Mobility limitation and cognitive decline are related. Metabolic syndrome (MetS), the clustering of three or more cardiovascular risk factors, is associated with decline in both mobility and cognition. However, the interrelationship among MetS, mobility, and cognition is unknown. This study investigated a proposed pathway where cognition moderates the relationship between MetS and Mobility.

Adults ages 45–90 years were recruited. MetS risk factors and mobility performance (Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) and gait speed) were evaluated. Cognition was assessed using a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. A factor analysis of neuropsychological test scores yielded three factors: executive function, explicit memory, and semantic/contextual memory. Multivariable linear regression models were used to examine the relationship among MetS, mobility, and cognition.

Of the 74 participants (average age 61 ± 9 years; 41% female; 69% White), 27 (36%) participants manifested MetS. Mean SPPB score was 10.9 ± 1.2 out of 12 and gait speed was 1.0 ± 0.2 m/s. There were no statistically significant differences in mobility by MetS status. However, increase in any one of the MetS risk factors was associated with decreased mobility performance after adjusting for age and gender (SPPB score: β (SE) -.17 (0.08), p < .05; gait speed: -.03 (.01), p < .01). Further adjusting for cognitive factors (SPPB score: explicit memory .31 (.14), p = .03; executive function 0.45 (0.13), p < .01; gait speed: explicit memory 0.04 (0.02), p = .03; executive function 0.06 (0.02), p < .01) moderated the relationships between number of metabolic risk factors and mobility.

The relationship between metabolic risk factors and mobility may be moderated by cognitive performance, specifically through executive function and explicit memory.

To explore motor praxis in adults with Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) in comparison with a control group of people with intellectual disability (ID) and to examine the relationship with brain structural measurements.

Thirty adult participants with PWS and 132 with ID of nongenetic etiology (matched by age, sex, and ID level) were assessed using a comprehensive evaluation of the praxis function, which included pantomime of tool use, imitation of meaningful and meaningless gestures, motor sequencing, and constructional praxis.

Results support specific praxis difficulties in PWS, with worse performance in the imitation of motor actions and better performance in constructional praxis than ID peers. Compared with both control groups, PWS showed increased gray matter volume in sensorimotor and subcortical regions. However, we found no obvious association between these alterations and praxis performance. Instead, praxis scores correlated with regional volume measures in distributed apparently normal brain areas.

Our findings are consistent in showing significant impairment in gesture imitation abilities in PWS and, otherwise, further indicate that the visuospatial praxis domain is relatively preserved. Praxis disability in PWS was not associated with a specific, focal alteration of brain anatomy. Altered imitation gestures could, therefore, be a consequence of widespread brain dysfunction. However, the specific contribution of key brain structures (e.g., areas containing mirror neurons) should be more finely tested in future research.

There is ongoing debate regarding the relationship between clinical symptoms and cognition in schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). The present study aimed to explore the potential relationships between symptoms, with an emphasis on negative symptoms, and social and non-social cognition.

Hierarchical cluster analysis with k-means optimisation was conducted to characterise clinical subgroups using the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms and Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms in n = 130 SSD participants. Emergent clusters were compared on the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery, which measures non-social cognition and emotion management as well as demographic and clinical variables. Spearman’s correlations were then used to investigate potential relationships between specific negative symptoms and emotion management and non-social cognition.

Four distinct clinical subgroups were identified: 1. high hallucinations, 2. mixed symptoms, 3. high negative symptoms, and 4. relatively asymptomatic. The high negative symptom subgroup was found to have significantly poorer emotion management than the high hallucination and relatively asymptomatic subgroups. No further differences between subgroups were observed. Correlation analyses revealed avolition-apathy and anhedonia-asociality were negatively correlated with emotion management, but not non-social cognition. Affective flattening and alogia were not associated with either emotion management or non-social cognition.

