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This study aimed to assess the neurocognitive outcomes and their diffusion tensor imaging correlates in children (aged 6-16 years) with mild traumatic brain injury. This prospective analysis included 74 children with mild traumatic brain injury (52 boys; mean age: 9.5 [±2.7] years). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Indian adaptation (WISC-IV), Child Behavior Checklist, and Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire were administered for 57 cases (at 3 months postinjury) and 51 controls of similar age. The findings of diffusion tensor imaging (done within 7 days of injury) were correlated with various WISC-IV indices. The presenting features at the time of injury were loss of consciousness (53%), confusion or disorientation (47%), and post-traumatic amnesia (10%). Other features in the acute phase included drowsiness (86%), headache (78%), balance problems (62%), nausea (47%), fatigue (45%), vomiting (35%), nasal or ear bleed (12%), sensitivity to sound and light (12%), etc. At 3 months postinjury, the children with mild traumatic brain injury performed poorly in terms of Intelligence Quotient, perceptual reasoning index, and processing speed index as compared to controls. Based on the Child Behavior Checklist, 17% of children with mild traumatic brain injury had internalizing behavioral problems in comparison with 4% of controls. Prevalence of poor sleepers in the mild traumatic brain injury cohort and controls was 12.3% and 2% respectively. Headache, reduced attention span, and fatigue were common postconcussion symptoms. There was a positive correlation between right uncinate fasciculus fractional anisotropy and verbal comprehension index ( r = 0.32; P < .05).

Background: Individuals with Down syndrome generally show a floor effect on Wechsler Scales that is manifested by flat profiles and with many or all of the weighted scores on the subtests equal to 1., Method: The main aim of the present paper is to use the statistical Hessl method and the extended statistical method of Orsini, Pezzuti and Hulbert with a sample of individuals with Down syndrome (n = 128; 72 boys and 56 girls), to underline the variability of performance on Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition subtests and indices, highlighting any strengths and weaknesses of this population that otherwise appear to be flattened., Results: Based on results using traditional transformation of raw scores into weighted scores, a very high percentage of subtests with weighted score of 1 occurred in the Down syndrome sample, with a floor effect and without any statistically significant difference between four core Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition indices. The results, using traditional transformation, confirm a deep cognitive impairment of those with Down syndrome. Conversely, using the new statistical method, it is immediately apparent that the variability of the scores, both on subtests and indices, is wider with respect to the traditional method., Conclusion: Children with Down syndrome show a greater ability in the Verbal Comprehension Index than in the Working Memory Index., (© 2018 MENCAP and International Association of the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Individual differences in attentional control involve the ability to voluntarily direct, shift, and sustain attention. In studies of the role of attentional control in emotional adjustment, social relationships, and vulnerability to the effects of stress, self-report questionnaires are commonly used to measure this construct. Yet, convincing evidence of the association between self-report scales and actual cognitive performance has not been demonstrated. Across 2 independent samples, we examined associations between self-reported attentional control (Attentional Control Scale; ACS), self-reported emotional adjustment, Five-Factor Model personality traits (NEO Personality Inventory-Revised) and performance measures of attentional control. Study 1 examined behavioral performance on the Attention Network Test (ANT; Fan, McCandliss, Sommer, Raz, & Posner, 2002) and the Modified Switching Task (MST; Suchy & Kosson, 2006) in a large sample (n = 315) of healthy young adults. Study 2 (n = 78) examined behavioral performance on standardized neuropsychological tests of attention, including Conner's Continuous Performance Test-II and subtests from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales, Third Edition (WAIS-III; Psychological Corporation, 1997) and Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS; Delis, Kaplan, & Kramer, 2001). Results indicated that the ACS was largely unrelated to behavioral performance measures of attentional control but was significantly associated with emotional adjustment, neuroticism, and conscientiousness. These findings suggest that although self-reported attentional control may be a useful construct, researchers using the ACS should exercise caution in interpreting it as a proxy for actual cognitive ability or performance. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).)

Cognitive impairment among seriously mentally ill offenders has implications for legal matters (e.g., competency to stand trial), as well as clinical treatment and care. Thus, being able to identify potential cognitive concerns early in the adjudication process can be important when deciding on further interventions. In this study, we examined the validity scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), scores on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV), and competency findings in male inmates (n=61) diagnosed with a serious mental illness. Lower scores on the WAIS-IV significantly (p=0.001) predicted invalid, versus valid, PAI profiles, with working memory impairment being the most significant (p=0.004) predictor of an invalid profile. Ancillary analyses on a smaller sample (n=18) indicate that those with invalid PAI profiles were more likely to be deemed legally incompetent (p=0.03). These findings suggest that the PAI validity scales may be informative in detecting cognitive concerns and help clinicians make determinations about competency restoration and treatment., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: In pediatric epilepsy, comorbidities are reported to be frequent. The present study focusedon the cognitive patterns of children with isolated epilepsy, children with isolated neurodevelopmental disorders (reading disorders, math disorders, autism spectrum disorders), and children with epilepsy and these neurodevelopmental disorders as comorbidities., Methods: Based on two samples of referred children, one with epilepsy, reading disorders, math disorders, or ASDs occurring in "isolation" (n=117) and one with reading disorders, math disorders, and ASDs occurring comorbid with epilepsy (n=171), cognitive patterns were compared. The patterns displayed by verbal and nonverbal abilities from the WISC series were studied with repeated measures ANOVA. Thereafter, an exploratory 2∗3∗2 factorial analysis was done to study the independent contribution of the type of comorbidity and of the presence or absence of epilepsy to the VIQ-PIQ pattern., Results: In isolated epilepsy, a VIQ>PIQ pattern was found, which was not seen in the other disorders. When epilepsy and another disorder co-occurred, patterns were altered. They resembled partly the pattern seen in isolated epilepsy and partly the pattern seen in the isolated neurodevelopmental disorder. In comorbid reading disorders, the VIQ>PIQ pattern was mitigated; in comorbid math disorders, it was exacerbated. In comorbid ASDs, no clear pattern emerged. In the presence of epilepsy, patterns characteristic of isolated disorders appeared systematically shifted toward relatively lowered performance abilities or relatively spared verbal abilities. The similar "impact" exerted by epilepsy on the patterns of the various conditions suggested shared mechanisms., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Cognitive Profiles of Preschool Children with Developmental Coordination Disorders and ADHD Studies confirm that developmental coordination disorders (DCD) are often accompanied by ADHD. It is important to know why children with combined disorders show a special profile in a common intelligence test (WPPSI-III). For this purpose, the WPPSI-III results of a total of 125 children aged five to six years with diagnosed isolated DCD, isolated ADHD, combined disorders and a normative sample were compared. Children with isolated ADHD showed the best cognitive profile. Children of all three diagnosis subgroups presented significantly poorer abilities in all WPPSI-III scales than the normative sample. In comparison with preschoolers showing isolated ADHD, children with DCD and ADHD have a significant lower Processing Speed Quotient.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with early disturbances in brain maturation processes and these interferences presumably have their consequences for the progressive emergence of cognitive deficits later in life, as expressed in intelligence profiles. In this study, we addressed the impact of age on cognitive functioning of 6- to 15-year-old children and adolescents with ASD. Intelligence profiles were measured by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and compared among four consecutive age cohorts (children aged 6.17-8.03 years, 8.04-9.61 years, and 9.68-11.50 years and adolescents aged 11.54-15.85 years) of 237 high-functioning boys with ASD. The results clearly demonstrated that the global intelligence level was lower in children aged 8 years and older, when compared with 6- and 7-year-old children with ASD. This is mostly due to the Freedom From Distractibility factor, suggesting that older children were less able to sustain their attention, they were more distractible, or had more graph motor difficulties. Moreover, an effect of age was also found with respect to the relatively poor performance on the subtest Comprehension when compared with other verbal comprehension subtests, indicating that specifically the impairments in verbal comprehension and social reasoning abilities were more profound in older children when compared with 6- and 7-year-old children with ASD. Findings of this cross-sectional study showed that it is relevant to take age into account when evaluating the impact of cognitive impairments on intelligence in children with ASD, because the impact of these developmental disorders might be different at different ages., (© 2014 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

