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PubMed2006

Role of the amygdala in decisions under ambiguity and decisions under risk: evidence from patients with Urbach-Wiethe disease.

Various neuropsychological studies have shown that decision-making deficits can occur in a wide range of patients with brain damage or dysfunctions. Decisions under ambiguity, as measured with the Iowa Gambling Task, primarily depend on the integrity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, as well as on further brain regions such as the somatosensory cortex. However, little is known about the specific role of these structures in decisions under risk measured with tasks that offer explicit rules for gains and losses and winning probabilities, for example, the Game of Dice Task. We aimed to investigate the potential role of the amygdala for decisions under risk. For this purpose, we examined three patients with Urbach-Wiethe disease--a rare syndrome associated with selective bilateral mineralisation of the amygdalae. Neuropsychological performance was assessed with the Iowa Gambling Task (decisions under ambiguity), the Game of Dice Task (decisions under risk), and an extensive neuropsychological test battery focussing on executive functions. Furthermore, previous studies found relationships between generating skin conductance responses and deciding advantageously in the Iowa Gambling Task. Accordingly, we recorded skin conductance responses during both decision tasks as a measure of emotional reactivity. Results indicate that patients with selective amygdala damage have lower scores in both decisions under ambiguity and decisions under risk. Decisions under risk are especially compromised in patients who also demonstrate deficits in executive functioning. In both gambling tasks, patients showed reduced skin conductance responses compared to healthy comparison subjects. The results suggest that deciding advantageously under risk conditions involves both the use of feedback from previous trials, as required by decisions under ambiguity, and in addition, executive functions.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Cognitive functioning and employment in severe mental illness.

This study compared cognitive functioning and symptomatology of unemployed, supported employed, and independently employed clients with severe mental illness. Unemployed clients who wanted to work (N = 21) were compared with clients working in supported employment programs (N = 17) and clients who had been working independently for at least 1 year (N = 23) on a neuropsychological battery and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Clients who were unemployed had more severe symptoms and worse cognitive functioning on both positive and negative symptoms, and almost all domains of cognitive functioning. Supported employed clients had more severe psychotic symptoms and worse working memory than independently employed clients, but did not differ in negative symptoms or the other domains of cognitive functioning, including attention/concentration, psychomotor speed, verbal learning and memory, or executive functions. Finally, job complexity was correlated with impaired executive functions among clients working independently, but not in supported employment. Severe symptoms and cognitive impairment may interfere with the ability of some clients with severe mental illness to obtain competitive work. Supported employment programs appear to work by helping clients compensate for problematic symptoms and cognitive impairment and, to a lesser extent, by finding or developing environmental niches in which these impairments do not impede their ability to perform the necessary job tasks.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Conceptualization and measurement of getting lost behavior in persons with early dementia.

BACKGROUND: The primary purpose of this preliminary research was to describe the psychometric properties of a newly-developed Everyday Spatial Questionnaire for Dementia-patient version (ESQD-P) in a Chinese population. A secondary goal was to assess the relationship between executive functions and wayfinding strategy application. The ESQD-P is a measure for the phenomenon of 'getting lost behavior' (GLB) reported by early Alzheimer's disease sufferers, based on the concept of spatial problem-solving. METHODS: With a cross-sectional descriptive design, the ESQD-P was validated by examining for internal consistency, construct validity, concurrent validity, and exploratory factor analyses among 116 outpatients in the memory disorder clinic of a veterans' general hospital in Taiwan. Other variables included were: global cognition, measured by the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument; stages of dementia, measured by the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale; and depressive symptoms, measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form. RESULTS: Findings indicated that the Chinese ESQD-P is a reliable instrument for measuring GLB (internal consistency alpha = 0.73). A five-factor solution explained 55.45% of the score variance, while the correlations between the patient and proxy versions of this instrument yielded an acceptable concurrent validity. Executive functions can predict both global and analytic wayfinding strategies. CONCLUSIONS: GLB may be explained in part by declining executive functions. Deleting the coping strategies subscale may improve psychometric properties of the ESQD-P.

Aged↗

PubMed2006

Theory of mind and its relation to schizotypy.

