (location priming). Whereas both tasks were associated with reaction time increases for negative priming, we obtained differential effects for ERP data. The parieto-occipital P1–N1 amplitude was reduced and P3 latency was delayed in response to location NP targets. No such effects were found for identity NP. The P3 amplitude was significantly larger after identity NP but not after location NP targets. It was concluded that location NP appears to be related to the early inhibition of sensory processing and to a slowing of the stimulus evaluation process. No ERP indications of inhibitory mechanisms were found with the identity NP task. The larger P3 amplitudes in the identity priming task may indicate increased attentional resources that are necessary for the processing of NP targets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cognitive inhibition was investigated in 21 trichotillomania (TTM), 21 obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and 26 healthy control (HC) participants using a block cued directed forgetting task. After encoding a word list, participants were instructed to intentionally FORGET these words and to REMEMBER another word list. Both lists included TTM-related and neutral (kitchen-related) words in equal proportions, with the TTM-related words generally of negative valence and the kitchen-related words generally of neutral valence for all participants. A superior free recall of REMEMBER versus FORGET words suggests intact cognitive inhibition. The performance of OCD participants indicated a specific deficit in inhibiting the retrieval of information with negative valence, which was not found in TTM. HC participants, in contrast to TTM and OCD participants, were rather inattentive to negative information. En conclusion, although attention was disproportionateiy directed towards negative information in both disorders, cognitive inhibition deficits appeared specific to OCD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the cognitive deficits associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder has highlighted deficits in executive function in individuals with the disorder. This article suggests deconstructing the umbrella term “executive function” and focuses on one of its component processes: cognitive inhibition. Cognitive developmental psychology research suggests that component processes, such as cognitive inhibition, should be examined from a variety of approaches to fully appreciate patterns of competency and deficit. This article contrasts cognitive inhibition from behavioral inhibition and resistance to interference. Two types of cognitive inhibition, automatic and intentional, are proposed. Finally, suggestions for guiding research design are taken from the cognitive developmental psychology literature. These include studying very limited age ranges and conducting longitudinal research, investigating qualitative and quantitative differences in performance, examining the underlying processing and strategy differences between populations, and investigating multiple aspects of performance between populations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In light of previous research, the current study tested the hypothesis that dissociative identity disorder (DID) would be characterised by effective cognitive inhibitory functioning when tested in a neutral context, but weakened inhibition when tested in an emotionally negative context. Using a negative priming task (i.e. the flanker task) to assess inhibitory ability 11 DID, 11 depressed, and 11 general population participants were tested in the two differing experimental contexts. The contexts were manipulated by instructions and word stimuli, and following the completion of this task participants completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale and the Schizotypal Personality Scale. DID participants displayed a greater degree of self-reported anxiety in the negative context and as expected displayed a reduction in inhibition in this context but not in the neutral context. The degree of negative priming for the depressed and general population samples remained stable across contexts as did their anxiety levels. The DID sample displayed slower response times to negative compared to neutral words but this attentional bias was not evident for the two comparison groups. The relationship between increased arousal, inhibitory functioning, dissociation and information processing in DID is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present manuscript reviewed studies investigating biases and deficits in memory and attention related to Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Although the research has been mixed concerning memory for verbal information, there is more consistent evidence suggesting impairment for non-verbal information, particularly for complex visual stimuli and the individual’s own actions. Further, a number of studies indicate that patients with OCD report less confidence in their judgments about recognition memory. Finally, OCD appears to be associated with an attentional bias favoring threatening information, as well as reduced levels of cognitive inhibition. The manuscript concludes with a number of recommendations for future research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]