Search

Working memory (WM) is a central construct in cognitive neuroscience because it comprises mechanisms of active information maintenance and cognitive control that underpin most complex cognitive behavior. Individual variation in WM has been associated with multiple behavioral and health features including demographic characteristics, cognitive and physical traits and lifestyle choices. In this context, we used sparse canonical correlation analyses (sCCAs) to determine the covariation between brain imaging metrics of WM-network activation and connectivity and nonimaging measures relating to sensorimotor processing, affective and nonaffective cognition, mental health and personality, physical health and lifestyle choices derived from 823 healthy participants derived from the Human Connectome Project. We conducted sCCAs at two levels: a global level, testing the overall association between the entire imaging and behavioral-health data sets; and a modular level, testing associations between subsets of the two data sets. The behavioral-health and neuroimaging data sets showed significant interdependency. Variables with positive correlation to the neuroimaging variate represented higher physical endurance and fluid intelligence as well as better function in multiple higher-order cognitive domains. Negatively correlated variables represented indicators of suboptimal cardiovascular and metabolic control and lifestyle choices such as alcohol and nicotine use. These results underscore the importance of accounting for behavioral-health factors in neuroimaging studies of WM and provide a neuroscience-informed framework for personalized and public health interventions to promote and maintain the integrity of the WM network.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/mp.2016.244.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/mp.2016.244.

This data descriptor outlines a shared neuroimaging dataset from the UCLA Consortium for Neuropsychiatric Phenomics, which focused on understanding the dimensional structure of memory and cognitive control (response inhibition) functions in both healthy individuals (130 subjects) and individuals with neuropsychiatric disorders including schizophrenia (50 subjects), bipolar disorder (49 subjects), and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (43 subjects). The dataset includes an extensive set of task-based fMRI assessments, resting fMRI, structural MRI, and high angular resolution diffusion MRI. The dataset is shared through the OpenfMRI project, and is formatted according to the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) standard.

Objective: Schizophrenia patients exhibit impaired working and episodic memory, but this may represent generalized impairment across memory modalities or performance deficits restricted to particular memory systems in subgroups of patients. Furthermore, it is unclear whether deficits are unique from those associated with other disorders. Method: Healthy controls (n = 1101) and patients with schizophrenia (n = 58), bipolar disorder (n = 49) and attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder (n = 46) performed 18 tasks addressing primarily verbal and spatial episodic and working memory. Effect sizes for group contrasts were compared across tasks and the consistency of subjects' distributional positions across memory domains was measured. Results: Schizophrenia patients performed poorly relative to the other groups on every test. While low to moderate correlation was found between memory domains ( r= .320), supporting modularity of these systems, there was limited agreement between measures regarding each individual's task performance (ICC = .292) and in identifying those individuals falling into the lowest quintile (kappa = 0.259). A general ability factor accounted for nearly all of the group differences in performance and agreement across measures in classifying low performers. Conclusions: Pathophysiological processes involved in schizophrenia appear to act primarily on general abilities required in all tasks rather than on specific abilities within different memory domains and modalities. These effects represent a general shift in the overall distribution of general ability (i.e., each case functioning at a lower level than they would have if not for the illness), rather than presence of a generally low-performing subgroup of patients. There is little evidence that memory impairments in schizophrenia are shared with bipolar disorder and ADHD.

22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is associated with elevated levels of impulsivity, inattention, and distractibility, which may be related to underlying neurobiological dysfunction due to haploinsufficiency for genes involved in dopaminergic neurotransmission (i.e. catechol-O-methyltransferase). The Stop-signal task has been employed to probe the neural circuitry involved in response inhibition (RI); findings in healthy individuals indicate that a fronto-basal ganglia network underlies successful inhibition of a prepotent motor response. However, little is known about the neurobiological substrates of RI difficulties in 22q11DS. Here, we investigated this using functional magnetic resonance imaging while 45 adult participants (15 22q11DS patients, 30 matched controls) performed the Stop-signal task. Healthy controls showed significantly greater activation than 22q11DS patients within frontal cortical and basal ganglia regions during successful RI, whereas 22q11DS patients did not show increased neural activity relative to controls in any regions. Using the Barratt Impulsivity Scale, we also investigated whether neural dysfunction during RI was associated with cognitive impulsivity in 22q11DS patients. RI-related activity within left middle frontal gyrus and basal ganglia was associated with severity of self-reported cognitive impulsivity. These results suggest reduced engagement of RI-related brain regions in 22q11DS patients, which may be relevant to characteristic behavioral manifestations of the disorder.

The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) is frequently described with five latent factors, yet published factor models consistently fail to replicate across samples and related disorders. We hypothesize that (1) a subset of the PANSS, instead of the entire PANSS scale, would produce the most replicable five-factor models across samples, and that (2) the PANSS factor structure may be different depending on the treatment phase, influenced by the responsiveness of the positive symptoms to treatment. Using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and cross validation on baseline and post-treatment observations from 3647 schizophrenia patients, we show that five-factor models fit best across samples when substantial subsets of the PANSS items are removed. The optimal model at baseline (five factors) omits 12 items: Motor Retardation, Grandiosity, Somatic Concern, Lack of Judgment and Insight, Difficulty in Abstract Thinking, Mannerisms and Posturing, Disturbance of Volition, Preoccupation, Disorientation, Excitement, Guilt Feelings and Depression. The PANSS factor models fit differently before and after patients have been treated. Patients with larger treatment response in positive symptoms have larger variations in factor structure across treatment stage than the less responsive patients. Negative symptom scores better predict the positive symptoms scores after treatment than before treatment. We conclude that sparse factor models replicate better on new samples, and the underlying disease structure of Schizophrenia changes upon treatment.