INTRODUCTION: Frith (1992) suggested that many psychotic symptoms are associated with impaired theory of mind (ToM), the ability to represent the mental states of others. Langdon and Coltheart (1999) found an association in a nonclinical adult population between schizotypal traits and poorer ToM on a picture-sequencing task. The present study attempted to replicate and extend this finding using a ToM story task. METHODS: A total of 62 nonclinical individuals completed a schizotypy questionnaire (the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences; O-LIFE) and a set of ToM stories. Matched "physical" control stories were administered to control for general reasoning ability. Executive function and current verbal IQ were assessed using the Cognitive Estimates Test and the Quick Test, respectively. RESULTS: Schizotypal traits analogous to positive symptoms of schizophrenia (UE scale of the O-LIFE) predicted poorer scores on the ToM task, but were unrelated to scores on physical stories. Individuals with high scores for total schizotypy on the O-LIFE did not differ in ToM from those with low total scores. There was no association between poorer ToM and schizotypal traits analogous to the "behavioural signs" of schizophrenia. Executive function and verbal IQ did not significantly predict story scores. CONCLUSIONS: Positive schizotypal traits in the normal population are associated with subtle impairments in ToM, independent of reasoning ability, executive function, or verbal IQ. A strong association between poor ToM and "behavioural signs" may only appear in studies of schizophrenic patients, and not in studies of nonclinical individuals. The findings are discussed in relation to Frith's (1992) cognitive neuropsychological model of schizophrenia.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

A pilot study of neuropsychological function in girls with ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is known to have neuropsychological consequences that are evident from psychological tests and from measures of school failure. However, most available data are based on studies of boys. Our goal was to assess, in this pilot study, whether ADHD in girls expressed neuropsychological features similar to those found in boys. METHOD: Subjects were 43 girls, aged 6 to 17 years, with DSM-III-R ADHD and 36 comparison girls without ADHD. Information on neuropsychological performance was obtained in a standardized manner blind to clinical status. RESULTS: Girls with ADHD were significantly more impaired on estimated IQ than comparison girls despite being matched on other demographic variables. Relative to comparison girls, the girls with ADHD were also significantly more impaired on the Freedom From Distractibility subtests of the WISC-R and on arithmetic and reading achievement scores. Although their mean performance on executive function tests was generally poorer than that of control girls, there were no statistically significant differences on these measures. CONCLUSIONS: Girls with ADHD have impairments in some tests of attention and achievement. However, neuropsychological performance on tests of executive function was less impaired than that previously documented in boys with ADHD. If confirmed in a larger sample, these findings suggest that girls with ADHD may be less vulnerable to executive function deficits than boys.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Theory of mind following traumatic brain injury: the role of emotion recognition and executive dysfunction.

A number of studies have now documented that traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with deficits in the recognition of basic emotions, the capacity to infer mental states of others (theory of mind), as well as executive functioning. However, no study to date has investigated the relationship between these three constructs in the context of TBI. In the current study TBI participants (N=16) were compared with demographically matched healthy controls (N=17). It was found that TBI participants' recognition of basic emotions, as well as their capacity for mental state attribution, was significantly reduced relative to controls. Performance on both of these measures was strongly correlated in the healthy control, but not in the TBI sample. In contrast, in the TBI (but not the control) sample, theory of mind was substantially correlated with performance on phonemic fluency, a measure of executive functioning considered to impose particular demands upon cognitive flexibility and self-regulation. These results are consistent with other evidence indicating that deficits in some aspects of executive functioning may at least partially underlie deficits in social cognition following TBI, and thus help explain the prevalence of social dysfunction in TBI.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Neurocognitive profile in adolescents with early-onset schizophrenia: clinical correlates.