The present study identified associations between negative symptoms and emotion management within social cognition, but no domains of non-social cognition. This relationship may be specific to motivation, anhedonia and apathy, but not expressive deficits. This suggests that targeted interventions for social cognition may also result in parallel improvement in some specific negative symptoms.

Clinically normal older adults (52–92 years old) were followed longitudinally for up to 8 years after completing a memory paradigm at baseline [Story Recall Test (SRT)] that assessed delayed recall at 30 min and 1 week. Subsets of the cohort underwent neuroimaging (N = 134, mean age = 75) and neuropsychological testing (N = 178–207, mean ages = 74–76) at annual study visits occurring approximately 15–18 months apart. Mixed-effects regression models evaluated if baseline SRT performance predicted longitudinal changes in gray matter volumes and cognitive composite scores, controlling for demographics.

Worse SRT 1-week recall was associated with more precipitous rates of longitudinal decline in medial temporal lobe volumes (p = .037), episodic memory (p = .003), and executive functioning (p = .011), but not occipital lobe or total gray matter volumes (demonstrating neuroanatomical specificity; p > .58). By contrast, SRT 30-min recall was only associated with longitudinal decline in executive functioning (p = .044).

Memory paradigms that capture longer-term recall may be particularly sensitive to age-related medial temporal lobe changes and neurodegenerative disease trajectories. (JINS, 2020, xx, xx-xx)

Previous cross-sectional studies have documented associations between positive psychosocial factors, such as self-efficacy and emotional support, and late-life cognition. Further, the magnitudes of concurrent associations may differ across racial and ethnic groups that differ in Alzheimer’s disease risk. The goals of this longitudinal study were to characterize prospective associations between positive psychosocial factors and cognitive decline and explicitly test for differential impact across race and ethnicity.

578 older adults (42% non-Hispanic Black, 31% non-Hispanic White, and 28% Hispanic) in the Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project completed cognitive and psychosocial measures from the NIH Toolbox and standard neuropsychological tests over 2.4 years. Latent difference scores were used to model associations between positive psychosocial factors and cognitive decline controlling for baseline cognition, sociodemographics, depressive symptoms, physical health, and other positive psychosocial factors. Multiple-group modeling was used to test interactions between the positive psychosocial factors and race/ethnicity.

Higher NIH Toolbox Friendship scores predicted less episodic memory decline. One standard deviation increase in friendship corresponded to 6 fewer years of memory aging. This association did not significantly differ across racial/ethnic groups.

This longitudinal study provides support for the potential importance of friendships for subsequent episodic memory trajectories among older adults from three ethnic groups. Further study into culturally informed interventions is needed to investigate whether and how friend networks may be targeted to promote cognitive health in late life.

Numerous investigations have documented that age-related changes in the integrity of the corpus callosum are associated with age-related decline in the interhemispheric transfer of information. Conversely, there is accumulating evidence for more efficient white matter organization of the corpus callosum in individuals with extensive musical training. However, the relationship between making music and accuracy in interhemispheric transfer remains poorly explored.

To test the hypothesis that musicians show enhanced functional connectivity between the two hemispheres, 65 professional musicians (aged 56–90 years) and 65 age- and sex-matched non-musicians performed the fingertip cross-localization test. In this task, subjects must respond to a tactile stimulus presented to one hand using the ipsilateral (intra-hemispheric test) or contralateral (inter-hemispheric test) hand. Because the transfer of information from one hemisphere to another may imply a loss of accuracy, the value of the difference between the intrahemispheric and interhemispheric tests can be utilized as a reliable measure of the effectiveness of hemispheric interactions.

Older professional musicians show significantly greater accuracy in tactile interhemispheric transfer than non-musicians who suffer from age-related decline.

Musicians have more efficient interhemispheric communication than age-matched non-musicians. This finding is in keeping with studies showing that individuals with extensive musical training have a larger corpus callosum. The results are discussed in relation to relevant data suggesting that music positively influences aging brain plasticity.

