Early-life stress (ELS) has previously been identified as a risk factor for cognitive decline, but this work has predominantly focused on clinical groups and indexed traditional cognitive domains. It, therefore, remains unclear whether ELS is related to cognitive function in healthy community-dwelling older adults, as well as whether any effects of ELS also extend to social cognition. To test each of these questions, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) was administered to 484 older adults along with a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery and a well-validated test of social cognitive function. The results revealed no differences in global cognition according to overall experiences of ELS. However, a closer examination into the different ELS subscales showed that global cognition was poorer in those who had experienced physical neglect (relative to those who had not). Social cognitive function did not differ according to experiences to ELS. These results indicate that the relationship between ELS and cognition in older age may be dependent on the nature of the trauma experienced.

We investigated whether neurobehavioral markers of risk for emotion dysregulation were evident among newborns, as well as whether the identified markers were associated with prenatal exposure to maternal emotion dysregulation. Pregnant women (N = 162) reported on their emotion dysregulation prior to a laboratory assessment. The women were then invited to the laboratory to assess baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and RSA in response to an infant cry. Newborns were assessed after birth via the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale. We identified two newborn neurobehavioral factors—arousal and attention—via exploratory factor analysis. Low arousal was characterized by less irritability, excitability, and motor agitation, while low attention was related to a lower threshold for auditory and visual stimulation, less sustained attention, and poorer visual tracking abilities. Pregnant women who reported higher levels of emotion dysregulation had newborns with low arousal levels and less attention. Larger decreases in maternal RSA in response to cry were also related to lower newborn arousal. We provide the first evidence that a woman's emotion dysregulation while pregnant is associated with risks for dysregulation in her newborn. Implications for intergenerational transmission of emotion dysregulation are discussed.

Drawing on a landscape analysis of existing data-sharing initiatives, in-depth interviews with expert stakeholders, and public deliberations with community advisory panels across the U.S., we describe features of the evolving medical information commons (MIC). We identify participant-centricity and trustworthiness as the most important features of an MIC and discuss the implications for those seeking to create a sustainable, useful, and widely available collection of linked resources for research and other purposes.

Although cognitive deficits are common in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), no study to date has investigated whether these deficits extend to the capacity to execute delayed intentions (prospective memory, PM). This is a surprising omission given the critical role PM plays in correctly implementing many important CHF self-care behaviors. The present study aimed to provide the first empirical assessment of PM function in people with CHF. The key dependent measure was a laboratory measure of PM that closely simulates PM tasks in daily life – Virtual Week. A group comparison design was used, with 30 CHF patients compared to 30 demographically matched controls. Background measures assessing executive functions, working memory, and verbal memory were also administered. The CHF group exhibited significant PM impairment, with difficulties generalizing across different types of PM tasks (event, time, regular, irregular). The CHF group also had moderate deficits on several of the background cognitive measures. Given the level of impairment remained consistent even on tasks that imposed minimal demands on memory for task content, CHF-related difficulties most likely reflects problems with the prospective component. However, exploratory analyses suggest that difficulties with retrospective memory and global cognition (but not executive control), also contribute to the PM difficulties seen in this group. The implications of these data are discussed, and in particular, it is argued that problems with PM may help explain why patient engagement in CHF self-care behaviors is often poor. (JINS, 2015, 21, 1–10)

Participants diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), dementia and controls completed measures that required decoding emotions from point-light displays of bodily motion, and static images of facial affect. Both of these measures tap social cognitive processes that are considered critical for social competency. Consistent with prior literature, both clinical groups were impaired on the static measure of facial affect recognition. The dementia (but not the MCI) group additionally showed difficulties interpreting biological motion cues. However, this did not reflect a specific deficit in decoding emotions, but instead a more generalized difficulty in processing visual motion (both to action and to emotion). These results align with earlier studies showing that visual motion processing is disrupted in dementia, but additionally show for the first time that this extends to the recognition of socially relevant biological motion. The absence of any MCI related impairment on the point-light biological emotion measure (coupled with deficits on the measure of facial affect recognition) also point to a potential disconnect between the processes implicated in the perception of emotion cues from static versus dynamic stimuli. For clinical (but not control) participants, performance on all recognition measures was inversely correlated with level of semantic memory impairment. (JINS, 2012, 18, 1–8)

