bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
5 Psychomotor Speed and Duration of Use in Alcohol Dependent Individuals
Authors: Kung Jennifer , Sarkissians Sharis , Hauson Alexander O. , Pollard Anna A. , Walker Alyssa D. , Allen Kenneth E. , Flora-Tostado Christopher , Meis Benjamin 
Published: December 2023

Objective:Chronic alcohol consumption has been associated with widespread cognitive deficits, including psychomotor speed. Researchers have found impairments in reaction speed, information processing, and fine-finger movement in alcoholics (Oscar-Berman et al., 2015). There have also been mixed findings on the impact of duration of alcohol use on neurocognitive functioning (Beatty et al., 2000; Oscar-Berman et al., 2004). This meta-analytical study examines: (a) the performance of abstinent alcohol-dependent individuals on psychomotor speed using the Trail Making TestA (TMT-A), and (b) the effect of duration of alcohol use on TMT-A.Participants and Methods:As part of a larger study, two researchers independently searched eight databases, extracted required data, and calculated effect sizes on neuropsychological data in alcohol dependent (AD) individuals. Inclusion criteria for articles were: (a) comparison of abstinent alcohol-dependent patients to healthy controls, (b) matched control group on age, education, or IQ, and (c) standardized neuropsychological testing. Exclusion criteria included: (a) diagnosis of Axis I disorders (other than alcohol dependence), (b) comorbidity with other disorders that impact neuropsychological functioning, or (c) not published or translated into English. Twenty-seven articles (AD n= 840 and HC n = 881) were analyzed in this study.Results:The TMT-A evidenced a statistically significant and medium effect size estimate (g = 0.624, p < 0.001). The heterogeneity of TMT-A was statistically significant (Q=61.935, df=26, p=0.000) and moderate (I2=58.021%). The meta-regression analysis between duration of alcohol use in days and TMT-A was not statistically significant (Q=0.012, df=1, p=0.913).Conclusions:TMT-A detects psychomotor speed deficits associated with alcohol dependence. Duration of alcohol use did not affect TMT-A performance, suggesting that other factors may have moderated this relationship. Further research should analyze other factors that affect psychomotor performance in alcohol dependent individuals.
15 Socioeconomic Status in Association to Memory-Related Brain Activation in Middle-Aged Adults
Authors: Nkulu Hanna , Babukutty Reshma , Haynes Caleb , Gazes Yunglin 
Published: December 2023

Objective:Socioeconomic status (SES) has been recognized as an important factor in psychological research within the last few decades. Past literature recognizes that having lower SES can have a negative impact on many aspects of one’s health, especially in diseases related to brain aging. A recent avenue for research regarding SES and the brain-behavior relationship suggests that socioeconomic status can act as a moderator for brain activation during task performance. The hypothesis for this project was that there will be a negative correlational relationship between brain activity and SES when controlling for participants’ age, sex, and performance on the episodic memory tasks, but a positive correlation between task performance and SES was expected.Participants and Methods:With 100 middle-aged healthy adults from the Reference Ability Neural Network (RANN) study (53 male and 47 female, age M=48.0 +/- 7.55 years), three episodic memory fMRI tasks were performed and studied in relation to SES and age. The tasks were Logical Memory, Word Order, and Pair Associates tasks that involved episodic memory for story details, order of words presented, and pairing of words, respectively. We quantified memory performance with average accuracy from performance of the three tasks. We used the FSL software to preprocess and perform voxel-wise group analysis. All brain activation analyses were corrected for multiple comparison using cluster thresholds in FSL.Results:Correlation between SES and memory performance was found to be marginally significant (R=.188, p=.061). All tasks had areas of positively correlated activation for age. The Logical Memory task had multiple areas of brain activation that were positively correlated with age, particularly at the lateral occipital cortex, lingual gyrus, and the occipital fusiform gyrus, all areas that underlie visual processing. There were no areas of correlated brain activation for SES, sex, and task performance for the Pair Associates and Logical Memory tasks. Brain activation for the Word order task in the left precuneous cortex and the right middle frontal gyrus, left lateral occipital cortex, left occipital fusiform gyrus, and parts of the lingual gyrus was positively correlated with memory performance when controlled for age, sex, and SES.Conclusions:The hypothesis was not entirely supported by the results of this study, but the marginal effect between SES and memory performance can suggest that SES may affect memory performance within middle-aged adults. While we did not find a brain association with SES in this age group, we observed regions that underlie task performance. Further research can be done on possible moderating effects of Socioeconomic Status on memory and executive function with structural neuroimaging to further investigate the effects of SES on cognition.
42 Does dorsolateral prefrontal cortical functioning moderate the relation between conduct problems and aggression among youth exposed to community violence?
Authors: Everett Valerie S. , Drabick Deborah A. G. 
Published: December 2023