BACKGROUND: Neurocognitive impairments have been documented in adolescents with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS; onset by age 18) and are important treatment targets. Information concerning the severity, pattern, and clinical correlates of these deficits in EOS remains limited. METHODS: Tests assessing motor skills, attention, memory, visuospatial abilities and executive functioning were administered to 54 clinically stabilized adolescents with EOS and 52 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Childhood-onset patients (onset by age 13) were compared to those with an adolescent onset of illness. Patients' neurocognitive profiles were compared to those of controls. Relationships between neurocognitive deficits and demographic and clinical characteristics were explored. RESULTS: Neurocognitive profiles did not differ between childhood- and adolescent-onset participants. Patients showed a generalized neurocognitive deficit of 2.0 SDs compared to controls, with relative deficit in executive functioning and relative sparing of language and visuospatial abilities. Degree of generalized neurocognitive impairment was associated with premorbid adjustment and negative symptom severity (Adjusted R(2) = .39). CONCLUSIONS: Results document both a significant generalized deficit and a relative deficit of executive functioning in adolescents with EOS. The overall pattern is similar to that observed in severely ill first-episode adult patients. The impairments across multiple neurocognitive domains suggest widespread brain dysfunction in EOS.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

[A study of the effect of donepezil hydrochloride on cognitive function in patients with dementia of Alzheimer's type using WAIS-R].

The present study aimed to assess the initial effects of donepezil hydrochloride (DPZ) on various aspects of cognitive function in patients with dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT) using the Japanese version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R). DPZ was administered to 47 patients with mild-to-moderate DAT (D group). The control group comprised 61 patients who had been followed up before DPZ was released for use (C group). Both groups underwent WAIS-R testing, before and after 10 months of treatment with DPZ for group D, and at time of diagnosis of DAT and 10 months later for group C. D and C groups did not differ significantly in terms of gender ratio, years of education, age at onset of DAT, age at administration of DPZ or at diagnosis of DAT, severity of dementia, MMSE score, presence of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, concomitant use of psychotropic medication, or initiation of rehabilitation. No significant differences were found between D and C groups in verbal (V), performance (P) or full-scale (F) intelligence quotient (IQ), or in six verbal subtest scores of VIQ and five performance subtest scores of PIQ on WAIS-R, before administration of DPZ or at diagnosis of DAT. For differences between each score on WAIS-R at diagnosis of DAT or before administration of DPZ and 10 months later, DPZ inhibited decreases in FIQ and in VIQ, PIQ, vocabulary, similarities, picture arrangement and object assembly subtest scores on WAIS-R. These indices are related to concept formation and abstract thinking, which form part of executive function. DPZ effectively prevented decline of cognitive function, particularly executive function, in patients with DAT.

Aged↗

PubMed2003

Visual-spatial ability in Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's Disease (PD) has traditionally been viewed as primarily a disturbance of motor functioning, typically involving tremor, rigidity, hypokinesia, gait disturbance, and postural instability. More recently, decline in cognitive function has been recognized as a feature of PD. One prominent cognitive symptom of PD involves deficits on tasks of spatial ability. However, findings of visual-spatial deficits in individuals with PD have been inconsistent. There are several methodological issues in this area of research that potentially confound the interpretation of data and need to be taken into consideration, including subject characteristics (e.g., age, sex and education), duration of illness, the current level of disability, the presence of emotional depression, the current level of medications, and the presence of dementia. Further, the tests that have shown visual-spatial deficits in PD are often complex, showing sensitivity to other cognitive processes as well. Another problem in this area of research is the lack of a clear understanding of the brain mechanisms that underlie visual-spatial deficits in PD. One theory of cognitive dysfunction in PD suggests that these cognitive deficits are in some way related to disruption of frontal-basal ganglia neural circuits important in executive functions. However, frontal-basal ganglionic dysfunction does not appear to account entirely for the visual-spatial cognitive deficits seen in PD. Subtle differences in performance on executive function measures appear to dissociate individuals with frontal lobe damage from individuals with PD. Findings from two recent studies indicate that PD is indeed associated with deficits in visual-spatial ability. These findings also indicate that the relationship between visual-spatial ability and frontal-executive function in PD is likely complex, and that the visual-spatial deficits in PD may be sensitive to the sex of the individual with PD.

Humans↗

PubMed2006

Childhood obstructive sleep apnea associates with neuropsychological deficits and neuronal brain injury.

