In the past 25 years, scientific understanding of dyslexia and other learning disabilities has seen rapid progress in domains involving definition and classification, neuropsychological correlates, neurobiological factors, and intervention. I discuss this progress, emphasizing the central organizing influence of research and theory on basic academic skills on identification and sampling issues. I also emphasize how neuropsychological approaches to dyslexia have evolved and the importance of an interdisciplinary perspective for understanding dyslexia. (JINS, 2009, 15, 501–508.)

Over the past two decades, the management of sport-related concussion has been the topic of increased attention in the scientific literature and in the popular media. Despite a proliferation of competing guidelines for concussion management, the widespread use of neuropsychological “baseline” testing designed to monitor postinjury recovery, and several prospective controlled studies of the natural history of concussion, there has been virtually no attempt to quantify the risks associated with sport-related concussion or to determine whether these risks are modifiable via management strategies. Using American football as a model, the short- and long-term risks of sport-related concussion are reviewed. It is concluded that serious short-term consequences of sport-related concussion are extremely rare and unlikely to be significantly modified via management strategies that rely on baseline testing. Other less serious short-term adverse outcomes are also quite rare, transient, and not likely to be altered by specific management guidelines. The long-term consequences of multiple sport-related head trauma remain unclear but are potentially of greater public health concern and should be the focus of increased research. Based on available evidence, there is little rationale for the use of rigid strategies or guidelines in the place of individual clinical decision-making in the management of these injuries. (JINS, 2009, 15, 512–520.)

Neurodevelopmental disorders such as spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) are often associated with dysrhythmic movement. We studied rhythm discrimination in 21 children with SBM and in 21 age-matched controls, with the research question being whether both groups showed a strong-meter advantage whereby rhythm discrimination is better for rhythms with a strong-meter, in which onsets of longer intervals occurred on the beat, than those with a weak-meter, in which onsets of longer intervals occurred off the beat. Compared to controls, the SBM group was less able to discriminate strong-meter rhythms, although they performed comparably in discriminating weak-meter rhythms. The attenuated strong-meter advantage in children with SBM shows that their rhythm deficits occur at the level of both perception and action, and may represent a central processing disruption of the brain mechanisms for rhythm. (JINS, 2009, 15, 521–528.)

Naming is generally considered a left-hemisphere function without precise localization. However, recent cortical stimulation studies demonstrate a modality-related anatomical dissociation, in that anterior temporal stimulation disrupts auditory description naming (“auditory naming”) but not visual object naming (“visual naming”), whereas posterior temporal stimulation disrupts naming on both tasks. We hypothesized that patients with anterior temporal abnormalities would exhibit impaired auditory naming, yet normal range visual naming, whereas patients with posterior temporal abnormalities would exhibit impaired performance on both tasks. Thirty-four patients with documented anterior temporal abnormalities and 14 patients with documented posterior temporal abnormalities received both naming tests. As hypothesized, patients with anterior temporal abnormalities demonstrated impaired auditory naming, yet normal range visual naming performance. Patients with posterior temporal abnormalities were impaired in visual naming; however, auditory naming scores were intact. Although these group patterns were statistically significant, on an individual basis, auditory–visual naming asymmetries better predicted whether individual patients had anterior or posterior temporal abnormalities. These behavioral findings are generally consistent with stimulation results, suggesting that modality specificity is inherent in the organization of language, with predictable neuroanatomical correlates. Results also carry clinical implications regarding localizing dysfunction, identifying and characterizing naming deficits, and potentially, in treating neurologically based language disorders. (JINS, 2009, 15, 529–535.)

It has been traditionally assumed that medial temporal lobe (MTL) is not required for working memory (WM). However, animal lesion and electrophysiological studies and human neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies have provided increasing evidences of a critical involvement of MTL in WM. Based on previous findings, the central aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of the MTL to verbal WM encoding. Here, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to compare the patterns of MTL activation of 9 epilepsy patients suffering from left hippocampal sclerosis with those of 10 healthy matched controls while they performed a verbal WM task. MEG recordings allow detailed tracking of the time course of MTL activation. We observed impaired WM performance associated with changes in the dynamics of MTL activity in epilepsy patients. Specifically, whereas patients showed decreased activity in damaged MTL, activity in the contralateral MTL was enhanced, an effect that became significant in the 600- to 700-ms interval after stimulus presentation. These findings strongly support the crucial contribution of MTL to verbal WM encoding and provide compelling evidence for the proposal that MTL contributes to both episodic memory and WM. Whether this pattern is signaling reorganization or a normal use of a damaged structure is discussed. (JINS, 2009, 15, 536–546.)

