Gleichgerrcht E, Young L.  Low Levels of Empathic Concern Predict Utilitarian Moral Judgment. PloS One 2013

Is it permissible to harm one to save many? Classic moral dilemmas are often defined by the conflict between a putatively rational response to maximize aggregate welfare (i.e., the utilitarian judgment) and an emotional aversion to harm (i.e., the non-utilitarian judgment). Here, we address two questions. First, what specific aspect of emotional responding is relevant for these judgments? Second, is this aspect of emotional responding selectively reduced in utilitarians or enhanced in non-utilitarians? The results reveal a key relationship between moral judgment and empathic concern in particular (i.e., feelings of warmth and compassion in response to someone in distress). Utilitarian participants showed significantly reduced empathic concern on an independent empathy measure. These findings therefore reveal diminished empathic concern in utilitarian moral judges.

Báez S, Herrera E, Villarin L, Theil D, González-Gadea ML, Gómez P, Mosquera M, Huepe D, Strejilevich S, Vigliecca NS,Matthäus F, Decety J, Manes F, Ibanez A.  Contextual social cognition impairments in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. PloS One 2013

BACKGROUND: The ability to integrate contextual information with social cues to generate social meaning is a key aspect of social cognition. It is widely accepted that patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders have deficits in social cognition; however, previous studies on these disorders did not use tasks that replicate everyday situations.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This study evaluates the performance of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders on social cognition tasks (emotional processing, empathy, and social norms knowledge) that incorporate different levels of contextual dependence and involvement of real-life scenarios. Furthermore, we explored the association between social cognition measures, clinical symptoms and executive functions. Using a logistic regression analysis, we explored whether the involvement of more basic skills in emotional processing predicted performance on empathy tasks. The results showed that both patient groups exhibited deficits in social cognition tasks with greater context sensitivity and involvement of real-life scenarios. These deficits were more severe in schizophrenic than in bipolar patients. Patients did not differ from controls in tasks involving explicit knowledge. Moreover, schizophrenic patients’ depression levels were negatively correlated with performance on empathy tasks.

CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Overall performance on emotion recognition predicted performance on intentionality attribution during the more ambiguous situations of the empathy task. These results suggest that social cognition deficits could be related to a general impairment in the capacity to implicitly integrate contextual cues. Important implications for the assessment and treatment of individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders, as well as for neurocognitive models of these pathologies are discussed.

Ibanez A, Aguado J, Báez S, Huepe D, R Ortega, Sigman M, Mikulan E, Lischinsky A, Torrente F, Cetkovich M, Torralva T, Bekinschtein T, Manes F.  From neural signatures of emotional modulation to social cognition: Individual differences in healthy volunteers and psychiatric participants. Social Cognitive and Affective Neurosciences 2013

It is commonly assumed thatearly emotional signals provide relevant informationfor social cognition tasks. The goal of this study was to test the association between (a) cortical markers of face emotional processing and (b) social-cognitive measures,and also to build a model which can predictthis association (a & b) in healthy volunteers as well as in different groups of psychiatric patients. Thus, we investigated the early cortical processing of emotional stimuli (N170, using a face and word valence task) and their relationship with the social-cognitive profiles (SCPs, indexed by measures of theory of mind, fluid intelligence, speed processing, and executive functions). Group comparisons and individual differences were assessed among schizophrenia (SCZ) patients and their relatives, individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), individuals with euthymic bipolar disorder (BD) and healthy participants (educational level, handedness, age and gendermatched). Our results provide evidence of emotional N170 impairments in the affected groups (SCZ and relatives, ADHD and BD) as well as subtle group differences. Importantly, cortical processing of emotional stimuli predicted the social cognition profile (SCP), as evidenced by a structural equation model (SEM) analysis. This is the first study to report anassociation model of brain markers of emotional processing and SCP.

Cardona JF, Manes F, Escobar J, Lopez J, Ibanez A.  Potentials consequences of abandonment in preschool-age: Neuropsychological findings in institutionalized children. . Behavioural Neurology 2012

Objective: Several longitudinal studies had shown that early deprivation and institutionalization during the first six months of life affects the emotional, cognitive, social and neurophysiologic development. Nevertheless, our understanding of possible similar effects of delayed institutionalization, in preschool-age remains unclear to this day. The goal of this study is to evaluate the cognitive performance of institutionalized children with history of preschool-age physical abandonment. Method: 18 male institutionalized children with history of abandonment during the preschool-age (2-5 years old) and comparison group matched by age, handedness, gender, educational and socioeconomic level were tested on multiple tasks of attention, memory and executive functions. Results: We found a cognitive impairment in the institutionalized children in several measures of attention, memory and executive functions. This is the first report of cognitive impairment related to late abandonment and institutionalization effects (after 2 years old), extending the already known effects on early institutionalization. Conclusions: This preliminary study suggests that environmental factors including abandonment and institutional care, can affect not only the infancy period, but also the preschool period providing new insights into our understanding of neurocognitive development.