Patients with childhood onset schizophrenia (COS) display widespread gray matter (GM) structural brain abnormalities. Healthy siblings of COS patients share some of these structural abnormalities, suggesting that GM abnormalities are endophenotypes for schizophrenia. Another possible endophenotype for schizophrenia that has been relatively unexplored is corticostriatal dysfunction. The corticostriatal system plays an important role in skill learning. Our previous studies have demonstrated corticostriatal dysfunction in COS siblings with a profound skill learning deficit and abnormal pattern of brain activation during skill learning. This study investigated whether structural abnormalities measured using volumetric brain morphometry (VBM) were present in siblings of COS patients and whether these were related to deficits in cognitive skill learning. Results revealed smaller GM volume in COS siblings relative to controls in a number of regions, including occipital, parietal, and subcortical regions including the striatum, and greater GM volume relative to controls in several subcortical regions. Volume in the right superior frontal gyrus and cerebellum were related to performance differences between groups on the weather prediction task, a measure of cognitive skill learning. Our results support the idea that corticostriatal and cerebellar impairment in unaffected siblings of COS patients are behaviorally relevant and may reflect genetic risk for schizophrenia.

•22q11DS offers a compelling model to understand the neural substrates of attentional dysfunction.•First study directly comparing neural function in 22q11DS vs. ADHD patients•22q11DS and ADHD patients show a shared deficit in RI-related activation.•ADHD patients showed greater activity in the middle frontal gyrus than 22q11DS during RI.•Neural activity is inversely correlated with self-reported Cognitive Impulsivity in 22q11DS.

PubAtlas (www.pubatlas.org) is a web service and standalone program providing literature maps for the biomedical research literature. It accepts user-defined sets of terms (PubMed queries) as input, and permits 'BLASTing' of one set against another: for all terms x and y in these sets, deriving the results of the pairwise intersections x AND y. This all vs. all capability extends PubMed with a literature analysis interface. Correspondingly, the basic form of literature map that PubAtlas provides for exploring associations among sets of terms is an interactive tabular display, in heatmap/microarray format.PubAtlas supports development of specialized lexica -- hierarchies of controlled terminology that can represent sets of related concepts or a 'user-defined query language'. PubAtlas also provides historical perspectives on the literature, with temporal query features that highlight historical patterns. Generally, it is a framework for extending the PubMed interface, and an extensible platform for producing interactive literature maps.

Experimental cognitive tests are designed to measure particular cognitive domains, although evidence supporting test validity is often limited. The Consortium for Neuropsychiatric Phenomics test battery administered 23 experimental and traditional neuropsychological tests to a large sample of community volunteers ( n = 1,059) and patients with psychiatric diagnoses ( n = 137), providing a unique opportunity to examine convergent validity with factor analysis. Traditional tests included subtests from the Wechsler and Delis-Kaplan batteries, while experimental tests included the Attention Networks Test, Balloon Analogue Risk Task, Delay Discounting Task, Remember-Know, Reversal Learning Task, Scene Recognition, Spatial and Verbal Capacity and Manipulation Tasks, Stop-Signal Task, and Task Switching. Several experimental cognitive measures were insufficiently related to other tests and were excluded from factor analyses. In the remaining 18 tests, exploratory factor analysis and subsequent multigroup confirmatory factor analysis supported a three-factor structure broadly corresponding to domains of verbal/working memory, inhibitory control, and memory. In sum, several experimental measures of inhibitory control had weak relationships with all other tests, while the convergent validity of most tests of working memory and memory was supported., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

There are few studies of impacts of arts on recovery in schizphrenia, on audience mood and social connection. We developed a pilot evaluation of opera performances in a university setting on Elyn Saks' journey from psychosis, teaching law and falling in love, coupled with pre-opera workshop on approaches to resilience. Using surveys, primary outcomes were pre and post affect (PANAS-X positive, negative; visual "affect grid" touchscreen for affective valence and arousal) and social connectedness with secondary outcomes of increasing understanding, reducing stigma and willingness to socialize or serve persons with mental illness. Of 107 live and 117 online attendees, 64 completed pre, 24 post, and 22 both surveys. Respondent characteristics were similar for those with pre and pre and post surveys: average age mid 50's, half female, 10% sexual minority, half White/Caucasian, 13% Hispanic/Latino, 11% Black/African American and 20% Asian; of 22 with pre and post, 9 (41%) were providers. There were significant post-pre increases in positive affect (PANAS-X) and arousal (visual grid) and social connectedness (Cohen's d = 0.82 to 1.24, each p < .001); and willingness to socialize with someone with schizophrenia (d = 0.68, p = .011). In this pilot evaluation of opera in a university auditorium, despite small sample sizes, there were significant post-pre increases in audience positive affect and social connection, which could reflect selection (those with positive response completing surveys) or may suggest that arts events promote well-being and connection, issues for future larger studies., (© 2024. This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply.)

