Transposed-character effects during learning to read: When does letter and non-letter strings processing become different?

Efficient reading requires the association of different letter identities with their positions in the written word. This leads to the development of a specialized mechanism for encoding flexible location-invariant letter positions through learning to read. In this study, we investigated not only the emergence and development of this position coding mechanism but also whether this mechanism is a consequence of the orthographic code (i.

Serotonergic and Dopaminergic Lesions Underlying Parkinsonian Neuropsychiatric Signs.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by heterogeneous motor and nonmotor manifestations related to alterations in monoaminergic neurotransmission systems. Nevertheless, the characterization of concomitant dopaminergic and serotonergic dysfunction after different durations of Parkinson's disease, as well as their respective involvement in the expression and severity of neuropsychiatric signs, has gained little attention so far.

Methods: To fill this gap, we conducted a cross-sectional study combining clinical and dual-tracer positron emission tomography (PET) neuroimaging approaches, using radioligands of dopamine ([ C]-N-(3-iodoprop-2E-enyl)-2-beta-carbomethoxy-3-beta-(4-methylphenyl)-nortropane) ([ C]PE2I) and serotonin ([ C]-N,N-dimethyl-2-(-2-amino-4-cyanophenylthio)-benzylamine) ([ C]DASB) reuptake, after different durations of Parkinson's disease (ie, in short-disease duration drug-naive de novo (n = 27, 0-2 years-duration), suffering from apathy (n = 14) or not (n = 13); intermediate-disease duration (n = 15, 4-7 years-duration) and long-disease duration, non-demented (n = 15, 8-10 years-duration) patients).

Exploratory case study of monozygotic twins with 22q11.2DS provides further clues to circumscribe neurocognitive markers of psychotic symptoms.

Variation in facial emotion processing abilities may contribute to variability in penetrance for psychotic symptoms in 22q11.2DS. However, the precise nature of the social cognitive dysfunction (i.

What do error patterns in processing facial expressions, social interaction scenes and vocal prosody tell us about the way social cognition works in children with 22q11.2DS?

Impairments in social cognition have been frequently described in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) and are thought to be a hallmark of difficulties in social interactions.

An implicit and reliable neural measure quantifying impaired visual coding of facial expression: evidence from the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

Although various psychiatric disorders present with social-cognitive impairment, a measure assessing social-cognitive processes implicitly and reliably, with high selectivity and with enough signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for individual evaluation of any population at any age, is lacking. Here we isolate a neural marker quantifying impaired visual coding of facial expression in individuals with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) using frequency-tagging with electroencephalography (EEG).

Wait and you shall see: sexual delay discounting in hypersexual Parkinson's disease.

Patients with Parkinson's disease may develop impulse control disorders under dopaminergic treatments. Impulse control disorders include a wide spectrum of behaviours, such as hypersexuality, pathological gambling or compulsive shopping. Yet, the neural systems engaged in specific impulse control disorders remain poorly characterized.

12q13.12q13.13 microdeletion encompassing ACVRL1 and SCN8A genes: Clinical report of a new contiguous gene syndrome.

Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia is usually linked to the presence of a pathogenic mutation ACVRL1 or ENG. Thus, apparently there is no benefit to perform an array CGH in case of HHT. However, ENG has been involved in a contiguous gene syndrome due to a de novo 9q33.

Computer-based cognitive remediation program for the treatment of behavioral problems in children with intellectual disability: the «COGNITUS & MOI» study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Comorbid psychiatric disorders are frequent in children with intellectual disability (ID). Given the limitations of drugs treatments, cognitive remediation could be a promising tool to reduce these challenging behaviors but evidence is still scarce. Our group recently developed the «COGNITUS & MOI» program that is designed to train the attentional and visuospatial skills in children with ID.

Overview of Social Cognitive Dysfunctions in Rare Developmental Syndromes With Psychiatric Phenotype.

Rare neurodevelopmental syndromes often present social cognitive deficits that may underlie difficulties in social interactions and increase the risk of psychosis or autism spectrum disorders. However, little is known regarding the specificities of social cognitive impairment across syndromes while it remains a major challenge for the care. Our review provides an overview of social cognitive dysfunctions in rare diseases associated with psychiatric symptoms (with a prevalence estimated between 1 in 1,200 and 1 in 25,000 live births: 22q11.

Social cognition in Wilson's disease: A new phenotype?

Studies focusing on neuropsychological impairments in Wilson's disease (WD) have highlighted that patients showing neurological signs present significant deficits in a wide range of cognitive domains. Attentional and executive impairments have also been described in people with hepatic WD. However, social cognition abilities, i.

The prominent role of serotonergic degeneration in apathy, anxiety and depression in de novo Parkinson's disease.

SEE SCHRAG AND POLITIS DOI101093/AWW190 FOR A SCIENTIFIC COMMENTARY ON THIS ARTICLE: Apathy, which can occur separately or in combination with depression and anxiety, is one of the most frequently encountered neuropsychiatric symptoms in Parkinson's disease. Pathophysiological evidence suggests that parkinsonian apathy is primarily due to a mesolimbic dopaminergic denervation, but the role of the serotonergic alteration has never been examined, despite its well-known involvement in the pathogenesis of depression and anxiety. To fill this gap, we address here the pure model of de novo Parkinson's disease, without the confounding effects of antiparkinsonian treatment.

Cognitive Abilities of Children With Neurological and Liver Forms of Wilson Disease.

Cognitive impairment in adult patients experiencing Wilson disease is now more clearly described, even in liver forms of the disease. Although this condition can appear during childhood, the cognitive abilities of children have not yet been reported in a substantial case series. This retrospective study included 21 children with Wilson disease who had undergone general cognitive assessment.

Interaction of noradrenergic pharmacological manipulation and subthalamic stimulation on movement initiation control in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Slowness in movement initiation (akinesia) is a cardinal feature of Parkinson's disease (PD), which is still poorly understood. Notably, akinesia is restored by subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) but not fully reversed by current dopaminergic treatments. It was recently suggested that this disorder is of executive nature (related to inhibitory control of response) and of non-dopaminergic origin (possibly noradrenergic).

Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus, but not dopaminergic medication, improves proactive inhibitory control of movement initiation in Parkinson's disease.

Slowness in movement initiation is a cardinal feature of Parkinson's disease (PD) that is still poorly understood and unsuccessfully alleviated by standard therapies. Here, we raise this major clinical issue within the framework of a novel theoretical model that allows a better understanding of the basic mechanisms involved in movement initiation. This model assumes that movement triggering is inhibited by default to prevent automatic responses to unpredictable events.

Transfer of the ability of HIV-1 Tat to raise an adjuvant-free humoral immune response to unrelated antigens.

The HIV-1 Tat protein is able to raise a humoral immune response in the absence of adjuvant. Here, we investigated whether this property can be transferred to unrelated antigens. We first observed that Tat self-adjuvanticity is a T cell-dependent phenomenon in which a Th2 profile predominates.

How emotional pictures influence visuospatial binding in short-term memory in ageing and Alzheimer's disease?

The present study examines the prediction that emotion can facilitate short-term memory. Nevertheless, emotion also recruits attention to process information, thereby disrupting short-term memory when tasks involve high attentional resources. In this way, we aimed to determine whether there is a differential influence of emotional information on short-term memory in ageing and Alzheimer's disease (AD).