(JINS, 2011, 17, 751–752)

The ability to appraise one's own ability has been found to have an important role in the recovery and quality of life of clinical populations. Examinee and task variables have been found to influence metacognition in healthy students; however the effect of these variables on the metacognitive accuracy of adults with neurological insult, such as traumatic brain injury (TBI), remains unknown. Twenty-two adults with moderate and severe TBI and a matched sample of healthy adults participated in this study examining the influence of item sequencing on metacognitive functioning. Retrospective confidence judgments were collected while participants completed a modified version of the Matrix Reasoning subtest. Significant influence of item sequence order was found, revealing better metacognitive abilities and performance when participants completed tasks where item difficulty progressed in order from easy to difficult. We interpret these findings to suggest that the sequencing of item difficulty offers “anchors” for gauging and adjusting to task demands. (JINS, 2012, 18, 379–383)

The title of each session is linked to its abstract in the Table of Contents included at the start of the PDF file. Readers wishing to view a particular abstract can select the appropriate session title in the Table of Contents.

Objectives: Executive dysfunction is associated with impaired memory performance, but controversies remain about which aspects of memory are involved and how general intelligence influences these connections. We aimed to clarify these connections in stroke patients by comparing various memory measures in patients with and without executive impairment. Methods: Our consecutive cohort included patients with a first-ever ischemic stroke. Neuropsychological assessments were completed 6 months and 2 years after stroke. We classified patients as executively impaired, when at least two of five executive measures were defective at 6 months. At both 6 months and 2 years, we compared list learning of unrelated words, story recall, and recall of geometric figures in patients with and without executive impairment, while controlling for general intelligence. Results: Patients with executive impairment (n=66; 37%) performed worse in list learning (p=.001; partial η2=.058) and immediate recall of a logical passage (p=.010; partial η2=.037) 6 months after stroke compared to executively intact patients (n=113). At the end of the 2-year follow-up period, the patients who were executively impaired at 6 months (n=53; 37%) still performed worse than executively intact patients (n=92) in list learning (p<.001; partial η2=.096), and additionally in delayed recall of the list (p=.006; partial η2=.052) and immediate recall of geometric figures (p=.007; partial η2=.050). Conclusions: In our working-aged stroke patients, executive impairment was common. Executive impairment was associated with memory tasks that provided less inherent structure and required the use of active memory strategies. Clinicians should remember this role of executive dysfunction when interpreting memory performance. (JINS, 2016, 22, 1–10)

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) seropositive AIDS free and HIV-1 seronegative intravenous drug users were tested twice with a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery. Only minor group differences were found. Memory difficulties were the most pronounced difference with lower scores in the HIV-1 seropositive group. The memory difficulties were to some degree associated with emotional difficulties, that is, anxiety. The HIV-1 seropositive subjects were tested a third time and there was no further decline in any test with memory content at this testing. The only test that showed a significant decline in the HIV-1 seropositive group was the Trail Making Test. (JINS, 1996, 2, 126–133.)

The ability to accurately perceive the passage of time relies on several neurocognitive abilities, including attention, memory, and executive functions, which are domains commonly affected in persons living with HIV disease. The current study examined time estimation and production and their neurocognitive correlates in a sample of 53 HIV+ individuals with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), 120 HIV+ individuals without HAND, and 113 HIV− individuals. Results revealed a moderate main effect of HAND on time estimation and a trend-level effect on time production, but no interaction between HAND and time interval duration. Correlational analyses revealed that time estimation in the HIV+ group was associated with attention, episodic memory and time-based prospective memory. Findings indicate that individuals with HAND evidence deficits in time interval judgment suggestive of failures in basic attentional and memory processes. (JINS, 2015, 21, 175–181)

Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with cognitive impairment but the relationships between specific biomarkers and neurocognitive domains remain unclear. The present study examined the influence of common health comorbidities on these relationships. Adults with suspected OSA (N=60; 53% male; M age=52 years; SD=14) underwent neuropsychological evaluation before baseline polysomnography (PSG). Apneic syndrome severity, hypoxic strain, and sleep architecture disturbance were assessed through PSG. Methods: Depression (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, CESD), pain, and medical comorbidity (Charlson Comorbidity Index) were measured via questionnaires. Processing speed, attention, vigilance, memory, executive functioning, and motor dexterity were evaluated with cognitive testing. A winnowing approach identified 9 potential moderation models comprised of a correlated PSG variable, comorbid health factor, and cognitive performance. Results: Regression analyses identified one significant moderation model: average blood oxygen saturation (AVO2) and depression predicting recall memory, accounting for 31% of the performance variance, p<.001. Depression was a significant predictor of recall memory, p<.001, but AVO2 was not a significant predictor. The interaction between depression and AVO2 was significant, accounting for an additional 10% of the variance, p<.001. The relationship between low AVO2 and low recall memory performance emerged when depression severity ratings approached a previously established clinical cutoff score (CESD=16). Conclusions: This study examined sleep biomarkers with specific neurocognitive functions among individuals with suspected OSA. Findings revealed that depression burden uniquely influence this pathophysiological relationship, which may aid clinical management. (JINS, 2018, 28, 864–875)

