Dissociating language switching from executive control in bilinguals with MCI.

Bilingual language control is a dynamic cognitive system that enables individuals to effectively manage language use and prevent interference when switching between languages. Research indicates that certain neurodegenerative conditions may influence language-switching abilities or hinder the suppression of cross-language interference. However, it remains uncertain whether neurodegeneration primarily affecting mesial temporal structures, such as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), impacts lexical retrieval in dual-language naming conditions.

NEURONORMA Cognitive Battery Associations with Cerebrospinal Fluid Amyloid-β and Tau Levels in the Continuum of Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: Neuropsychological assessments are essential to define the cognitive profile and contribute to the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The progress in knowledge about the pathophysiological process of the disease has allowed conceptualizing AD through biomarkers as a biological continuum that encompasses different clinical stages.

Objective: To explore the association between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of AD and cognition using the NEURONORMA battery, in a sample of cognitively unimpaired (CU), mild cognitive impaired (MCI), and mild dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) subjects, and to characterize the cognitive profiles in MCI subjects classified by A/T/N system.

The CORCOBIA study: Cut-off points of Alzheimer's disease CSF biomarkers in a clinical cohort.

Introduction: The analysis of the core biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is recommended in the clinical units where it is available. Because of the absence of universal validated values, the determination of specific cut-off points for each center and its population is recommended. The main objective of the CORCOBIA study was to determine the cut-off points of core AD CSF biomarkers for several centers (Parc de Salut Mar, Barcelona and Hospital General de Granollers), which work with the same reference laboratory (Laboratori de Referència de Catalunya).

A functional neuroimaging association study on the interplay between two schizophrenia genome-wide associated genes (CACNA1C and ZNF804A).

The CACNA1C and the ZNF804A genes are among the most relevant schizophrenia GWAS findings. Recent evidence shows that the interaction of these genes with the schizophrenia diagnosis modulates brain functional response to a verbal fluency task. To better understand how these genes might influence the risk for schizophrenia, we aimed to study the interplay between CACNA1C and ZNF804A on working memory brain functional correlates.

Combining fMRI and DISC1 gene haplotypes to understand working memory-related brain activity in schizophrenia.

The DISC1 gene is one of the most relevant susceptibility genes for psychosis. However, the complex genetic landscape of this locus, which includes protective and risk variants in interaction, may have hindered consistent conclusions on how DISC1 contributes to schizophrenia (SZ) liability. Analysis from haplotype approaches and brain-based phenotypes can contribute to understanding DISC1 role in the neurobiology of this disorder.

Altered brain responses to specific negative emotions in schizophrenia.

Deficits in emotion processing are a core feature of schizophrenia, but their neurobiological bases are poorly understood. Previous research, mainly focused on emotional face processing and emotion recognition deficits, has shown controverted results. Furthermore, the use of faces has been questioned for not entailing an appropriate stimulus to study emotional processing.

Interindividual variability of functional connectome in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a complex psychiatric disorder that displays an outstanding interindividual variability in clinical manifestation and neurobiological substrates. A better characterization and quantification of this heterogeneity could guide the search for both common abnormalities (linked to lower intersubject variability) and the presence of biological subtypes (leading to a greater heterogeneity across subjects). In the current study, we address interindividual variability in functional connectome by means of resting-state fMRI in a large sample of patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.

Active bilingualism delays the onset of mild cognitive impairment.

Lifelong bilingualism may contribute to cognitive reserve (CR) in neurodegenerative diseases as shown by a delay of the age at symptom onset in bilinguals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). However, some studies have failed to show this bilingual advantage, suggesting that it might depend on the type and degree of bilingualism. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that active bilingualism, defined as the continuous use of the two languages as opposed to second language exposition only, may protect against cognitive decline.

Brain functional correlates of formal thought disorder in schizophrenia: examining the frontal/dysexecutive hypothesis.

Background: One hypothesis proposed to underlie formal thought disorder (FTD), the incoherent speech is seen in some patients with schizophrenia, is that it reflects impairment in frontal/executive function. While this proposal has received support in neuropsychological studies, it has been relatively little tested using functional imaging. This study aimed to examine brain activations associated with FTD, and its two main factor-analytically derived subsyndromes, during the performance of a working memory task.

Structural abnormality in schizophrenia versus bipolar disorder: A whole brain cortical thickness, surface area, volume and gyrification analyses.

Objectives: The profiles of cortical abnormalities in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and how far they resemble each other, have only been studied to a limited extent. The aim of this study was to identify and compare the changes in cortical morphology associated with these pathologies.

Methods: A total of 384 subjects, including 128 patients with schizophrenia, 128 patients with bipolar disorder and 127 sex-age-matched healthy subjects, were examined using cortical surface-based morphology.

Neuropsychological and neuroimaging underpinnings of schizoaffective disorder: a systematic review.

Objectives: The neurobiological basis and nosological status of schizoaffective disorder remains elusive and controversial. This study provides a systematic review of neurocognitive and neuroimaging findings in the disorder.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted via PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus and Web of Knowledge (from 1949 to 31st March 2015) using the keyword 'schizoaffective disorder' and any of the following terms: 'neuropsychology', 'cognition', 'structural neuroimaging', 'functional neuroimaging', 'multimodal', 'DTI' and 'VBM'.

Brain structural changes in schizoaffective disorder compared to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Objective: Brain structural changes in schizoaffective disorder, and how far they resemble those seen in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, have only been studied to a limited extent.

Method: Forty-five patients meeting DSM-IV and RDC criteria for schizoaffective disorder, groups of patients with 45 matched schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and 45 matched healthy controls were examined using voxel-based morphometry (VBM).

