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Neurocognitive functions are cognitive functions closely linked to the function of particular areas, neural pathways, or cortical networks in the brain, ultimately served by the substrate of the brain's neurological matrix. Therefore, their understanding is closely linked to the practice of neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience – two disciplines that broadly seek to understand how the structure and function of the brain relate to cognition and behaviour.
Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Professionals in this branch of psychology focus on how injuries or illnesses of the brain affect cognitive and behavioral functions.
Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (WKS) is the combined presence of Wernicke encephalopathy (WE) and Korsakoff syndrome. Due to the close relationship between these two disorders, people with either are usually diagnosed with WKS as a single syndrome. It mainly causes vision changes, ataxia and impaired memory.
Rehabilitation of sensory and cognitive function typically involves methods for retraining neural pathways or training new neural pathways to regain or improve neurocognitive functioning that have been diminished by disease or trauma. The main objective outcome for rehabilitation is to assist in regaining physical abilities and improving performance. Three common neuropsychological problems treatable with rehabilitation are attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), concussion, and spinal cord injury. Rehabilitation research and practices are a fertile area for clinical neuropsychologists, rehabilitation psychologists, and others.
Korsakoff syndrome (KS) is a disorder of the central nervous system characterized by amnesia, deficits in explicit memory, and confabulation. This neurological disorder is caused by a deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B1) in the brain, and it is typically associated with and exacerbated by the prolonged, excessive ingestion of alcohol. Korsakoff syndrome is often accompanied by Wernicke encephalopathy; this combination is called Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome.
Neuropsychological tests are specifically designed tasks that are used to measure a psychological function known to be linked to a particular brain structure or pathway. Tests are used for research into brain function and in a clinical setting for the diagnosis of deficits. They usually involve the systematic administration of clearly defined procedures in a formal environment. Neuropsychological tests are typically administered to a single person working with an examiner in a quiet office environment, free from distractions. As such, it can be argued that neuropsychological tests at times offer an estimate of a person's peak level of cognitive performance. Neuropsychological tests are a core component of the process of conducting neuropsychological assessment, along with personal, interpersonal and contextual factors.
Timothy Shallice is a professor of neuropsychology and the founding director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, part of University College London. He has been a professor at Cognitive Neuroscience Sector of the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste, Italy since 1994.
The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is a neuropsychological test of set-shifting, which is the capability to show flexibility when exposed to changes in reinforcement. The WCST was written by David A. Grant and Esta A. Berg. The Professional Manual for the WCST was written by Robert K. Heaton, Gordon J. Chelune, Jack L. Talley, Gary G. Kay, and Glenn Curtiss.
The Tower of London test is a test used in applied clinical neuropsychology for the assessment of executive functioning specifically to detect deficits in planning, which may occur due to a variety of medical and neuropsychiatric conditions. It is related to the classic problem-solving puzzle known as the Tower of Hanoi.
In cognitive science and neuropsychology, executive functions are a set of cognitive processes that are necessary for the cognitive control of behavior: selecting and successfully monitoring behaviors that facilitate the attainment of chosen goals. Executive functions include basic cognitive processes such as attentional control, cognitive inhibition, inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Higher-order executive functions require the simultaneous use of multiple basic executive functions and include planning and fluid intelligence.
NEPSY is a series of neuropsychological tests authored by Marit Korkman, Ursula Kirk and Sally Kemp, that is used in various combinations to assess neuropsychological development in children ages 3–16 years in six functional domains.
A verbal fluency test is a kind of psychological test in which a participant is asked to produce as many words as possible from a category in a given time. This category can be semantic, including objects such as animals or fruits, or phonemic, including words beginning with a specified letter, such as p, for example. The semantic fluency test is sometimes described as the category fluency test or simply as "freelisting", while letter fluency is also referred to as phonemic test fluency. The Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT) is the most employed phonemic variant. Although the most common performance measure is the total number of words, other analyses such as number of repetitions, number and length of clusters of words from the same semantic or phonemic subcategory, or number of switches to other categories can be carried out.
The California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) is one of the most widely used neuropsychological tests in North America. As an instrument, it represents a relatively new approach to clinical psychology and the cognitive science of memory. It measures episodic verbal learning and memory, and demonstrates sensitivity to a range of clinical conditions. The test does this by attempting to link memory deficits with impaired performance on specific tasks. It assesses encoding, recall and recognition in a single modality of item presentation (auditory-verbal). The CVLT is considered to be a more sensitive measure of episodic memory than other verbal learning tests. It was designed to not only measure how much a subject learned, but also reveal strategies employed and the types of errors made. The CVLT indexes free and cued recall, serial position effects, semantic clustering, intrusions, interference and recognition. Delis et al. (1994) released the California Verbal Learning Test for Children (CVLT-C). The California Verbal Learning Test-II (CVLT-II) is an updated version of the original CVLT, which has been standardized and provides normative data.
The Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), originally developed at the University of Cambridge in the 1980s but now provided in a commercial capacity by Cambridge Cognition, is a computer-based cognitive assessment system consisting of a battery of neuropsychological tests, administered to subjects using a touch screen computer. The CANTAB tests were co-invented by Professor Trevor Robbins and Professor Barbara Sahakian. The 25 tests in CANTAB examine various areas of cognitive function, including:
In psychology and neuroscience, executive dysfunction, or executive function deficit, is a disruption to the efficacy of the executive functions, which is a group of cognitive processes that regulate, control, and manage other cognitive processes. Executive dysfunction can refer to both neurocognitive deficits and behavioural symptoms. It is implicated in numerous psychopathologies and mental disorders, as well as short-term and long-term changes in non-clinical executive control. Executive dysfunction is the mechanism underlying ADHD Paralysis, and in a broader context, it can encompass other cognitive difficulties like planning, organizing, initiating tasks and regulating emotions. It is a core characteristic of ADHD and can elucidate numerous other recognized symptoms.
