Executive function and adult homelessness, true impairment or frontal lobology?

Homelessness is associated with multiple risk factors for neurocognitive impairment. Past research with people experiencing homelessness has described "frontal lobe" dysfunction including behavioral disorders and executive cognitive impairments. In the current study, 72 adults experiencing homelessness were assessed with a standardized assessment of executive function, and interviewed regarding neurological and psychiatric history.

Evidence for an amodal domain-general object recognition ability.

A general object recognition ability predicts performance across a variety of high-level visual tests, categories, and performance in haptic recognition. Does this ability extend to auditory recognition? Vision and haptics tap into similar representations of shape and texture. In contrast, features of auditory perception like pitch, timbre, or loudness do not readily translate into shape percepts related to edges, surfaces, or spatial arrangement of parts.

The Misguided Veneration of Averageness in Clinical Neuroscience: A Call to Value Diversity over Typicality.

Research and practice in clinical neurosciences often involve cognitive assessment. However, this has traditionally used a nomothetic approach, comparing the performance of patients to normative samples. This method of defining abnormality places the average test performance of neurologically healthy individuals at its center.

Predictors of high functional disability and mortality at 3 months in patients with status epilepticus.

Purpose: There are differences in epidemiology, etiology, and outcome in status epilepticus (SE) between developing and developed countries, which limits generalizability. We evaluated factors related to outcome at 3 months in SE patients in a developing country- Ecuador.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of a prospectively collected dataset of patients treated for SE at a single hospital over 4 years, recording on 107 patients and 109 episodes, including clinical, demographic, and prognosis assessments.

Predisposing factors and impact of healthcare-associated infections in patients with status epilepticus.

Background: Few studies have evaluated the incidence, predisposing factors and impact of healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) in relation to outcomes among patients with status epilepticus (SE).

Objective: To investigate the variables associated with development of HCAIs among patients with SE and the impact of factors relating to HCAIs on mortality at three months.

Methods: This study was a retrospective analysis on our prospectively collected dataset, from November 2015 to January 2019.

Socio-economic status, executive functions, and theory of mind ability in adolescents: Relationships with language ability and cortisol.

Socio-economic status (SES) is linked to the development of cognitive abilities, particularly language and executive processes. It is unclear whether these represent a single or independent correlates. We studied 110 Ecuadorian youths aged 12-17 with measures of SES, language, executive function, and theory of mind (ToM), a.

Differential associations of neurobehavioral traits and cognitive ability to academic achievement in higher education.

Background: People vary between each other on several neurobehavioral traits, which may have implications for understanding academic achievement.

Methods: University-level Psychology or Engineering students were assessed for neurobehavioral traits, intelligence, and current psychological distress. Scores were compared with their grade point average (GPA) data.

Language ability and adult homelessness.

Background: People experiencing homelessness are at increased risk of neurological disorder due to multiple factors such as substance abuse, infection, and higher rates of serious mental illness and traumatic brain injury. This could affect cognitive and language skills. Indeed, past research has suggested that certain language-related skills tend to be lower in people experiencing homelessness.

Response suppression, strategy application, and working memory in the prediction of academic performance and classroom misbehavior: A neuropsychological approach.

Background: Neurological illness can produce a disorganization of behavior, including verbal disinhibition, despite apparent preserved intelligence. Neuropsychological tests of such behavioral control mechanisms may predict real-world performance of healthy people, such as success or misbehavior in educational contexts.

Method: In two separate studies, we examined how the Hayling Test of verbal response suppression predicts grades and classroom misbehavior.

Brief communication: Reliability of the D-KEFS Tower Test in samples of children and adolescents in Ecuador.

The Tower Test in the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) is a widely-used assessment of executive function in young people. It is similar to other Towers of Hanoi type tasks, for which doubts regarding the reliability of the test have been previously raised. Here, we present data on the internal consistency, unidimensionality, and test-retest reliability of the D-KEFS Towers Test based on an Ecuadorian sample of 264 children and adolescents.

Curious CXR.

A 98-year-old man with 2 days of headache, nausea, malaise and unsteadiness was referred to the ED by his GP with a suspicion of an intracranial bleed. His medical history included atrial fibrillation (AF) (taking warfarin). Observations were SpO2 95% on air, RR24, HR88, BP210/104, GCS14, Temp 34.

Modulation of striatum based non-declarative and medial temporal lobe based declarative memory predicts academic achievement at university level.

Background: There is a dearth of research on the roles of non-declarative (implicit) learning linked to the striatum and declarative (explicit) learning associated with the medial temporal lobes as predictors of academic attainment.

