Categoría: Papers con abstracts

Background While fluid intelligence has proved to be central to executive functioning, logical reasoning and other frontal functions, the role of this ability in psychosocial adaptation has not been well characterized. Methodology/Principal Findings A random-probabilistic sample of 2370 secondary school students completed measures of fluid intelligence (Raven’s Progressive Matrices, RPM) and several measures of psychological adaptation: bullying (Delaware Bullying Questionnaire), domestic abuse of adolescents (Conflict Tactic Scale), drug intake (ONUDD), self-esteem (Rosenberg’s Self Esteem Scale) and the Perceived Mental Health Scale (Spanish adaptation). Lower fluid intelligence scores were associated with physical violence, both in the role of victim and victimizer. Drug intake, especially cannabis, cocaine and inhalants and lower self-esteem were also associated with lower fluid intelligence. Finally, scores on the perceived mental health assessment were better when fluid intelligence scores were higher. Conclusions/Significance Our results show evidence of a strong association between psychosocial adaptation and fluid intelligence, suggesting that the latter is not only central to executive functioning but also forms part of a more general capacity for adaptation to social contexts.

Patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) exhibit a set of behavioral disturbances that have been strongly associated with involvement of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Many such disturbances have been linked to impaired moral behavior, especially in regard to «personal » or «emotionally driven » moral dilemmatic judgment, which has been demonstrated to also depend on the integrity of the PFC. In this study, we administered a personal moral dilemma (the footbridge dilemma) and social cognition measures to patients with early bvFTD, who were also assessed with an extensive neuropsychological battery, including moral knowledge, cognitive and emotional empathy, and affective decision-making. BvFTD patients who would push a man off a footbridge (knowing this would kill him) to save the life of five workers who would have been otherwise killed by the train showed significantly lower scores on affective Theory of Mind (ToM) relative to those bvFTD patients who responded negatively. No significant differences were found on other sociodemographic, neuropsychological or social cognition variables. This study reveals that altered dilemmatic judgment may be related to impaired affective ToM, which has important clinical and theoretical implications.

Background. A «dysexecutive » group of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) has been previously identified, and these patients have been found to present higher frequency of psychiatric symptoms and more pronounced functional impact. This study aimed at evaluating the frequency of neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with early AD who present with impaired executive functioning. Methods. Thirty patients with early AD diagnosis were divided into a spared (SEF) and an impaired (IEF) executive functioning group according to their performance scores on neuropsychological tests. Their closest relatives or caregivers completed the Cambridge behavioral inventory (CBI), which assesses behavioral symptoms grouped into 13 categories. Results. A significant difference was exclusively found between SEF and IEF in terms of the frequency of stereotypies and repetitive motor behavior (U = 60.5, P = .024). Conclusions. The presence of stereotypies could be associated with a dysexecutive profile in AD patients. These results shed light on the role of frontal circuitry in the expression of motor symptoms in AD and prompt for further research that will contribute to the differential diagnosis both of different subtypes of AD and other types of dementia.

Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a rare early-onset dementing syndrome presenting with visuo-perceptual deficits. Clinicopathologically, it is most commonly considered a form of Alzheimer’s disease. We present the case of a 64-year-old male patient with posterior cortical atrophy who took part in a cognitive rehabilitation programme that included psychoeducation, compensatory strategies, and cognitive exercises. After the cognitive rehabilitation programme, subtle differences were found in visuoperceptual tasks and in the patient’s subjective perception of difficulties. Cognitive rehabilitation may temporarily improve functioning in patients with posterior cortical atrophy.