BACKGROUND: Childhood obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with neuropsychological deficits of memory, learning, and executive function. There is no evidence of neuronal brain injury in children with OSA. We hypothesized that childhood OSA is associated with neuropsychological performance dysfunction, and with neuronal metabolite alterations in the brain, indicative of neuronal injury in areas corresponding to neuropsychological function. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 31 children (19 with OSA and 12 healthy controls, aged 6-16 y) group-matched by age, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. Participants underwent polysomnography and neuropsychological assessments. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging was performed on a subset of children with OSA and on matched controls. Neuropsychological test scores and mean neuronal metabolite ratios of target brain areas were compared. Relative to controls, children with severe OSA had significant deficits in IQ and executive functions (verbal working memory and verbal fluency). Children with OSA demonstrated decreases of the mean neuronal metabolite ratio N-acetyl aspartate/choline in the left hippocampus (controls: 1.29, standard deviation [SD] 0.21; OSA: 0.91, SD 0.05; p = 0.001) and right frontal cortex (controls: 2.2, SD 0.4; OSA: 1.6, SD 0.4; p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Childhood OSA is associated with deficits of IQ and executive function and also with possible neuronal injury in the hippocampus and frontal cortex. We speculate that untreated childhood OSA could permanently alter a developing child's cognitive potential.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Cognitive function in late versus early postmenopausal stage.

OBJECTIVES: There are relatively few studies of cognitive performance in the first few postmenopausal years and insufficient data on whether there is differential decline in different cognitive abilities. The aim of the present analysis was to determine the nature of cognitive decline across a range of functions within a period of 5 years from early to late postmenopausal stage. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, 189 postmenopausal women, who had experienced a natural menopause, were not taking hormonal medication and had not done so in the previous 12 months, were divided according to their postmenopausal stage into early (stage +1, < or =5 years since the last menstrual period, aged 55.4+/-0.3 years, n=80), or late (stage +2, >5 years since the last menstrual period, aged 59.8+/-0.4 years, n=109) postmenopausal stages. Participants completed a comprehensive battery of tests measuring attention, episodic and semantic memory, planning and mental flexibility. Participants also completed self-ratings of mood, sleepiness and menopausal symptoms. RESULTS: There were no differences between the groups in their performance in tests of attention, verbal fluency or memory. However, in the two tests of executive function (planning and mental flexibility) the women in the late postmenopausal stage performed significantly worse than the women in the early postmenopausal stage. These differences remained significant when effects of age and IQ were taken into account by analyses of covariance. There were no differences between the groups in their ratings of mood or of habitual sleepiness, or of feeling sleepy at the start of testing. However, by the end of testing the women in the late postmenopausal stage rated themselves as feeling sleepier than did the women in the early postmenopausal stage. The group differences in executive function remained significant when these differences in sleepiness were accounted for. CONCLUSIONS: Although there were no differences in attention, verbal fluency and memory, executive function was significantly poorer in the late postmenopausal stage women, suggesting that this aspect of cognition deteriorates more rapidly than other functions. This change was independent of change in age, suggesting that hormonal changes between the early and late postmenopausal stages may be responsible.

Affect↗

PubMed2004

A comparison of performance on the Towers of London and Hanoi in young children.

BACKGROUND: The Towers of London (TOL) and Hanoi (TOH) have been viewed as equivalent measures of planning and/or problem solving, although recent evidence in adults suggests that the underlying measurement characteristics of these two tasks may differ. As tower tasks are one of the few instruments that can be used to assess executive functioning in young children, the cognitive demands for both tasks merit further examination. METHODS: The relation among tower tasks and those of short-term memory, inhibition, and shifting ability were examined in a sample of 118 typically developing young children (M age = 4 years, 9 months, SD = 6 months). Half the children completed TOL and half completed TOH, with groups matched with respect to age, sex, and child vocabulary. RESULTS: Whilst performance on a shifting task uniquely predicted TOH performance, none of the executive function measures were related to TOL performance after statistically controlling for the influence of baseline naming speed. For both tower tasks, performance on a shifting task contributed more strongly on complex trials that required more moves in the counter-intuitive direction relative to the end-state goal, whereas inhibition task performance only predicted performance on complex TOL trials. CONCLUSIONS: Successful tower task performance may be determined, at least at higher levels of complexity, by mental flexibility in this age range. However, overall the findings suggest that TOL and TOH are not interchangeable tasks even in young children, and more generally, raise methodological issues regarding the complex nature of executive function tasks.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2005