The variability of findings in studies examining the effects of chronic cannabis use on neuropsychological functioning highlights the importance of examining contributing factors. Few studies examine the role of sex in the relationship between cannabis and neuropsychological functioning, despite known neurobiological structural differences between males and females. This study examined whether males and females experience differential cognitive effects of chronic cannabis use.

Chronic cannabis users (3+ days per week for >12 months, n = 110, 72% male) and non-users (n = 71, 39% male) completed a neuropsychological test battery. Two multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVAs) examined for sex differences in performance within users and non-users on neuropsychological tests, controlling for potential confounding variables. Bonferroni corrections were applied to adjust for multiple comparisons.

Male and female cannabis users did not differ in cannabis use variables. Female cannabis users performed better than males on multiple subtests of the California Verbal Learning Test-II (CVLT-II), a verbal learning and memory test. Male cannabis users performed better than female users on Trial 1 of the CVLT-II (p = .002), and Trail Making Test B (p = .001), which measure attention and cognitive flexibility, respectively. Non-user males and females performed comparably, with the exception of Trail Making Test B (p = .001).

Results suggest that chronic cannabis use differentially impacts males and females, with females exhibiting better verbal learning and memory despite males demonstrating better attention and cognitive flexibility. Further research is needed to understand the potential protective mechanism of female sex on learning and memory effects of cannabis use.

The objective of this study was to derive a factor structure of the measures of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Toolbox Cognition Battery (CB) that is representative of cognitive abilities in a large ethnically diverse cohort of 8-year-old children in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Our sample comprised of 4298 8-year-old children from the Growing Up in New Zealand study. We conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis for the NIH Toolbox CB measures to discover the best-fitting factor structure in our sample. Measurement invariance of the identified model was tested across child’s gender, socio-economic status (SES), and ethnicity.

A three-dimensional factor structure was identified, with one factor of Crystallised Cognition (Reading and Vocabulary), and two distinguished factors of fluid cognition: Fluid Cognition I (Attention/Inhibitory Control, Processing Speed, and Cognitive Flexibility) and Fluid Cognition II (Working Memory, Episodic Memory). The results demonstrate excellent model fit, but reliability of the factors was low. Measurement invariance was confirmed for child’s gender. We found configural, but neither metric nor scalar, invariance across SES and the four major ethnic groups: European, Māori, Pacific Peoples, and Asian.

Our findings show that, at the age of 8 years, fluid abilities are more strongly associated with one another than with crystallised abilities and that fluid abilities need to be further differentiated. This dimensional structure allows for comparisons across child’s gender, but evaluations across SES and ethnicity within the Aotearoa New Zealand context must be conducted with caution. We recommend using raw scores of the individual NIH Toolbox CB measures in future research.

Multiple studies have found evidence of task non-specific slow drift rate in ADHD, and slow drift rate has rapidly become one of the most visible cognitive hallmarks of the disorder. In this study, we use the diffusion model to determine whether atypicalities in visuospatial cognitive processing exist independently of slow drift rate.

Eight- to twelve-year-old children with (n = 207) and without ADHD (n = 99) completed a 144-trial mental rotation task.

Performance of children with ADHD was less accurate and more variable than non-ADHD controls, but there were no group differences in mean response time. Drift rate was slower, but nondecision time was faster for children with ADHD. A Rotation × ADHD interaction for boundary separation was also found in which children with ADHD did not strategically adjust their response thresholds to the same degree as non-ADHD controls. However, the Rotation × ADHD interaction was not significant for nondecision time, which would have been the primary indicator of a specific deficit in mental rotation per se.

Poorer performance on the mental rotation task was due to slow rate of evidence accumulation, as well as relative inflexibility in adjusting boundary separation, but not to impaired visuospatial processing specifically. We discuss the implications of these findings for future cognitive research in ADHD.