This study has examined the relationship between cognitive functions and self-reported symptoms in ADHD adults. Cognitive functions were investigated with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV) in N=113 ADHD adults. The severity of self-reported symptoms was based on a screening questionnaire (ADHS-E). Results indicated only weak correlations between self-reported ADHD symptoms and WAIS-IV performance. The ADHS-E scale "Emotion & Affect" accounted for a small but significant variance on most WAIS-IV indices and turned out to be the most important variable to explain performance. The findings suggest that concurrent and discrepant information contribute to a differentiated examination on adult ADHD and that both objective performance diagnostics and self-reports complement each other within the diagnostic process., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Cross-sectional studies suggest that cognitive deficits contribute to psychosocial impairment among individuals with mood disorders. However, studies examining whether cognition prospectively predicts psychosocial outcome are few, have used short follow-up periods, and have not demonstrated incremental validity (i.e., that cognition predicts future functioning even when controlling for baseline functioning). In a sample of 51 individuals with unipolar depression or bipolar disorder, we investigated whether attention/processing speed (APS) performance predicted social functioning 18 years later. Baseline APS predicted 18-year social functioning even after controlling for baseline social functioning and depressive symptoms, demonstrating incremental validity. Individuals with high baseline APS had stable social functioning over 18 years, whereas functioning deteriorated among those with low APS. This finding helps clarify the temporal order of cognitive and psychosocial deficits associated with mood disorders and suggests the clinical utility of cognitive measures in identifying those at risk of deterioration in social functioning.

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) has been used extensively to study impairment across a range of cognitive domains in schizophrenia. However, cognitive performance among those with the illness has yet to be examined using the newest edition of this measure. Hence, the current study aims first, to provide WAIS-IV normative data for Canadian individuals with schizophrenia of low average intelligence; second, to examine schizophrenia performance on all WAIS-IV subtest, index and general intelligence scores relative to healthy comparison subjects; and third, to revalidate the pattern of impairment identified in this clinical group using the WAIS-III, where processing speed (PS) was most affected, followed by working memory (WM), perceptual reasoning (PR) and verbal comprehension (VC). The WAIS-IV was administered to outpatients with schizophrenia and their performance compared with age, gender, and education matched controls. WAIS-IV schizophrenia performance data are provided. Analyses revealed significant impairment on several tasks, including the new Cancellation subtest and the VC supplemental subtest, Comprehension. At the index score level, group differences in PS were significantly larger than those observed in all other cognitive domains. Impairments were also observed in WM amid relatively preserved performance in VC, thereby confirming the pattern of impairment identified using the WAIS-III.

Objective: Evaluation of widely used tests for the assessment of cognitive abilities of adult psychiatric patients in German speaking countries by current psychometric standards., Methods: The German Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales (HAWIE, HAWIE-R, WIE), the Multiple Choice Vocabulary Test (MWT-B), the German adaption and revision of the Benton Visual Retention Test (BT; 10-Item version, 20-Item version), and the d2 Test of attention (Test d2, d2-C, d2-R) were evaluated. A systematic search for relevant psychometric test publications in German language journals and textbooks was carried out. Three evaluation criteri a were considered: 1) theoretical foundation, 2) availability of actual test norms, 3) usual psychometric test validity and reliability criteria., Results: The theoretical foundation of all of the psychological tests under review was found to be very weak. The norm values of some of the tests are outdated. Most of the psychological tests do not fulfill high quality standards of psychometric testing., Conclusions: The examined psychological tests for the assessment of cognitive abilities of psychiatric patients only partly conform to current standards of psychological testing. It is likely that the test results are of limited value. Misleading or even incorrect clinical evaluations might be a frequent outcome., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Objective and subjective assessments of changes in cognition after carotid endarterectomy (CEA) were compared between older patients (≥76 years old) and younger patients (<76 years old). Patients underwent subjective cognitive assessment by a neurosurgeon and the patient's next of kin, and neuropsychological testing (five parameters) before and after surgery. Of 37 older patients studied, 4 (11%), 28 (75%), and 5 (14%) patients were defined as having subjectively improved, unchanged, and impaired cognition, respectively, following surgery. Differences in test scores (postoperative test score - preoperative test score: Δ score) in all neuropsychological tests were significantly lower in the older patients than in the 213 younger patients. The Δ score was able to statistically differentiate older patients with subjectively improved, unchanged, and impaired cognition after surgery. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that the Δ score cut-off point for detecting subjective improvement (upper cut-off point) and impairment (lower cut-off point) in cognition after surgery in older patients was identical to the mean or the mean +0.5 standard deviation (SD) and the mean -1.5 SD or the mean -1 SD, respectively, of the control value obtained from normal subjects. The upper and lower cut-off points were lower and higher, respectively, than those in younger patients. In conclusion, although neuropsychological test scores reflect the subjective assessment of postoperative change in cognition in older patients, the optimal cut-off points for the test scores to detect subjective improvement and impairment in cognition after CEA are different in older patients compared with younger patients.

This study examined embedded performance validity indicators (PVI) based on the number of impaired scores in an evaluation and the overall test battery mean (OTBM). Adult participants (N = 175) reporting traumatic brain injury were grouped using eight PVI. Participants who passed all PVI (n = 67) demonstrated fewer impaired scores and higher OTBM than those who failed two or more PVI (n = 66). Impairment was defined at three levels: T scores < 40, 35, and 30. With specificity ≥.90, sensitivity ranged from .51 to .71 for number of impaired scores and .74 for OTBM.