Long-term attention problems in children with traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVE: To examine long-term attention problems and their cognitive correlates after childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI). METHOD: Data were drawn from a prospective, longitudinal study conducted between 1992 and 2002. Participants included 41 children with severe TBI, 41 with moderate TBI, and 50 with orthopedic injury (OI), who were all between 6 and 12 years of age at the time of injury. Parent ratings of attention problems were obtained at a long-term follow-up on average 4 years post-injury and compared with ratings of premorbid attention problems obtained shortly after injury. At the long-term follow-up, children also completed several cognitive tests of attention and executive functions. RESULTS: Hierarchical linear and logistic regression analyses indicated that the severe TBI group displayed significantly more attention problems than the OI group at 4 years post-injury, both behaviorally and cognitively, after controlling for race, socioeconomic status, and premorbid attention problems. At long-term follow-up, 46% of the severe TBI group displayed significant attention problems on the Child Behavior Checklist, as opposed to 26% of the OI group (odds ratio=3.38; 95% confidence interval, 1.15-9.94). On the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Rating Scale, 20% of the severe TBI group displayed clinically significant attention problems compared with 4% in the OI group (odds ratio=9.59; 95% confidence interval, 1.24-73.99). However, group differences in behavioral symptoms were significantly larger for children with more premorbid symptoms than for children with fewer premorbid problems. Measures of executive functions were significantly related to behavioral attention problems, after controlling for group membership, race, and socioeconomic status. CONCLUSIONS: Childhood TBI exacerbates premorbid attention problems. Long-term behavioral symptoms of attention problems are related to the cognitive deficits in attention and executive functions that often occur in association with childhood TBI.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗

PubMed2001

Verbal and nonverbal fluency in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure.

OBJECTIVE: Executive function deficits, including verbal fluency, have been documented in children with histories of prenatal alcohol exposure. Whereas nonverbal fluency impairments have been reported in adults with such exposure, these abilities have not been tested in children. Deficits in both verbal and nonverbal fluency were predicted and assessed in children and adolescents with histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. METHOD: There was a total of 28 (54% female) subjects; children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure with (n = 10) and without (n = 8) fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) were compared to nonexposed controls (n = 10) on the design and verbal fluency measures from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System. Both fluency measures consist of three conditions, including a new set-shifting task. All tests require the generation of multiple responses within both rule and time constraints. RESULTS: Data were analyzed using repeated measures analyses of variance and hierarchical regression analyses. Compared to controls, children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure with and without FAS displayed deficits in both fluency domains, but did not differ from each other. In addition, prenatal alcohol exposure was a significant predictor of performance on the set-shifting design fluency task above and beyond performance on more traditional fluency tasks. IQ was not a significant predictor for the traditional or set-shifting fluency measures, whereas diagnostic group remained a significant predictor when IQ was included in the model. CONCLUSIONS: This study adds to the literature on the integrity of executive functions in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure, documenting fluency impairment in both verbal and nonverbal domains. It is important to note that these impairments were demonstrated in higher functioning alcohol-exposed children, both with and without FAS, and that diagnostic group explained such deficiencies above and beyond general intellectual ability.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Executive processes in Asperger syndrome: patterns of performance in a multiple case series.

Mixed evidence exists for executive dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This may be because of the nature of the tasks used, the heterogeneity of participants, and difficulties with recruiting appropriate control groups. A comprehensive battery of 'executive' tests was administered to 22 individuals with Asperger syndrome and 22 well-matched controls. Performance was analysed both between groups and on an individual basis to identify outliers in both the ASD and control groups. There were no differences between the groups on all 'classical' tests of executive function. However, differences were found on newer tests of executive function. Specifically, deficits in planning, abstract problem solving and especially multitasking. On the tests that discriminated the groups, all of the ASD individuals except one were identified as significantly impaired (i.e. below the 5th percentile of the control mean) on at least one executive measure. This study provides evidence for significant executive dysfunction in Asperger syndrome. Greatest dysfunction appeared in response initiation and intentionality at the highest level--the ability to engage and disengage actions in the service of overarching goals. These deficits are best observed through using more recent, ecologically valid tests of executive dysfunction. Moreover, performance on these measures correlated with autistic symptomatology.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Phase II study of alpha-tocopherol in improving the cognitive function of patients with temporal lobe radionecrosis.