Objectives: This report examined theta-band neurodynamics for potential biomarkers of brain health in athletes with concussion. Methods: Participants included college-age contact/collision athletes with (N=24) and without a history of concussion (N=16) in Study 1. Study 2 (N=10) examined changes over time in contact/collision athletes. There were two primary dependent variables: (1) theta-band phase-synchronization (e.g., functional connectivity) between medial and right-lateral electrodes; and (2) the within-subject correlation between synchronization strength on error trials and post-error reaction time (i.e., operationalization of cognitive control). Results: Head injury history was inversely related with medial-lateral connectivity. Head injury was also related to declines in a neurobehavioral measure of cognitive control (i.e., the single-trial relationship between connectivity and post-error slowing). Conclusions: Results align with a theory of connectivity-mediated cognitive control. Mild injuries undetectable by behavioral measures may still be apparent on direct measures of neural functioning. This report demonstrates that connectivity and cognitive control measures may be useful for tracking recovery from concussion. Theoretically relevant neuroscientific findings in healthy adults may have applications in patient populations, especially with regard to monitoring brain health. (JINS 2019, 25, 314–323)

Findings from a recent population-based survey indicate that about 33% of patients with dementia reside alone. Because many of these patients may not have a caregiver who visits them regularly, the need for a neuropsychological (NP) test to predict patients' functional competence to live alone safely is evident. In this study, we compared the accuracy of predicting Instrumental and Basic Activities (IADLs and ADLs) of 22 patients with Alzheimer's disease using several standard NP tests and the newly developed Problems in Everyday Living (PEDL) test. Performance of IADLs and ADLs as rated by caregivers was significantly correlated with performance on the PEDL, the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), and with the Shipley Institute of Living Test of Verbal Abstraction (SILS-A), but not with vocabulary or naming. The PEDL was the best predictor of IADL scores (r = 0.71), compared to the MMSE (r = 0.52) and the SILS-A (r = 0.57), while the MMSE was the best predictor of ADL performance (r = 0.69), compared to the PEDL (r = 0.58) and the SILS-A (r = 0.50). (JINS, 2002, 8, 48–57.)

The primary focus of this volume is on the impact of alcohol on brain development. It is a perfect example of how research on both animals and humans can interact to produce very important findings. In the case of prenatal alcohol exposure, dialogue between animal and human researchers has proved to be very profitable for both lines of research. Initial observations by human researchers identified a syndrome of facial stigmata, physical malformations, and early behavioral disturbances that was related to maternal alcohol abuse during pregnancy. They gave this syndrome the name Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. However, human researchers were unable to state unequivocally that prenatal alcohol exposure was teratogenic to the fetus. Thus, they turned to animal researchers who were able to model Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in a variety of animals and to confirm the teratogenicity of alcohol on the developing fetus. The quarter century of studies of the damage caused by prenatal alcohol exposure is replete with such interactions between these two groups of researchers. Without the input and pioneering studies of animal researchers on the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure, human researchers would have much less understanding of the damage caused by alcohol exposure in utero or insights into possible treatment or remediation strategies for those damaged by alcohol exposure.

Objectives: Fluency is a major problem for individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, including fluency deficits for academic skills. The aim of this study was to determine neurocognitive predictors of academic fluency within and across domains of reading, writing, and math, in children and adults, with and without spina bifida. In addition to group differences, we expected some neurocognitive predictors (reaction time, inattention) to have similar effects for each academic fluency outcome, and others (dexterity, vocabulary, nonverbal reasoning) to have differential effects across outcomes. Methods: Neurocognitive predictors were reaction time, inattention, dexterity, vocabulary, and nonverbal reasoning; other factors included group (individuals with spina bifida, n=180; and without, n=81), age, and demographic and untimed academic content skill covariates. Univariate and multivariate regressions evaluated hypotheses. Results: Univariate regressions were significant and robust (R2=.78, .70, .73, for reading, writing, and math fluency, respectively), with consistent effects of covariates, age, reaction time, and vocabulary; group and group moderation showed small effect sizes (<2%). Multivariate contrasts showed differential prediction across academic fluency outcomes for reaction time and vocabulary. Conclusions: The novelty of the present work is determining neurocognitive predictors for an important outcome (academic fluency), within and across fluency domains, across population (spina bifida versus typical), over a large developmental span, in the context of well-known covariates. Results offer insight into similarities and differences regarding prediction of different domains of academic fluency, with implications for addressing academic weakness in spina bifida, and for evaluating similar questions in other neurodevelopmental disorders. (JINS, 2019, 25, 249–265)

The present study examined the serial position effect in 2 subgroups of individuals with vascular dementia (VaD). Nineteen individuals with mild VaD and 17 individuals with moderate VaD were administered the California Verbal Learning Test. Both groups were impaired on a general memory measure, and the moderately impaired group demonstrated significantly poorer recall than the mildly impaired group on the first learning trial and on total learning across trials. In addition, individuals with mild dementia demonstrated an intact primacy and recency effect, whereas individuals with moderate dementia demonstrated neither primacy nor recency effects. The latter findings are consistent with studies examining the serial position effect in other dementia populations, and suggests that the absence of primacy and recency effects in more advanced dementia may occur regardless of dementia type. (JINS, 2002, 8, 584–587.)