Objective:Youth with conduct problems (CP) may be more likely to exhibit aggression in the context of peer relations. Indices of dorsolateral prefrontal cortical functioning (DPCF), such as inhibitory control and planning, may be implicated in the behavioral presentation of CP. Further, youth living in violent communities may be more likely to use aggression as a means for problem-solving. However, little is known about how CP interact with DPCF indices to predict aggressive behaviors specifically in the context of environments with high levels of community violence. As such, the present study sought to use a multi-informant approach to examine relations between CP, DCPF, and different types of aggression among youth living in neighborhoods affected by community violence.Participants and Methods:Participants were 104 children (M=9.93±1.22 years; 50% male; 96% African American, 4% Latinx) who resided in neighborhoods with elevated rates of poverty and crime. DPCF was indexed by Stockings of Cambridge planning task and caregiver-reported inhibitory control from the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function. Teachers completed the Child and Adolescent Symptom Inventory-4R to assess youth conduct disorder (CD) symptoms and the Teacher Checklist to assess proactive (bullying, planful aggression) and reactive (angry, emotionally labile aggression) aggression.Results:Multiple regression analyses were conducted with aggressive behaviors as the dependent variable, and child sex, age, CD symptoms, and the CD × DPCF (i.e., CD × inhibitory control; CD × planning) interaction terms as predictors. Inhibitory control moderated the relation between CD symptoms and reactive (CD × inhibitory control, B = -1.39, p = .004) but not proactive (CD × inhibitory control, B = -.64, p = .063) aggression. Post-hoc probing of the CD symptoms × inhibitory control interaction term predicting reactive aggression revealed a significant slope for youth with both high (B = 1.65, p < .001) and low (B = 4.48, p < .001) levels of inhibitory control. Planning does not significantly moderate the relation between CD symptoms and proactive or reactive aggression, though there is a positive main effect of teacher reported CD symptoms on both proactive (B = 2.44, p < .001) and reactive (B = 2.36, p < .001) aggression.Conclusions:This study is the first to consider the relations of CP, DPCF processes, and subtypes of aggression among youth living in environments with high rates of community violence. Among youth with CP, high levels of inhibitory control may be associated with lower rates of reactive aggression in the context of peer relations. As such, problem-solving interventions targeting processes related to DPCF, such as inhibitory control, may be useful among youth living in neighborhoods high in community violence who exhibit CP. Strengthening these cognitive processes may result in better behavioral outcomes and peer relations.
43 A Qualitative Study to Establish a Culture Specific Presurgical Psychological Screening for Patients with Degenerative Spinal Disease in Taiwan
Authors: Yang Chih-Yu , Lai Dar-Ming , Yang Chi-Cheng 
Published: December 2023

Objective:Presurgical psychological screening (PPS) is a procedure for mitigating possible unfavorable outcomes after spinal surgery. Although the effectiveness of PPS on degenerative spinal diseases has been investigated in Western studies, a potential cultural influence on PPS is still unknown. This study thus aims to explore the experiences of Taiwanese people before spinal surgery and tries to establish culture-specific components of PPS in Taiwan.Participants and Methods:A total of five participants aged from 44–69 with degenerative spinal diseases were eligible in this study. All participants visited a neurosurgical outpatient clinic for potential surgical treatment, and each participant underwent an one-hour semi-structured interview before surgery. The demographical information, medical history, psychological status (e.g., personality traits and emotional disturbances) and considerations to make a surgical decision, were recorded and further analyzed following the rule of grounded theory.Results:Four major components with 21 sub-components were reported when deciding to receive a surgical treatment for their spinal diseases, including disease-related considerations, medical information, self-concept and interpersonal relations. In terms of disease-related aspects, patients concerned about etiology, symptomatology, impacts, coping strategies and rehabilitation methods. As for medical information, patients paid more attention on medical compliance, the relationship with medical system, attitude for treatment, expectation to surgical outcomes, medical decisions and medical information. As for the self-concept, patients considered more on the impacts of disease on self-concept, strategies of emotional regulations and personality traits. In terms of interpersonal relations, patients reported more on the supportive resources, patterns of interpersonal activities and impacts of interpersonal relations on medical decisions. Additionally, other specific factors, such as past negative experiences (e.g., chronic insomnia, experiences of psychological counseling), litigation, physical punishment in childhood and social roles, were also reported.Conclusions:Like previous findings, our results supported that the interpersonal relations and doctor-patient relationship in PPS were important considerations before surgery, while we further evidenced that influences of family members on medical decision is determinant and unique in this culture.
45 The Influence of Wearing Face Mask on Facial Emotion Recognition in Preschoolers
Authors: Huang June-Hui , Guo Nai-Wen 
Published: December 2023

