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Results for “Cognitive Reflection”

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At least 613 records · Page 34Linked to original sources

PubMed2003

Semantic processing of words, cognitive resources and N400: an event-related potentials study.

The specificity of the right hemisphere (RH) contribution to the semantic processing of words is still debated. Indeed, the semantic impairments of right hemisphere damaged (RHD) subjects may be the expression of limited general cognitive resources rather than a specific impairment of semantic processing ([Monetta et al., 2001]; [Murray, 2000]). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the possibility that the N400 reflect the availability of cognitive resources through an analysis of its different amplitudes according to different semantic complexity level. Ten young adults without any history of neurological damage participated in a semantic categorization task with two different levels of difficulty based on prototypicality. Event related potential (ERP) signals from 64 electrodes were recorded. An N400 was observed during the processing of difficult words and distractors. The results show that the greatest N400 activation was observed during the processing of difficult words, thus reflecting a possible increase in the amount of required cognitive resources.

Adult↗

PubMed1984

Personality correlates of the Matching Familiar Figures Test in adults.

The Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT) measures a dimension of cognitive style known as reflection-impulsivity. Interpretations of the MFFT sometimes supplement its cognitive implications with one of two personality models, impulsivity and/or ego-resilience. Both models have received some research support from studies that used preadolescent subjects. The applicability of these two personality models to adults was evaluated in this research. In three studies on college students, one personality characteristic within the ego-resilience position, independent-oriented achievement, was found to differentiate between impulsive and reflective scorers on the MFFT. No support was found for the impulsivity position. Implications were drawn for the influence of personality on the MFFT.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2001

Reflections on the study of infant perception and cognition: what does Morgan's Canon really tell us to do?

This commentary on Needham's (2001, this issue) work focuses on the types of evidence needed to make inferences concerning infant cognition. It is helpful to consider the history of the positions that have been held by scientists who have tried to explain the cognitive abilities of animals, deemed to be so very different from adult humans, and in that regard, similar to infants. The justification of inference is not a matter of personal taste or the application of a rigid doctrine. Rather, the study of infant cognition requires a high level of creativity in the creation and testing of alternative explanations. By understanding lessons from our past, current researchers should be better able to conduct their studies and draw appropriate conclusions.

Child Development↗

PubMed2006

Is acamprosate use in alcohol dependence treatment reflected in improved subjective health status outcomes beyond cognitive behavioural therapy alone?.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether the addition of acamprosate to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) outpatient alcohol dependence treatment impacted on subjective health status. METHOD: Among 268 patients consecutively treated for alcohol dependence, 149 chose CBT alone. A matched design was used. From a possible pool of 119 Acamprosate + CBT and 149 CBT-only patients, 86 Acamprosate + CBT subjects were individually matched with 86 CBT-only patients on parameters of gender, age, prior detoxification and alcohol dependence severity. Health Status (SF-36) and Psychological Well-Being (GHQ-28) was assessed pre- and post-treatment. RESULTS: Pre-treatment, both self-reported health status and psychological well-being was markedly below normative (community) ranges. Program completers significantly improved across both measures over 12 weeks of treatment and some health domains approximated community levels. No treatment group differences were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Participants who completed the CBT-based treatment showed significant improvement in self-reported health status. The use of acamprosate did not register additional improvement on either SF-36 or GHQ-28, beyond CBT alone.

Acamprosate↗

PubMed2000

The absence of impairment of cliff avoidance reaction induced by subchronic methamphetamine treatment in inbred strains of mice.

Cliff avoidance reaction (CAR), an index of behavioral teratology in rodents, can be impaired by motor, arousal, or cognitive dysfunction. We formerly reported subchronic administration of methamphetamine (MAP) induced the CAR impairment, which might reflect MAP-induced cognitive dysfunction, in three strains of rats. In this study, the effects of subchronic MAP treatment on the behavioral sensitization in stereotypy (stereotypy sensitization) and CAR were examined in two inbred strains of male mice; C57BL/6J(C57) and DBA/2J(DBA). The animals received 4 mg/kg/day MAP intraperitoneally for 28 days. There were apparent strain differences in the development of stereotypy sensitization induced by chronic MAP; DBA mice developed stereotypy sensitization quickly, but C57 did not. Unlike rats, neither strains of mice showed the CAR impairment. These results suggest that chronic MAP (4 mg/kg) administration did not introduce any cognitive dysfunction measured by CAR in the two inbred mice, DBA and C57. The discrepancy between rats and mice is still unclear. It might relate to the species-selective effect of MAP on the CAR impairment. Further studies should to be required.

