Biomedical subjects

Marsha E Bates

Publications and source records attributed to Marsha E Bates.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Caudate nucleus volume and cognitive performance: Are they related in childhood psychopathology?

BACKGROUND: Impaired neuropsychological test performance, especially on tests of executive function and attention, is often seen in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Structures involved in fronto-striatal circuitry, such as the caudate nucleus, may support these cognitive abilities. However, few studies have examined caudate volumes specifically in children with ASD, or correlated caudate volumes to cognitive ability. METHODS: Neuropsychological test scores and caudate volumes of children with ASD were compared to those of children with bipolar disorder (BD) and of typically developing (TD) children. The relationship between test performance and caudate volumes was analyzed. RESULTS: The ASD group displayed larger right and left caudate volumes, and modest executive deficits, compared to TD controls. While caudate volume inversely predicted performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in all participants, it differentially predicted performance on measures of attention across the ASD, BD and TD groups. CONCLUSIONS: Larger caudate volumes were related to impaired problem solving. On a test of attention, larger left caudate volumes predicted increased impulsivity and more omission errors in the ASD group as compared to the TD group, however smaller volume predicted poorer discriminant responding as compared to the BD group.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Cognitive impairment influences drinking outcome by altering therapeutic mechanisms of change.

Serious neuropsychological impairments are seen in a minority of addiction treatment clients, and, theoretically, these impairments should undermine behavioral changes targeted by treatment; however, little evidence supports a direct influence of impairment on treatment response. To address this paradox, the authors used structural equation modeling and Project MATCH data (N=1,726) to examine direct, mediated, and moderated paths between cognitive impairment, therapeutic processes, and treatment outcome. Mediated relations were found, wherein impairment led to less treatment compliance, lower self-efficacy, and greater Alcoholics Anonymous Involvement, which, in turn, more proximally predicted drinking. Impairment further moderated the effect of self-efficacy, making it a poor predictor of drinking outcomes in impaired clients, thereby suggesting that impaired and unimpaired clients traverse different pathways to addiction recovery.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Acute alcohol effects on repetition priming and word recognition memory with equivalent memory cues.

Acute alcohol intoxication effects on memory were examined using a recollection-based word recognition memory task and a repetition priming task of memory for the same information without explicit reference to the study context. Memory cues were equivalent across tasks; encoding was manipulated by varying the frequency of occurrence (FOC) of words in the study lists. Twenty-two female and male social drinkers (age 21-24 years) completed equivalent versions of the memory tasks in two counterbalanced sessions (alcohol challenge, no-alcohol). Alcohol and the FOC manipulation affected recollection-based memory processing, but not repetition priming. Results supported alcohol's dissociative effects on memory systems.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2005

Cognitive traits link to human chromosomal regions.

: Human cognition in normal and disease states is both environmentally and genetically mediated. Except for measures of language-specific abilities, however, few cognitive measures have been associated with specific genes or chromosomal regions. We performed genome-wide linkage analysis of five neuropsychological tests in the Collaborative Study on Genetics of Alcoholism sample. The sample included 1579 individuals (53% female, 76% White Non-Hispanic) in 217 families. There were 390 markers with mean inter-marker distance of 9.6 cM. Performance on the Digit Symbol Substitution Test, a component of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-R, showed significant linkage to 14q11.2 and suggestive linkage to 14q 24.2. This test of sustained visual attention also involves visual-motor coordination and executive functions. Performance on the WAIS-R Digit Span Test of immediate memory and mental flexibility showed suggestive linkage to 11q 25. Although the validity of these results beyond populations with a susceptibility for alcohol dependence is unclear, these results are among the first linkage results for non-language components of cognition.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Short-term neuropsychological recovery in clients with substance use disorders.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairments are frequently observed in clients who enter treatment programs for substance abuse. The potential for early recovery of cognitive abilities is suggested by previous research; however, the extent of improvement and risk factors that may help predict individual differences in rates of recovery remain unclear. This study is a 6-week follow-up and retest of an original sample of 197 men and women who had received a broad neuropsychological assessment at addiction treatment entry. The aim was to examine the potential clinical significance of changes in cognitive functioning and the extent to which differential recovery was predictable from client background information. METHODS: Fifteen neuropsychological tests were readministered to 169 of 197 clients 6 weeks after treatment entry. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate separately the practice effects and recovery in four cognitive domains: executive function, memory, information processing speed, and verbal ability. Client background information included age, sex, education, substance use and consequences, psychopathology, medical problems, familial alcoholism history, and childhood behavior problems. RESULTS: A four-factor model of latent neuropsychological ability that was previously identified at treatment entry was replicated at follow-up. Statistically significant increases in the means of the four latent abilities were found. Memory showed a medium effect size improvement. Executive function, verbal ability, and information processing speed, however, showed only small effect size improvements, suggesting limited clinical significance. Substance use between treatment entry and follow-up, antisocial personality disorder, negative use consequences, less education, and medical problems were modestly predictive of less recovery. CONCLUSION: Cognitive recovery in the first 6 weeks of treatment is possible, but, with the possible exception of memory, improvement may be minor in terms of clinical relevance.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

