Biomedical subjects

Jacinthe Baribeau

Publications and source records attributed to Jacinthe Baribeau.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Neuropsychological functioning in early- and late-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Significant relationships have been noted between age of onset and demographics, clinical characteristics, and cerebral metabolic activity in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The authors investigated whether patients with early (N=21) and late (N=17) onset OCD differ with respect to neuropsychological functioning. Results revealed that the late onset OCD group obtained poorer scores on measures of executive function and auditory attention than the early onset group. Late onset OCD was also associated with poorer visual memory relative to healthy comparison subjects. These findings suggest that early and late onset OCD may be the result of at least partially differing neurobiological mechanisms.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Organizational strategy use in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have been demonstrated to be less likely to use spontaneously generated organizational strategies during verbal episodic memory and visuoconstruction tasks. However, whether this organizational deficit is generalizable to other areas of cognitive functioning has not been established. In the present study, we assessed whether adults with OCD are less likely to spontaneously generate organizational strategies during performance of an executive function test, the Self-Ordered Pointing Task (SOPT). Participants included 30 adults with OCD and 24 healthy controls. Groups did not differ with respect to the time to complete or number of errors made on the SOPT. Furthermore, group differences were not observed in the ability to generate organizational strategies or in the specific types of strategies employed to complete the SOPT. These findings indicate that a reduced use of organizational strategies in OCD is not present across all cognitive domains.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

ERP study of pre-attentive auditory processing in treatment-refractory schizophrenia.

Event-related potential (ERP) studies have demonstrated impaired auditory sensory processing in patients with schizophrenia, as reflected in abnormal mismatch negativity (MMN). We sought to extend this finding by evaluating MMN in 13 treatment-refractory patients with schizophrenia, and 14 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. Subjects responded to infrequent visual stimulation while ignoring binaurally presented auditory tones. The amplitude and topographical pattern of the MMN were analyzed. The control group presented the expected reduction in the amplitude of the MMN from frontal to central and parietal locations. In comparison, the MMN amplitude was not reduced in the treatment-refractory patients, and was largest at the central-posterior electrode location. In addition, patients displayed larger negativities at left frontal, and left- and right-temporal electrode locations than the control subjects. These findings are consistent with pre-attentive abnormalities in treatment-refractory patients with schizophrenia.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Speed and accuracy on tests of executive function in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Slowness in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been attributed to intrusive thoughts or meticulousness. Recent research suggests that slowness in OCD may be particularly evident on tests of executive function subserved by frontostriatal circuitry. In the present study, the speed and accuracy of responding on neuropsychological tests of executive functions and psychomotor speed were investigated in 27 non-depressed, unmedicated adults with OCD and 27 healthy controls. The only group difference was that patients took significantly longer to copy a complex geometric design than controls. This finding was unrelated to residual depression or overall OCD symptom severity. Results suggest that slowness in OCD may be most apparent on executive tests requiring self-initiated organizational strategies, consistent with frontostriatal abnormality.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Procedural and declarative memory in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been associated with frontostriatal abnormality. This has led to the hypothesis that the disorder is characterized by abnormality of procedural memory. However, evidence for either procedural or declarative memory disturbance has been mixed, and few studies have directly assessed both of these forms of memory in the same patient group. In the present study, we assessed encoding and retrieval in declarative memory using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), and procedural memory using the Pursuit Rotor Task, in 27 adults with OCD and 29 matched healthy controls. Groups did not differ with respect to salient demographic characteristics or memory on the RAVLT. In contrast, patients with OCD performed significantly better than controls during the early, but not later trial blocks of the Pursuit Rotor Task. This pattern of results indicates intact encoding and retrieval in declarative memory, but abnormally enhanced procedural memory during the early course of learning in OCD. These findings may be consistent with striatal overactivation observed in neuroimaging studies of OCD, as well as the prominent role of the striatum during early stages of procedural memory.

Adolescent↗