Cognitive Neuropsychiatry

Introduction: Relationships between subjective cognitive functioning (SCF), objective cognitive functioning (OCF), and depressive symptoms are poorly understood in treatment-resistant psychosis (TRP). This study (a) compares SCF in TRP using positively and negatively worded scales, (b) assess these scales' accuracy, and (c) explores the association between these scales and depressive symptoms. We hypothesised that both SCF scales would be highly correlated, minimally associated with OCF, and similarly associated with depressive symptoms...

OBJECTIVE: Bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SZ) are chronic and heterogeneous mental disorders that present cognitive and functional impairments. Verbal memory is considered an important predictor of functioning and a domain vulnerable to the aging process. However, only few studies investigate the progression of memory longitudinally in BD and SZ, especially in lower- and middle-income countries. Therefore, we aim to evaluate the course of verbal memory in individuals with BD and SZ...

Introduction: Social anhedonia (SocAnh) predicts increased risk of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, with evidence that these disorders are associated with increased creativity. However, it is still largely unknown whether SocAnh is associated with one central aspect of creative thinking, convergent thinking. Methods: In two studies, college students with either extreme levels of SocAnh ( n  = 44 and n  = 70) or controls with an average level of SocAnh ( n  = 111 and n  = 100) completed a convergent thinking task, the Remote Associates Test, and also completed measures of current affect...

The cognitive attentional syndrome (CAS) is a core concept within metacognitive theory. The premise of the CAS is related to metacognition, however its role in psychopathology is distinct. Due to the complex nature of the CAS, a theoretically driven and psychometrically sound self-report measure of the CAS for the Arabic population is yet to be developed. We translated the Multidimensional Cognitive Attentional Syndrome Scale (MCASS) into the Arabic language and tested its structural validity. The MCASS was translated according to the standard guidelines of forward-translation followed by backward-translation...

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to estimate ADHD persistence in a European clinical sample of children diagnosed with ADHD and followed prospectively for 10 years into young adulthood. METHODS: We assessed 85 children with ADHD at baseline ( M age  = 11.6, SD = 2.1, 54% male) and re-assessed 59 at 10-year follow-up ( M age  = 21.4, SD = 2.3, 54% male). ADHD symptoms at baseline were assessed with a semi-structured clinical interview (Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia/Present and lifetime version) and parent rating scales (ADHD Rating Scale IV, Child Behavior Checklist)...

INTRODUCTION: This study determines whether there is a familial aggregation between synaesthesia and two neuropsychiatric conditions (autism and schizophrenia). METHOD We examined the prevalence of autism and schizophrenia among synaesthetes and non-synaesthetic controls, and among their first-degree relatives. RESULTS: As predicted, autism occurred at elevated levels among synaesthetes and-we document for the first time-amongst their relatives. This was not found for schizophrenia, where a link may be expected, or in a control condition (type 1 diabetes) where we had no a priori reason to assume a link...

INTRODUCTION: Diametrically aberrant mentalising biases, namely hypermentalising in psychosis and hypomentalising in autism, are postulated by some theoretical models. To test this hypothesis, we measured psychotic-like experiences, autistic traits and mentalising biases in a visual chasing paradigm. METHODS: Participants from the general population ( N  = 300) and psychotic patients ( N =26) judged the absence or presence of a chase during five-second long displays of seemingly randomly moving dots...

Objective : Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a serious eating disorder associated with several cognitive difficulties including poor cognitive flexibility (i.e. difficulties in effectively adapting to changes in the environment and/or changing task demands). AN research has primarily assessed cognitive flexibility using neurocognitive tests, and little is known about the differences or similarities between self-report and neurocognitive assessments of cognitive flexibility. This study investigated the relationship between self-report and neurocognitive assessments of cognitive flexibility in people with no history of an eating disorder ( n  = 207) and people with a self-reported lifetime diagnosis of AN ( n  = 19)...

Introduction: Depression and anxiety symptoms are highly prevalent in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and are commonly associated with schizotypy in non-clinical samples. However, it remains unclear what factors could be contributing to the relationships between schizotypy and anxiety and depression symptoms. Using path analysis, we explored the complex interplay between schizotypy, metacognitive beliefs, cognitive insight, and symptoms of emotional distress. Methods: Self-report data of schizotypy, metacognitive beliefs, cognitive insight, depression, and anxiety symptoms were collected from 344 participants from a predominantly student sample...