A multitude of clinical trials measuring hemodynamic and psychological parameters have shown the beneficial effects of music on health. However, there are no clear instructions on how to utilize the potential benefits of music to improve health outcomes. Moreover, whether the effect of music is transient or enduring has yet to be determined. To address the effect of music on vital parameters and emotional well-being of patients we provide an overview of methods and findings of some studies that have evaluated the physiological or psychological impacts of music. This review puts forward a proposed model for fostering an individualized approach that can examine the therapeutic effects of music., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Most neuropsychological tests were developed without the benefit of modern psychometric theory. We used item response theory (IRT) methods to determine whether a widely used test - the 26-item Matrix Reasoning subtest of the WAIS-IV - might be used more efficiently if it were administered using computerized adaptive testing (CAT)., Method: Data on the Matrix Reasoning subtest from 2197 participants enrolled in the National Neuropsychology Network (NNN) were analyzed using a two-parameter logistic (2PL) IRT model. Simulated CAT results were generated to examine optimal short forms using fixed-length CATs of 3, 6, and 12 items and scores were compared to the original full subtest score. CAT models further explored how many items were needed to achieve a selected precision of measurement (standard error ≤ .40)., Results: The fixed-length CATs of 3, 6, and 12 items correlated well with full-length test results (with r = .90, .97 and .99, respectively). To achieve a standard error of .40 (approximate reliability = .84) only 3-7 items had to be administered for a large percentage of individuals., Conclusions: This proof-of-concept investigation suggests that the widely used Matrix Reasoning subtest of the WAIS-IV might be shortened by more than 70% in most examinees while maintaining acceptable measurement precision. If similar savings could be realized in other tests, the accessibility of neuropsychological assessment might be markedly enhanced, and more efficient time use could lead to broader subdomain assessment.

Risky decision-making is a common, heritable endophenotype seen across many psychiatric disorders. Its underlying genetic architecture is incompletely explored. We examined behavior in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), which tests risky decision-making, in two independent samples of European ancestry. One sample (n = 1138) comprised healthy participants and some psychiatric patients (53 schizophrenia, 42 bipolar disorder, 47 ADHD); the other (n = 911) excluded for recent treatment of various psychiatric disorders but not ADHD. Participants provided DNA and performed the BART, indexed by mean adjusted pumps. We constructed a polygenic risk score (PRS) for discovery in each dataset and tested it in the other as replication. Subsequently, a genome-wide MEGA-analysis, combining both samples, tested genetic correlation with risk-taking self-report in the UK Biobank sample and psychiatric phenotypes characterized by risk-taking (ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, Alcohol Use Disorder, prior cannabis use) in the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. The PRS for BART performance in one dataset predicted task performance in the replication sample (r = 0.13, p = 0.000012, pFDR = 0.000052), as did the reciprocal analysis (r = 0.09, p = 0.0083, pFDR=0.04). Excluding participants with psychiatric diagnoses produced similar results. The MEGA-GWAS identified a single SNP (rs12023073; p = 3.24 × 10 -8 ) near IGSF21, a protein involved in inhibitory brain synapses; replication samples are needed to validate this result. A PRS for self-reported cannabis use (p = 0.00047, pFDR = 0.0053), but not self-reported risk-taking or psychiatric disorder status, predicted behavior on the BART in our MEGA-GWAS sample. The findings reveal polygenic architecture of risky decision-making as measured by the BART and highlight its overlap with cannabis use., (© 2023. This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply.)