Objective: This study investigated the cognitive skills in pervasive developmental disorders (PDD)., Methodology: Two groups of children participated in this study, 39 individuals with autism and 18 individuals with Asperger syndrome. Each participant was assessed by the Wechsler scales: WPPSI-III, WISC-III or WISC-IV., Results: Children with Asperger syndrome have VIQ more than PIQ and the children with autism have VIQ less than PIQ. The performances in "block design" task vary according to the cognitive level and not according to the PDD type. The high-functioning autistic children show high performance in "block design" task. Children with Asperger syndrome revealed impairments in the "understanding of social situations" task., Discussion: Individuals with autism have a verbal intelligence quotient lower than individuals with an Asperger syndrome. Several hypotheses have tried to explain verbal differences between children with autism and Asperger syndrome. A first hypothesis proposed a developmental convergence between these two groups. A second hypothesis suggested that communication and social interaction impairments could be implicated in verbal skills. A third hypothesis supported that individuals with Asperger syndrome could develop a specific cognitive style. Children with autism have spatial and perceptive capacities better than verbal capacities. These performances could be interpreted as the expression of a specific cognitive style based on the visual analysis of the detail., Conclusion: The low-functioning children with autism have a cognitive profile with PIQ more than VIQ and high skills in spatial organization. The high-level children with autism have a cognitive profile with PIQ more than VIQ and high skills in spatial abstraction. Children with Asperger syndrome have a profile VIQ more than PIQ profile, they are particularly good in verbal learning notably vocabulary., (Copyright © 2012 L’Encéphale, Paris. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Aim: Although the prognosis for rolandic epilepsy is regarded to be favourable, a small proportion of cases that initially present as rolandic epilepsy evolve into atypical benign partial epilepsy (ABPE) of childhood. The purpose of our study was to determine electroencephalogram (EEG) criteria in relation to atypical seizure manifestations, and cognitive and behavioural problems in rolandic epilepsy., Methods: The rolandic epilepsy group consisted of 10 children (mean age 5y 6mo, SD 1y 1mo, median age 5y 5mo; six males, four females). The ABPE group comprised five children (mean age 5y, SD 1y 2mo, median age 4y 5mo; three males, two females). We recorded the number of spikes, the locations of spikes, and the duration of the spike activity. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition or the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, depending on age, was administered to all children at the onset of seizures and every year thereafter. The diagnosis of attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder was made according to the DSM-IV., Results: Significant correlations were found between atypical clinical features and extended periods of high-frequency paroxysmal EEG abnormalities (>24mo after onset; p<0.01) and frontal EEG focus (>10mo after onset; p<0.003)., Interpretation: A combination of spike rate and extended periods of high-frequency paroxysmal EEG abnormalities may predict the evolution of atypical rolandic epilepsy., (© The Authors. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology © 2012 Mac Keith Press.)

Objective: To evaluate the longitudinal course and outcome of cognitive deficits and their clinical correlates in bipolar disorder., Method: One hundred thirteen participants (68 patients and 45 healthy controls) were assessed by the means of a neuropsychological battery targeting attention, psychomotor speed, verbal memory, and executive functions at baseline: 68 euthymic outpatients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of bipolar disorder (53 bipolar I and 15 bipolar II) were enrolled at the Bipolar Disorder Unit of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. Forty-five patients completed the follow-up. The assessments started in February 1999 and finished in July 2010. The primary outcome of the study was the change in the neuropsychological performance in the patient group., Results: Repeated-measures analyses showed significant effects of time in 2 cognitive domains: attention and executive functions. Attention slightly improved (P = .043) but executive function worsened (P = .001). Regression analyses showed that the duration of illness and baseline subdepressive symptoms were associated with poor performance in executive function. Subdepressive symptoms at endpoint were associated with poor functioning. The best predictor of low functioning was verbal memory dysfunction at baseline., Conclusions: The cognitive impairment remained stable across the follow-up period in many measures assessed except for a worsening of executive measures, which have been found to be associated with the duration of illness and subdepressive symptoms., (© Copyright 2012 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.)

Normal Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)-IV performance relative to average normative scores alone can be an oversimplification as this fails to recognize disparate subtest heterogeneity that occurs with increasing age. The purpose of the present study is to characterize the patterns of raw score change and associated variability on WAIS-IV subtests across age groupings. Raw WAIS-IV subtest means and standard deviations for each age group were tabulated from the WAIS-IV normative manual along with the coefficient of variation (CV), a measure of score dispersion calculated by dividing the standard deviation by the mean and multiplying by 100. The CV further informs the magnitude of variability represented by each standard deviation. Raw mean scores predictably decreased across age groups. Increased variability was noted in Perceptual Reasoning and Processing Speed Index subtests, as Block Design, Matrix Reasoning, Picture Completion, Symbol Search, and Coding had CV percentage increases ranging from 56% to 98%. In contrast, Working Memory and Verbal Comprehension subtests were more homogeneous with Digit Span, Comprehension, Information, and Similarities percentage of the mean increases ranging from 32% to 43%. Little change in the CV was noted on Cancellation, Arithmetic, Letter/Number Sequencing, Figure Weights, Visual Puzzles, and Vocabulary subtests (<14%). A thorough understanding of age-related subtest variability will help to identify test limitations as well as further our understanding of cognitive domains which remain relatively steady versus those which steadily decline.

Objective: A prospective study was performed to assess the relationship between the appearance of cerebral MRI at term and the cognitive functioning at 9 years old in very preterm born infants., Methods: Seventy-six very preterm born infants (birth weight <1500 g or gestational age ≤32 weeks) obtained cerebral MRI at term-equivalent period, which was assessed by using established composite scores for the white and gray matter; cognitive outcomes at 9 years old were assessed in 60 subjects by using Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Third Edition., Results: Mildly low scores on the different IQ indices (<85) were observed in 23.3% (verbal IQ), 41.7% (performance IQ), and 30.0% (full-scale IQ) of the cohort, whereas moderately low scores (<70) were noted in 3.3% (verbal IQ), 11.7% (performance IQ), and 11.7% (full-scale IQ); cerebral palsy was diagnosed in 10.0%, whereas special assistance at school was required in 56.7%. Abnormal white matter appearances predicted mildly low verbal, performance, and full-scale IQs; moderately low performance and full-scale IQs; cerebral palsy; and the requirement for special assistance at school. Abnormal white matter appearances predicted mild cognitive impairment even after the adjustment for known clinical risk factors. In contrast, abnormal gray matter appearances did not predict any of the outcome measures., Conclusions: In a cohort of very preterm born infants, abnormal white matter appearance on term MRI showed consistent associations with cognitive impairments at 9 years old, further supporting the benefit of obtaining term MRI for very preterm born infants.

