Children's emerging ability to balance internal and external cognitive resources.

Australian children aged 6-9 years (N = 120, 71 females; data collected in 2021-2022) were tasked with remembering the locations of 1, 3, 5, and 7 targets hidden under 25 cups on different trials. In the critical test phase, children were provided with a limited number of tokens to allocate across trials, which they could use to mark target locations and assist future memory performance. Following the search period, children were invited to adjust their previous token allocation.

Longitudinal changes in functional capacity in frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: This study investigated the changes in functional capacity with disease progression in a well-characterised cohort of patients diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) presentations.

Methods: We recruited 126 behavioural variant FTD (bvFTD), 40 progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA), 64 semantic dementia (SD), 45 logopenic progressive aphasia (LPA), and 115 AD patients. Functional capacity was measured annually over ∼7 years using the Disability Assessment for Dementia.

Delineating the neural substrates of autobiographical memory impairment in Huntington's disease.

Emerging evidence suggests that autobiographical memory (ABM) is altered in Huntington's disease (HD). While these impairments are typically attributed to frontostriatal dysfunction, the neural substrates of ABM impairment in HD remain unexplored. To this end, we assessed ABM in 30 participants with genetically confirmed HD (18 premanifest, 12 manifest) and 24 age-matched healthy controls.

Risk factors for the neurodegenerative dementias in the Western Pacific region.

The Western Pacific Region (WPR) is characterized by a group of socioeconomically, culturally, and geopolitically heterogenous countries and represents a microcosm of the global endemic of neurodegeneration. This review will chart the known risk factors for dementia across the WPR. We explore the intersection between the established risk factors for dementia including the (cardiovascular and metabolic disease, sleep, hearing loss, depression, alcohol, smoking, traumatic brain injury, genetics) and (social disadvantage, limited education, systemic racism) as well as incorporate neuroimaging data, where available, to predict disease progression in the WPR.

Development of the Flexibility in Daily Life scale to measure multidimensional cognitive and behavioural flexibility in health and disease.

Objectives: Inflexibility of thought and behaviour is a transdiagnostic feature of many neuropsychiatric disorders and presents several empirical measurement challenges. Here, we developed and validated the Flexibility in Daily Life scale (FIDL); a novel, self-report questionnaire, which captures expressions of cognitive and behavioural flexibility in daily life and is sensitive to natural shifts in these processes across the adult lifespan.

Methods: The FIDL was developed using a deductive scale development approach, which aimed to capture common themes within the flexibility literature and across diagnoses (e.

Everyday Memory Disturbance in Primary Progressive Aphasia.

Introduction: Mounting evidence indicates distinct memory profiles among the primary progressive aphasia (PPA) variants. Neuropsychological tests reveal disproportionate memory impairments in the logopenic variant PPA (lv-PPA) relative to the non-fluent variant PPA (nfv-PPA) and semantic variant PPA (sv-PPA). The real-world experience of day-to-day memory disturbances in PPA, however, remains poorly understood.

Distinct personality profiles associated with disease risk and diagnostic status in eating disorders.

Background: Personality traits have been associated with eating disorders (EDs) and comorbidities. However, it is unclear which personality profiles are premorbid risk rather than diagnostic markers.

Methods: We explored associations between personality and ED-related mental health symptoms using canonical correlation analyses.

Profiles of motivational impairment and their relationship to functional decline in frontotemporal dementia.

Motivational disturbances are pervasive in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and impact negatively on everyday functioning. Despite mounting evidence of anhedonia in FTD, it remains unclear how such changes fit within the broader motivational symptom profile of FTD, or how anhedonia relates to functional outcomes. Here we sought to comprehensively characterize motivational disturbances in FTD and their respective relationships with functional impairment.

Visuospatial working memory in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia: a comparative analysis with Alzheimer's disease using the box task.

Objective: This study investigated the visuospatial working memory profiles of behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) using a novel computerised test of visuospatial working memory: the Box Task.

Methods: Twenty-eight bvFTD and 28 AD patients, as well as 32 age-matched control participants were recruited. All participants completed the Box Task and conventional neuropsychological tests of working memory, episodic memory, and visuospatial function.

Scene construction in healthy aging - Exploring the interplay between task complexity and oculomotor behaviour.

Mounting evidence indicates a close correspondence between episodic memory, mental imagery, and oculomotor behaviour. It remains unclear, however, how oculomotor variables support endogenously driven forms of mental imagery and how this relationship changes across the adult lifespan. In this study we investigated age-related changes in oculomotor signatures during scene construction and explored how task complexity impacts these processes.

Disrupted social perception in frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease - Associated cognitive processes and clinical implications.

Background: Social perception refers to the ability to adapt and update one's behaviour in accordance with the current context and provides the foundation for many complex social and emotional interactions. Alterations in social cognition are a hallmark of the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), yet the capacity for social perception in this syndrome remains unclear.

Methods: We examined social perception in 18 bvFTD and 13 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, in comparison with 17 healthy older controls, using a social perception task derived from the Dewey Story Test.