Primary objective: Recent research studies attest to the presence of deficits in emotion perception following severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Additionally, a growing number of studies report significant levels of alexithymia (disorder of emotional cognition) following TBI. This research aimed to examine the relation between the two, while assessing the influence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Design: Cross-sectional study examining levels of alexithymia, emotion perception disorders and PTSD and their association, in 20 people with severe, chronic TBI and 20 adults without brain injuries. Methods: Participants were assessed on the Toronto Alexithymia — 20 Scale, the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale and on two emotion perception tasks: matching and labelling of photos depicting the 6 basic emotions. Results: The group with TBI were impaired relative to controls when matching facial expressions. Their performance on ‘fear’ was especially poor. Performance on labelling was similar in pattern, although failed to reach significance. There was no association between poor performance on fear, or other negative expressions, and either PTSD or alexithymia symptoms in the TBI group. Conclusions: Alexithymia, as assessed by the TAS-20, taps a constellation of difficulties that do not appear to include difficulties with emotion perception in people with traumatic brain injuries.

It is now recognised that prospective memory (PM) failures are commonly observed in clinical groups, and have important implications for functional independence. However, well-validated measures of PM have traditionally been lacking, making this construct difficult to assess in clinical practice. Rendell and Craik's (2000) Virtual Week measure was developed as an indicator of PM, and has been shown to have good psychometric properties and be sensitive to the effects of normal and abnormal adult ageing, as well as various forms of pathology. In this article, an overview of Virtual Week's characteristics is presented, and the literature relating to use of this measure in various populations reviewed. The potential implications of the development of a new computerised version of Virtual Week for clinical practice are discussed.

Background: The age-prospective memory-paradox describes the general pattern of age-related deficits in laboratory-based prospective memory tasks and age-related benefits in naturalistic tasks that are carried out in participants' everyday lives. However, the mechanisms which are critical in determining the direction of age effects remain poorly delineated.

Method: Twenty young and 20 old adults performed a laboratory and a naturalistic prospective memory task, which were similar in structure and demand. Several factors highlighted in recent theoretical models as potentially important to understanding the paradox (motivation, metacognitive awareness, activity absorption, control over the task) were assessed and their contribution to the age paradox empirically explored.

Results: First, analyzing mean level age differences, the paradox was confirmed. Second, exploring possible correlates of the paradox revealed that, while low levels of daily activity absorption, high motivation and good metacognitive awareness were associated with age benefits in prospective memory performance in the naturalistic task, high ongoing activity absorption and low control over the prospective memory cue seem important for understanding age deficits in lab-based tasks.

Conclusion: The current study confirms the age-prospective memory-paradox within one sample and with carefully matched laboratory and naturalistic tasks. Additionally, it takes an important step forward in clarifying the role of different factors in understanding age effects across these different contexts. The results indicate that the relative importance of different factors vary as a function of assessment context, with conceptual as well as applied implications.

It has been suggested that, relative to the other basic emotions, the perception of threat-related emotion is disproportionately impaired in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Yet research has not assessed how schizophrenia-spectrum disorders affect the ability to make direct appraisals of threat. In the present study, participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were compared with controls on two danger rating tasks that involved differentiating between faces and situations normatively judged to be either high or low in threat. It was also assessed whether danger ratings were related to clinical symptoms, as well as performance on an emotion recognition measure that depicted emotions in point-light animation (biological motion). While the two groups did not differ in their ability to differentiate high- from low-danger stimuli, or overall danger attributed to faces, overall danger attributed to situations was greater for the clinical group. The clinical group also showed a selective deficit recognizing fear on the bioemotion task, but only for the control group was recognition of threat-related emotions associated with danger ratings. These data are consistent with other evidence showing that there may be a disconnect between the usual processes used to make inferences regarding potential threat in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. (JINS, 2010, 16, 805–812.)