Torrente F, López PL, Alvarez Prado D, Kichic R, Cetkovich M, Lischinsky A, Manes F.  Dysfunctional Cognitions and their Emotional, Behavioral, and Functional Correlates in Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Is the Cognitive-Behavioral Model Valid?. Journal of Attention Disorders 2012

Objective: To investigate the presence of dysfunctional cognitions in adults with ADHD and to determine whether these cognitions are associated with emotional symptoms, maladaptive coping, and functional impairment, as predicted by the cognitive-behavioral model. Method: A total of 35 adult participants with ADHD, 20 nonclinical controls, and 20 non-ADHD clinical controls were assessed with measures of ADHD symptoms, dysfunctional cognitions, depression and anxiety symptoms, coping strategies, and quality of life. Results: ADHD group showed elevated scores of dysfunctional cognitions relative to nonclinical control group and comparable with clinical control group. Dysfunctional cognitions were strongly associated with emotional symptoms. ADHD group also showed elevated scores in maladaptive coping strategies of the escape-avoidance type. Life impairment was satisfactorily predicted in data analysis when ADHD symptoms, dysfunctional cognitions, and emotional symptoms were fitted into a regression model. Conclusion: Cognitive-behavioral therapy model appears to be a valid complementary model for understanding emotional and life impairment in adults with ADHD.

Parra M, Ascencio L, Urquina H, Manes F, Ibanez A.  P300 and Neuropsychological assessment in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer Dementia. Frontiers in Neurology 2012

Only a small proportion of individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) will convert to dementia. Methods currently available to identify risk for conversion do not combine enough sensitivity and specificity, which is even more problematic in low-educated populations. Current guidelines suggest the use of combined markers for dementia to enhance the prediction accuracy of assessment methods. The present study adhered to this proposal and investigated the sensitivity and specificity of the electrophysiological component P300 and standard neuropsychological tests to assess patients with Alzheimer´s disease (AD) and MCI recruited from a low-income country. The neuropsychological battery comprised tests of memory, attention, language, praxis and executive functions. The P300 was recorded using a classical visual odd-ball paradigm. Three variables were found to achieve sensitivity and specificity values above 80% (Immediate and Delayed recall of word list – CERAD – and the latency of P300) for both MCI and AD. When they entered the model together (i.e., combined approach) the sensitivity for MCI increased to 96% and the specificity remained high (80%). Our preliminary findings suggest that the combined use of sensitive neuropsychological tasks and the analysis of the P300 may offer a very useful method for the preclinical assessment of AD, particularly in populations with low socioeconomic and educational levels. Our results provide a platform and justification to employ more resources to convert P300 and related parameters into a biological marker for AD.

Goldman SM, Kamel F, Ross GW, Bhudhikanok GS, Hoppin JA, Korrell M, Marras C, Meng C, Umbach DM, Kasten M, Chade AR, Comyns K, Richards MB, Sandler DP, Blair A, Langston JW, Tanner CM.  Genetic Modification of the Association of Paraquat and Parkinson’s Disease. Movement Disorders 2012

Paraquat is one of the most widely used herbicides worldwide. It produces a Parkinson´s disease (PD) model in rodents through redox cycling and oxidative stress (OS) and is associated with PD risk in humans. Glutathione transferases provide cellular protection against OS and could potentially modulate paraquat toxicity. We investigated PD risk associated with paraquat use in individuals with homozygous deletions of the genes encoding glutathione S-transferase M1 (GSTM1) or T1 (GSTT1). Eighty-seven PD subjects and 343 matched controls were recruited from the Agricultural Health Study, a study of licensed pesticide applicators and spouses in Iowa and North Carolina. PD was confirmed by in-person examination. Paraquat use and covariates were determined by interview. We genotyped subjects for homozygous deletions of GSTM1 (GSTM1*0) and GSTT1 (GSTT1*0) and tested interaction between paraquat use and genotype using logistic regression. Two hundred and twenty-three (52%) subjects had GSTM1*0, 95 (22%) had GSTT1*0, and 73 (17%; all men) used paraquat. After adjustment for potential confounders, there was no interaction with GSTM1. In contrast, GSTT1 genotype significantly modified the association between paraquat and PD. In men with functional GSTT1, the odds ratio (OR) for association of PD with paraquat use was 1.5 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.6–3.6); in men with GSTT1*0, the OR was 11.1 (95% CI: 3.0–44.6; P interaction: 0.027). Although replication is needed, our results suggest that PD risk from paraquat exposure might be particularly high in individuals lacking GSTT1. GSTT1*0 is common and could potentially identify a large subpopulation at high risk of PD from oxidative stressors such as paraquat.