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, 4th edition (WISC-IV) is often used to assess children with traumatic brain injury (TBI); although limited information is available regarding its psychometric properties in these children. Two recent reports suggest that the Perceptual Reasoning Index is not uniquely sensitive to TBI, which differs from the Perceptual Organization Index of the WISC-III. The current study examined WISC-IV profiles in two independently gathered samples of children with TBI. Examination of profiles indicated similarities between the current findings and those reported in other studies, in that the greatest deficits were present on the Processing Speed Index and its component subtests of Coding and Symbol Search, while the Perceptual Reasoning index score was comparable to the Verbal Comprehension Index. Also, no significant index or subtest score differences were present when the current sample was compared to the children with TBI reported by Allen, Thaler, Donohue and Mayfield (2010 ). The present findings are consistent with two prior studies of the WISC-IV in children with TBI, providing additional evidence for profile differences between the WISC-III and WISC-IV. The results also suggest that WISC-IV profiles reported in prior studies are generalizable across TBI samples and study sites.

Objective: The present study examined the concurrent validity of the Hamburg Wechsler Intelligenztest für Kinder - IV (HAWIK-IV; Petermann & Petermann, 2010) and the Intelligence and Development Scales (IDS; Grob, Meyer & Hagmann-von Arx, 2009)., Methods: HAWIK-IV and IDS were administered in counterbalanced order to N = 172 children aged 6 to 11 years. The study presents the descriptive statistics, correlations, and an exploratory factor analysis of the data., Results: There is a high correlation between HAWIK-IV Full Scale IQ and IDS intelligence score (r = .83). HAWIK-IV indices showed moderate to high correlations with the cognitive scales of the IDS (Cognition, Language, Mathematics). Low to absent correlations were found between HAWIK-IV indices and the noncognitive scales of the IDS (Social-Emotional Competence, Psychomotor, Achievement Motivation). The factor structure can be interpreted meaningfully and allows integration of the IDS cognitive, language, and mathematical subtests into the four HAWIK-IV indices., Conclusions: The results show that HAWIK-IV and IDS test results can be related to each other.

Objective: The terminal cognitive decline hypothesis has been debated for almost 50 years. This hypothesis implies a change in rate of decline within an individual. Therefore, we examine the hypothesis from a within-person perspective using a time to death chronological structure., Method: Scores on a Swedish version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Information and Block Design scores from 461 OCTO-Twin Study participants with confirmed death dates were modeled using quadratic growth curve models including both age and distance from death at study entry, sex, education, and dementia diagnosis as covariates of initial performance and of linear and quadratic change over time., Results: Information scores showed statistically significant evidence of slight within-person acceleration of declines in the no dementia group. Individuals with incident dementia declined more quickly, and those who were closer to death at study baseline had a stronger acceleration. Block Design scores declined but did not show evidence of such acceleration either within or across individuals. Decline was faster in incident cases closer to death at study entry., Discussion: Within-person evidence of terminal decline is not as strong as previously published between-person results. Strategies for focusing models on longitudinal aspects of available data and the extent to which lack of within-person evidence for terminal decline may stem from common data limitations are discussed.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate cognitive functions in patients undergoing extracranial-intracranial (EC-IC) bypass surgery for cerebral ischemia., Population and Methods: From August 2003 to January 2009, 276 patients with occluded internal carotid arteries (ICA) were screened. Forty of these met the criteria for a low-flow EC-IC bypass. These patients were identified based on evidence of exhausted vasomotor reactivity (VMR) using the Doppler CO(2) test and CT perfusion. These patients were invited to have a complete battery of neuropsychological tests preoperatively and 12 months after surgery. Complete neurocognitive testing was finished in 20 patients., Results: This group of 20 patients showed preoperative cognitive impairment ranging from mild to medium-severe. There were no cases of stroke ipsilateral to the operated side during the follow-up period. VMR improvement was seen in all patients within 6 months of surgery. A comparison using a paired t-test demonstrated significant improvement 12 months after surgery in the following neuropsychological tests: WAIS-R (p = 0.01), Number Collection Test (p = 0.02), Trail Making Test (p = 0.03), and Benton Visual Retention Test (p = 0.05). Repeat analysis of variance (ANOVA) suggested the following predictors associated with cognitive improvement:the presence of ophthalmic collateral flow (p = 0.04), preoperative amaurosis fugax (p = 0.02), and external watershed infarction detected by MRI (p = 0.04)., Conclusion: Patients with occlusion of the ICA and exhausted VMR have cognitive impairment prior to EC-IC bypass surgery. Twelve months after surgery, there is significant improvement in various areas of cognition.

Background: Recent neurodevelopmental models of schizophrenia, together with substantial evidence of neurocognitive dysfunction among people with schizophrenia, have led to a widespread view that general cognitive deficits are a central aspect of schizophrenic pathology. However, the temporal relationships between intellectual functioning and schizophrenia-spectrum illness remain unclear., Method: Longitudinal data from the Copenhagen High-Risk Project (CHRP) were used to evaluate the importance of intellectual functioning in the prediction of diagnostic and functional outcomes associated with the schizophrenia spectrum. The effect of spectrum illness on intellectual and educational performance was also evaluated. The sample consisted of 311 Danish participants: 99 at low risk, 155 at high risk, and 57 at super-high risk for schizophrenia. Participants were given intellectual [Weschler's Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)/Weschler's Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)] assessments at mean ages of 15 and 24 years, and diagnostic and functional assessments at mean ages 24 and 42 years., Results: Intellectual functioning was found to have no predictive relationship to later psychosis or spectrum personality, and minimal to no direct relationship to later measures of work/independent living, psychiatric treatment, and overall severity. No decline in intellectual functioning was associated with either psychosis or spectrum personality., Conclusions: These largely negative findings are discussed in the light of strong predictive relationships existing between genetic risk, diagnosis and functional outcomes. The pattern of predictive relationships suggests that overall cognitive functioning may play less of a role in schizophrenia-spectrum pathology than is widely believed, at least among populations with an evident family history of schizophrenia.

Examination of measurement invariance provides a powerful method to evaluate the hypothesis that the same set of psychological constructs underlies a set of test scores in different populations. If measurement invariance is observed, then the same psychological meaning can be ascribed to scores in both populations. In this study, the measurement model including core and supplementary subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth edition (WAIS-IV) were compared across the U.S. and Canadian standardization samples. Populations were compared on the 15 subtest version of the test in people aged 70 and younger and on the 12 subtest version in people aged 70 or older. Results indicated that a slightly modified version of the four-factor model reported in the WAIS-IV technical manual provided the best fit in both populations and in both age groups. The null hypothesis of measurement invariance across populations was not rejected, and the results provide direct evidence for the generalizability of convergent and discriminant validity studies with the WAIS-IV across populations. Small to medium differences in latent means favoring Canadians highlight the value of local norms.

Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN), at the stage of starvation and emaciation, is characterized by abnormalities in cognitive function, including memory performance. It is unclear whether memory impairment persists or is reversible following weight restoration, and whether memory function differs between AN subtypes. The aim of the present study was to investigate general memory performance in currently ill and fully weight-restored patients of different AN subtypes., Method: Memory performance was assessed using the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) in a total of 99 participants, including 34 restricting-type AN patients (AN-RESTR), 19 binge-eating/purging-type AN patients (AN-PURGE), 16 weight-restored AN patients (AN-W-R) and 30 healthy controls (CONTROL). Cognitive evaluation included a battery of standardized neuropsychological tasks for validating the findings on memory function., Results: Deficits were found with respect to immediate and delayed story recall in currently ill AN patients irrespective of AN subtype. These deficits persisted in weight-restored AN patients. Currently ill and weight-restored AN patients did not differ significantly from healthy controls with respect to working memory or other measures of neuropsychological functioning., Conclusions: The findings suggest that impaired memory performance is either a stable trait characteristic or a scar effect of chronic starvation that may play a role in the development and/or persistence of the disorder.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) with absent or reversed end-diastolic blood flow in the umbilical artery and very preterm birth on cognitive outcome at 5 to 8 years of age., Methods: We studied 34 children with IUGR born at a median of 26.9 gestational weeks (GWs) (range: 24-29 GWs) (PT-IUGR), 34 matched preterm appropriate-for-gestational age (PT-AGA) children, and 34 term AGA children (T-AGA) by using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and Brown's attention-deficit disorder (ADD) scales., Results: The PT-IUGR group had mean (SD) scores on the verbal IQ (VIQ) and full-scale IQ (FSIQ) of 83.8 (17.3) and 78.9 (16.6), respectively, compared with the PT-AGA group, which had scores of 96.0 (14.5) and 90.1 (14.2) (P = .003 and P < .007), and the T-AGA group, which had scores of 101.3 (12) and 102.9 (13.2) (P < .001 and P < 001), respectively. The VIQ difference remained significant after adjustment for parental level of education, gestational age at birth, and neonatal morbidity. Performance IQ (PIQ) did not differ between the PT-IUGR and PT-AGA groups; their mean PIQs were lower than that of the T-AGA group (P < .001). Boys in the PT-IUGR group scored lower than girls in VIQ and FSIQ (P = .005 and .007, respectively). Behavior and ADD scores did not differ between the preterm groups., Conclusions: Children born very preterm after IUGR have an increased risk for cognitive impairment at early school age compared with children delivered very preterm for other reasons. Differences in cognitive outcome were restricted to boys who may have been especially vulnerable to the influence of IUGR and very preterm birth.

Background: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between brain tumour location and core areas of cognitive and behavioural functioning for paediatric brain tumour survivors. The extant literature both supports and refutes an association between paediatric brain tumour location and neurocognitive outcomes. We examined neuropsychological test data to identify any differences in neurocognitive and behavioural profile associated with supratentorial versus infratentorial tumour location., Methods: Following Institutional Review Board approval, the medical records and neuropsychological test data collected between 1997 and 2002 for 70 children treated for brain tumour at Children's Hospital Los Angeles were reviewed. Fifty-one per cent of the participants had tumours located in the supratentorial regions of the brain, whereas 49% had infratentorial tumours. Primary medical treatments involved tumour resection (90%), cranial radiation therapy (76%), chemotherapy (71%), and 59% all three medical procedures. The two tumour location groups did not differ significantly in the cumulative treatment dose of irradiation to the tumour bed or in the dose delivered to the whole brain. Neuropsychological test data included measures of verbal and non-verbal intellectual functioning, attention/working memory, processing speed, verbal and visual memory, fine motor skills, visual-motor integration, academic achievement, and social-emotional functioning. Differences between the two groups were evaluated using anova, t-tests and chi-squared statistical tests., Results: The supratentorial and infratentorial tumour location groups did not differ on measures of intellectual functioning. However, survivors of infratentorial tumours performed more poorly on selected measures of more specific cognitive functions and on parent-report of social-emotional functioning relative to survivors of supratentorial tumours, even when age at diagnosis was held as a covariate. Higher frequency of auditory deficits was noted in the infratentorial tumour group and was associated with lowered academic achievement scores., Conclusions: The differences by location found in more specific neurocognitive and social-emotional variables, after controlling for age at diagnosis, may possibly reflect tumour location-specific effects. However, this interpretation remains tentative given the limitations in our study and inability to control for the range of medical and treatment-related factors that may have contributed towards the outcomes observed in our sample. At the same time, most of our findings appear consistent with reports from recent studies in this area., (© 2010 The Authors. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)

Purpose: To determine the long-term cognitive and educational outcomes in children prospectively identified at the time of a first unprovoked seizure., Methods: A cohort of children with a first unprovoked seizure was enrolled and followed for a mean of 15 years. Cognitive function and educational outcomes were determined 10 or more years after the first seizure via standardized neuropsychological tests, school records, and structured interviews. Children with symptomatic etiology were excluded from the analysis. When available, siblings of study subjects were recruited as normal controls. Primary educational outcome was defined as enrollment into special education services or grade repetition., Results: Twenty-eight percent of (43 of 153) of children with a single seizure and 40% (42 of 105) of children with epilepsy received special education service or repeated a grade (p = 0.05). There was a statistically significant trend in which the children with more seizures tended to require special education or repeat a grade more often (28% in single seizure group vs. 34% in 2-9 seizure group vs. 64% in ≥10 seizure group; p = 0.004). Of 163 subjects who completed neuropsychological testing, children with single seizures tended to score higher than children with epilepsy on Wide Range Achievement Test-3 (WRAT) reading (p = 0.08), Test of Non-Verbal Intelligence-II (TONI-II) (p = 0.02), and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)/Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) (p = 0.07). There was no statistically significant difference between children with a single seizure and sibling controls., Conclusion: The results suggest that children with a single seizure represent a group that is distinctly different from children with epilepsy and are more similar to sibling controls. In contrast, even children with very mild epilepsy have significantly worse educational outcomes., (Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2010 International League Against Epilepsy.)

Objectives: To examine the longitudinal association between decline in cognitive function and risk of elder self-neglect in a community-dwelling population., Design: Prospective population-based study., Setting: Geographically defined community in Chicago., Participants: Community-dwelling subjects reported to the social services agency from 1993 to 2005 for self-neglect who also participated in the Chicago Health Aging Project (CHAP). Of the 5,519 participants in CHAP, 1,017 were reported to social services agency for suspected elder self-neglect from 1993 to 2005., Measurements: Social services agency identified reported elder self-neglect. The primary predictor was decline in cognitive function assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (Executive Function), and immediate and delayed recall of the East Boston Memory Test (Episodic Memory). An index of global cognitive function scores was derived by averaging z-scores of all tests. Outcome of interest was elder self-neglect. Logistic and linear regression models were used to assess these longitudinal associations., Results: After adjusting for potential confounding factors, decline in global cognitive function, MMSE score, and episodic memory were not independently associated with greater risk of reported and confirmed elder self-neglect. Decline in executive function was associated with greater risk of reported and confirmed elder self-neglect. Decline in global cognitive function was associated with greater risk of greater self-neglect severity (parameter estimate=0.76, standard error=0.31, P=.01)., Conclusion: Decline in executive function was associated with risk of reported and confirmed elder self-neglect. Decline in global cognitive function was associated with risk of greater self-neglect severity., (© 2010, Copyright the Authors. Journal compilation © 2010, The American Geriatrics Society.)

