Cognitive Functioning in Schizophrenia

1973 ◽  
Vol 123 (575) ◽  
pp. 413-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. L. Marshall

It has long been accepted that inadequate or abnormal cognitive performance is a characteristic of those patients described as schizophrenic (Cameron, 1938, 1939; Goldstein, 1939). A number of theories have been advanced to suggest that the basic deficit underlying this abnormal performance lies in impaired information processing. McGhie (1969, 1970) and Payne (1960) consider the defect to be in the filter that normally operates to exclude irrelevant stimuli, while Yates (1966a, 1966b) suggests that the impairment may reflect a slowed rate of information transfer in the primary processing channel. Hawks and Marshall (1971) also argue for slowed processing, but although they talk about overload due to inappropriately filtered input they appear to identify their position with Broen's (1968) response interference theory.

2019 ◽  
Vol 145 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wietske C. M. Schimmel ◽  
Karin Gehring ◽  
Patrick E. J. Hanssens ◽  
Margriet M. Sitskoorn

Abstract Purpose Information on predictive factors of cognitive functioning in patients with (multiple) brain metastases (BM) selected for radiosurgery may allow for more individual care and may play a role in predicting cognitive outcome after radiosurgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate cognitive performance, and predictors thereof, in patients with 1–10 BM before radiosurgery. Methods Cognition was measured before radiosurgery using a standardized neuropsychological test battery in patients with 1–10 BM (expected survival > 3 months; KPS ≥ 70; no prior BM treatment). Regression formulae were constructed to calculate sociodemographically corrected z scores. Group and individual cognitive functioning was analyzed. Multivariable regression was used to explore potential predictors. Results Patients (N = 92) performed significantly worse than controls (N = 104) on all 11 test variables (medium-large effect sizes for 8 variables). Percentages of impairment were highest for information processing (55.3%), dexterity (43.2%) and cognitive flexibility (28.7%). 62% and 46% of patients had impairments in at least two, or three test variables, respectively. Models including combinations of clinical and psychological variables were predictive of verbal memory, psychomotor speed, information processing and dexterity. Neither number nor volume of metastases predicted patients’ test performance. Conclusions Already before radiosurgery, almost half of the patients suffered from severe cognitive deficits in at least three test variables. At group and individual level, information processing, cognitive flexibility, and dexterity were most affected. These cognitive impairments may impair daily functioning and patients’ ability to make (shared) treatment decisions. Both clinical (symptomatic BM; timing of BM diagnosis) and psychological (mental fatigue) characteristics influenced cognitive performance. Clinical trial information Cognition and Radiation Study A (CAR-Study A; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02953756; Medical Ethics Committee file number: NL53472.028.15/P1515).


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Maria van Zutphen ◽  
Judith Johanna Maria Rijnhart ◽  
Didericke Rhebergen ◽  
Majon Muller ◽  
Martijn Huisman ◽  
...  

Background: Sex differences in cognitive functioning in old age are known to exist yet are still poorly understood. Objective: This study examines to what extent differences in cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular disease between men and women explain sex differences in cognitive functioning. Methods: Data from 2,724 older adults from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam were used. Information processing speed and episodic memory, measured three times during six years of follow-up, served as outcomes. The mediating role of cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular disease was examined in single and multiple mediator models. Determinant-mediator effects were estimated using linear or logistic regression, and determinant-outcome and mediator-outcome effects were estimated using linear mixed models. Indirect effects were estimated using the product-of-coefficients estimator. Results: Women scored 1.58 points higher on information processing speed and 1.53 points higher on episodic memory. Several cardiovascular risk factors had small mediating effects. The sex difference in information processing speed was mediated by smoking, depressive symptoms, obesity, and systolic blood pressure. The sex difference in episodic memory was mediated by smoking, physical activity, and depressive symptoms. Effects of smoking, LDL cholesterol, and diabetes mellitus on information processing speed differed between men and women. Conclusion: Differences in cardiovascular risk factors between women and men partially explained why women had better cognitive functioning. A healthy cardiovascular lifestyle seems beneficial for cognition and sex-specific strategies may be important to preserve cognitive functioning at older age.


Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 228
Author(s):  
Sze-Ying Lam ◽  
Alexandre Zénon

Previous investigations concluded that the human brain’s information processing rate remains fundamentally constant, irrespective of task demands. However, their conclusion rested in analyses of simple discrete-choice tasks. The present contribution recasts the question of human information rate within the context of visuomotor tasks, which provides a more ecologically relevant arena, albeit a more complex one. We argue that, while predictable aspects of inputs can be encoded virtually free of charge, real-time information transfer should be identified with the processing of surprises. We formalise this intuition by deriving from first principles a decomposition of the total information shared by inputs and outputs into a feedforward, predictive component and a feedback, error-correcting component. We find that the information measured by the feedback component, a proxy for the brain’s information processing rate, scales with the difficulty of the task at hand, in agreement with cost-benefit models of cognitive effort.