The d2 Test of attention: construct validity and extensions in scoring techniques.

The internal consistency and convergent and discriminant validity of the d2 Test, a cancellation test of attention and concentration, was examined in a sample of 364 U.S. adults. Test-taking strategy, new process scores for assessing performance constancy, and relations to gender and education were explored. Results suggested that the d2 Test is an internally consistent and valid measure of visual scanning accuracy and speed. Overall performance scores were related to a proxy measure of test-taking strategy in the expected direction, and new acceleration and deterioration measures exhibited convergent validity. Suggested directions for future research include discrimination of attentional processes that support immediate and sustained visual scanning accuracy and speed, further examination of the impact of test-taking strategies on overall performance measures, and additional construct validity examinations for the new process measures.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Risk factors and neuropsychological recovery in clients with alcohol use disorders who were exposed to different treatments.

Risk covariates of neuropsychological ability (NA) at treatment entry and neuropsychological recovery (NR) across 15 months were examined and replicated in 2 samples (Ns = 952 and 774) from Project MATCH, a multisite study of alcoholism treatments. NA at treatment entry was associated with age, education, and other covariates. Statistically significant mean increases in NA over time had small effect sizes, suggesting limited clinical significance of NR in the samples as a whole. However, initial NA and a combination of risk factors in direct and mediated pathways predicted a large proportion of individual differences in NR. Statistically significant but modest differential treatment effects on NR suggest that addiction treatments may need to be modified or developed to facilitate this important aspect of recovery.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Alcohol's dissociation of implicit and explicit memory processes: implications of a parallel distributed processing model of semantic priming.

Alcohol's dissociation of implicit (unintentional) and explicit (intentional) memory processes in social drinkers was examined. It was hypothesized that an alcohol challenge would lower the percentage of words recalled and result in more retroactive interference in explicit recall tasks but would not lengthen reaction time in an implicit semantic priming task involving highly semantically similar words. Men and women completed all memory tasks in each of 2 counterbalanced sessions (alcohol challenge vs. no-alcohol) separated by 1 week. Alcohol significantly degraded processing in both explicit memory tasks, yet implicit semantic priming remained intact. A parallel distributed processing model that simulates semantic memory is presented. When this system is strongly activated, it does not appear to be altered during moderate alcohol intoxication.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

The neuropsychological test performance of drug-abusing patients: an examination of latent cognitive abilities and associated risk factors.

The purpose of this study was to examine the latent structure of neuropsychological abilities of drug-abusing patients. Four factors were identified in an exploratory factor analysis (N = 329) and a subsequent confirmatory factor analysis (N = 258): Executive Functioning, Verbal Ability, Memory, and Speed, Education, years of regular alcohol use, number of substance use dependence disorders, percentage of days of heavy drinking in the previous year, depression, familial alcoholism, premorbid level of cognitive functioning, liver functioning, and previous head injuries were identified as risk factors to these latent abilities.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Relation of premorbid cognitive abilities to substance users' problems at treatment intake and improvements with substance abuse treatment and case management.