BACKGROUND: Radiotherapy is an important treatment modality for brain tumors and is the standard radical treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, the treatment is not free of side effects, and one possible neurologic sequela is the occurrence of temporal lobe radionecrosis (TLN) associated with cognitive dysfunction. Currently, there is no effective intervention to improve patients' cognitive performance. METHODS: Twenty-nine patients with TLN after radiotherapy for NPC were recruited on a voluntary basis. Among them, 19 patients (15 males and 4 females) received a megadose of alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) (2000 international units per day) for 1 year, whereas the other 10 (5 males and 5 females) served as control patients. Their cognitive function (i.e., global cognitive ability, attention, memory, language, and executive function) was evaluated by a battery of neuropsychological tests before and after treatment. RESULTS: Significant improvement in global cognitive ability (P = 0.035) and memory (verbal: P = 0.036; visual: P = 0.007) occurred among patients in the treatment group after a 1-year medication period. In addition, the executive function of the treatment group improved significantly (P = 0.04). No difference was found between the two groups with respect to attention or language. CONCLUSIONS: The current investigation was a preliminary study on the effect of alpha-tocopherol on the cognitive function of patients with TLN after radiotherapy for NPC. In view of the absence of effective treatment for patients with cerebral radionecrosis, alpha-tocopherol has the potential to be a complementary intervention for patients with cognitive dysfunction due to TLN.

Aged↗

PubMed2005

Limitations in verbal fluency following heavy burdens of early childhood diarrhea in Brazilian shantytown children.

The effects of heavy burdens of diarrhea in the first 2 years of life on specific executive control function like verbal fluency are not well understood. In previous studies, we have shown associations of early childhood diarrhea (ECD) with nonverbal intelligence and school functioning. Therefore, we postulated that ECD might affect early neuropsychological development leading to long-term deficits in normal cognitive development. Based on our extensive 14-year prospective cohort studies of early childhood diarrheal illnesses in a Brazilian shantytown community, we examined ECD correlations between specific impairments of higher mental function and executive skills in shantytown children 5-10 years later (now at 6-12) years of age. Specifically we examined whether heavy diarrheal illnesses correlate with reduced performance on selected tests of executive function. Our study, for the first time, suggests a disproportional impairment in semantic but not phonetic fluency in a subset of children with heavy burdens of diarrhea in their first 2 years of life even when controlling for maternal education, breastfeeding, and child schooling. Similar semantic decrements have been associated with impaired recovery from brain injury. These exploratory studies suggest the importance of verbal fluency tests to assess executive functioning in children challenged by poor nutrition and diarrhea in early life. In addition, our unique findings show the potential influences of early childhood diarrhea on language development that is so critical to productive adulthood and potentially set a foundation for new neuropsychological approaches, which assess early burdens of enteric illnesses on childhood development.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2002

Acute alcohol effects on cognitive function in social drinkers: their relationship to drinking habits.

RATIONALE: Several studies suggest that cognitive deficits seen in late stages of alcoholism are related to executive function. However, little is known about the acute effects of alcohol on cognitive executive functions. AIMS: The present investigation examined the acute effects of a moderate alcohol dose on tests of planning and spatial working memory as well as on tests of spatial and pattern recognition. The relationship between the acute alcohol effects on performance in these tasks and extreme drinking patterns were also studied. METHODS: Alcohol (0.8 g/kg) or placebo was administered to 95 social drinkers. In the planning task, alcohol decreased the number of solutions with the minimum moves. Alcohol also decreased the thinking time before initiating a response, while it increased the subsequent thinking time in the same task. Under alcohol, participants recognised fewer items in the spatial recognition task; however no effect of alcohol was found in a spatial working memory task and in a pattern recognition task. Among the participants with moderate to heavy use of alcohol, those who were 'bingers' performed worse in the spatial working memory and in the pattern recognition task than 'non-bingers'; no interaction between treatment and drinking pattern was found. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that alcohol given acutely impairs executive-type cognitive functions and that binge drinking may be associated with impaired cognitive function in a working memory and a pattern recognition task.

Adolescent↗