Objective: Major obstacles to data harmonization in neuropsychology include lack of consensus about what constructs and tests are most important and invariant across healthy and clinical populations. This study addressed these challenges using data from the National Neuropsychology Network (NNN)., Method: Data were obtained from 5,000 NNN participants and Pearson standardization samples. Analyses included variables from four instruments: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 4th Edition (WAIS-IV); Wechsler Memory Scale, 4th Edition (WMS-IV); California Verbal Learning Test, 3rd Edition (CVLT3); and Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS). We used confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate models suggested by prior work and examined fit statistics and measurement invariance across samples. We examined relations of factor scores to demographic and clinical characteristics., Results: For each instrument, we identified four first-order and one second-order factor. Optimal models in patients generally paralleled the best-fitting models in the standardization samples, including task-specific factors. Analysis of the NNN data prompted specification of a Recognition-Familiarity factor on the WMS-IV and an Inhibition-Switching factor on the D-KEFS. Analyses showed strong to strict factorial invariance across samples with expected differences in factor means and variances. The Recognition-Familiarity factor correlated with age more strongly in NNN than in the standardization sample., Conclusions: Factor models derived from healthy groups generally fit well in patients. NNN data helped identify novel Recognition-Familiarity and Inhibition-Switching factors that were also invariant across samples and may be clinically useful. The findings support efforts to identify evidence-based and optimally efficient measurements of neuropsychological constructs that are valid across groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: The combination of d-methylphenidate and guanfacine (an α-2A agonist) has emerged as a potential alternative to either monotherapy in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but it is unclear what predicts response to these treatments. This study is the first to investigate pretreatment clinical and electroencephalography (EEG) profiles as predictors of treatment outcome in children randomized to these different medications., Method: A total of 181 children with ADHD (aged 7-14 years; 123 boys) completed an 8-week randomized, double-blind, comparative study with d-methylphenidate, guanfacine, or combined treatments. Pretreatment assessments included ratings on ADHD, anxiety, and oppositional behavior. EEG activity from cortical sources localized within midfrontal and midoccipital regions was measured during a spatial working memory task with encoding, maintenance, and retrieval phases. Analyses tested whether pretreatment clinical and EEG measures predicted treatment-related change in ADHD severity., Results: Higher pretreatment hyperactivity-impulsivity and oppositional symptoms and lower anxiety predicted greater ADHD improvements across all medication groups. Pretreatment event-related midfrontal beta power predicted treatment outcome with combined and monotherapy treatments, albeit in different directions. Weaker beta modulations predicted improvements with combined treatment, whereas stronger modulation during encoding and retrieval predicted improvements with d-methylphenidate and guanfacine, respectively. A multivariate model including EEG and clinical measures explained twice as much variance in ADHD improvement with guanfacine and combined treatment (R 2 = 0.34-0.41) as clinical measures alone (R 2  = 0.14-.21)., Conclusion: We identified treatment-specific and shared predictors of response to different pharmacotherapies in children with ADHD. If replicated, these findings would suggest that aggregating information from clinical and brain measures may aid personalized treatment decisions in ADHD., Clinical Trial Registration Information: Single Versus Combination Medication Treatment for Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; https://clinicaltrials.gov; NCT00429273., (Copyright © 2022 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Cognitive disorders are prevalent in people with HIV (PWH) despite antiretroviral therapy. Given the heterogeneity of cognitive disorders in PWH in the current era and evidence that these disorders have different etiologies and risk factors, scientific rationale is growing for using data-driven models to identify biologically defined subtypes (biotypes) of these disorders. Here, we discuss the state of science using machine learning to understand cognitive phenotypes in PWH and their associated comorbidities, biological mechanisms, and risk factors. We also discuss methods, example applications, challenges, and what will be required from the field to successfully incorporate machine learning in research on cognitive disorders in PWH. These topics were discussed at the National Institute of Mental Health meeting on "Biotypes of CNS Complications in People Living with HIV" held in October 2021. These ongoing research initiatives seek to explain the heterogeneity of cognitive phenotypes in PWH and their associated biological mechanisms to facilitate clinical management and tailored interventions., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America.)

Objective: In this position article, we highlight the importance of considering cultural and linguistic variables that influence neuropsychological test performance and the possible moderating impact on our understanding of brain/behavior relationships. Increasingly, neuropsychologists are realizing that cultural and language differences between countries, regions, and ethnic groups influence neuropsychological outcomes, as test scores may not have the same interpretative meaning across cultures. Furthermore, attempts to apply the same norms across diverse populations without accounting for culture and language variations will result in detrimental ethical dilemmas, such as misdiagnosis of clinical conditions and inaccurate interpretations of research outcomes. Given the lack of normative data for ethnically and linguistically diverse communities, it is often challenging to merge data across diverse populations to investigate research questions of global significance. Methodological Considerations: We highlight some of the inherent challenges, limitations, and opportunities for efforts to harmonize cross-cultural neuropsychological data. We also explore some of the cultural factors that should be considered when attempting to harmonize cross-cultural neuropsychological data, sources of variance that should be accounted for in data analyses, and the need to identify evaluative criteria for interpreting data outcomes of cross-cultural harmonization approaches., Conclusion: In the future, it will be important to further solidify principles for aggregating data across diverse cultural and linguistic cohorts, validate whether assumptions are being satisfied regarding the relationship between neuropsychological measures and the brain and/or behavior of individuals from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, as well as methods for evaluating relative successful validation for data harmonization efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Cognitive screening instruments (CSI) have variable sensitivity and specificity to the cognitive changes associated with dementia syndromes, and the most recent systematic review found insufficient evidence to support the benefit of cognitive screening tools in older adults residing within the community. Consequently, there is a critical need to improve CSI methods, which have not yet incorporated advances in psychometrics, neuroscience, and technology. The primary goal of this article is to provide a framework for transitioning from legacy CSIs to advanced dementia screening measurement. In line with ongoing efforts in neuropsychology and the call for next-generation digital assessment for early detection of AD, we propose a psychometrically advanced (including application of item response theory methods), automated selective assessment model that provides a framework to help propel an assessment revolution. Further, we present a three-phase model for modernizing CSIs and discuss critical diversity and inclusion issues, current challenges in differentiating normal from pathological aging, and ethical considerations.