Substance users' premorbid cognitive skills and abilities, assessed by their scores on standardized achievement tests (Iowa Tests of Basic Skills) during the fourth grade of elementary school, were examined as predictors of their problems at treatment intake and improvements with substance abuse treatment and case management over a 12-month follow-up period. Clients were assigned to four groups differing in the type of case management provided. Among 213 clients meeting criteria for the study, problems in several areas at treatment intake (assessed by the Addiction Severity Index) were milder for those with higher, relative to lower, premorbid cognitive abilities. Relationships of premorbid cognitive abilities to improvements at follow-ups were more prominent for clients who worked with case managers primarily via telecommunications than for clients who generally met with case managers at the substance abuse treatment or an independent agency, or who received only limited case management services from primary drug counselors. Thorough utilization of an interactive voice response system available to the telecommunications group might have placed demands on cognitive abilities that were less emphasized in the other groups. Alcohol differed markedly from other drugs in how improvements in problems were related to premorbid cognitive abilities among clients in the telecommunications group, and, to a lesser extent, among clients who generally met with case managers in person. Premorbid cognitive abilities should be considered when examining how outcomes are related to clients' characteristics and how maximally effective treatments can be selected based on clients' characteristics.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Individual differences in latent neuropsychological abilities at addictions treatment entry.

The latent structure of neuropsychological abilities and risk factors for impairment were examined in 197 persons entering addictions treatment. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded 4 factors: Executive, Memory, Verbal, and Processing Speed. The measurement model was consistent with evidence that neuropsychological test performance is factorially complex and supported by multiple brain regions. Path analyses showed that risk factors explained 34%-57% of the true variance in abilities. Age, education, and medical status had the most generalized and robust associations with abilities. Drug use disorder diagnoses, childhood behavior problems, familial alcoholism, and psychopathology were also significantly related to specific latent abilities. Knowledge of neuropsychological impairment may be clinically useful, and selected risk factors may help treatment providers decide which clients should receive formal neuropsychological assessment.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Neurocognitive impairment associated with alcohol use disorders: implications for treatment.

Between 50% and 80% of individuals with alcohol use disorders experience mild to severe neurocognitive impairment. There is a strong clinical rationale that neurocognitive impairment is an important source of individual difference affecting many aspects of addiction treatment, but empirical tests of the direct influence of impairment on treatment outcome have yielded weak and inconsistent results. The authors address the schism between applied-theoretical perspectives and research evidence by suggesting alternative conceptual models of the relationship between neurocognitive impairment and addiction treatment outcome. Methods to promote neurocognitive recovery and ways in which addiction treatments may be modified to improve psychosocial adaptation are suggested. Specific suggestions for future research that may help clarify the complex relations between neurocognitive impairment and addiction treatment are outlined.

Alcoholic Neuropathy↗

PubMed2002

Reasons for alcohol use in young adulthood: validation of a three-dimensional measure.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the reliability and validity of a measure of reasons for use, which is based on a cognitive mediational view of alcohol use as a means for affect regulation. METHOD: Data for this study were obtained from the Rutgers Health and Human Development Project. Self-reports of young men and women aged 25 to 31 years (N = 1,176; 598 women) were used to obtain measures of reasons for use, coping use, sex-enhancing use, use intensity and use problems. Regression analyses and structural equation modeling were used to assess a hypothesized model of relationships between these variables. RESULTS: Factor analysis of 33 reasons for use yielded three hypothesized dimensions: social reasons, disinhibition reasons and suppression reasons. Although moderately correlated with each other, they exhibited distinct relationships with other use variables. Increases in social reasons were related to decelerating increases in use intensity, but increases in disinhibition and suppression reasons were associated with accelerating increases in use intensity Social reasons did not relate to use problems, whereas suppression reasons were strongly related to use problems even when controlling for use intensity. CONCLUSIONS: Suppression reasons not only motivate reactive coping use in response to the appraisal of stressful situations, they are also likely to instigate "prophylactic" or proactive coping use in anticipation of the possible occurrence of stressors, thereby blunting the emotional impact of encounters that would otherwise have been appraised as stressful and aversive.

Adolescent↗