The issue of neurodegeneration in schizophrenia is controversial. Although most studies indicate that neurocognitive deficits are relatively stable over the course of the illness, conclusions are limited by relatively short follow-up periods and absence of age-matched control groups. Furthermore, nearly all studies deal with adult-onset schizophrenia, and few studies have considered the possible effect of age of onset. The current study represents the first attempt to compare groups of adolescents with schizophrenia, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and normal controls on a comprehensive neurocognitive test battery in a longitudinal design over 13 years. In the baseline study, adolescents with schizophrenia were examined with a broad battery of neurocognitive tests. The comparison groups consisted of adolescents with ADHD and adolescents without a psychiatric diagnosis, between 12 and 18 years of age. In the follow-up study, the schizophrenia group consisted of 15 of the initial 19 individuals, the ADHD group of 19 of the 20 individuals, and the normal comparison group of all 30 individuals. They were reevaluated with the neurocognitive test battery and clinical measures. Subjects with schizophrenia showed a significant decline or arrest in neurocognitive functioning compared with the other 2 groups, particularly in verbal memory, attention, and processing speed. The impairments may be specific to early-onset schizophrenia due to interaction between ongoing brain maturation during adolescence and disease-related mechanisms and/or secondary to neuroleptic treatment in young age and/or social isolation.

Verbal fluency is impaired in patients with schizophrenia, but the association with other cognitive domains remains unclear. Forty-seven patients with schizophrenia (DSM-IV) and 47 controls matched by age, gender, years of education, and vocabulary (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III) were assessed in terms of sociodemographic, clinical, and cognitive variables. Healthy controls performed significantly better than patients with schizophrenia in all cognitive measures. However, the way these cognitive domains were related differed across groups. Semantic fluency (SF) and phonological fluency (PF) were predicted by working memory (WM) in patients with schizophrenia, whereas the predictor in the healthy controls was processing speed (PS). Moreover, after dividing the sample of patients according to their performance on fluency tests, we found that a worse performance on SF or PF was predicted by WM. However, for patients with a better performance on fluency, the pattern was similar to that of healthy controls. Cognition may show a different pattern of interaction in schizophrenia, with less impaired patients showing a closer pattern to healthy controls. Therefore, we suggest that, depending on the severity of cognitive deficits, performance on neuropsychological tests may not reflect the same underlying mechanisms.

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV; D. Wechsler, 2003a) is often utilized to assess children with traumatic brain injury (TBI), although little information is available regarding its psychometric properties in these children. The current study examined WISC-IV performance in a sample of 61 children with TBI. As compared to the standardization sample, results indicated that the TBI group exhibited relative deficits on all subtest and index scores, with the greatest deficits on the Processing Speed Index (PSI) and Coding subtest scores. However, the Perceptual Reasoning Index score was not uniquely sensitive to brain injury, and the Cognitive Processing Index score was less sensitive to TBI than the PSI score. Also, the PSI did not uniquely predict learning and memory abilities, as had been reported in previous studies of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III; D. Wechsler, 1991). The present findings indicate substantive differences between the WISC-III and WISC-IV profiles of children with TBI., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.)

Studies commonly report poor performance in psychotic patients compared with controls on tasks testing a range of cognitive functions, but, because current IQ is often not matched between these groups, it is difficult to determine whether this represents a generalized deficit or specific abnormalities. Fifty-three first-episode psychosis patients and 53 healthy controls, one-to-one matched for sex, age, and full-scale current IQ, were compared on Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) subtests representing indices of perceptual organization, verbal comprehension, processing speed, and working memory as well as other tests of executive function and episodic memory. The groups showed an equivalent pattern of performance on all WAIS subtests except digit symbol processing speed, on which the patients were significantly worse. Patients were also worse on measures where performance correlated with digit symbol score, namely working and verbal memory tasks. Standardized residual scores for each subtest were calculated for each patient using the difference between their actual subtest score and a predicted subtest score based on their full-scale IQ and the performance of controls. Scaled scores and residual scores were examined for relationships with clinical measures. Digit symbol-scaled score was significantly correlated with concurrent negative syndrome score at baseline, and digit symbol residual score significantly predicted residual negative symptoms at 1-year follow-up. In summary, our comparison of patients and controls precisely matched for IQ revealed that processing speed was attenuated in recent-onset schizophrenia, contributed significantly to working and episodic memory deficits, and was a prognostic factor for poor outcome at 1 year.

Neuropsychological impairment represents a core characteristic of schizophrenia, but its underlying components have yet to be clearly established. Using a comprehensive battery of standardized measures of intelligence, declarative episodic memory, and executive function, we hypothesized that the variance in neuropsychological performance in schizophrenia may reflect at least 2 distinct sources related to failures of (a) the central executive division of working memory and (b) social comprehension. In comparison to age-matched controls, patients with schizophrenia showed not only overall reduced scores on Wechsler intelligence and memory scales and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) of executive function, but they also demonstrated different patterns of performance for each of these tests. Hierarchical regression revealed executive attentional control, measured by Trails B performance speed, and social comprehension, measured by Wechsler IQ Comprehension and Picture Arrangement subtests, each accounted for a unique and specific proportion of variance in test scores for the patient group, even when controlling for general intelligence. Failures in social comprehension and executive attentional control may account for distinct sources of variance in the neuropsychological impairment of schizophrenia.

Study Objectives: We studied the effects of sleep deprivation on executive functions using a task battery which included a modified Sternberg task, a probed recall task, and a phonemic verbal fluency task. These tasks were selected because they allow dissociation of some important executive processes from non-executive components of cognition., Design: Subjects were randomized to a total sleep deprivation condition or a control condition. Performance on the executive functions task battery was assessed at baseline, after 51 h of total sleep deprivation (or no sleep deprivation in the control group), and following 2 nights of recovery sleep, at fixed time of day (11:00). Performance was also measured repeatedly throughout the experiment on a control task battery, for which the effects of total sleep deprivation had been documented in previously published studies., Setting: Six consecutive days and nights in a controlled laboratory environment with continuous behavioral monitoring., Participants: Twenty-three healthy adults (age range 22-38 y; 11 women). Twelve subjects were randomized to the sleep deprivation condition; the others were controls., Results: Performance on the control task battery was considerably degraded during sleep deprivation. Overall performance on the modified Sternberg task also showed impairment during sleep deprivation, as compared to baseline and recovery and compared to controls. However, two dissociated components of executive functioning on this task--working memory scanning efficiency and resistance to proactive interference--were maintained at levels equivalent to baseline. On the probed recall task, resistance to proactive interference was also preserved. Executive aspects of performance on the phonemic verbal fluency task showed improvement during sleep deprivation, as did overall performance on this task., Conclusion: Sleep deprivation affected distinct components of cognitive processing differentially. Dissociated non-executive components of cognition in executive functions tasks were degraded by sleep deprivation, as was control task performance. However, the executive functions of working memory scanning efficiency and resistance to proactive interference were not significantly affected by sleep deprivation, nor were dissociated executive processes of phonemic verbal fluency performance. These results challenge the prevailing view that executive functions are especially vulnerable to sleep loss. Our findings also question the idea that impairment due to sleep deprivation is generic to cognitive processes subserved by attention.