The goal of the current investigation was to address whether affective decision making would serve as a unique neuropsychological marker to predict drinking behaviors among adolescents. We conducted a longitudinal study of 181 Chinese adolescents in Chengdu city, China. In their 10th grade (ages 15–16), these adolescents were tested for their affective decision-making ability using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and working memory capacity using the Self-Ordered Pointing Test. Self-report questionnaires were used to assess academic performance and drinking behaviors. At 1-year follow-up, questionnaires were completed to assess drinking behaviors, and the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale was used to examine four dimensions of impulsivity: urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, and sensation seeking. Results indicated that those adolescents who progressed to binge drinking or exhibited consistent binge drinking not only performed poorly on the IGT but also scored significantly higher in urgency compared to those who never or occasionally drank. Moreover, better IGT scores predicted fewer drinking problems and fewer drinks 1 year later after controlling for demographic variables, the previous drinking behaviors, working memory, and impulsivity. These findings suggest that deficits in affective decision making may be important independent determinants of compulsive drinking and potentially addictive behavior in adolescents. (JINS, 2009, 15, 547–557.)

Cognitive reserve is a hypothetical construct that has been used to inform models of cognitive aging and is presumed to be indicative of life experiences that may mitigate the effects of brain pathology. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the construct validity of cognitive reserve by examining both its convergent and its discriminant validity across three different samples of participants using structural equation modeling. The cognitive reserve variables were found to correlate highly with one another (thereby providing evidence of convergent validity), but demanding tests of discriminant validity indicated that, in two of the samples, the cognitive reserve construct was highly related to an executive functioning construct. (JINS, 2009, 15, 558–569.)

Focusing on symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a sample obtained from the general population, we aimed to investigate the effects of incentives and event rate on reaction time (RT) performance and response inhibition. We assessed 1156 children, at a mean age of 8 years, on their performance on an inhibition task and a RT task under different experimental conditions that manipulated event rate and incentives. Children with high ADHD (ADHD-H) symptoms showed cognitive performance deficits only under some of the experimental conditions compared to a control group. The fast-incentive condition of the RT task succeeded in normalizing the RT variability, as well as the slow overall speed, in the ADHD-H group. Analyses of ADHD symptom scores as a quantitative trait in the total sample were overall consistent with these findings. The findings suggest that at least some cognitive performance deficits in children with high ADHD symptoms do not reflect stable cognitive deficits. The degree to which cognitive impairments in ADHD can be modulated by energetic or motivational factors has important implications for clinical and educational interventions. (JINS, 2009, 15, 570–579.)

Previous research has shown that reading ability is a stronger predictor of cognitive functioning than years of education, particularly for African Americans. The current study was designed to determine whether the relative influence of literacy and education on cognitive abilities varies as a function of race or socioeconomic status (SES). We examined the unique influence of education and reading scores on a range of cognitive tests in low- and higher-SES African Americans and Whites. Literacy significantly predicted scores on all but one cognitive measure in both African American groups and low-SES Whites, while education was not significantly associated with any cognitive measure. In contrast, both education and reading scores predicted performance on many cognitive measures in higher-SES Whites. These findings provide further evidence that reading ability better predicts cognitive functioning than years of education and suggest that disadvantages associated with racial minority status and low SES affect the relative influence of literacy and years of education on cognition. (JINS, 2009, 15, 580–589.)

Brief assessments of general cognitive ability are frequently needed by neuropsychologists, and many methods of estimating intelligence quotient (IQ) have been published. While these measures typically present overall correlations with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) Full Scale IQ, it is tacitly acknowledged that these estimates are most accurate within 1 standard deviation of the mean and that accuracy diminishes moving toward the tails of the IQ distribution. However, little work has been done to systematically characterize proxy measures at the tails of the IQ distribution. Additionally, while these measures are all correlated with the WAIS, multiple proxy measures are rarely presented in one manuscript. The current article has two goals: (1) Examine various IQ proxies against Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (Third Version) scores, showing the overall accuracy of each measure against the gold standard IQ measure. This comparison will assist in selecting the best proxy measure for particular clinical constraints. (2) The sample is then divided into three groups (below, average, and above-average ability), and each group is analyzed separately to characterize proxy performance at the tails of the IQ distribution. Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance compares the different proxy measures across ability levels. All IQ estimates are represented in tables so that they can be examined side by side. (JINS, 2009, 15, 590–596.)

