Publications by authors named "P J Townes"
Long-duration spaceflight poses a variety of health risks to astronauts, largely resulting from extended exposure to microgravity and radiation. Here, we assessed the prevalence and incidence of cerebral microbleeds in sixteen astronauts before and after a typical 6-month mission on board the International Space Station Cerebral microbleeds are microhemorrhages in the brain, which are typically interpreted as early evidence of small vessel disease and have been associated with cognitive impairment. We identified evidence of higher-than-expected microbleed prevalence in astronauts with prior spaceflight experience.
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- The study aimed to assess the executive function (EF) profiles of children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
- The research reviewed 58 peer-reviewed articles, focusing on various cognitive domains such as working memory and attention, and found no significant differences in EF between those with ASD and ADHD.
- Both groups performed worse in multiple EF areas compared to typically developing peers, indicating that ASD and ADHD may share similar executive function challenges.
Article Synopsis
- - The study investigated neurocognitive performance differences in ADHD and ASD through comparisons of clinically and community-ascertained samples, revealing that both disorders exhibit impairments in response inhibition and sustained attention.
- - When comparing clinical cases, ADHD and ASD showed longer stop-signal reaction times and reaction time variability than controls, but did not significantly differ from each other.
- - Findings indicated that ADHD traits largely explained the neurocognitive impairments observed in individuals with ASD, suggesting that ADHD may account for the cognitive challenges faced by those with comorbid conditions, with results consistent across both clinical and community samples.
Obsessive compulsive disorder and response inhibition: Meta-analysis of the stop-signal task.
J Psychopathol Clin Sci
February 2022
This systematic review and meta-analysis updates evidence pertaining to response inhibition in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as measured by the stop-signal task (SST). We conducted a meta-analysis of the literature to compare response inhibition in patients with OCD and healthy controls, metaregressions to determine relative influences of age and sex on response inhibition performance, and a risk of bias assessment for included studies using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Stop-signal reaction time (SSRT), which estimates the latency of the stopping process deficit, was significantly longer in OCD samples than in controls, reflecting inferior inhibitory control (Raw mean difference = 23.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The primary objective of this systematic review and meta-analyses was to summarize the impact of all reported treatments on transition to psychosis in high-risk samples.
Data Sources: PsycINFO, Embase, CINAHL, EBM, and MEDLINE online databases were searched from inception to May 2017 using the keywords psychosis, risk, and treatment with no geographical, date, or language restrictions.
Study Selection: A total of 38 independent studies met the inclusion criteria: conducted a treatment study in a sample at high risk for psychosis and reported on transition to psychosis as an outcome.