The assessment of cognitive functions such as prospective memory, episodic memory, attention, and executive functions benefits from an ecologically valid approach to better understand how performance outcomes generalize to everyday life. Immersive virtual reality (VR) is considered capable of simulating real-life situations to enhance ecological validity. The present study attempted to validate the Virtual Reality Everyday Assessment Lab (VR-EAL), an immersive VR neuropsychological battery, against an extensive paper-and-pencil neuropsychological battery.

Forty-one participants (21 females) were recruited: 18 gamers and 23 non-gamers who attended both an immersive VR and a paper-and-pencil testing session. Bayesian Pearson’s correlation analyses were conducted to assess construct and convergent validity of the VR-EAL. Bayesian t-tests were performed to compare VR and paper-and-pencil testing in terms of administration time, similarity to real-life tasks (i.e., ecological validity), and pleasantness.

VR-EAL scores were significantly correlated with their equivalent scores on the paper-and-pencil tests. The participants’ reports indicated that the VR-EAL tasks were significantly more ecologically valid and pleasant than the paper-and-pencil neuropsychological battery. The VR-EAL battery also had a shorter administration time.

The VR-EAL appears as an effective neuropsychological tool for the assessment of everyday cognitive functions, which has enhanced ecological validity, a highly pleasant testing experience, and does not induce cybersickness.

The aim of this study is to assess the SC construct and to explore its relationship with cognitive state in PD patients.

We compare 19 PD patients with cognitive decline, 27 cognitively preserved PD patients, and 29 healthy control (HC) individuals in social perception (static and dynamic emotional facial recognition), theory of mind, empathy, and social behavior tasks. We also assess processing speed, executive functions, memory, language, and visuospatial ability.

PD patients with cognitive decline perform worse than the other groups in both facial expression recognition tasks and theory of mind. Cognitively preserved PD patients only score worse than HCs in the static facial expression recognition task. We find several significant correlations between each of the SC deficits and diverse cognitive processes.

The results indicate that some components of SC are impaired in PD patients. These problems seem to be related to a global cognitive decline rather than to specific deficits. Considering the importance of these abilities for social interaction, we suggest that SC be included in the assessment protocols in PD.

Cognitive screening is an efficient method of detecting cognitive impairment in adults and may signal need for comprehensive assessment. Cognitive screening is not, however, routinely used in youth aged 12–25, limiting clinical recommendations. The aims of this review were to describe performance-based cognitive screening tools used in people aged 12–25 and the contexts of use, review screening accuracy in detecting cognitive impairment relative to an objective reference standard, and evaluate the risk of bias of included studies.

Electronic databases (Scopus, Medline, PsychINFO, and ERIC) were searched for relevant studies according to pre-determined criteria. Risk of bias was rated using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2. Dual screening, extraction, and quality ratings occurred at each review phase.

Twenty studies met the review inclusion criteria. A diverse range of screening tools (length, format) were used in youth aged 12–25 with or without health conditions. Six studies investigating cognitive screening were conducted as primary accuracy studies and reported some relevant psychometric parameters (e.g., sensitivity and specificity). Fourteen studies presented correlational data to investigate the cognitive measure utility. Studies generally presented limited data on classification accuracy, which impacted full screening tool appraisal. Risk of bias was high (or unclear) in most studies with poor adherence to the Standards for Reporting Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (STARD) criteria.

Few, high quality studies have investigated the utility of cognitive screening in youth aged 12–25, with no screening measure emerging as superior at detecting cognitive impairment in this age group.

Reading difficulties are one of the most significant challenges for children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). The aims of this study were to identify and categorize the types of reading impairments experienced by children with NF1 and to establish predictors of poor reading in this population.

Children aged 7–12 years with NF1 (n = 60) were compared with typically developing children (n = 36). Poor word readers with NF1 were classified according to impairment type (i.e., phonological, surface, mixed), and their reading subskills were compared. A hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to identify predictors of word reading.

Compared to controls, children with NF1 demonstrated significantly poorer literacy abilities. Of the 49 children with NF1 classified as poor readers, 20 (41%) were classified with phonological dyslexia, 24 (49%) with mixed dyslexia, and 5 (10%) fell outside classification categories. Children with mixed dyslexia displayed the most severe reading impairments. Stronger working memory, better receptive language, and fewer inattentive behaviors predicted better word reading skills.