Different studies confirm that children with developmental coordination disorders (DCD) feature additionally cognitive deficits in areas of visual perception, memory and processing speed. The aim of the present study was to explore, whether or not children suffering from DCD have specific performance profiles in the WISC-IV. For this purpose, the WISC-IV results of 40 children with DCD (diagnosed using the Movement ABC-2), mean age 7,60, were compared with a control group matched according to age und gender. The children in the clinical group offered a homogenous performance profile, scoring below average in each of the four indices (verbal comprehension, perception reasoning, working memory and processing speed) and general IQ. Therefore, in clinical practice the WISC-IV is an appropriate instrument to detect cognitive deficits that can appear in conjunction with DCD., (Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart * New York.)

Background: Patients with SAH often experience cognitive decline. Previous studies used normal volunteers, published normal test values, and orthopedic patients as controls to identify factors for postoperative cognitive decline. The present study excluded the effects of surgery by comparing cognitive function after surgical repair in patients with aneurysmal SAH and patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysm., Methods: This study recruited 117 patients with SAH due to ruptured aneurysm and 39 patients with incidentally found unruptured intracranial aneurysms. The cognitive test battery consisted of the Japanese translation of the WAIS-R, the Japanese translation of the WMS, and the recall trial of the ROCF. Postoperative neuropsychological test scores for the patients with SAH and control subjects were compared using group-rate and event-rate analysis. The relationship between clinical variable and postoperative cognitive decline in the patients with SAH was evaluated by univariate analysis using the Mann-Whitney U test or chi(2) test., Results: Group-rate analysis showed that the WAIS-R and ROCF scores were significantly lower in the SAH group than in the control group. Event-rate analysis demonstrated that the incidence of cognitive decline in the patients with SAH (73 [62.4%] of the 117 patients) was significantly higher than that in the control subjects (12 [30.8%] of 39 patients). The Hunt and Hess grade was significantly higher in patients with postoperative cognitive decline., Conclusion: The cognitive function after SAH was significantly correlated with Hunt and Hess grade on admission when using patients with postoperative unruptured intracranial aneurysm as the control group., (Copyright 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To investigate whether preterm children with low risk for neurodevelopmental deficits show long-term changes in gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volumes compared with term children and to relate these changes to cognitive outcome., Methods: MRI was used to evaluate 20 preterm children who were determined to be at low risk for neurodevelopmental deficits and were born between 30 and 34 weeks' gestational age without major neonatal morbidity or cerebral pathology in the neonatal period and 22 matched, term control subjects. Volumetric images were analyzed by means of voxel-based morphometry to identify regional cerebral alterations. Children also underwent cognitive and behavioral/emotional assessments., Results: Preterm children showed global and regional GM volume reductions in several brain areas, including temporal and parietal lobes and concomitant WM volume reductions in the same areas, although only the left temporal regions achieved statistical significance. Global intellectual performance in the preterm group was significantly decreased compared with control subjects. Neither behavioral nor emotional problems were found in the preterm group. In the whole sample, we found a positive correlation between GM volume bilaterally in the middle temporal and in the postcentral gyri with IQ. Positive correlations were observed between GM and gestational age at birth in parietal and temporal cerebral regions and with WM in parietal regions., Conclusion: Preterm birth has an important impact on the neurodevelopmental and cognitive outcome of children at 9 years of age, being a risk factor for decreased regional cortical GM and WM even in preterm children with low risk for neurodevelopmental deficits.

This study evaluated male adolescents who were convicted of offenses. Test scores of 12 nonassaultive, 14 assaultive, and 13 sexual offenders were compared prior to sentencing. A battery of psychometric tests evaluating cognition, scholastic ability, personality, aggression, and criminal sentiments were administered. Significant differences were noted for the subtest Block Design of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Significant personality measures were also noted for Social Introversion and Addiction Acknowledgement of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent Form, and the Inhibited, Sexual Discomfort, Peer Insecurity, Substance Abuse Proneness, and Anxious Feelings of the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory. There were significant differences noted for the State Anger, Feel Like Expressing Anger Verbally, Feel Like Expressing Anger Physically, Trait Anger, Angry Temperament, Angry Reaction, Anger Expression-Out, and Anger Expression Index of the Spielberger State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory. Discriminant analyses showed the three groups could be separated by stepwise procedure.

The project Adult Dyslexia and Attention Deficit Disorder in Finland (Project DyAdd) compares adults (n = 119, 18-55 years) with dyslexia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia together with ADHD (comorbid), and healthy controls with neuropsychological, psychophysical, and biological methods. The focus of this article is on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III). The clinical groups performed well compared to the norms, and they did not differ from each other. However, compared to the controls, all of them were slightly poorer in their Full IQ, and of the factors, processing speed was relatively difficult for all of them. In addition to the group comparisons, a cluster analysis based on subtest scores was conducted over the clinical groups. It did not suggest a solution that would differentiate between the clinical groups. Instead, four clusters emerged: above average, average, poor perceptual organization, and poor working memory. Thus, differentiating between these clinical groups with the WAIS-III was not possible. However, all of them shared a relative difficulty in processing speed, and group-independent clusters with perceptual or memory difficulties emerged.

Objectives: To demonstrate that high IQ adults diagnosed with ADHD suffer from executive function (EF) impairments that: a) can be identified with a combination of standardized measures and self-report data; and b) occur more commonly in this group than in the general population., Method: 157 ADHD adults with IQ >/= 120 were assessed with 8 normed measures of EF- 3 index scores from standardized tests of memory and cognitive abilities, and 5 subscales of a normed self-report measure of EF impairments in daily life., Results: 73% of subjects were significantly impaired on >/= 5 of these 8 EF markers. On all 8 measures, incidence of these impairments was significantly greater than in the general population., Conclusion: High IQ adults with ADHD tend to suffer EF impairments that can be assessed with these measures; incidence of such impairments in this group is significantly higher than in the general population.