Animals↗

PubMed2000

[Reflection of the type and successfulness of the cognitive activity in the human EEG: application of nonlinear methods in psychophysiology].

The information processing by the human brain was studied in two types of cognitive activity: solving a visual-spatial task and a verbal task. One of the Wechsler tests represented a visual-spatial task, whereas a speed-reading was used as a verbal task. A correlation dimension calculated from the EEG time series, was shown to depend on individual capabilities. Subjects with a higher correlation dimension in frontal brain areas executed more successfully the spatial task.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Neuronal depletion of calcium-dependent proteins in the dentate gyrus is tightly linked to Alzheimer's disease-related cognitive deficits.

Transgenic mice expressing human amyloid precursor proteins (hAPP) and amyloid-beta peptides (Abeta) in neurons develop phenotypic alterations resembling Alzheimer's disease (AD). The mechanisms underlying cognitive deficits in AD and hAPP mice are largely unknown. We have identified two molecular alterations that accurately reflect AD-related cognitive impairments. Learning deficits in mice expressing familial AD-mutant hAPP correlated strongly with decreased levels of the calcium-binding protein calbindin-D28k (CB) and the calcium-dependent immediate early gene product c-Fos in granule cells of the dentate gyrus, a brain region critically involved in learning and memory. These molecular alterations were age-dependent and correlated with the relative abundance of Abeta1-42 but not with the amount of Abeta deposited in amyloid plaques. CB reductions in the dentate gyrus primarily reflected a decrease in neuronal CB levels rather than a loss of CB-producing neurons. CB levels were also markedly reduced in granule cells of humans with AD, even though these neurons are relatively resistant to AD-related cell death. Thus, neuronal populations resisting cell death in AD and hAPP mice can still be drastically altered at the molecular level. The tight link between Abeta-induced cognitive deficits and neuronal depletion of CB and c-Fos suggests an involvement of calcium-dependent pathways in AD-related cognitive decline and could facilitate the preclinical evaluation of novel AD treatments.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

The relationship between the visually evoked P300 event-related potential and gamma band oscillation in the human medial and basal temporal lobes: an electrocorticographic study.

We have recorded electrocorticographic activities (ECoG) from subdural electrodes on the human medial temporal lobe (MTL) and basal temporal lobe (BTL) in epileptic patients during cognitive visual tasks designed to evoke the P300 event related potential (ERP). From those recordings we examined the event related gamma band oscillation (ERGBO) and P300 ERP. While P300 was predominantly observed in the MTL, ERGBO was observed in both MTL and BTL. Resembling to P300, ERGBO responses were more often observed following rare stimuli than frequent stimuli. In average responses the ERGBO to rare stimuli followed P300, beginning at 440.5 ms and continuing for about 100 ms. Past studies suggest P300 ERP component reflects a role in cognitive function. Since ERGBO in the present study appeared in different regions and at a different latency from P300, ERGBO may reflect a different physiological role in the cognitive process.

Adult↗

PubMed1976

Self-image disparity, repression-sensitization, and extraversion-introversion: a unitary dimension?

To determination (1) whether self-image disparity, repression-sensitization, and extraversion-introversion intercorrelated to a degree indicative of a unitary personality dimension and, (2) whether the interrelationships among these variables was accounted for by cognitive developmental variance, Byrne's Revised Repression-Sensitization Scale, Giedt and Downing's Extraversion-Introversion Scale, and two measures of self-image disparity were administered to 20 male college freshmen and 20 male seniors. All the correlations among the four measures were significant, but none correlated significantly with cognitive development, as measured by SATs. Factor analysis yielded a clearcut personality factor and a clearcut cognitive factor, indicating that the personality measures reflect a unitary dimension, even after cognitive developmental variance is extracted.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

Processing bottlenecks in dual-task performance: structural limitation or strategic postponement?

