Habits, Goals, and Behavioral Signs of Cognitive Perseveration on Wisconsin Card-Sorting Tasks.

Wisconsin card-sorting tasks provide unique opportunities to study cognitive flexibility and its limitations, which express themselves behaviorally as perseverative errors (PE). PE refer to those behavioral errors on Wisconsin card-sorting tasks that are committed when cognitive rules are maintained even though recently received outcomes demand to switch to other rules (i.e.

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test: Split-Half Reliability Estimates for a Self-Administered Computerized Variant.

Self-administered computerized assessment has the potential to increase the reach of neuropsychological assessment. The present study reports the first split-half reliability estimates for a self-administered computerized variant of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), which is considered as a gold standard for the neuropsychological assessment of executive functions. We analyzed data from a large sample of young volunteers ( = 375).

Cognitive Performance of Patients with Adult 5q-Spinal Muscular Atrophy and with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Motor neuron diseases, such as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), share several clinical similarities while differing substantially in etiology, disease onset and progression. Cognitive dysfunction, a clinically relevant non-motor feature in a substantial proportion of ALS patients, has been less frequently investigated in SMA. In this prospective multicenter cross-sectional study, cognitive function was assessed by the Edinburgh Cognitive (and Behavioural) ALS Screen (ECAS) and a German vocabulary test (Wortschatztest, WST) in 34 adult patients with SMA types 2-4 and in 34 patients with ALS.

Toward a Computational Neuropsychology of Cognitive Flexibility.

Cognitive inflexibility is a well-documented, yet non-specific corollary of many neurological diseases. Computational modeling of covert cognitive processes supporting cognitive flexibility may provide progress toward nosologically specific aspects of cognitive inflexibility. We review computational models of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), which represents a gold standard for the clinical assessment of cognitive flexibility.

Dopaminergic modulation of novelty repetition in Parkinson's disease: A study of P3 event-related brain potentials.

Objective: Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by the loss of dopaminergic neurons. Cognitive impairments have been reported using the event-related potential (ERP) technique. Patients show reduced novelty P3 (nP3) amplitudes in oddball experiments, a response to infrequent, surprising stimuli, linked to the orienting response of the brain.

Parallel model-based and model-free reinforcement learning for card sorting performance.

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is considered a gold standard for the assessment of cognitive flexibility. On the WCST, repeating a sorting category following negative feedback is typically treated as indicating reduced cognitive flexibility. Therefore such responses are referred to as 'perseveration' errors.

A Computational Study of Executive Dysfunction in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Executive dysfunction is a well-documented, yet nonspecific corollary of various neurological diseases and psychiatric disorders. Here, we applied computational modeling of latent cognition for executive control in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. We utilized a parallel reinforcement learning model of trial-by-trial Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) behavior.

Cognitive flexibility and N2/P3 event-related brain potentials.

Task switching is often considered for evaluating limitations of cognitive flexibility. Switch costs are behavioural indices of limited cognitive flexibility, and switch costs may be decomposable into stimulus- and response-related fractions, as conjectured by the domain hypothesis of cognitive flexibility. According to the domain hypothesis, there exist separable stimulus- and response-related neural networks for cognitive flexibility, which should be discernible as distinct event-related potentials (ERPs).

Computational Modeling for Neuropsychological Assessment of Bradyphrenia in Parkinson's Disease.

The neural mechanisms of cognitive dysfunctions in neurological diseases remain poorly understood. Here, we conjecture that this unsatisfying state-of-the-art is in part due to the non-specificity of the typical behavioral indicators for cognitive dysfunctions. Our study addresses the topic by advancing the assessment of cognitive dysfunctions through computational modeling.

The Reliability of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in Clinical Practice.

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) represents the gold standard for the neuropsychological assessment of executive function. However, very little is known about its reliability. In the current study, 146 neurological inpatients received the Modified WCST (M-WCST).

Multiple Levels of Control Processes for Wisconsin Card Sorts: An Observational Study.

We explored short-term behavioral plasticity on the Modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (M-WCST) by deriving novel error metrics by stratifying traditional set loss and perseverative errors. Separating the rule set and the response set allowed for the measurement of performance across four trial types, crossing rule set (i.e.

Stimulus- and response-based interference contributes to the costs of switching between cognitive tasks.

Little is known about how stimulus- and response-based interference might interact to contribute to the costs of switching between cognitive tasks. We analyzed switch costs in a novel cued task-switching/card-matching paradigm in a large study (N = 95). We reasoned that interference from previously active task sets may be contingent upon the retrieval of these task sets via stimulus processing, or alternatively, via response processing.

Decomposing card-sorting performance: Effects of working memory load and age-related changes.

Objective: The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is often regarded as a prototypical neuropsychological test of set-shifting ability. However, it has been proposed that WCST performance involves cognitive processes other than set shifting, such as set maintenance and rule inference. Distinguishing between these processes is necessary for the meaningful interpretation of WCST performance deficits in neuropsychological populations.