The majority of children with NF1 experience deficits in key reading skills which are essential for them to become successful readers. Weaknesses in working memory, receptive language, and attention are associated with reading difficulties in children with NF1.

Adolescence into young adulthood represents a sensitive period in which brain development significantly diverges by sex. Regular cannabis use by young people is associated with neuropsychological vulnerabilities, but the potential impact of sex on these relationships is unclear.

In a cross-sectional study, we examined sex differences in multi-domain neuropsychological functioning using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) and tested whether sex moderated the relationship between cognitive performance and age of initiation, frequency of cannabis use, amount of cannabis use, and withdrawal symptoms in at least weekly adolescent and young adult cannabis users (n = 171; aged 13–25 years; 46.2% female).

Male cannabis users had poorer visual recognition memory and female cannabis users showed worse attention and executive functions, with medium to large effect sizes. These sex effects persisted, when controlling for age, IQ, amount of alcohol and nicotine use, mood and anxiety symptoms, emotional stability and impulsive behavior. Earlier age of initiated use and more use were associated with worse attentional functions in females, but not males. More use was more strongly associated with worse episodic memory in males than in females. More use was associated with poorer learning in males only.

Domain-specific patterns of neuropsychological performance were found by sex, such that males showed poorer visual memory and females showed worse performance on measures of attention (sustained visual, multitasking) and executive functioning (spatial planning/working memory subdomains). Larger studies including healthy controls are needed to determine if the observed sex differences are more exaggerated relative to non-users.

Previous research on art therapy (AT) in cognitive aging has been lacking. AT can potentially engender significant cognitive gains, due to its rigorous cognitive involvement, making it useful to tackle age-related cognitive decline. Along with these cognitive gains, associated neuroplastic changes are hypothesized to arise from AT as well. The current intervention examined the effects of an AT intervention on cognitive outcomes and cortical thickness (CT) among participants with mild cognitive impairment.

Participants were assigned to AT (n = 22) and an active control group (n = 27). In both, weekly 45-min sessions were carried out across 3 months. Cognitive assessments and structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were carried out at baseline and 3-month follow-up. Whole brain analyses on CT were carried out. Cognitive outcomes were analyzed using hierarchical linear models.

Significant gains in immediate memory and working memory span were observed in the AT group, relative to the control group. Significantly increased CT in the AT group, relative to controls, was observed in a right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) cluster. Furthermore, CT changes in this cluster were significantly and positively correlated with changes in immediate memory.

These findings highlighted the role of MFG neuroplasticity in enhancing certain cognitive functions in AT. AT is a neuroplastic intervention capable of engendering significant cognitive gains and associated cortical changes in the context of age-related cognitive decline, even when executed as a low-intensity intervention across 3 months. Given the preliminary nature of these findings, future larger sampled studies are needed.

Agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC) is associated with a range of cognitive deficits, including mild to moderate problems in higher order executive functions evident in neuropsychological assessments. Previous research has also suggested a lack of self-awareness in persons with AgCC.

We investigated daily executive functioning and self-awareness in 36 individuals with AgCC by analyzing self-ratings on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version (BRIEF-A), as well as ratings on the same instrument from close relatives. Discrepancies between self- and informant-ratings were compared to the normative sample and exploratory analyses examined possible moderating effects of participant and informant characteristics.

Significant deficiencies were found in the Behavioral Regulation and Metacognitive indices for both the self and informant results, with elevated frequency of metacognition scores in the borderline to clinical range. Informants also endorsed elevated frequency of borderline to clinically significant behavioral regulation scores. The proportion of AgCC participants whose self-ratings indicated less metacognitive impairment than informant-ratings was greater than in the normative sample. Self-ratings of behavioral regulation impairment decreased with age and informant-ratings of metacognition were higher in males than females.

