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Children and adolescents with Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) have been described as having specific memory abilities and emotional reactivity. Although it is well established in the literature that emotion can enhance memory, no such studies have been undertaken in individuals with WBS. In three experiments, the present study tested whether the negative or positive emotional valence of stimuli can influence verbal, visual and visuo-spatial memory by specifically evaluating two memory components: item and associative memory. Sixteen 8- to 18-year-old individuals with WBS performed the first two experiments and, among them, twelve participated in the third. They were compared to equivalent groups of typically developing control children. Participants completed intentional-encoding tasks followed by immediate item recognition, associative recall or item recall tasks. Event-related potential measures during encoding and recognition of pictures were also added in the third experiment. Results demonstrated, for the first time, effects of emotions on visual item memory and visuo-spatial associative memory in individuals with WBS, that were similar to those observed in typically developing children. By combining behavioral and neural measures, our study provides new knowledge of the interaction between emotion and memory in WBS individuals, which seems to be unaffected by their atypical development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In high-functioning autism, deficits in emotional processing and theory of mind are relevant to understanding the particularities of social functioning. Here we used a multiple baseline and ABA single-case design to assess the efficacy of an individualized social cognitive training program using both pen-and-paper and computerized materials for an 18-year old patient. After the treatment phase, we found significant improvement in both emotional processes and theory of mind. These results provide further significant data showing that therapeutic tools based on digital relational simulation are a promising way for helping people with autism to compensate for their impaired social functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia mainly affect memory, attention and executive functions. Cognitive remediation is a technique derived from neuropsychology, which aims to improve or compensate for these deficits. Working memory, verbal learning, and executive functions are crucial factors for functional outcome. Our purpose was to assess the impact of the cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) program on cognitive difficulties in patients with schizophrenia, especially on working memory, verbal memory, and cognitive flexibility. Methods: We collected data from clinical and neuropsychological assessments in 24 patients suffering from schizophrenia ( Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental Disorders-Fourth Edition, DSM-IV) who followed a 3-month (CRT) program. Verbal and visuo-spatial working memory, verbal memory, and cognitive flexibility were assessed before and after CRT. Results: The Wilcoxon test showed significant improvements on the backward digit span, on the visual working memory span, on verbal memory and on flexibility. Cognitive improvement was substantial when baseline performance was low, independently from clinical benefit. Conclusions: CRT is effective on crucial cognitive domains and provides a huge benefit for patients having low baseline performance. Such cognitive amelioration appears highly promising for improving the outcome in cognitively impaired patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction.Many studies have shown that recollection process is impaired in patients with schizophrenia, whereas familiarity is generally spared. However, in these studies, the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) presented is average ROC likely to mask individual differences. Methods.In the present study using a face-recognition task, we computed the individual ROC of patients with schizophrenia and control participants. Each group was divided into two subgroups on the basis of the type of recognition processes implemented: recognition based on familiarity only and recognition based on familiarity and recollection. Results.The recognition performance of the schizophrenia patients was below that of the control participants only when recognition was based solely on familiarity. For the familiarity-alone patients, the score obtained on the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) was correlated with the variance of the old-face familiarity. For the familiarity-recollection patients, the score obtained on the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) was correlated with the decision criterion and with the old-face recollection probability. Conclusions.These results show that one cannot ascribe the impaired recognition observed in patients with schizophrenia to a recollection deficit alone. These results show that individual ROC can be used to distinguish between subtypes of schizophrenia and could serve as a basis for setting up specific cognitive remediation therapy for individuals with schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobus is a cognitive orthotic designed for people with difficulties managing Activities of Daily Living (ADL), as encountered in schizophrenia. It provides a schedule manager as well as the possibility to report occurrences of symptomatic experiences. Receiving this information by Internet, caregivers can assist the patient rehabilitation process. Our aim was to explore the use and satisfaction of Mobus by people with schizophrenia. Nine outpatients tested Mobus for 6 weeks. Indicators of cognitive functioning and autonomy were measured with the CAmbridge Neuropsychological Tests Automated Battery (CANTAB) and the Independant Living Skills Scale (ILSS). On average, 42.6% of the planned ADL were validated and more than 1 symptom per week were reported. Mainly because of technical breakdown, more than 50% of the outpatients evaluated the Mobus satisfaction below 1.7/5, nevertheless 3 participants appreciated it greatly. Some enhancements were found on subscales of CANTAB and ILSS and some participants reported that they acquired planning skills by using Mobus. To ensure ease of use, refinements are needed from rehabilitation and technical approaches, especially to personalize the device. Discussions on ethical and methodological issues lead to an improved version of Mobus that will be tested with a larger sample size. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction. The aim of the present study was to explore the basis of the strong feeling of conviction and the high resistance to change characteristic of delusions and to test whether patients with schizophrenia suffering from delusions have specific metacognitive impairments when compared to both patients without delusions and healthy controls. Methods. 