Recent evidence indicates that a central bottleneck causes much of the slowing that occurs when two tasks are performed at the same time. This bottleneck might reflect a structural limitation inherent in the cognitive architecture. Alternatively, the bottleneck might reflect strategic (i.e., voluntary) postponement, induced by instructions to emphasize one task over the other. To distinguish structural limitations from strategic postponement, we examine a new paradigm in which subjects are told to place equal emphasis on both tasks and to emit both responses at about the same time. An experiment using this paradigm demonstrated patterns of interference that cannot easily be attributed to strategic postponement, preparation effects, or conflicts in response production. The data conform closely to the predictions of structural central bottleneck models.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

'Autistic' traits in non-autistic Japanese populations: relationships with personality traits and cognitive ability.

We explored the relationships between 'autistic' traits as measured by the AQ (Autism-Spectrum Quotient; Baron-Cohen et al., J. Autism Develop. Disord. (2001b) 31 5) and various personality traits or cognitive ability, which usually coincide with autistic symptoms, for general populations. Results showed the AQ was associated with tendencies toward an obsessional personality as defined by the TCI (Temperament and Character Inventory), higher depression and anxiety, and higher frequency of experience of being bullied. These results parallel the patterns in autism and corroborate the validity of the AQ for general populations. Contrary to our prediction, however, there was no relationship between the AQ and cognitive ability, such as theory of mind, executive functioning, and central coherence, suggesting the AQ does not reflect autism-specific cognitive patterns in general populations.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Learning sequence movements in a homogenous sample of patients with Parkinson's disease.

We investigated the acquisition of sequence movements in Parkinson's disease (PD) by means of the serial reaction time (SRT) task. To this end, we used a sample of PD patients that fell within the same stage of the disease. Sixteen PD patients and 16 age-, sex- and education-matched control subjects performed the SRT task with a first-order conditional (FOC) sequence and with a second-order conditional (SOC) sequence. The results showed that the group of PD patients could be divided into two distinct subgroups: a fast PD patient subgroup (n=11) and a slow PD patient subgroup (n=5). FOC and SOC sequence learning in faster PD patients proved to be highly comparable to the group of controls. In contrast, learning of FOC and SOC sequences was severely impaired in slower PD patients. Since slow PD patients also scored lower on measures of cognitive functioning than faster PD patients, we assume that the deficits in SRT learning of the former reflect some more general cognitive impairment. This indicates that SRT performance can provide additional information about the cognitive abilities of PD patients, and accordingly may contribute to disease screening.

Aged↗

PubMed1995

On the status of inhibitory mechanisms in cognition: memory retrieval as a model case.

Theories of cognition frequently assume the existence of inhibitory mechanisms that deactivate mental representations. Justifying this assumption is difficult because cognitive effects thought to reflect inhibition can often be explained without recourse to inhibitory processes. This article addresses the uncertain status of cognitive inhibitory mechanisms, focusing on their function in memory retrieval. On the basis of a novel form of forgetting reported herein, it is shown that classical associative theories of interference are insufficient as accounts of forgetting and that inhibitory processes must be at work. It is argued that inhibitory processes are used to resolve computational problems of selection common to memory retrieval and selective attention and that retrieval is best regarded as conceptually focused selective attention.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Impaired prefrontal inhibition in schizophrenia: relevance for cognitive dysfunction.