Objective: The combination of d-methylphenidate and guanfacine (an α-2A adrenergic agonist) may be an effective alternative to either agent as monotherapy in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study investigated the neural mechanisms underlying medication effects using cortical source analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) data., Method: A total of 172 children with ADHD (aged 7-14; 118 boys) completed an 8-week randomized, double-blind, comparative study with 3 treatment arms: d-methylphenidate, guanfacine, or their combination. EEG modulations of brain oscillations at baseline and end point were measured during a spatial working memory task from cortical sources localized within the anterior cingulate (midfrontal) and primary visual cortex (midoccipital), based on previously reported ADHD and control differences. Linear mixed models examined treatment effects on EEG and performance measures., Results: Combined treatment decreased midoccipital EEG power across most frequency bands and task phases. Several midoccipital EEG measures also showed significantly greater changes with combined treatment than with monotherapies. D-methylphenidate significantly increased midoccipital theta during retrieval, while guanfacine produced only trend-level reductions in midoccipital alpha during maintenance and retrieval. Task accuracy improved with combined treatment, was unchanged with d-methylphenidate, and worsened with guanfacine. Treatment-related changes in midoccipital power correlated with improvement in ADHD severity., Conclusion: These findings show that combined treatment ameliorates midoccipital neural activity associated with treatment-related behavioral improvements and previously implicated in visuo-attentional deficits in ADHD. Both monotherapies had limited effects on EEG measures, with guanfacine further showing detrimental effects on performance. The identified midoccipital EEG profile may aid future treatment monitoring for children with ADHD., Clinical Trial Registration Information: Single Versus Combination Medication Treatment for Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Project1); https://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT00429273., Diversity & Inclusion Statement: We worked to ensure race, ethnic, and/or other types of diversity in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure sex and gender balance in the recruitment of human participants. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science. While citing references scientifically relevant for this work, we also actively worked to promote sex and gender balance in our reference list. We actively worked to promote inclusion of historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science in our author group. We actively worked to promote sex and gender balance in our author group., (Copyright © 2022 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: This paper presents a theory-based brief resilience scale, the Resilience Resources Scale (RRS), and evidence for its factor structure, reliability, and validity in two studies of undergraduate students. Participants: Study 1 sampled 295 students and Study 2 sampled 244 students. Methods: Study 1 participants completed the RRS and other measures online at one of two time points eight weeks apart ( n  = 193), or at both time points ( n  = 102). Study 2 participants completed the RRS and other measures online on a single occasion. Results: Factor analyses provided evidence for a one-factor model. Results indicated high internal consistency and strong test-retest reliability. Evidence of concurrent and predictive validity is presented. Conclusions: The RRS measures resilience resources known to be protective of physical and mental health. This brief scale has sound psychometric properties in these initial studies of undergraduate students. We offer possible directions for use of the RRS in this and other populations.

Objective: The National Neuropsychology Network (NNN) is a multicenter clinical research initiative funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH; R01 MH118514) to facilitate neuropsychology's transition to contemporary psychometric assessment methods with resultant improvement in test validation and assessment efficiency., Method: The NNN includes four clinical research sites (Emory University; Medical College of Wisconsin; University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); University of Florida) and Pearson Clinical Assessment. Pearson Q-interactive (Q-i) is used for data capture for Pearson published tests; web-based data capture tools programmed by UCLA, which serves as the Coordinating Center, are employed for remaining measures., Results: NNN is acquiring item-level data from 500-10,000 patients across 47 widely used Neuropsychology (NP) tests and sharing these data via the NIMH Data Archive. Modern psychometric methods (e.g., item response theory) will specify the constructs measured by different tests and determine their positive/negative predictive power regarding diagnostic outcomes and relationships to other clinical, historical, and demographic factors. The Structured History Protocol for NP (SHiP-NP) helps standardize acquisition of relevant history and self-report data., Conclusions: NNN is a proof-of-principle collaboration: by addressing logistical challenges, NNN aims to engage other clinics to create a national and ultimately an international network. The mature NNN will provide mechanisms for data aggregation enabling shared analysis and collaborative research. NNN promises ultimately to enable robust diagnostic inferences about neuropsychological test patterns and to promote the validation of novel adaptive assessment strategies that will be more efficient, more precise, and more sensitive to clinical contexts and individual/cultural differences.