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (03) ◽  
pp. 126-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrik Roser ◽  
Eva-Maria Pichler ◽  
Benedikt Habermeyer ◽  
Wolfram Kawohl ◽  
Georg Juckel

Abstract Introduction Cannabis use disorders (CUD) are highly prevalent among patients with schizophrenia (SCZ). Deficient mismatch negativity (MMN) generation is a characteristic finding in SCZ patients and cannabis users. This study therefore examined the effects of CUD on MMN generation in SCZ patients. Methods Twenty SCZ − CUD patients, 21 SCZ+CUD patients, and 20 healthy controls (HC) were included in this study. MMN to frequency and duration deviants was elicited within an auditory oddball paradigm and recorded by 32 channel EEG. Results As expected, SCZ − CUD patients showed reduced frontocentral MMN amplitudes to duration deviants compared to HC. Interestingly, SCZ+CUD patients demonstrated greater MMN amplitudes to duration deviants compared to SCZ − CUD patients at central electrodes with no differences compared to HC. Discussion These results demonstrate that comorbid cannabis use in SCZ patients might be associated with superior cognitive functioning. It can be assumed that the association between cannabis use and better cognitive performance may be due to a subgroup of cognitively less impaired SCZ patients characterized by lower genetic vulnerability for psychosis.


1992 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-167
Author(s):  
Frances Klemperer

There can be no doubt that schizophrenia is associated with a variety of neurophysiological disturbances and disordered cognitive functioning. But we are only beginning to identify which brain areas are involved and to discover how abnormalities in these areas are related to abnormal psychological processes. This symposium, organised by Drs David and Cutting, offered an opportunity to learn about the work of both psychologists and psychiatrists in this field. Diverse research presented ranged from PET studies to the analysis of home videos, from epidemiological work to studies of cognitive performance.


BJPsych Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timea Sparding ◽  
Erik Joas ◽  
Caitlin Clements ◽  
Carl M. Sellgren ◽  
Erik Pålsson ◽  
...  

Background Cross-sectional studies have found impaired cognitive functioning in patients with bipolar disorder, but long-term longitudinal studies are scarce. Aims The aims of this study were to examine the 6-year longitudinal course of cognitive functioning in patients with bipolar disorder and healthy controls. Subsets of patients were examined to investigate possible differences in cognitive trajectories. Method Patients with bipolar I disorder (n = 44) or bipolar II disorder (n = 28) and healthy controls (n = 59) were tested with a comprehensive cognitive test battery at baseline and retested after 6 years. We conducted repeated measures ANCOVAs with group as a between-subject factor and tested the significance of group and time interaction. Results By and large, the change in cognitive functioning between baseline and follow-up did not differ significantly between participants with bipolar disorder and healthy controls. Comparing subsets of patients, for example those with bipolar I and II disorder and those with and without manic episodes during follow-up, did not reveal subgroups more vulnerable to cognitive decline. Conclusions Cognitive performance remained stable in patients with bipolar disorder over a 6-year period and evolved similarly to healthy controls. These findings argue against the notion of a general progressive decline in cognitive functioning in bipolar disorder.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Niemann ◽  
Ben Godde ◽  
Claudia Voelcker-Rehage

Physical activity is positively related to cognitive functioning and brain volume in older adults. Interestingly, different types of physical activity vary in their effects on cognition and on the brain. For example, dancing has become an interesting topic in aging research, as it is a popular leisure activity among older adults, involving cardiovascular and motor fitness dimensions that can be positively related to cognition. However, studies on brain structure are missing. In this study, we tested the association of long-term senior dance experience with cognitive performance and gray matter brain volume in older women aged 65 to 82 years. We compared nonprofessional senior dancers (n=28) with nonsedentary control group participants without any dancing experience (n=29), who were similar in age, education, IQ score, lifestyle and health factors, and fitness level. Differences neither in the four tested cognitive domains (executive control, perceptual speed, episodic memory, and long-term memory) nor in brain volume (VBM whole-brain analysis, region-of-interest analysis of the hippocampus) were observed. Results indicate that moderate dancing activity (1-2 times per week, on average) has no additional effects on gray matter volume and cognitive functioning when a certain lifestyle or physical activity and fitness level are reached.


2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 1714-1748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiro Ikeda ◽  
Jonathan H. Manton

Information transfer through a single neuron is a fundamental component of information processing in the brain, and computing the information channel capacity is important to understand this information processing. The problem is difficult since the capacity depends on coding, characteristics of the communication channel, and optimization over input distributions, among other issues. In this letter, we consider two models. The temporal coding model of a neuron as a communication channel assumes the output is τ where τ is a gamma-distributed random variable corresponding to the interspike interval, that is, the time it takes for the neuron to fire once. The rate coding model is similar; the output is the actual rate of firing over a fixed period of time. Theoretical studies prove that the distribution of inputs, which achieves channel capacity, is a discrete distribution with finite mass points for temporal and rate coding under a reasonable assumption. This allows us to compute numerically the capacity of a neuron. Numerical results are in a plausible range based on biological evidence to date.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Etnier

In developing a senior lecture for the 2014 national meeting of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity, I had the opportunity to reflect upon a career of research and to focus on three interesting questions that my colleagues and I have attempted to address. These questions have led to several studies that all revolve around identifying ways to increase the effects of exercise on cognitive performance. In particular, the questions examine the possibility of increasing effects by focusing on particular populations (e.g., older adults, children) and by increasing our understanding of dose-response relationships between exercise parameters (e.g., intensity, duration) and cognitive outcomes. I present empirical evidence relative to each of these questions and provide directions for future research on physical activity and cognitive functioning.


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