Integrating information in space and time is a central feature of episodic memory. Although disturbance of the binding processes in episodic memory is well established in patients with schizophrenia, data on working memory (WM) remain discrepant. In a change detection procedure, two target displays of pairs of letters located in cells of grid were successively presented. Participants attempted to detect changes in binding information (i.e., recombination of studied features) or feature information (i.e., a novel letter and/or a novel spatial location). Recombinations consisted of features belonging to the same display (intradisplay) or different displays (interdisplays). Results showed that patients demonstrated overall lower performance, with no specific deficit for recognizing bound information or feature information. In addition, patients did not demonstrate deficits for interdisplay recombinations or intradisplay recombinations. Patients’ ability to remember temporal occurrence of stimuli was not affected. Together, these results suggest that in patients with schizophrenia, binding processes in WM are not specifically disturbed. (JINS, 2009, 15, 597–605.)

According to the cognitive reserve hypothesis, neuropsychological expression of brain disease is attenuated among persons with higher education or premorbid intelligence. The current research examined cognitive reserve in multiple sclerosis (MS) by investigating whether the negative effect of brain atrophy on information processing (IP) efficiency is moderated by premorbid intelligence. Thirty-eight persons with clinically definite MS completed a vocabulary-based estimate of premorbid intelligence (Wechsler Vocabulary) and a composite measure of IP efficiency (Symbol Digit Modalities Test and Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task). Brain atrophy was estimated from measurements of third ventricle width using high-resolution anatomical brain magnetic resonance imaging (magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo). In a hierarchical regression analysis controlling for age and depressive symptomatology, brain atrophy predicted worse IP efficiency (R2 = .23, p = .003) and cognitive reserve predicted better IP efficiency (R2 = .13, p = .013), but these effects were moderated by an Atrophy × Cognitive Reserve interaction (R2 = .15, p = .004). The negative effect of brain atrophy on IP efficiency was attenuated at higher levels of reserve, such that MS subjects with higher reserve were better able to withstand MS neuropathology without suffering cognitive impairment. Results help explain the incomplete and inconsistent relationship between brain atrophy and IP efficiency in previous research. (JINS, 2009, 15, 606–612.)

Obtaining some low memory scores across a battery of tests is common. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of low scores on the Children’s Memory Scale (CMS). Participants were 1000 children and adolescents between 5 and 16 years of age from the CMS standardization sample. Consistent with research on other batteries, having some low memory scores is common in healthy children and adolescents. The prevalence of low memory scores also increases with lower intelligence. Clinicians should be cautious when interpreting isolated low memory scores as sole evidence of memory impairment. Knowing the prevalence of low scores as a supplement to clinical judgment should reduce the likelihood of misdiagnosing memory problems. (JINS, 2009, 15, 613–617.)

Limb praxis can be influenced by age, gender, and education. The present study investigated the influence of these variables on gesture production by healthy elderly subjects. We evaluated 96 individuals divided into two age groups (60–74 and 75–88 years). Each group contained 48 men and 48 women and was subdivided into four groups according to education: illiterates and 1–3, 4–7, and 8 or more years of education. Individuals were requested to carry out tasks on verbal command and imitation. There were no differences between the performance of men and women, while older individuals performed worse than their younger counterparts. Regarding educational level, three major groups emerged: illiterates, individuals with 1–7 years of education, and those with 8 or more years of education. In conclusion, age and education significantly influenced the performance of individuals in limb praxis tests. (JINS, 2009, 15, 618–622.)

Following a neuropathological event, individuals left with moderate-to-severe memory impairment are unable to reliably form new memories. The most common challenges involve the capacity to perform a task in the future and to consciously recall a recent event. Disruption of these memory processes leaves the individual trapped in the present, unable to stay on track, and alienated from ongoing events. Memory research has demonstrated that implicit memory is often preserved despite severe explicit memory impairment and that preserved memory systems can provide avenues for acquiring new skills and knowledge. A within-subject single-case A1-B1-A2-B2 experimental design was used to introduce an established theory-driven training program of technology use for individuals with moderate-to-severe memory impairment. We describe its application to enabling RR, an individual with memory impairment postcolloid cyst removal, to independently support her memory using a commercial smartphone. RR showed successful outcome on both objective and qualitative measures of memory functioning. Moreover, she demonstrated consistent and creative generalization of acquired smartphone skills across a broad range of real-life memory-demanding circumstances. Our findings suggest that individuals with moderate-to-severe memory impairment are able to capitalize on emerging commercial technology to support their memory. (JINS, 2009, 15, 629–638.)