Background. A «dysexecutive » group of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) has been previously identified, and these patients have been found to present higher frequency of psychiatric symptoms and more pronounced functional impact. This study aimed at evaluating the frequency of neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with early AD who present with impaired executive functioning. Methods. Thirty patients with early AD diagnosis were divided into a spared (SEF) and an impaired (IEF) executive functioning group according to their performance scores on neuropsychological tests. Their closest relatives or caregivers completed the Cambridge behavioral inventory (CBI), which assesses behavioral symptoms grouped into 13 categories. Results. A significant difference was exclusively found between SEF and IEF in terms of the frequency of stereotypies and repetitive motor behavior (U = 60.5, P = .024). Conclusions. The presence of stereotypies could be associated with a dysexecutive profile in AD patients. These results shed light on the role of frontal circuitry in the expression of motor symptoms in AD and prompt for further research that will contribute to the differential diagnosis both of different subtypes of AD and other types of dementia.

Se denomina «Deterioro Cognitivo Leve” a un estado transicional entre los cambios cognitivos del envejecimiento normal y un estadio temprano de la demencia. En la actualidad, el constructo deterioro cognitivo leve (DCL) se reconoce como una condición patológica, no como un proceso normal asociado a la edad, y se utiliza específicamente para referirse a un grupo de individuos que presentan cierto grado de déficit cognitivo cuya severidad resulta insuficiente para cumplir criterios de demencia ya que no presentan un compromiso esencial en las actividades de la vida diaria (1). Originalmente el MCI refería a un déficit de memoria en el contexto de funciones no-amnésicas preservadas (DCL amnésico) pero actualmente el término incluye déficits en otras funciones cognitivas más allá de la memoria. El DCL amnésico es posiblemente un estado precursor de la enfermedad de Alzheimer. Los datos neuropatológicos confirman esta transición del DCL amnésico a enfermedad de Alzheimer.

Semantic memory is a long term memory system proposed by Tulving (2000) that stores objects, words, and general world knowledge’s meanings without connection with any particular time or place. Conceptual knowledge is mostly shared across individuals in a given culture, although its precise scope depends on the individual’s experience (Hodges & Patterson,1997; Patterson & Hodges, 1995). Semantic memory may be impaired in many neurological disorders. This disruption may be attributed to pathology in the infer-lateral temporal lobes. Patients with semantic dementia have difficulties with objects and words meanings (Budson & Price, 2005). Pyramids and Palm Trees Test is one of the most used measures to assess acquired semantic impairments (Howard & Patterson, 1992). It’s a semantic association test and has six different administration modalities: pictorial, verbal, and combined. This test contains 52 triads. The English normative data from the original Pyramids and Palm Trees Test Manual (Howard & Patterson, 1992) was only obtained in13 young adults, and no participant made morethan three errors. This is a socio-cultural influenced test. The aims of this article are to present the Pyramids and Palm Trees Test adaptation and validation to our language (Spanish) and cultural context, to compare the 52 triads from the original version with a new and shorter 20 triads version, to assess differences in performance between controls and patients in both tests, and to get cutoff scores on both versions. A computerized version of the original test (52 triads) plus 14 new triads (66 triads in total) were administered to 50 volunteers (40 controls and 10 semantic dementia patients). Presentation program was used to present the stimulus. Non frequent cultural associations were omitted: (a) windmill, tulip-daffodil, (b) carrot, lamb-donkey, (c) acorns, donkey-pig, and (d) Eskimo-rowing, boat-kayak. Also, others triads were slightly modified: (a) caterpillar, butterfly-dragonfly by caterpillar, butterfly-ant, (b) Eskimo, igloo-house by Indian, carp-house, (c) crook, sheep-mice by dog, rabbit-mice, (d) padlock, bicycle-car by pump, bicycle- car, (e) blackboard, table-desk by blackboard, pen-chalk, (f) eggs, hen-swan by flock, hen-duck, and (g) soldier, church-castle by knight, church-castle. Triads with composed words in Spanish were changed: (a) safety pin (alfiler de gancho), girl-baby by pacifier, girl-baby, (b) safe (caja fuerte),necklace-tie by jacket (chaleco), necklace-tie, and (c) bath, owl-woodpecker (pájaro carpintero) by bath, owl-canary. Of the 66 adapted triads, the 20 that allowed better discrimination between patients and controls were selected. The new and shorter version is called Pyramids and Pharaohs, because the Pyramids and Palm Trees Test triad had low specificity and moderate sensitivity in our sample and wasn´t selected. In the adapted Pyramids and Palm Trees Test the reliability index of the pictorial version was moderately high (α = .857), and high for the verbal modality (α = .910). In the Pyramids and Pharaohs Test the reliability index was high for both versions (pictorial: α = .917; verbal: α = .918). The cutoff score for the original version was 44 for the pictorial modality and 43 for the verbal modality. In the Pyramids and Pharaohs Test the cutoff score was 17 for the pictorial modality and 18 for the verbal one. Regarding the specificity, the adapted Pyramids and Palm Trees Test was high (98.8%) same as the new shorter test. In relation to the sensitivity, the original test was moderate (70%), lower than the Pyramids and Pharaohs Test (85%). Results indicate that the Pyramids and Palm Trees Test can be considered an appropriate adaptation to our social culture. Moreover a new test was designed, Pyramids and Pharaohs, with only 20 triads, adequate for semantics acquired impairments assessment, useful for the research on cognitive processes and current clinical requirements.