14 actively delusional patients with schizophrenia, 14 nondelusional patients, and 14 healthy subjects were administered two measures assessing different aspects of metacognition: an emotional metacognitive version of the WCST adapted from Koren et al. (2004) and the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale. Results. Relative to both healthy controls and nondelusional patients, delusional participants were specifically impaired on metacognitive measures of free choice improvement and global monitoring. This was correlated with high self-certainty on the BCIS relative to nondelusional patients. Conclusions. Our results suggest that metacognitive impairments play an important role in the maintenance of delusional beliefs. It may therefore be important to adapt remediation strategies to the metacognitive profiles of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cognitive remediation is a type of treatment added recently to the range of tools available to therapists. It includes a number of miscellaneous methods that aim to correct some of the cognitive impairments observed in schizophrenia. These cover the fields of target attention, memory and executive deficits, as well as impaired social cognition. Cognitive remediation acts as a complement to medication and psychological therapies, which constitute the core methods of treatment for schizophrenia. The present paper reviews the state of the art in cognitive remediation. The principle underlying this innovative therapeutic approach is the enhancement of the cognitive resources of patients with schizophrenia in order to improve their cognitive functions, social skills and in some cases alleviate some of the symptoms of the disease. Several programs developed within the past two decades (e.g., IPT, CRT, NEAR, CET, NET, CRT and CAT) are becoming more widely used. Their efficacy on neurocognition and on functional outcome has been demonstrated, with inconstant continuation of benefit after completion of treatment. The sustainability of the cognitive and functional improvements following completion of these programs has to be further studied. Other programs aimed at acting upon altered social cognition (one of the critical facets of schizophrenia) are still in the experimental stages, but the results obtained so far are encouraging. A preliminary study has also demonstrated the effectiveness of board games in improving cognitive functioning, which seems to be a highly promising therapeutic avenue owing to its ease of use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Previous studies show that patients with schizophrenia have a deficit in facial emotion recognition. In the framework of emotion categorisation theories, the purpose of the present study was to test if this impairment could result from abnormal boundaries between emotions (whether these boundaries are shifted along continuums or are less sharpened). Method. Twenty-six schizophrenic patients and the same number of healthy participants were required to perform a facial emotion recognition task and an emotion categorisation task with different emotion intensities obtained using morphing techniques. Results. The main results indicate that schizophrenic patients exhibited an emotion space with less sharpened categories which favoured confusion between different emotions and intrusions of other emotions. Moreover, correlations between different indices showed that the less sharpened the categories, the more frequent the intrusions and the less discriminable the facial emotions. Conclusion. We conclude that patients with schizophrenia process facial expressions in a less categorical way which involves impaired recognition of facial expressions. Such a specific impairment may favour false perceptions and lead to the settlement of delusional ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: One established line of research has suggested that frontal cortical dysfunction is involved in generating the pathophysiology underlying schizophrenia. Consequently it is predicted patients with schizophrenia will be impaired on tasks measuring executive functions. Methods: Using a set of multicomponent tasks that segregated various information processes used action planning, we assessed the ability to generate action knowledge and construct a plan of action in a group of 17 schizophrenic patients. The study consisted in two experiments: an action generation task and an action ordering task. Their performance was compared with those of a sample of 10 patients with frontal lobe lesions and of 16 normal control subjects. Results: Schizophrenic patients were significantly worse than normal subjects and frontal lobe patients in the semantic retrieval of action knowledge. Similar to frontal lobe lesions patients, they encountered difficulties in action sequencing and in setting priorities among the action events with regard to the stated goal. Interestingly, schizophrenic patients' impairment in organising a plan of action increased when distracters or novel situations were presented. Conclusions: Although the pattern of executive impairments observed in the schizophrenic patients are similar to those reported for patients with frontal lesions, the conditions under which the impairments occurred are different. The present study indicates that multiple functionally dissociable processes may contribute to action planning disorganisation in schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a challenge to understand schizophrenia cognitive deficits in terms of a common unifying hypothesis (i.e., context-processing deficit). We suggest that analysis of a low level of cognition, such as the natural tendency to adapt pointing movement time to the task difficulty, could provide the basis for understanding higher level processing, in the sense of context processing. In the present study, three-dimensional visually guided pointing movements were compared among patients with schizophrenia and healthy control subjects. Seventeen patients with schizophrenia and 13 controls, all right-handed, performed pointing movements on adversely sized targets displayed on a touch-screen. Results showed that, under this experimental procedure, the speed/accuracy trade-off was respected by the two groups, in that controls and patients achieved a constant level of precision whereas they increased reaction time and movement time when target size decreased. In addition, we provide a measurement of the pointing impact pressure, that is also affected by the target size in both groups. Our results suggest that schizophrenic patients did not exhibit a deficit in processing simple intrinsic context (target size) for the control of simple action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]