The Thurstone Word Fluency Test, also known as the Chicago Word Fluency Test (CWFT), was developed by Louis Thurstone in 1938. This test became the first word fluency psychometrically measured test available to patients with brain damage. The test is a used to measure an individual's symbolic verbal fluency. The test asks the subject to write as many words as possible beginning with the letter 'S' within a 5-minute limit, then as many words as possible beginning with letter 'C' within 4 minute limit. The total number of 'S' and 'C' words produced, minus the number of rule-breaking and perseverative responses, yield the patients' measure of verbal fluency.
In psychology, confabulation is a memory error consisting of the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world. It is generally associated with certain types of brain damage or a specific subset of dementias. While still an area of ongoing research, the basal forebrain is implicated in the phenomenon of confabulation. People who confabulate present with incorrect memories ranging from subtle inaccuracies to surreal fabrications, and may include confusion or distortion in the temporal framing of memories. In general, they are very confident about their recollections, even when challenged with contradictory evidence.
Executive functions are a cognitive apparatus that controls and manages cognitive processes. Norman and Shallice (1980) proposed a model on executive functioning of attentional control that specifies how thought and action schemata become activated or suppressed for routine and non-routine circumstances. Schemas, or scripts, specify an individual's series of actions or thoughts under the influence of environmental conditions. Every stimulus condition turns on the activation of a response or schema. The initiation of appropriate schema under routine, well-learned situations is monitored by contention scheduling which laterally inhibits competing schemas for the control of cognitive apparatus. Under unique, non-routine procedures controls schema activation. The SAS is an executive monitoring system that oversees and controls contention scheduling by influencing schema activation probabilities and allowing for general strategies to be applied to novel problems or situations during automatic attentional processes.
The Corsi block-tapping test is a psychological test that assesses visuo-spatial short term working memory. It involves mimicking a researcher as they tap a sequence of up to nine identical spatially separated blocks. The sequence starts out simple, usually using two blocks, but becomes more complex until the subject's performance suffers. This number is known as the Corsi Span, and average is about 5–6 for typically 'normal' human subjects.
The Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) is a neuropsychological test used to measure a variety of verbal and nonverbal executive functions for both children and adults. This assessment was developed over the span of a decade by Dean Delis, Edith Kaplan, and Joel Kramer, and it was published in 2001. The D-KEFS comprises nine tests that were designed to stand alone. Therefore, there are no aggregate measures or composite scores for an examinee's performance. A vast majority of these tests are modified, pre-existing measures ; however, some of these measures are new indices of executive functions.
References
- 1 2 Burgess, P. & Shallice, T. (1997) The Hayling and Brixton Tests. Test manual. Bury St Edmunds, UK: Thames Valley Test Company.
- ↑ Robinson, Gail A.; Biggs, Vivien; Walker, David G. (2015). "Cognitive Screening in Brain Tumors: Short but Sensitive Enough?". Frontiers in Oncology. 5: 60. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2015.00060 . ISSN 2234-943X. PMC 4356080 . PMID 25815273.
- 1 2 3 Berg, Esther Van Den; Nys, Gudrun M. S.; Brands, Augustina M. A.; Ruis, Carla; Zandvoort, Martine J. E. Van; Kessels, Roy P. C. (2009). "The Brixton Spatial Anticipation Test as a test for executive function: Validity in patient groups and norms for older adults". Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. 15 (5): 695–703. doi:10.1017/S1355617709990269. ISSN 1469-7661. PMID 19638251. S2CID 7982402.
- ↑ Wood, Rodger Ll; Liossi, Christina (2006). "The ecological validity of executive tests in a severely brain injured sample". Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. 21 (5): 429–437. doi: 10.1016/j.acn.2005.06.014 . ISSN 0887-6177. PMID 16879945.
- 1 2 Martyr, Anthony; Boycheva, Elina; Kudlicka, Aleksandra (2017). "Assessing inhibitory control in early-stage Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease using the Hayling Sentence Completion Test". Journal of Neuropsychology. 13 (1): 67–81. doi: 10.1111/jnp.12129 . hdl: 10871/28177 . ISSN 1748-6653. PMID 28635178.
- ↑ Oosterman, Joukje M.; de Goede, Maartje; Wester, Arie J.; van Zandvoort, Martine J. E.; Kessels, Roy P. C. (2011). "Perspective taking in Korsakoff's syndrome: the role of executive functioning and task complexity". Acta Neuropsychiatrica. 23 (6): 302–308. doi:10.1111/j.1601-5215.2011.00552.x. ISSN 1601-5215. PMID 25380042. S2CID 31133566.
- ↑ Pewter, Stephen M.; Williams, W. Huw; Haslam, Catherine; Kay, Janice M. (2007). "Neuropsychological and psychiatric profiles in acute encephalitis in adults". Neuropsychological Rehabilitation. 17 (4–5): 478–505. doi:10.1080/09602010701202238. ISSN 0960-2011. PMID 17676531. S2CID 20164313.
- ↑ Drake, Richard James; Lewis, Shôn William (2003). "Insight and neurocognition in schizophrenia". Schizophrenia Research. 62 (1): 165–173. doi:10.1016/s0920-9964(02)00382-1. ISSN 0920-9964. PMID 12765757. S2CID 37482227.