Ibanez A, Riveros R, Hurtado E, Gleichgerrcht E, Urquina H, Herrera E, Amoruso L, Martin-Reyes M, Manes F.  The face and its emotion: Cortical Deficits in Structural Processing and Emotional Discrimination in Schizophrenic and Relatives. Psychiatry Research 2012

Previous studies have reported facial emotion recognition impairments in schizophrenic patients, as well as abnormalities in the N170 component of the event-related potential. Current research on schizophrenia highlights the importance of complexly-inherited brain-based deficits. In order to examine the N170 markers of face structural and emotional processing, DSM-IV diagnosed schizophrenia probands (n=13), unaffected first-degree relatives from multiplex families (n=13), and control subjects (n=13) matched by age, gender and educational level, performed a categorization task which involved words and faces with positive and negative valence. The N170 component, while present in relatives and control subjects, was reduced in patients, not only for faces, but also for face-word differences, suggesting a deficit in structural processing of stimuli. Control subjects showed N170 modulation according to the valence of facial stimuli. However, this discrimination effect was found to be reduced both in patients and relatives. This is the first report showing N170 valence deficits in relatives. Our results suggest a generalized deficit affecting the structural encoding of faces in patients, as well as the emotion discrimination both in patients and relatives. Finally, these findings lend support to the notion that cortical markers of facial discrimination can be validly considered as vulnerability markers.

Ibanez A, Melloni M, Huepe D, Rivera-Rei A, Canales-Johnson AF, Baker P, Moya A.  What event-related potentials (ERPs) bring to social neuroscience? Social Neuroscience 2012 10.1177/1352458514554054.

Social cognitive neuroscience is a recent interdisciplinary field that studies the neural basis of the social mind. Event-related potentials (ERPs) provide precise information about the time dynamics of the brain. In this study, we assess the role of ERPs in cognitive neuroscience, particularly in the emerging area of social neuroscience. First, we briefly introduce the technique of ERPs. Subsequently, we describe several ERP components (P1, N1, N170, vertex positive potential, early posterior negativity, N2, P2, P3, N400, N400-like, late positive complex, late positive potential, P600, error-related negativity, feedback error-related negativity, contingent negative variation, readiness potential, lateralized readiness potential, motor potential, re-afferent potential) that assess perceptual, cognitive, and motor processing. Then, we introduce ERP studies in social neuroscience on contextual effects on speech, emotional processing, empathy, and decision making. We provide an outline of ERPs’ relevance and applications in the field of social cognitive neuroscience. We also introduce important methodological issues that extend classical ERP research, such as intracranial recordings (iERP) and source location in dense arrays and simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging recordings. Further, this review discusses possible caveats of the ERP question assessment on neuroanatomical areas, biophysical origin, and methodological problems, and their relevance to explanatory pluralism and multilevel, contextual, and situated approaches to social neuroscience.

Wilson MA, Martinez Cuitiño M.  Semantic dementia without surface dyslexia in Spanish: Unimpaired reading with impaired semantics. Behavioural Neurology 2012 10.3758/s13415-013-0205-3

Surface dyslexia has been attributed to an overreliance on the sub-lexical route for reading. Typically, surface dyslexic patients commit regularisation errors when reading irregular words. Also, semantic dementia has often been associated with surface dyslexia, leading to some explanations of the reading impairment that stress the role of semantics in irregular word reading. Nevertheless, some patients have been reported with unimpaired ability to read irregular words, even though they show severe comprehension impairment. We present the case of M.B., the first Spanish-speaking semantic dementia patient to be reported who shows unimpaired reading of non-words, regular words, and – most strikingly – irregular loan words. M.B. has severely impaired comprehension of the same words he reads correctly (whether regular or irregular). We argue that M.B.’s pattern of performance shows that irregular words can be correctly read even with impaired semantic knowledge corresponding to those words.