Background: Despite the growing recognition that the clinical symptom characteristics associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) persist into adulthood in a high proportion of subjects, little is known about the persistence of neurocognitive deficits in ADHD. The objective was twofold: (1) to conduct a meta-analysis of neuropsychological studies to characterize attentional performance in subjects with adult ADHD by examining differences in ADHD versus normal control subjects; and (2) to investigate whether these differences vary as a function of age and gender., Method: Twenty-five neuropsychological studies comparing subjects with adult ADHD and healthy controls were evaluated. Statistical effect size was determined to characterize the difference between ADHD and control subjects. Meta-regression analysis was applied to investigate whether the difference between ADHD and control subjects varied as a function of age and gender across studies., Results: Tests measuring focused and sustained attention yielded an effect size with medium to large magnitude whereas tests of simple attention resulted in a small to medium effect size in terms of poorer attention functioning of ADHD subjects versus controls. On some of the measures (e.g. Stroop interference), a lower level of attention functioning in the ADHD group versus the controls was associated with male gender., Conclusions: Adult ADHD subjects display significantly poorer functioning versus healthy controls on complex but not on simple tasks of attention, and the degree of impairment varies with gender, with males displaying a higher level of impairment.

Aim: The dysbindin gene (dystrobrevin binding protein 1: DTNBP1) is a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia. Susceptibility genes for schizophrenia have been hypothesized to mediate liability for the disorder at least partly by influencing cognitive performance. This report investigated the relationship between cognitive function and the dysbindin gene., Methods: The possible association between a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of DTNBP1 (rs2619539: P1655), which is a risk-independent SNP for schizophrenia in Japanese populations, and memory and IQ was investigated in 70 schizophrenia patients and 165 healthy volunteers in a Japanese population., Results: This SNP was associated with two memory scales, verbal memory and general memory, on the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R), and three subcategories of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R), vocabulary, similarities and picture completion in healthy subjects. The SNP, however, did not influence either the indices of WMS-R, IQ or subcategories of WAIS-R in schizophrenia patients., Conclusion: A risk-independent SNP in DTNBP1 may have an impact on cognitive functions such as memory and IQ in healthy subjects.

Background: There is growing evidence for the familiality of pediatric bipolar disorder (BPD) and its association with impairments on measures of processing speed, verbal learning and 'executive' functions. The current study investigated whether these neurocognitive impairments index the familial risk underlying the diagnosis., Method: Subjects were 170 youth with BPD (mean age 12.3 years), their 118 non-mood-disordered siblings and 79 non-mood-disordered controls. Groups were compared on a battery of neuropsychological tests from the Wechsler Intelligence Scales, the Stroop Color Word Test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF), an auditory working memory Continuous Performance Test (CPT) and the California Verbal Learning Test-Children's Version (CVLT-C). Measures were factor analyzed for data reduction purposes. All analyses controlled for age, sex and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)., Results: Principal components analyses with a promax rotation yielded three factors reflecting: (1) processing speed/verbal learning, (2) working memory/interference control and (3) abstract problem solving. The CPT working memory measure with interference filtering demands (WM INT) was only administered to subjects aged > or =12 years and was therefore analyzed separately. BPD youth showed impairments versus controls and unaffected relatives on all three factors and on the WM INT. Unaffected relatives exhibited impairments versus controls on the abstract problem-solving factor and the WM INT. They also showed a statistical trend (p=0.07) towards worse performance on the working memory/interference control factor., Conclusions: Neurocognitive impairments in executive functions may reflect the familial neurobiological risk mechanisms underlying pediatric BPD and may have utility as endophenotypes in molecular genetic studies of the condition.

Objective: To characterize the relationship between IQ and attention deficits in children with ADHD and to estimate the inattention-related mean influence on IQ when children are tested before stimulant drug treatment has been initiated., Method: Studies of various methodologies are reviewed., Results: Correlation studies show mostly weak associations between IQ scores and attention deficits. Meta-analyses report the average short-term stimulant treatment effect on IQ in children with ADHD to be 2 to 7 IQ points., Conclusion: The associations between IQ and attention deficits in ADHD are generally modest, with the mean influence on IQ probably amounting to 2 to 5 IQ points. This may serve as a benchmark when clinicians interpret the validity of IQ in this clinical population.

This study investigated cognitive, metacognitive, and psychosocial aspects of neurobehavioral functioning in 22 boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and 18 unaffected siblings, all between the ages of 6 and 16 years. Probands and siblings completed the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, as well as selected subtests from the Children's Memory Scale and from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System, while parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function. Compared to siblings, probands demonstrated relative weaknesses on both verbal and nonverbal measures of delayed recall and response generation and were rated by parents as having more difficulties with social interaction, initiation, and adaptation. It is concluded that DMD is associated with mild but potentially significant difficulties in a range of neurobehavioral areas, likely related to deficient dystrophin levels in an integrated brain circuit that includes the cerebellum, hippocampus, and association neocortex.

The present investigation examined neurocognitive functioning, focusing on executive functioning (EF), in 39 children and adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and 24 healthy control subjects all ages 8 to 17 years. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition along with several measures of executive functioning including the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, Trail Making Test, Controlled Oral Word Association Test, and the Stroop Color Word Test were administered. The neurocognitive profiles for the group of depressed children and adolescents were grossly intact as most scores on intellectual and EF measures fell within the average range and did not differ from the comparison group. Mental processing speed was decreased in the MDD versus normal control group and 27% of the depressed group performed below average on the Trail Making Test. This investigation provided a good base from which to compare future literature on EF in outpatients with early-onset MDD.

Using the Japanese version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III), 26 girls with high-functioning (IQ > or = 70) pervasive developmental disorders (HFPDD) (mean age, 8.2 years) were compared with 116 boys with HFPDD (mean age, 9.0 years). Compared with the boys, the girls scored significantly higher on the Processing Speed index, Coding, and Symbol Search, but scored significantly lower on Block Design. Although both groups showed weakness on Comprehension in the verbal domain, the girls' subtest profile in the performance domain was relatively even and significantly different from the boys', which was characterized by a peak on Block Design. Such differences should be replicated, and possible behavioral, neurological, and genetic links to these sex differences should be clarified.

Background: The purpose of the study was to describe sensorimotor profile in children with mild intellectual disability (ID), and to examine the association between cognitive and motor function., Methods: A total of 233 children with mild ID aged 7 to 8 years were evaluated with measures of cognitive, motor and sensory integrative functioning., Results: Children with mild ID performed significantly less well on all test measures. 44.2% of children scored in the impaired range on seven out of 22 sensorimotor measures. They had weaker fine motor skills than gross motor skills. Sensory integrative functions were only mildly impaired. Total IQ substantially predicted overall performance on each motor test. Specifically, verbal comprehension and processing speed indexes were significant predictors of gross and fine motor function., Conclusions: Sensorimotor dysfunctions were found to be very frequent in children with mild ID. Early identification of sensorimotor impairments is essential to prompt early intervention and facilitate better integration into regular school settings.