Divergent thinking as a predictor of life skills in patients with schizophrenia: Evidence from the modified Tinkertoy Test.

Aim: Patients with schizophrenia often exhibit poor life skills, posing significant clinical challenges. Life skills comprise cognitive functions crucial for planning daily activities, including divergent thinking. However, the cognitive deficits contributing to these diminished skills among patients with schizophrenia are underexplored.

A Selective Hand Posture Apraxia in an Individual With Posterior Cortical Atrophy and Probable Corticobasal Syndrome.

A selective impairment for making hand postures that are required to use specific tools has rarely been reported in individuals with acquired brain injury, and such an impairment has not been documented at all in individuals with degenerative disorders. We describe an individual with posterior cortical atrophy and probable corticobasal syndrome who was unable to use tools because of an inability to make the proper hand posture required for each tool. This individual was, however, able to use the tools properly once her hand postures were corrected, and her ability to manipulate the tools (ie, timing, arm posture, and amplitude) was intact.

Comparison of White Matter Structure of Drug-Naïve Patients With Bipolar Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder Using Diffusion Tensor Tractography.

Background: The presence of microstructural white matter (WM) abnormalities in individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) has previously been reported. However, the interpretation of data is challenging because pharmacological treatment has a potential effect on WM integrity. To date, no study has compared the differences in WM structure among drug-naïve BD patients, drug-naïve major depression disorder (MDD) patients, and healthy controls (HC) using the visual evaluation method of diffusion tensor tractography (DTT).

Recognition of facial expressions and emotional situations in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer and vascular types.

The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of patients with dementia to recognize facial expressions and emotional situations. We evaluated 16 patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) and 15 with vascular dementia (VD) for general cognition, discrimination of facial expressions and individual faces, and recognition of facial expressions and emotional situations. VD patients performed significantly worse than DAT patients at recognizing facial emotions, even though there was no difference between them in their general cognition and visuoperceptual abilities.