Results: Analyses comparing each patient group with the healthy control subjects found that the patients with schizoaffective disorder and the patients with schizophrenia showed widespread and overlapping areas of significant volume reduction, but the patients with bipolar disorder did not.

Effects of music learning and piano practice on cognitive function, mood and quality of life in older adults.

Reading music and playing a musical instrument is a complex activity that comprises motor and multisensory (auditory, visual, and somatosensory) integration in a unique way. Music has also a well-known impact on the emotional state, while it can be a motivating activity. For those reasons, musical training has become a useful framework to study brain plasticity.

Common and specific brain responses to scenic emotional stimuli.

Processing of emotions has been an enduring topic of interest in neuroimaging research, but studies have mostly used facial emotional stimuli. The aim of this study was to determine neural networks involved in emotion processing using scenic emotional visual stimuli. One hundred and twenty photographs from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), including ecological scenes of disgust, fear, happiness, and sadness, were presented to 40 healthy participants while they underwent functional magnetic imaging resonance (fMRI).

Association of formal thought disorder in schizophrenia with structural brain abnormalities in language-related cortical regions.

Background: Formal thought disorder (FTD) in schizophrenia has been found to be associated with volume reductions in the left superior temporal cortex. However, there have been negative findings and some studies have also found associations in other cortical regions.

Method: Fifty-one schizophrenic patients were evaluated for presence of FTD with the Thought, Language and Communication (TLC) scale and underwent whole-brain structural MRI using optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM).

Efficacy of functional remediation in bipolar disorder: a multicenter randomized controlled study.

OBJECTIVE The authors sought to assess the efficacy of functional remediation, a novel intervention program, on functional improvement in a sample of euthymic patients with bipolar disorder. METHOD In a multicenter, randomized, rater-blind clinical trial involving 239 outpatients with DSM-IV bipolar disorder, functional remediation (N=77) was compared with psychoeducation (N=82) and treatment as usual (N=80) over 21 weeks. Pharmacological treatment was kept stable in all three groups.

Structural brain changes associated with tardive dyskinesia in schizophrenia.

Background: The pathological basis of tardive dyskinesia is unknown. Although its clinical features implicate the basal ganglia, imaging studies have not found clear evidence that it is associated with volume changes in these or other brain structures.

Aims: To determine, using voxel-based structural imaging, whether there are regions of grey matter volume change in people with schizophrenia who also have tardive dyskinesia compared with those without tardive dyskinesia.

The missing link between faces and names: evidence from Alzheimer's disease patients.

Retrieval of proper names is a cause of concern and complaint among elderly adults and it is an early symptom of patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). While it is well established that AD patients have deficits of proper name retrieval, the nature of such impairment is not yet fully understood. Specifically, it is unknown whether this deficit is due to a degradation of the links between faces and proper names, or due to deficits in intentionally accessing and retrieving proper names from faces.

Bipolar depressed patients show both failure to activate and failure to de-activate during performance of a working memory task.

Background: Bipolar depression has been found to be associated with changes in prefrontal cortex activity during performance of cognitive tasks. However, the role of task-related de-activations has been little investigated.

Method: Forty-one bipolar depressed patients and 41 matched normal controls underwent fMRI scanning while performing baseline, 1-back and 2-back versions of the n-back task.

Effect of the interleukin-1β gene on dorsolateral prefrontal cortex function in schizophrenia: a genetic neuroimaging study.

Background: Genetic studies have found that the interleukin-1β gene (IL1B, 2q13) influences the risk for schizophrenia, but the underlying biological mechanisms of the association are still unclear. Investigation of the effects of genetic variability in this gene on brain function could provide more information about its role in the disorder.

Methods: The present study examined the effects of a functional polymorphism at IL1B gene promoter (-511C/T; rs16944) on brain correlates of working memory performance in schizophrenia.

Brain functional abnormality in schizo-affective disorder: an fMRI study.

Background: Schizo-affective disorder has not been studied to any significant extent using functional imaging. The aim of this study was to examine patterns of brain activation and deactivation in patients meeting strict diagnostic criteria for the disorder.

Method: Thirty-two patients meeting research diagnostic criteria (RDC) for schizo-affective disorder (16 schizomanic and 16 schizodepressive) and 32 matched healthy controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during performance of the n-back task.

Executive dysfunction and memory impairment in schizoaffective disorder: a comparison with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and healthy controls.

Background: Deficits in memory and executive performance are well-established features of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. By contrast, data on cognitive impairment in schizoaffective disorder are scarce and the findings are conflicting.

Method: We used the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-III) and the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS) to test memory and executive function in 45 schizophrenic patients, 26 schizomanic patients and 51 manic bipolar patients in comparison to 65 healthy controls.

On the parallel deterioration of lexico-semantic processes in the bilinguals' two languages: evidence from Alzheimer's disease.

In this article we aimed to assess how Alzheimer's disease (AD), which is neurodegenerative, affects the linguistic performance of early, high-proficient bilinguals in their two languages. To this end, we compared the Picture Naming and Word Translation performances of two groups of AD patients varying in disease progression (Mild and Moderate) with that of bilingual individuals diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The results revealed that the linguistic deterioration caused by AD affected the two languages similarly.

Awareness of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and its relationship to insight into illness.

Background: Patients with schizophrenia have been found to show unawareness of cognitive impairment. However, its frequency and its relationship to lack of insight into illness are uncertain.

Method: Forty-two patients with chronic schizophrenia were given tests of executive function and memory.

Neural correlates of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia.

Background: Cognitive impairment is an established feature of schizophrenia. However, little is known about its relationship to the structural and functional brain abnormalities that characterise the disorder. Aims To identify structural and/or functional brain abnormalities associated with schizophrenic cognitive impairment.