INTRODUCTION: Alwyn Lishman was interested in how memory research could be applied to clinical psychiatry. After a brief review of his major contributions, this paper will focus on his research on the alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome. It will consider how his findings relate to contemporary debates, particularly on how the syndrome should be defined, and its relationship to broader alcohol-induced cognitive impairments. METHODS: A review of the contribution of Alwyn Lishman, Robin Jacobson and colleagues to our knowledge of Korsakoff's syndrome, together with a review of the pertinent recent literature...

OBJECTIVE: We investigated intentionally fabricated autobiographical memories in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). METHOD: We invited AD patients and control participants to construct real events as well as fabricated events describing fictitious personal events that occurred in the past. RESULTS: Results demonstrated slower retrieval time for intentionally fabricated memories than for real ones in both AD patients and control participants. The analysis also showed similar vividness for intentionally fabricated memories and real ones in AD patients but lower vividness for intentionally fabricated memories than for real ones in control participants...

BACKGROUND: Previous weekly sampling studies found that persistent sad moods are associated with disability in bipolar illness. However, those data were collected retrospectively. We examined the momentary quality of activities (productive, unproductive, and passive recreation) in an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study and related sadness at each survey to quality of momentary activities and overall everyday functioning. METHODS: Participants with bipolar illness ( N  = 91) were sampled three times per day for 30 days...

Introduction: Whilst the empirical understanding of functional cognitive disorders (FCD) has advanced in recent years, theoretical and conceptual models have evolved more slowly. Existing frameworks for FCD are based on models of other functional neurological disorders or of metacognitive processes and are recognised to lack mechanistic precision. Methods: In this article, a novel application to FCD of Hoel's Overfitted Brain Hypothesis of the evolved function of dreaming is attempted. Results: This posits that the empirically observed sleep disturbance in FCD entails impaired dreaming which causes the brain to be overfitted and hence unable to generalise appropriately, producing mismatch between memory expectations and memory performance...

INTRODUCTION: Alwyn Lishman appreciated that if we are to understand the psychological consequences of cerebral disorder we must study the interaction between organic disease and psychological processes. METHODS: We have reviewed Lishman's two major publications on the neuropsychiatry of head injury, published in 1968 and 1988, and considered their conclusions in the light of current knowledge. RESULTS: In his 1968 paper on the psychiatric sequelae of open head injuries sustained in World War II Lishman demonstrated associations between the type of psychiatric sequelae and the location of the injury...

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BACKGROUND: Unusual experiences in Tulpamancer and Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) communities are generally positive and sought after, unlike hallucinations and delusions in clinical populations. Metacognition, the ability to reflect on self-referential experiences, may aid sense-making around unusual experiences, reducing distress. This study investigated group differences in hallucination-proneness, delusion-proneness, and metacognition in these communities compared to controls, and whether metacognition predicted unusual experiences...

Introduction: Hallucinations occur across neurodegenerative disorders, with increasing severity, poorer cognition and impaired hallucination-specific insight associated with worse outcomes and faster disease progression. It remains unclear how changes in cognition, temporal aspects of hallucinations, hallucination-specific insight and distress relate to each other. Methods: Extant samples of patients experiencing visual hallucinations were included in the analyses: Parkinson's Disease ( n  = 103), Parkinson's Disease Dementia ( n  = 41), Dementia with Lewy Bodies ( n  = 27) and Eye Disease ( n  = 113)...

INTRODUCTION: Individuals experiencing auditory hallucinations (AH) tend to perceive voices when exposed to random noise. However, the factors driving this tendency remain unclear. The present study examined the interaction of a top-down (expectations) and bottom-up (type of noise) process to better understand the mechanisms that underlie AH. METHODS: Fifty-two healthy individuals (29 with high proneness and 23 with low proneness to AH) completed a signal detection task, in which they listened to pre-recorded sentences...

INTRODUCTION: Capgras delusion is sometimes defined as believing that close relatives have been replaced by strangers. But such replacement beliefs also occur in response to encountering an acquaintance, or the voice of a familiar person, or a pet, or some personal possession. All five scenarios involve believing something familiar has been replaced by something unfamiliar. METHODS: We evaluate the proposal that these five kinds of delusional belief should count as subtypes of the same delusion...

INTRODUCTION: Low-pleasure beliefs are found in both patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and individuals with high social anhedonia (SocAnh), and are associated with anhedonia. However, little is known about the development and maintenance of these low-pleasure beliefs in the clinical and subclinical populations. We investigated whether patients with SZ and individuals with high SocAnh have deficits in updating their beliefs, which may contribute to the understanding of the formation and maintenance of low-pleasure beliefs...