Working memory (WM) has been defined as the active maintenance and flexible updating of goal-relevant information in a form that has limited capacity and resists interference. Complex measures of WM recruit multiple subprocesses, making it difficult to isolate specific contributions of putatively independent subsystems. The present study was designed to determine whether neurophysiological indicators of proposed subprocesses of WM predict WM performance. We recruited 200 individuals defined by care-seeking status and measured neural responses using electroencephalography (EEG), while participants performed four WM tasks. We extracted spectral and time-domain EEG features from each task to quantify each of the hypothesized WM subprocesses: maintenance (storage of content), goal maintenance, and updating. We then used EEG measures of each subprocess as predictors of task performance to evaluate their contribution to WM. Significant predictors of WM capacity included contralateral delay activity and frontal theta, features typically associated with maintenance (storage of content) processes. In contrast, significant predictors of reaction time and its variability included contingent negative variation and the P3b, features typically associated with goal maintenance and updating. Broadly, these results suggest two principal dimensions that contribute to WM performance, tonic processes during maintenance contributing to capacity, and phasic processes during stimulus processing that contribute to response speed and variability. The analyses additionally highlight that reliability of features across tasks was greater (and comparable to that of WM performance) for features associated with stimulus processing (P3b and alpha), than with maintenance (gamma, theta and cross-frequency coupling)., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Introduction: Studying neuro-structural markers of intellectual giftedness (IG) will inform scientific understanding of the processes helping children excel academically., Methods: Structural and diffusion-weighted MRI was used to compare regional brain shape and connectivity of 12 children with average to high average IQ and 18 IG children, defined as having IQ greater than 145., Results: IG had larger subcortical structures and more robust white matter microstructural organization between those structures in regions associated with explicit memory. TD had more connected, larger subcortical structures in regions associated with implicit memory., Conclusions: It was found that the memory systems within brains of children with exceptional intellectual abilities are differently sized and connected compared to the brains of typically developing children. These different neurodevelopmental trajectories suggest different learning strategies. A spectrum of intelligence types is envisioned, facilitated by different ratios of implicit and explicit system, which was validated using a large external dataset., (© 2021 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Broad-based cognitive deficits are an enduring and disabling symptom for many patients with severe mental illness, and these impairments are inadequately addressed by current medications. While novel drug targets for schizophrenia and depression have emerged from recent large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of these psychiatric disorders, GWAS of general cognitive ability can suggest potential targets for nootropic drug repurposing. Here, we (1) meta-analyze results from two recent cognitive GWAS to further enhance power for locus discovery; (2) employ several complementary transcriptomic methods to identify genes in these loci that are credibly associated with cognition; and (3) further annotate the resulting genes using multiple chemoinformatic databases to identify "druggable" targets. Using our meta-analytic data set (N = 373,617), we identified 241 independent cognition-associated loci (29 novel), and 76 genes were identified by 2 or more methods of gene identification. Actin and chromatin binding gene sets were identified as novel pathways that could be targeted via drug repurposing. Leveraging our transcriptomic and chemoinformatic databases, we identified 16 putative genes targeted by existing drugs potentially available for cognitive repurposing., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Objective: The Inter Organizational Practice Committee (IOPC) convened a workgroup to develop guidance on models to provide neuropsychological (NP) care during the COVID-19 pandemic while minimizing risks of novel coronavirus transmission as lockdown orders are lifted and ambulatory clinical services resume., Method: A collaborative panel of experts from major professional organizations developed provisional guidance for models of neuropsychological practice during the pandemic. The stakeholders included the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology/American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology, the National Academy of Neuropsychology, Society of Clinical neuropsychology (Division 40) of the American Psychological Association, the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology, and the American Psychological Association Services, Inc., Results: This guidance reviews the risks and benefits of conducting NP exams in several ways, including standard in-person, mitigated in-person, in-clinic teleneuropsychology (TeleNP), and in-home TeleNP. Strategies are provided for selecting the most appropriate model for a given patient, taking into account four levels of patient risk stratification, level of community risk, and the concept of stepped models of care. Links are provided to governmental agency and professional organization resources as well as an outline and discussion of essential infection mitigation processes based on commonalities across recommendations from diverse federal, state, local, and professional organization recommendations., Conclusion: This document provides recommendations and guidance with analysis of the risks relative to the benefits of various models of NP care during the COVID-19 pandemic. These recommendations may be revised as circumstances evolve, with updates posted continuously on the IOPC website (https://iopc.online/)., (© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Objective: The Inter Organizational Practice Committee (IOPC) convened a workgroup to develop guidance on models to provide neuropsychological (NP) care during the COVID-19 pandemic while minimizing risks of novel coronavirus transmission as lockdown orders are lifted and ambulatory clinical services resume. Method: A collaborative panel of experts from major professional organizations developed provisional guidance for models of neuropsychological practice during the pandemic. The stakeholders included the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology/American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology, the National Academy of Neuropsychology, Society of Clinical neuropsychology (Division 40) of the American Psychological Association, the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology, and the American Psychological Association Services, Inc. Results: This guidance reviews the risks and benefits of conducting NP exams in several ways, including standard in-person, mitigated in-person, in-clinic teleneuropsychology (TeleNP), and in-home TeleNP. Strategies are provided for selecting the most appropriate model for a given patient, taking into account four levels of patient risk stratification, level of community risk and the concept of stepped models of care. Links are provided to governmental agency and professional organization resources as well as an outline and discussion of essential infection mitigation processes based on commonalities across recommendations from diverse federal, state, local, and professional organization recommendations. Conclusion: This document provides recommendations and guidance with analysis of the risks relative to the benefits of various models of neuropsychological care during the COVID-19 pandemic. These recommendations may be revised as circumstances evolve, with updates posted continuously on the IOPC website (https://iopc.on line/) .

Large-scale studies spanning diverse project sites, populations, languages, and measurements are increasingly important to relate psychological to biological variables. National and international consortia already are collecting and executing mega-analyses on aggregated data from individuals, with different measures on each person. In this research, we show that Asparouhov and Muthén's alignment method can be adapted to align data from disparate item sets and response formats. We argue that with these adaptations, the alignment method is well suited for combining data across multiple sites even when they use different measurement instruments. The approach is illustrated using data from the Whole Genome Sequencing in Psychiatric Disorders consortium and a real-data-based simulation is used to verify accurate parameter recovery. Factor alignment appears to increase precision of measurement and validity of scores with respect to external criteria. The resulting parameter estimates may further inform development of more effective and efficient methods to assess the same constructs in prospectively designed studies., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2020.)