Exploring graded profiles of hippocampal atrophy along the anterior-posterior axis in semantic dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Mounting evidence indicates marked hippocampal degeneration in semantic dementia (SD) however, the spatial distribution of hippocampal atrophy profiles in this syndrome remains unclear. Using a recently developed parcellation approach, we extracted hippocampal volumes from four distinct subregions running from anterior to posterior along the longitudinal axis (anterior, intermediate rostral, intermediate caudal, and posterior). Volumetric differences in hippocampal subregions were compared between 21 SD, 24 matched Alzheimer's disease (AD), and 27 healthy older Control participants.

Autopsy of a failed trial part 2: Outcomes, challenges, and lessons learnt from the DAISIES trial.

Objective: The relative merits of inpatient or day-treatment for adults with anorexia nervosa (AN) are unknown. The DAISIES trial aimed to establish the non-inferiority of a stepped-care day patient treatment (DPT) approach versus inpatient treatment as usual (IP-TAU) for improving body mass index (BMI) at 12 months in adults with AN. The trial was terminated due to poor recruitment.

Deconstructing spontaneous expressions of memory in dementia.

Dementia syndromes offer a unique opportunity to clarify some of the component processes of spontaneous expressions of memory proposed by the Barzykowski and Moulin model. By considering the model through the lens of memory disorders, I outline several important extensions to progress our understanding of these spontaneous cognitive phenomena.

Establishing the link between motivational disturbances and behavioural rigidity in frontotemporal dementia.

Background: Rigid and inflexible behaviours are common in frontotemporal dementia (FTD), manifesting in compulsive pursuit of specific interests, routines, and rituals. Paradoxically, these changes occur alongside profound motivational disturbances including apathy and anhedonia. While posited to be related, no study to date has explored the link between motivational changes and behavioural rigidity in FTD.

Investigating self-blame and trauma symptoms in parents of young people with anorexia nervosa.

Background: Caring for a young person with anorexia nervosa (AN) has been associated with psychological distress and found to be a traumatic experience. This can have an impact on patient and family outcomes.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate whether self-blame cognitions contribute to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in parents of young people with AN.

Combining experience sampling with temporal network analysis to understand inertia of negative emotion in dysphoria.

Background: Emotional inertia refers to the resistance to update or change an emotional state and is a hallmark of maladaptive emotional dynamics in psychopathology. Little is known, however, about the role of emotion regulation in negative emotional inertia in dysphoria. The current study aimed to explore the association between inertia of discrete negative emotions, and emotion-specific emotion regulation strategy selection use and efficacy in dysphoria.

British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) United Kingdom national guideline for the management of sexually transmitted enteric infections 2023.

This is the first British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) national guideline for the management of sexually transmitted enteric infections (STEI). This guideline is primarily aimed for level 3 sexual health clinics; however, it may also be applicable to other settings such as primary care or other hospital departments where individuals with STEI may present. This guideline makes recommendations on testing, management, partner notification and public health control of STEI.

Autopsy of a failed trial part 1: A qualitative investigation of clinician's views on and experiences of the implementation of the DAISIES trial in UK-based intensive eating disorder services.

Objective: The DAISIES trial, comparing inpatient and stepped-care day patient treatment for adults with severe anorexia nervosa was prematurely terminated in March 2022 due to poor recruitment. This qualitative study seeks to understand the difficulties faced during the trial by investigating stakeholders' views on and experiences of its implementation.

Method: Semi-structured interview and focus group transcripts, and trial management and oversight group meeting minutes from May 2020-June 2022 were analysed using thematic analysis.

Reconciling profiles of reward-seeking versus reward-restricted behaviours in frontotemporal dementia.

This scientific commentary refers to 'The architecture of abnormal reward behaviour in dementia: multimodal hedonic phenotypes and brain substrate', by Chokesuwattanaskul (https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad027).

Mapping behavioural, cognitive and affective transdiagnostic dimensions in frontotemporal dementia.

Two common clinical variants of frontotemporal dementia are the behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, presenting with behavioural and personality changes attributable to prefrontal atrophy, and semantic dementia, displaying early semantic dysfunction primarily due to anterior temporal degeneration. Despite representing independent diagnostic entities, mounting evidence indicates overlapping cognitive-behavioural profiles in these syndromes, particularly with disease progression. Why such overlap occurs remains unclear.

Neural correlates of schizotypal traits: Findings from connectome-based predictive modelling.

Schizotypal traits can be conceptualized as a phenotype for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. As such, a better understanding of schizotypal traits could potentially improve early identification and treatment of schizophrenia. We used connectome-based predictive modelling (CPM) based on whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity to predict schizotypal traits in 82 healthy participants.

Distinct hypothalamic involvement in the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-frontotemporal dementia spectrum.

Background: Hypothalamic dysregulation plays an established role in eating abnormalities in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Its contribution to cognitive and behavioural impairments, however, remains unexplored.

Methods: Correlation between hypothalamic subregion atrophy and cognitive and behavioural impairments was examined in a large sample of 211 participants (52 pure ALS, 42 mixed ALS-FTD, 59 bvFTD, and 58 age- and education- matched healthy controls).