Opposite Impact of REM Sleep on Neurobehavioral Functioning in Children with Common Psychiatric Disorders Compared to Typically Developing Children.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep has been shown to be related to many adaptive cognitive and behavioral functions. However, its precise functions are still elusive, particularly in developmental psychiatric disorders. The present study aims at investigating associations between polysomnographic (PSG) REM sleep measurements and neurobehavioral functions in children with common developmental psychiatric conditions compared to typically developing children (TDC).

Increase of EEG Spectral Theta Power Indicates Higher Risk of the Development of Severe Cognitive Decline in Parkinson's Disease after 3 Years.

We investigated quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) and clinical parameters as potential risk factors of severe cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease. We prospectively investigated 37 patients with Parkinson's disease at baseline and follow-up (after 3 years). Patients had no severe cognitive impairment at baseline.

Older Candidates for Subthalamic Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease Have a Higher Incidence of Psychiatric Serious Adverse Events.

Objective: To investigate the incidence of serious adverse events (SAE) of subthalamic deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) in elderly patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).

Methods: We investigated a group of 26 patients with PD who underwent STN-DBS at mean age 63.2 ± 3.

The Verbal Fluency Decline After Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease: Is There an Influence of Age?

Background: DBS is commonly used to treat Parkinson's disease (PD). DBS is not considered to cause major cognitive side effects, but some research groups have reported that it can cause decreased verbal fluency. The influence of age on DBS cognitive outcome is unclear.

Apathy in Parkinson's disease is related to executive function, gender and age but not to depression.

Deficits in executive functions occur in up to 93% of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Apathy, a reduction of motivation and goal-directed behavior is an important part of the syndrome; affecting both the patients as well as their social environment. Executive functions can be subdivided into three different processes: initiation, shifting and inhibition.

Neuroimaging, cognition, light and circadian rhythms.

In humans, sleep and wakefulness and the associated cognitive processes are regulated through interactions between sleep homeostasis and the circadian system. Chronic disruption of sleep and circadian rhythmicity is common in our society and there is a need for a better understanding of the brain mechanisms regulating sleep, wakefulness and associated cognitive processes. This review summarizes recent investigations which provide first neural correlates of the combined influence of sleep homeostasis and circadian rhythmicity on cognitive brain activity.

Time-on-task decrement in vigilance is modulated by inter-individual vulnerability to homeostatic sleep pressure manipulation.

Under sleep loss, vigilance is reduced and attentional failures emerge progressively. It becomes difficult to maintain stable performance over time, leading to growing performance variability (i.e.

Age-related changes in sleep and circadian rhythms: impact on cognitive performance and underlying neuroanatomical networks.

Circadian and homeostatic sleep-wake regulatory processes interact in a fine tuned manner to modulate human cognitive performance. Dampening of the circadian alertness signal and attenuated deterioration of psychomotor vigilance in response to elevated sleep pressure with aging change this interaction pattern. As evidenced by neuroimaging studies, both homeostatic sleep pressure and circadian sleep-wake promotion impact on cognition-related cortical and arousal-promoting subcortical brain regions including the thalamus, the anterior hypothalamus, and the brainstem locus coeruleus (LC).