Objective : The Inter Organizational Practice Committee (IOPC) convened a workgroup to provide rapid guidance about teleneuropsychology (TeleNP) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Method : A collaborative panel of experts from major professional organizations developed provisional guidance for neuropsychological practice during the pandemic. The stakeholders included the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology/American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology, the National Academy of Neuropsychology, Division 40 of the American Psychological Association, the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology, and the American Psychological Association Services, Inc. The group reviewed literature, collated federal, regional and state regulations and information from insurers, and surveyed practitioners to identify best practices. Results : Literature indicates that TeleNP may offer reliable and valid assessments, but clinicians need to consider limitations, develop new informed consent procedures, report modifications of standard procedures, and state limitations to diagnostic conclusions and recommendations. Specific limitations affect TeleNP assessments of older adults, younger children, individuals with limited access to technology, and individuals with other individual, cultural, and/or linguistic differences. TeleNP may be contraindicated or infeasible given specific patient characteristics, circumstances, and referral questions. Considerations for billing TeleNP services are offered with reservations that clinicians must verify procedures independently. Guidance about technical issues and "tips" for TeleNP procedures are provided. Conclusion : This document provides provisional guidance with links to resources and established guidelines for telepsychology. Specific recommendations extend these practices to TeleNP. These recommendations may be revised as circumstances evolve, with updates posted continuously at OPC.online.

Objective: The Inter Organizational Practice Committee convened a workgroup to provide rapid guidance about teleneuropsychology (TeleNP) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic., Method: A collaborative panel of experts from major professional organizations developed provisional guidance for neuropsychological practice during the pandemic. The stakeholders included the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology/American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology, the National Academy of Neuropsychology, Division 40 of the American Psychological Association, the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology, and the American Psychological Association Services, Inc. The group reviewed literature; collated federal, regional, and state regulations and information from insurers; and surveyed practitioners to identify best practices., Results: Literature indicates that TeleNP may offer reliable and valid assessments, but clinicians need to consider limitations, develop new informed consent procedures, report modifications of standard procedures, and state limitations to diagnostic conclusions and recommendations. Specific limitations affect TeleNP assessments of older adults, younger children, individuals with limited access to technology, and individuals with other individual, cultural, and/or linguistic differences. TeleNP may be contraindicated or infeasible given specific patient characteristics, circumstances, and referral questions. Considerations for billing TeleNP services are offered with reservations that clinicians must verify procedures independently. Guidance about technical issues and "tips" for TeleNP procedures are provided., Conclusion: This document provides provisional guidance with links to resources and established guidelines for telepsychology. Specific recommendations extend these practices to TeleNP. These recommendations may be revised as circumstances evolve, with updates posted continuously at IOPC.online., (© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permission@oup.com.)

Changes in neurovascular coupling are associated with both Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia in later life, but this may be confounded by cerebrovascular risk. We hypothesized that hemodynamic latency would be associated with reduced cognitive functioning across the lifespan, holding constant demographic and cerebrovascular risk. In 387 adults aged 18-85 (mean = 48.82), dynamic causal modeling was used to estimate the hemodynamic response function in the left and right V1 and V3-ventral regions of the visual cortex in response to a simple checkerboard block design stimulus with minimal cognitive demands. The hemodynamic latency (transit time) in the visual cortex was used to predict general cognitive ability (Full-Scale IQ), controlling for demographic variables (age, race, education, socioeconomic status) and cerebrovascular risk factors (hypertension, alcohol use, smoking, high cholesterol, BMI, type 2 diabetes, cardiac disorders). Increased hemodynamic latency in the visual cortex predicted reduced cognitive function (p < 0.05), holding constant demographic and cerebrovascular risk. Increased alcohol use was associated with reduced overall cognitive function (Full Scale IQ 2.8 pts, p < 0.05), while cardiac disorders (Full Scale IQ 3.3 IQ pts; p < 0.05), high cholesterol (Full Scale IQ 3.9 pts; p < 0.05), and years of education (2 IQ pts/year; p < 0.001) were associated with higher general cognitive ability. Increased hemodynamic latency was associated with reduced executive functioning (p < 0.05) as well as reductions in verbal concept formation (p < 0.05) and the ability to synthesize and analyze abstract visual information (p < 0.01). Hemodynamic latency is associated with reduced cognitive ability across the lifespan, independently of other demographic and cerebrovascular risk factors. Vascular health may predict cognitive ability long before the onset of dementias.