Objective:During the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing face masks is an important strategy to prevent people from infection, allowing people to find a balance between maintaining social interaction and keeping social distancing. Since face mask might disrupt information processing of social cognition, it could lead to less functional connectivity of occipital face area, fusiform face area, and superior temporal sulcus which interrupted the development of medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) for mentalizing. However with better executive function (EF) people could process facial stimuli more efficiently. The objective of this study is to examine the effect of wearing face masks on preschoolers' facial emotion recognition, and the factors which might affect the development of facial emotion recognition.Participants and Methods:In this study, preschoolers (N=44, 24 boys and 20 girls, aged 3 to 5 years-old) recruited from the community were asked to identify the emotions expressed in the 36 stimulus photos, each randomly presented with six emotion (happy, sad, angry, surprised, fearful, and disgusted). The total face stimulus photos were 2 (face sex) × 6 emotions × 3 facial features (full face, presenting upper counterparts of face with face mask covering the mouth, and presenting lower counterparts of face with hat covering the eyes). The EF of preschoolers and their parent were also evaluated to examine whether EF could predict the correct score of facial emotion recognition.Results:It was found that the correct score of emotion recognition increased with age. The recognition with full face feature were better than with upper feature and lower feature. When recognizing happy and disgust, participant tended to use lower features. When recognizing sad and angry, participant tended to use upper features. The EF of preschoolers could predict the correct score of emotion recognition. The EF of parents could predict the preschoolers' correct score of positive emotion recognition.Conclusions:The ability of facial emotion recognition evolved rapidly in preschool age with the accumulation of social interaction experience and improved the development of auditory and visual subcortical cortex and the connectivity of MPFC. This study examined the emotion recognition ability of preschoolers and found that the face features preschoolers used to recognized emotion were consist with previous study. However, when the presenting stimulus were covered by face mask or hat, it was more difficult for preschoolers to recognizing emotion which would result in difficulty of understanding the social context and development of MPFC for mentalizing. In this study, it was found that preschooler's with better EF could be more efficiently recognizing facial emotion. Also, parents with better EF showed more positive emotion in daily life which lead to their children more sensitive to positive facial emotion.
47 Social Cognition and Moral Decision Making in Korsakoff's Syndrome
Authors: Oudman Erik , Vlot Nairobi J. , van Stigt Thans Sioux , Oey Misha J. , Postma Albert 
Published: December 2023

Objective:Korsakoff's syndrome (KS) is a neuropsychiatric disorder, caused by vitamin B1 insufficiency. KS is characterized by severe declarative amnesia. Often, also executive disorders are present. Emotion recognition and theory of mind are gold-standard measures of social cognition. Moral decision making is often assessed by means of moral dilemmas. Surprisingly social cognition and moral decision making has received hardly any attention in research on KS, although the severity of behavioural problems in KS suggest possible problems in both domains. The aim of this study was therefore to broadly assess social cognition and moral decision-making capacities in patients with KS.Participants and Methods:20 KS patients and 20 age-, education-, and gender-matched healthy controls were assessed on standardized tests for social cognition, namely the mini-Social Cognition and Emotional Assessment battery (mini-SEA), and a specialized version of the Sally-Anne Test. Moral decision making was assessed by means of the Moral Behaviour Inventory (MBI) for everyday moral dilemmas, and ten cartoons of abstract moral dilemmas. For moral decision making, “yes” and “no” responses were scored, together with a scoring for moral reasoning according to the Kohlberg stages of moral maturity.Results:KS patients have large impairments in both cognitive and affective aspects of social cognition. Their ability to recognize emotions, take the perspective of others, and understand socially awkward situations is vastly compromised. While KS patients were able to replicate the Sally Anne storyline, their task performance was on chance level. Regarding moral decision making, there was a tendency to more frequently carry out the moral dilemma. Moral maturity, as indexed by means of their reasoning behind the decision was of a lower level. Of interest, moral immaturity could find its origin already before the onset of the KS diagnosis, as suggested by elevated premorbid levels of delinquent behavior.Conclusions:Both social cognition and moral decision making are compromised in KS patients. Specifically social cognitive disorders are the direct result of KS, and are likely to strongly relate to social and neuropsychiatric issues in KS. Moral decision making was more likely to be already of a lower level of maturity, based on a strong relationship between premorbid delinquency and moral immaturity in KS patients. This study highlights the importance to properly index social cognition in neuropsychological assessments for individuals with a possible KS diagnosis
50 BSI-18 as a Measure of Psychological Distress Across Different Domains in TMS Patients
Authors: Gamboa Bruno N. , Hodges Kathleen , Gee Stephanie C. , Madore Michelle R. , Philip Noah S. , Andrew Kozel F. , Walker Nicole C. 
Published: December 2023