Methods: Participants were 120 undergraduate students, studying Psychology or Engineering, who completed several long-term memory tests.

Results: There was a significant interaction between the groups (Psychology or Engineering) and task type (declarative or non-declarative): Engineers performed better at declarative and psychologists at non-declarative learning.

Preliminary Validation of a Free-to-Use, Brief Assessment of Adult Intelligence for Research Purposes: The Matrix Matching Test.

The concept of intelligence as a measurable trait of intellectual function continues to be an important issue in psychology. Traditionally, a core field of differential psychology and widely employed in applied settings, it is also important in various research fields. Here, I describe development of a new assessment of general intelligence of adults that has no language component and can be administered in about 10 minutes.

Socioeconomic deprivation and the development of neuropsychological functions: A study with "street children" in Ecuador.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is known to have a considerable influence on the development of neuropsychological functions. In particular there is strong evidence for less efficient development of prefrontal-cortex-related functions in children raised in low-SES households. "Street children" are a common feature of low SES in many low- and middle-income countries, and some researchers have suggested that the unique life experiences of street children may drive their neurocognitive development.

Self-harm in schizophrenia is associated with dorsolateral prefrontal and posterior cingulate activity.

Self-harm, such as self-cutting, self-poisoning or jumping from height, regardless of intentions, is common among people with schizophrenia. We wished to investigate brain activations relating to self-harm, in order to test whether these activations could differentiate between schizophrenia patients with self-harm and those without. We used event-related functional MRI with a go/no-go response inhibition paradigm.

Personality disorder in a probation cohort: Demographic, substance misuse and forensic characteristics.

Background: The occurrence of personality disorder among community supervised offenders may have important implications for their management. There is, however, a dearth of contextual information on personality disorder in such populations.

Aims: This study aimed to identify demographic, substance use and forensic features that distinguish community-sentenced offenders with personality disorder from those without.

Trends in use of electroconvulsive therapy in South London from 1949 to 2006.

Objectives: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) remains the most acutely effective treatment for severe depression, but its use has declined since its introduction more than 70 years ago. To provide some historical perspective on changes in ECT practice, the objective of the present study was to identify trends in ECT practice in selected teaching hospitals in South London, UK, between 1949 and 2006.

Methods: Annual rates of ECT for 1949-1970 were estimated from the contemporary hospital reports of the Maudsley and Bethlem Royal hospitals in South London, UK.

Performance on the continuous performance test under parametric increase of working memory load in schizophrenia.

We asked 24 schizophrenia patients and 24 healthy comparison subjects to complete a parametric working memory version of the continuous performance test. Patients exhibited a relatively rapid performance decline with increasing working memory demands. We suggest an interaction between sustained attention and working memory abnormalities in schizophrenia.

Premorbid and current neuropsychological function in opiate abusers receiving treatment.

Background: There is an established corpus of evidence linking substance abuse with neuropsychological impairment, particularly implicating frontal lobe functions. These could potentially be premorbid to, rather than consequences of, direct effects of substance abuse.

Methods: A matched pairs design was employed in which currently abstinent opiate abusers in treatment were matched to 22 healthy control individuals.

Cognitive and affective correlates of temperament in Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) patients display low novelty seeking scores on the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ), which may reflect the low dopamine function that characterises the disease. People with PD also display raised harm avoidance scores. Due to these and other observations, a "parkinsonian personality" has been suggested.

Comparison of electroconvulsive therapy practice between London and Bengaluru.

Objective: To compare electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) practice between London in the United Kingdom and Bengaluru in India.

Methods: A retrospective case note study was conducted to compare patterns of referrals for ECT in university teaching hospitals in London (n = 46) and Bengaluru (n = 345) during a 1-year period. Further comparison of ECT practice was made for a consecutive series of depressed patients between London (n = 104) and Bengaluru (n = 125).

Neurobehavioural and cognitive function is linked to childhood trauma in homeless adults.

Objectives: To describe levels of traumatic childhood events in a sample of homeless individuals and to assess the contribution of traumatic events to neurobehavioural traits (measured with the Frontal Systems Behaviour Scale, FrSBe) and general cognitive function (IQ).

Design: A sample of 55 homeless adults was recruited from homeless services in the city of Sheffield, UK. All were interviewed to acquire substance misuse information, record experiences of childhood trauma, and assess cognitive and neurobehavioural traits.

Time perspective, depression, and substance misuse among the homeless.

Using the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI; P. G. Zimbardo & J.