Emotional facial expressions evoke rapid, involuntary, and covert facial reactions in the perceiver that are consistent with the emotional valence of the observed expression. These responses are believed to be an important low-level mechanism contributing to the experience of empathy, which some have argued rely on a simulation mechanism subserved by the human mirror neuron system (MNS). Because schizophrenia is associated with pervasive social cognitive difficulties which have been linked to structural abnormalities in the MNS network, the aim of the present study was to provide the first assessment of how rapid facial mimicry reactions (within 1000 ms poststimulus onset) are affected in schizophrenia. Activity in the corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major muscle regions was quantified using electromyography while individuals with schizophrenia (n = 25) and controls (n = 25) viewed images of happy and angry facial expressions. In contrast to controls, individuals with schizophrenia demonstrated atypical facial mimicry reactions which were not associated with any clinical features of the disorder. These data provide evidence for a low-level disruption that may be contributing to empathizing deficits in schizophrenia and are discussed in relation to neuropsychological models of empathy and schizophrenia. (JINS, 2010, 16, 621–629.)

When compared with controls, both mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia are each associated with impaired memory for future intentions, or prospective memory (PM). However, prior studies have failed to agree on whether there are group differences in PM function between those with MCI and dementia. Furthermore, the degree and nature of the impairment remains to be clarified, as does the degree to which this impairment is secondary to deficits in other aspects of cognition. In the present study, MCI (n = 48), dementia (n = 39), and control participants (n = 53) were compared on Virtual Week, a measure that closely represents the types of PM tasks that occur in everyday life. Both clinical groups exhibited impairment irrespective of the specific task demands, but the magnitude of this deficit was greater for those with dementia. After covarying for other key cognitive parameters, although the absolute magnitude of the deficit was reduced, significant impairment remained. These results indicate that individuals with MCI, and to a greater extent dementia, experience generalized difficulties with PM. It is suggested that, while other cognitive deficits contribute to these difficulties, there is something unique to prospective remembering that may be additionally disrupted in these groups. (JINS, 2010, 16, 318–325.)

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a white matter disease associated with neurocognitive difficulties. More recently the potential for white matter pathology to also disrupt important aspects of emotion understanding has been recognized. However, no study to date has assessed whether capacity for facial affect recognition and theory of mind (ToM) is disrupted in MS, or whether any observed deficits are related to more general cognitive impairment. In the present study MS participants (n = 27) and nonclinical controls (n = 30) were administered measures of facial affect recognition, ToM, and cognitive functioning. MS participants were significantly impaired on the ToM task, and also presented with specific deficits decoding facial emotions of anger and fear. Performance on the measures of facial affect recognition and ToM were related to general cognitive functioning, and in particular, measures sensitive to executive dysfunction and information processing speed. These data highlight the need for future research to more fully delineate the extent and implications of emotion understanding difficulties in this population. (JINS, 2009, 15, 277–285.)

Individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) experience difficulties with socioemotional functioning, and it has been proposed that cognitive disinhibition may be one potential mechanism that contributes to difficulties in this area. To test this possibility, twenty individuals with AD and 20 demographically matched controls were administered self-report measures of depression, emotion regulation and empathy, in addition to a behavioral measure that has proven to be very sensitive to inhibitory failures (the Hayling Sentence Completion Test). Relative to controls AD participants exhibited increased inhibitory failures on the Hayling, and self-reported significantly reduced cognitive empathy, but did not differ with respect to affective empathy, depression or perceived capacity for emotion regulation. Controlling for general cognitive status, in the AD (but not the control) group, reduced cognitive inhibition was associated with lower levels of depression. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. (JINS, 2007, 13, 1060–1064.)

There is considerable evidence that multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with impaired retrospective memory. However, although preliminary evidence suggests that prospective memory is also affected by the disorder, the degree and nature of the impairment remains to be clarified. Twenty participants with MS were compared with 20 matched controls on Virtual Week, a measure of prospective memory that closely represents the types of prospective memory tasks that actually occur in everyday life, and provides an opportunity to investigate the different sorts of prospective memory failures that occur. The results indicated that irrespective of the specific prospective memory task demands, MS participants' performance was significantly impaired relative to controls. MS deficits could not be attributed to problems with retrospective memory because MS participants in the present study did not differ significantly from controls on measures of long- and short-term memory, and significant impairment was observed on a prospective memory task, which imposed only minimal demands on retrospective memory. These results therefore suggest that individuals with MS may experience general difficulties with prospective memory. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. (JINS, 2007, 13, 410–416.)