Deficits in memory strategy use are related to verbal memory impairments in adolescents with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

Objective: To assess the nature of learning and verbal memory deficits in adolescents with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SzS) (i.e., schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophreniform disorder).

A critical review of the clinical effects of therapeutic irradiation damage to the brain: the roots of controversy.

We critically examined the damaging affects of therapeutic irradiation by comparing results from cross-disciplinary studies of early- and late-delayed radiotherapy effects. Focus is attained by concentrating on clinical treatment issues (volume of brain, dose, timing of effects, age, modality types, and stereotactic treatment techniques), rather than on methodological means or problems, which is necessary to understand the mechanisms and characteristics of radiotherapy-induced behavioral dysfunction including cognition. We make observations and hypotheses about the actual risks from radiotherapy that could be informative in the treatment decision process, and which may lessen the concerns of some patients and their families about the risks they take when receiving radiation.

Reduced frontal white matter integrity in early-onset schizophrenia: a preliminary study.

Background: Research suggests that brain frontal white matter (WM) might be qualitatively altered in adolescents with early onset schizophrenia (EOS). Diffusion tensor imaging provides a relatively new approach for quantifying possible connectivity of WM in vivo.

Methods: Diffusion tensor imaging was used to examine the WM integrity of frontal regions at seven levels from 25 mm above to 5 mm below the anterior commissure-posterior commissure (AC-PC) plane.

Metabolic and neuropsychological phenotype in women heterozygous for ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency.

We compared neurocognitive indices with clinical status, mutation analysis, and urea synthetic capacity in 19 women heterozygous for ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency. Although as a group, these women had average IQ scores, they displayed a specific neuropsychological phenotype with significant strengths in verbal intelligence, verbal learning, verbal memory, and reading, and significant weaknesses in fine motor dexterity/speed and nonsignificant weaknesses in nonverbal intelligence, visual memory, attention/executive skills, and math. This suggests selective vulnerability of white matter and better preservation of gray matter.

Evaluation of a social-skills training group intervention with children treated for brain tumors: a pilot study.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a manual-based, social-skills training, group intervention to improve social skills and social functioning of children treated for brain tumors, and to assess the impact of cognitive functioning on the effectiveness of the intervention.

Methods: Three social-skills training group interventions, each comprised of 5 to 7 children ages 8 to 14 years, were conducted. A parent component was included.