Tests of fluid intelligence predict success in a wide range of cognitive activities. Much uncertainty has surrounded brain lesions producing deficits in these tests, with standard group comparisons delivering no clear result. Based on findings from functional imaging, we propose that the uncertainty of lesion data may arise from the specificity and complexity of the relevant neural circuit. Fluid intelligence tests give a characteristic pattern of activity in posterolateral frontal, dorsomedial frontal, and midparietal cortex. To test the causal role of these regions, we examined fluid intelligence in 80 patients with focal cortical lesions. Damage to each of the proposed regions predicted fluid intelligence loss, whereas damage outside these regions was not predictive. The results suggest that coarse group comparisons (e.g., frontal vs. posterior) cannot show the neural underpinnings of fluid intelligence tests. Instead, deficits reflect the extent of damage to a restricted but complex brain circuit comprising specific regions within both frontal and posterior cortex.

The detection of executive deficits in early behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is crucial, as impairments in the executive domain constitute an important diagnostic feature of the newly proposed diagnostic criteria for bvFTD. Our group has recently demonstrated that classical executive tests fail to detect the executive deficits of a subgroup of early bvFTD patients. When administered an executive and social cognition battery (ESCB) that includes tasks that mimic everyday scenarios (e.g., affective decision-making, planning and organization, theory of mind), however, the performance of those bvFTD patients differed significantly from that of controls. One limitation of the ESCB is its lengthy nature (approximately 90 min). For this reason, the present study analyzes the usefulness of alternative shorter versions of this battery. We propose one particular two-task combination that demands approximately 30 min for its administration and scoring, and which presents similar discriminatory accuracy as that of the complete ESCB, while maintaining its significantly superior capacity to detect subtle executive deficits in bvFTD patients relative to classical executive tests. We suggest that, in clinical settings where tools, time, or human resources are scarce, this abbreviated ESCB may be useful in the detection of subtle yet impairing executive impairments of patients with bvFTD.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is the most popular measure to evaluate implicit attitudes. Nevertheless, its neural correlates are not yet fully understood. We examined event related potentials (ERPs) in response to face- and word processing while indigenous and non-indigenous participants performed an IAT displaying faces (ingroup and outgroup members) and words (positive and negative valence) as targets of category judgments. The N170 component was modulated by valence of words and by ingroup/outgroup face categorization. Contextual effects (face-words implicitly associated in the task) had an influence on the N170 amplitude modulation. On the one hand, in face categorization, right N170 showed differences according to the association between social categories of faces and affective valence of words. On the other, in word categorization, left N170 presented a similar modulation when the task implied a negative-valence associated with ingroup faces. Only indigenous participants showed a significant IAT effect and N170 differences. Our results demonstrate an early ERP blending of stimuli processing with both intergroup and evaluative contexts, suggesting an integration of contextual information related to intergroup attitudes during the early stages of word and face processing. To our knowledge, this is the first report of early ERPs during an ethnicity IAT, opening a new branch of exchange between social neuroscience and social psychology of attitudes.