Objective:Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is an effective treatment for individuals with pharmacoresistant major depressive disorder (MDD), yet identifying which patients best respond remains an important area of inquiry. The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-18) serves as a screen for psychological distress, providing measures across three separate domains (e.g., somatization, depression, and anxiety) and one composite score (i.e., global severity index). The psychometric properties of the BSI-18 have been validated across multiple studies; however, it has sparsely been used to track changes in patient symptoms in response to intervention. Assessing patient symptom severity across these domains is imperative since these symptoms can negatively influence cognitive functioning. Accordingly, the current study utilized the BSI-18 to measure psychological distress across these different domains in patients receiving TMS treatment. We hypothesized that all domains of the BSI-18 would see a significant decrease after treatment, that elevated scores in specific domains would predict a less favorable response to treatment, and that measurement of depressive symptoms will be consistent across measures of similar scope.Participants and Methods:Veterans (n=94) with MDD and met standard clinical TMS criteria were administered the BSI-18 before and after receiving an adequate dose of treatment (e.g., 30 sessions). Paired Samples T-test were used to compare the pre-treatment and post-treatment scores across domains.Results:The results of paired sample t-tests indicated a statistically significant reduction in measures of global psychological distress (t(93) = 7.99, p < .001, Cohen's d =.82), as well as depressive (t(93) = 8.34, p < .001, d = .86), anxious (t(93) = 7.64, p < .001, d = .79), and somatic symptoms (t(92) = 5.29, p < .001, d = .55) after receiving treatment. Individuals with elevated levels of anxiety (e.g., BSI-A>63) saw a significant reduction in depressive (t(62) = 8.15, p < .001, d = 1.03), anxious (t(62) = 8.34, p < .001, d = 1.05) and somatic (t(61) = 4.94, p < .001, d = .63) symptoms. Lastly, two measures of depressive symptoms, the BSI-D and PHQ-9, had a statistically significant strong, positive relationship before (r=.66) and after (r=.88) treatment (all n=65 and p<.001).Conclusions:The BSI-18 can detect changes in different domains of psychological distress as a function of TMS treatment. Unexpectedly, TMS patients with elevated levels of anxiety responded well to treatment despite comorbid anxiety often being associated with less favorable outcomes in treatment trials. The positive relationship of the BSI-D and PHQ-9 before and after treatment suggests the use of the BSI as a valid, additional measure of depressive symptoms.
53 Hoarding Behaviors are Associated with Greater Perceived Cognitive Dysfunction and Disability in Individuals with Late Life Depression
Authors: Firestone Katie , Bello John , Shridar Divya , Kassel Michelle , Kryza-Lacombe Maria , Insel Philip , Woodworth Kai , Satre Derek , Nelson Craig , Mathews Carol , Tosun Duygu , Mackin Scott 
Published: December 2023

Objective:Perceived cognitive dysfunction is a common feature of late-life depression (LLD) that is associated with diminished quality of life and greater disability. Similar associations have been demonstrated in individuals with Hoarding Disorder. The degree to which hoarding behaviors (HB) are associated with greater perceived cognitive dysfunction and disability in individuals with concurrent LLD is not known.Participants and Methods:Participants with LLD (N=83) completed measures of hoarding symptom severity (Savings Inventory-Revised; SI-R) and were classified into two groups based on HB severity: LLD+HB who exhibited significant HB (SI-R . 41, n = 25) and LLD with low HB (SI-R < 41, n = 58). Additional measures assessed depression severity (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale; HDRS), perceived cognitive difficulties (Everyday Cognition Scale; ECOG), and disability (World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale [WHODAS]-II-Short). Given a non-normal distribution of ECOG and WHODAS-II scores, non-parametric Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests were used to assess group differences in perceived cognitive dysfunction and disability. A regression model assessed the extent to which perceived cognitive dysfunction was associated with hoarding symptom severity measured continuously, covarying for age, education, gender, and depression severity. A separate regression model assessed the extent to which disability scores were associated with perceived cognitive dysfunction and HB severity covarying for demographics and depression severity.Results:LLD+HB endorsed significantly greater perceived cognitive dysfunction (W = 1023, p = 0.003) and greater disability (W = 1006, p = < 0.001) compared to LLD. Regression models accounting for demographic characteristics and depression severity revealed that greater HB severity was associated with greater perceived cognitive dysfunction (β = 0.009, t = 2.765, p = 0.007). Increased disability was associated with greater perceived cognitive dysfunction (β = 4.792, t(71) = 3.551, p = 0.0007) and HB severity (β = 0.080, t(71) = 1.944, p = 0.056) approached significance after accounting for variance explained by depression severity and demographic covariates.Conclusions:Our results suggest that hoarding behaviors are associated with increased perceived cognitive dysfunction and greater disability in individuals with LLD. Screening for HB in individuals with LLD may help identify those at greater risk for poor cognitive and functional outcomes. Interventions that target HB and perceived cognitive difficulties may decrease risk for disability in LLD. However, longitudinal studies would be required to further evaluate these relationships.