These findings provide evidence that individuals with AgCC experience mild to moderate executive functioning problems in everyday behavior which are observed by others. Results also suggest a lack of self-understanding or insight into the severity of these problems in the individuals with AgCC, particularly with respect to their metacognitive functioning.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether loss of consciousness (LOC), retrograde amnesia (RA), and anterograde amnesia (AA) independently influence a particular aspect of post-concussion cognitive functioning—across-test intra-individual variability (IIV), or cognitive dispersion.

Concussed athletes (N = 111) were evaluated, on average, 6.04 days post-injury (SD = 5.90; Mdn = 4 days; Range = 1–26 days) via clinical interview and neuropsychological assessment. Primary outcomes of interest included two measures of IIV—an intra-individual standard deviation (ISD) score and a maximum discrepancy (MD) score—computed from 18 norm-referenced variables.

Analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) adjusting for time since injury and sex revealed a significant effect of LOC on the ISD (p = .018, ηp2 = .051) and MD (p = .034, ηp2 = .041) scores, such that athletes with LOC displayed significantly greater IIV than athletes without LOC. In contrast, measures of IIV did not significantly differ between athletes who did and did not experience RA or AA (all p > .05).

LOC, but not RA or AA, was associated with greater variability, or inconsistencies, in cognitive performance acutely following concussion. Though future studies are needed to verify the clinical significance of these findings, our results suggest that LOC may contribute to post-concussion cognitive dysfunction and may be a risk factor for less efficient cognitive functioning.

Normative data should consider sociodemographic diversity for the accurate diagnosis of cognitive impairment. This study aims to provide normative data for a brief neuropsychological battery and present diagnostic criteria for cognitive impairment that could be used in primary care settings.

We selected 9618 Brazilian middle-aged and older adults after detailed exclusion criteria to avoid subtle cognitive impairment. We analyzed age, sex, and education influence on cognitive performance. To verify the evidence of criterion validity, we compared the cognitive performance of subjects with and without a depressive episode. Additionally, we verified the percentage of spurious scores under three different cutoffs.

Age and education had the greatest impact on cognition. Normative scores were provided according to age and education groups. Participants with a depressive episode performed poorer than control subjects. The clinical cutoff of at least two scores below the 7th percentile revealed the adequate percentage of spurious and possible clinical performance.

The Longitudinal Study on Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) provided normative data based on a unique selected set of cognitively normal subjects. Normative groups were selected based on age and education, and the battery was sensitive to the presence of a depressive episode. We suggested clinical cutoffs for the tests in this battery that could be used in primary care settings to improve the accurate diagnosis of cognitive impairment.

Accumulating evidence suggests that wakeful rest (a period of minimal cognitive stimulation) enhances memory in clinical populations with memory impairment. However, no study has previously examined the efficacy of this technique in stroke survivors, despite the high prevalence of post-stroke memory difficulties. We aimed to investigate whether wakeful rest enhances verbal memory in stroke survivors and healthy controls.

Twenty-four stroke survivors and 24 healthy controls were presented with two short stories; one story was followed by a 10-minute period of wakeful rest and the other was followed by a 10-minute visual interference task. A mixed factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) with pairwise comparisons was used to compare participants’ story retention at two time points.

After 15–30 minutes, stroke survivors (p = .002, d = .73), and healthy controls (p = .001, d = .76) retained more information from the story followed by wakeful rest, compared with the story followed by an interference task. While wakeful rest remained the superior condition in healthy controls after 7 days (p = .01, d = .58), the beneficial effect was not maintained in stroke survivors (p = .35, d = .19).

Wakeful rest is a promising technique, which significantly enhanced verbal memory after 15–30 minutes in both groups; however, no significant benefit of wakeful rest was observed after 7 days in stroke survivors. Preliminary findings suggest that wakeful rest enhances early memory consolidation processes by protecting against the effects of interference after learning in stroke survivors.