In schizophrenia, critical deficits in cognitive functions appear to reflect altered neural processing in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Given the essential role of inhibitory neurotransmission in mediating these cognitive functions, we sought to determine whether abnormalities in the inhibitory circuitry of the PFC may contribute to the cognitive deficits of schizophrenia. In situ hybridization analyses in postmortem brain tissue from subjects with schizophrenia revealed that a subset of GABA neurons in PFC layers 1-5 do not express detectable levels of the mRNAs encoding glutamate decarboxylase (GAD(67)), a synthesizing enzyme for GABA, or the GABA membrane transporter (GAT-1), which is responsible for the reuptake of GABA into the nerve terminal. Furthermore, the affected GABA neurons appear to include chandelier cells, since decreased expression of GAT-1 mRNA is associated with decreased GAT-1 protein immunoreactivity in chandelier neuron axon terminals. Finally, immunocytochemical studies revealed that decreased GAT-1 immunoreactivity in chandelier neuron axon terminals is associated with an increase in a marker of GABA(A) receptors at the postsynaptic targets of chandelier neuron axons, the axon initial segment (AIS) of pyramidal neurons. These findings suggest that schizophrenia is associated with an up-regulation of GABA(A) receptors at pyramidal neuron AIS in response to deficient GABAergic input from chandelier neurons. Selective disruptions in inhibitory neurotransmission are likely to distort aspects of pyramidal neuron function important for working memory tasks, and thus may contribute to cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia.

Cognition Disorders↗

PubMed2006

Dissociation: cognitive capacity or dysfunction?

Dissociative experiences are mostly studied as a risk factor for dissociative pathology. Nonpathological dissociation is quite common in the general population, however, and may reflect a constitutionally determined cognitive style rather than a pathological trait acquired through the experience of adverse life events. In a theoretical model, we propose that nonpathological dissociation is characterized by high levels of elaboration learning and reconstructive retrieval, for which enhanced levels of attentional and working memory abilities are a prerequisite. These characteristics, in general, seem to be representative for a higher ability to (re-)construct conscious experiences. We review some of our behavioral as well as neural (i.e., fMRI, ERPs) studies, suggesting that high dissociative individuals are characterized by heightened levels of attention, working memory and episodic memory. In nonpathological conditions a person may benefit from these dissociative abilities, although after adverse (e.g., traumatic) events the disposition may develop into dissociative pathology.

Attention↗

PubMed2004

Nicotine effects on brain function and functional connectivity in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Nicotine in tobacco smoke can improve functioning in multiple cognitive domains. High rates of smoking among schizophrenic patients may reflect an effort to remediate cognitive dysfunction. Our primary aim was to determine whether nicotine improves cognitive function by facilitating activation of brain regions mediating task performance or by facilitating functional connectivity. METHODS: Thirteen smokers with schizophrenia and 13 smokers with no mental illness were withdrawn from tobacco and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning twice, once after placement of a placebo patch and once after placement of a nicotine patch. During scanning, subjects performed an n-back task with two levels of working memory load and of selective attention load. RESULTS: During the most difficult (dichotic 2-back) task condition, nicotine improved performance of schizophrenic subjects and worsened performance of control subjects. Nicotine also enhanced activation of a network of regions, including anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral thalamus, and modulated thalamocortical functional connectivity to a greater degree in schizophrenic than in control subjects during dichotic 2-back task performance. CONCLUSIONS: In tasks that tax working memory and selective attention, nicotine may improve performance in schizophrenia patients by enhancing activation of and functional connectivity between brain regions that mediate task performance.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Depressive symptoms predict slow cognitive decline in mild dementia.

Depression may be a prognostic marker of subsequent cognitive decline in patients with dementia. Earlier investigations did not find support for this hypothesis, but these considered mainly syndromal depression. In this prospective study, 32 subjects with mild dementia were followed up for 12 months. The effects of GMS-AGECAT syndromal depression, subsyndromal depression and dimensions of depressive symptoms were studied. Higher levels of mood symptoms but not (sub)syndromal depression predicted slower cognitive decline during follow-up. It is hypothesized that the report of depressive symptoms by subjects with mild dementia reflects relative intactness of cognitive functions, not accounted for by cognitive screening instruments.

Affect↗

PubMed1989

Cognitive failure and chronic pain.

Relationships between pain variables, emotional functioning, and cognitive inefficiency as assessed by the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) were investigated. In general, the tendency to make cognitive errors was found to be related to emotional difficulties but to be unrelated to pain variables. Four explanations were proposed: First, that increased reports of cognitive and affective difficulties may reflect a "complaining" response set; second, that the constructs of cognitive inefficiency and affective distress overlap while the constructs of the former and pain do not; third, cognitive and affective dysfunction exist in a circular relationship; and finally, that high rates of cognitive failure may predispose pain patients to have subsequent difficulties with low mood.

Adult↗