Background: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with working memory (WM) deficits. However, WM is a multiprocess construct that can be impaired through several pathways, leaving the source of WM impairments in ADHD unresolved. In this study, we aim to replicate, in an independent sample, previously reported deficits in component processes of WM deficits in ADHD and expand to consider their implications for neurocognitive outcomes., Methods: In 119 children (7-14 years old, 85 with ADHD), we used electroencephalography measures to quantify component processes during performance of a spatial working memory task. We quantified stimulus encoding using alpha range (8-12 Hz) power; vigilance by the P2 event-related potential to cues; and WMmaintenance by occipital-alpha and frontal-theta (4-7 Hz) power. These measures were evaluated against metrics of executive function, ADHD symptoms, and academic achievement., Results: Encoding alpha-power decreases and cue P2 amplitude were attenuated in ADHD, whereas occipital-alpha power during maintenance was significantly greater in ADHD, consistent with a compensatory response to weak encoding. Weak alpha modulation during encoding was associated with poorer reading comprehension and executive function, as well as enhanced ADHD symptoms. Previously reported effects in frontal-theta power failed to replicate., Conclusions: Stimulus encoding, a component process of WM coupled to alpha modulation, is impaired in ADHD, and, unlike WM maintenance or vigilance processes, has implications outside of the laboratory via a relationship with executive function, and, to a weaker extent, reading comprehension., (© 2019 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

Susceptibility to schizophrenia is inversely correlated with general cognitive ability at both the phenotypic and the genetic level. Paradoxically, a modest but consistent positive genetic correlation has been reported between schizophrenia and educational attainment, despite the strong positive genetic correlation between cognitive ability and educational attainment. Here we leverage published genome-wide association studies (GWASs) in cognitive ability, education, and schizophrenia to parse biological mechanisms underlying these results. Association analysis based on subsets (ASSET), a pleiotropic meta-analytic technique, allowed jointly associated loci to be identified and characterized. Specifically, we identified subsets of variants associated in the expected ("concordant") direction across all three phenotypes (i.e., greater risk for schizophrenia, lower cognitive ability, and lower educational attainment); these were contrasted with variants that demonstrated the counterintuitive ("discordant") relationship between education and schizophrenia (i.e., greater risk for schizophrenia and higher educational attainment). ASSET analysis revealed 235 independent loci associated with cognitive ability, education, and/or schizophrenia at p < 5 × 10 -8 . Pleiotropic analysis successfully identified more than 100 loci that were not significant in the input GWASs. Many of these have been validated by larger, more recent single-phenotype GWASs. Leveraging the joint genetic correlations of cognitive ability, education, and schizophrenia, we were able to dissociate two distinct biological mechanisms-early neurodevelopmental pathways that characterize concordant allelic variation and adulthood synaptic pruning pathways-that were linked to the paradoxical positive genetic association between education and schizophrenia. Furthermore, genetic correlation analyses revealed that these mechanisms contribute not only to the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia but also to the broader biological dimensions implicated in both general health outcomes and psychiatric illness., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

The idea that psychopathology is associated with exceptional creativity has persisted despite a paucity of corroborating or disconfirming evidence. The authors measured psychopathology, including schizotypal personality traits, social responsiveness/autism spectrum traits, and lifetime incidence of mental disorders, along with lab-based tests of creativity in a unique sample of Big-C (exceptionally creative) individuals. The authors examined Big-C visual artists (VIS; n = 35), Big-C scientists (SCI; n = 41), and a smart comparison group (SCG; n = 31) matched on age, sex, race/ethnicity, parental education, and estimated IQ. Neither lifetime nor current prevalence of mental disorders was higher in Big-C groups relative to either the SCG or epidemiologic estimates, but individuals without a lifetime history of psychiatric disorder scored higher on a test of creative cognition relative to those who had at least one lifetime diagnosis. The groups differed in self-reported symptoms: VIS reported more schizotypal features than both SCI and SCG, and higher levels of socially divergent traits than SCI. Self-reported symptoms were below diagnostic thresholds in all 3 groups. The findings indicate that neither exceptional creativity nor performance on tests that putatively assess creativity are associated with mental illness but suggest that certain schizotypal features and socially divergent traits-at subclinical levels-are associated with Big-C achievement, at least in visual artists. The findings further raise questions about the sensitivity of laboratory tests for Big-C cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: This article reviews current approaches to neuropsychological assessment, identifies opportunities for development of new methods using modern psychometric theory and advances in technology, and suggests a transition path that promotes application of novel methods without sacrificing validity., Methods: Theoretical/state-of-the-art review., Conclusions: Clinical neuropsychological assessment today does not reflect advances in neuroscience, modern psychometrics, or technology. Major opportunities for improving practice include both psychometric and technological strategies. Modern psychometric approaches including item response theory (IRT) enable linking procedures that can place different measures on common scales; adaptive testing algorithms that can dramatically increase efficiency of assessment; examination of differential item functioning (DIF) to detect measures that behave differently in different groups; and person fit statistics to detect aberrant patterns of responding of high value for performance validity testing. Opportunities to introduce novel technologies include computerized adaptive testing, Web-based assessment, healthcare- and bio-informatics strategies, mobile platforms, wearables, and the 'internet-of-things'. To overcome inertia in current practices, new methods must satisfy requirements for back-compatibility with legacy instrumentation, enabling us to leverage the wealth of validity data already accrued for classic procedures. A path to achieve these goals involves creation of a global network to aggregate item-level data into a shared repository that will enable modern psychometric analyses to refine existing methods, and serve as a platform to evolve novel assessment strategies, which over time can revolutionize neuropsychological assessment practices world-wide.