Introducing a forced choice recognition trial to the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test - Revised.

Objective: This study was designed to replicate previous research on embedded validity indicators (EVIs) in the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test - Revised (HVLT-R) and introduce a new forced choice recognition trial (FCR).

Method: Undergraduate research volunteers were randomly assigned ( = 21.7; = 14.

Verbal fluency and digit span variables as performance validity indicators in experimentally induced malingering and real world patients with TBI.

This study was designed to examine the classification accuracy of verbal fluency (VF) measures as performance validity tests (PVT). Student volunteers were assigned to the control ( = 57) or experimental malingering ( = 24) condition. An archival sample of 77 patients with TBI served as a clinical comparison.

Short-term effects of cannabis consumption on cognitive performance in medical cannabis patients.

This observational study examined the acute cognitive effects of cannabis. We hypothesized that cognitive performance would be negatively affected by acute cannabis intoxication. Twenty-two medical cannabis patients from Southwestern Ontario completed the study.

Prospective Analysis of the Effects of Maternal Immune Activation on Rat Cytokines during Pregnancy and Behavior of the Male Offspring Relevant to Schizophrenia.

Influenza during pregnancy is associated with the development of psychopathology in the offspring. We sought to determine whether maternal cytokines produced following administration of viral mimetic polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (polyI:C) to pregnant rats were predictive of behavioral abnormalities in the adult offspring. Timed-pregnant Sprague Dawley rats received a single intravenous injection of 4-mg/kg polyI:C or saline on gestational day (GD)15.

The D-KEFS Trails as performance validity tests.

This study was designed to examine the potential of the Delis-Kaplan Executive System (D-KEFS) version of the Trail Making Test (TMT) as a performance validity test (PVT). Data were collected from a mixed clinical sample of 157 consecutively referred outpatients (49% male, MAge = 47.1, MEducation = 13.

Medial prefrontal cortex and dorsomedial striatum are necessary for the trial-unique, delayed nonmatching-to-location (TUNL) task in rats: role of NMDA receptors.

The trial-unique, delayed nonmatching-to-location (TUNL) task is a recently developed behavioral task that measures spatial working memory and a form of pattern separation in touchscreen-equipped operant conditioning chambers. Limited information exists regarding the neurotransmitters and neural substrates involved in the task. The present experiments tested the effects of systemic and intracranial injections of NMDA receptor antagonists on the TUNL task.

The Different Facets of Dyslipidemia and Hypertension in Atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is the narrowing of arteries due to the accumulation of macrophages overloaded with lipids resulting in foam cell formation, and these events occur preferentially at the branching points of arteries which are particularly susceptible to hyperlipidemic stress-induced inflammation and oxidative stress. The different stages of atherogenesis rely on oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction, and inflammation, and hypertension or dyslipidemia can independently trigger these stages. Dyslipidemia and hypertension are pathological conditions that damage the endothelium, triggering cell proliferation, vascular remodeling, apoptosis, and increased cellular permeability with increased adhesion molecules that bind monocytes and T lymphocytes to create a vicious cocktail of pathophysiological factors.

MK-801-induced impairments on the trial-unique, delayed nonmatching-to-location task in rats: effects of acute sodium nitroprusside.

Rationale: The cognitive symptoms observed in schizophrenia are not consistently alleviated by conventional antipsychotics. Following a recent pilot study, sodium nitroprusside (SNP) has been identified as a promising adjunct treatment to reduce the working memory impairments experienced by schizophrenia patients.

Objective: The present experiments were designed to explore the effects of SNP on the highly translatable trial-unique, delayed nonmatching-to-location (TUNL) task in rats with and without acute MK-801 treatment.

Effects of stress on behavioral flexibility in rodents.

Cognitive flexibility is the ability to switch between different rules or concepts and behavioral flexibility is the overt physical manifestation of these shifts. Behavioral flexibility is essential for adaptive responses and commonly measured by reversal learning and set-shifting performance in rodents. Both tasks have demonstrated vulnerability to stress with effects dependent upon stressor type and number of repetitions.