1,721,046 research outputs found
Nuove prospettive sull’invecchiamento: fattori protettivi del declino cognitivo. In Bisiacchi, P. & Vallesi, A. (Eds.), Il cervello al lavoro. Nuove prospettive in neuropsicologia (pp. 171-184). Bologna: Il Mulino
No full textBehavioural and electrophysiological indices of executive functions in ageing and in Parkinson's disease
Full text linkHealthy ageing and Parkinson's disease (PD) are both characterized by different changes in the prefrontal cortex and in dopaminergic functionality. Working memory and feedback processing have been related to the dopaminergic activity in the prefrontal cortex (Hammerer & Eppinger, 2012; Backman et al., 2010-2008; Backman & Farde, 2005). The aim of the three studies presented in this thesis was to examine if, and how, these two executive functions change in ageing and in Parkinson's disease patients under pharmacological treatment. In detail, a first study investigated executive attention and inhibitory control, top down components of working memory, with the aim to explore the management of the information stored in working memory. Feedback processing was instead investigated in the second study exploring the interaction between motivation and cognitive control and, in the third study, analysing the electrophysiological correlates of outcome evaluation in a decision-making task.
Results of the first study highlighted the presence of an age-related decline in top down components of working memory, like executive attention and inhibitory control, in line with findings about age-related vulnerability to interference and decline in working memory (Reuter-Lorenz & Sylvester, 2005). In addition, the results of this study showed as medicated PD patients performed like a matched control group of healthy elderly in terms of accuracy, but better in terms of latency.
Results of the second study indicated that feedback processing is preserved in healthy ageing, but impaired in medicated PD patients, in line with previous findings (Kapogiannis et al., 2011; Spaniol et al., 2011; Harsay et al., 2010; Kobayakawa et al., 2010; Bodi et al., 2009; Frank et al., 2007-2004). Results of the third study contributed to increase the knowledge of this impairment showing the presence of abnormal electrophysiological correlates of feedback processing in medicated PD patients.
Taken together, the results presented in this dissertation confirm the presence of specific age-related declines in executive functions (Verhaeghen, 2011), and also suggest that the pattern of performances of medicated PD patients could be compatible with the effect of a "dopaminergic overdose" in executive functions (Vaillancourt et al., 2013), recommending further investigations about the role of dopaminergic treatment in PD patients' cognitio
Motivation–cognition interaction: how feedback processing changes in healthy ageing and in Parkinson’s disease
Full text linkBackground: Several studies have investigated the interaction between motivation and cognition in both young and older adults, but with inconsistent results. A recent hypothesis suggests exploring the role of dopamine to study this interaction. Aims: To explore how different motivational states can modulate cognitive control, as well as investigate the hypothesis of a dopaminergic role in this phenomenon. Methods: 27 young subjects, 15 healthy old subjects, and 15 Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients took part in this study. The motivational Simon task—a new paradigm in which rewards and punishments are delivered to promote fast and accurate responses—was employed. The participants’ performance was evaluated by analysing their reaction times and accuracy, while employing a diffusion model analysis. Results: The employment of positive and negative feedback significantly modulated performance in a conflict task. In both, the young and older participants, the speed–accuracy trade-off significantly changed in response to different motivational incentives (p < .005), although in opposite ways. On the contrary, PD patients showed an absence of performance modulation in response to positive and negative feedback. Discussion and conclusions: In normal conditions, motivation interacts with cognitive control to modulate decisional aspects of a response in a conflict task. The elderly modulate their performance in response to positive and negative feedback differently from young adults, showing a classical positivity effect. The impairment manifested by PD patients, which is compatible with the literature about feedback processing deficits in this clinical condition, can support the hypothesis that the interaction between motivation and cognitive control is mediated by dopaminergic functionalit
Intra-individual variability of error awareness and post-error slowing in three different age-groups
No full textIdentifying the Basic Dimensions of Medication-Triggered Impulsive Compulsive Behaviours in Parkinson’s Disease
No full textDelay of gratification dissociates cognitive control and valuation brain regions in healthy young adults
Full text linkDelay of gratification (DofG) refers to an inter-temporal choice phenomenon that is of great interest in many domains, including animal learning, cognitive development, economic decision-making, and executive control. Yet experimental tools for investigating DofG in human adults are almost non-existent, and as a consequence, very little is known regarding the brain basis of core DofG behaviors. Here, we utilize a novel DofG paradigm, adapted for use in neuroimaging contexts, to examine event-related changes in neural activity as healthy young adult participants made repeated choices to continue waiting for a delayed reward, rather than take an immediately available one of lesser value. On DofG trials, choose-to-wait events were associated with increased activation in fronto-parietal and cingulo-opercular regions associated with cognitive control. Activity in the right lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) was also associated with individual variability in task performance and strategy. Fronto-parietal activity was clearly dissociable from that observed in ventromedial PFC, as this latter region exhibited a ramping-up pattern of activity during the waiting period prior to reward delivery. Ventromedial PFC ramping activity dynamics were further selective to DofG trials associated with increased future reward rate, consistent with the involvement of this region in subjective reward valuation that incorporates higher-order task structure. These results provide important initial validation of this experimental paradigm as a useful tool for investigating and isolating unique DofG neural mechanisms, which can now be utilized to study a wide-variety of populations and task factors
Cognitive Stimulation in Patients with Dementia: Randomized Controlled Trial
Full text linkBackground/Aims: This study explores the effective outcomes of a structured cognitive stimulation
treatment to improve cognition and behavioral symptoms in people with dementia
(PWDs), using a randomized controlled clinical trial. Methods: Thirty PWDs were divided into
three groups: experimental (treated with cognitive stimulation), placebo (treated with occupational
therapy), and control (continuing with the usual activities of the nursing home). Assessment,
at baseline and after a period of 8 weeks, was performed using the Clinical Dementia
Rating Scale, activities of daily living, Mini-Mental State Examination, Esame Neuropsicologico
Breve 2, Geriatric Depression Scale and Behavioral Pathology in Alzheimer’s
Disease Scale. Results: Only the experimental group improved its performance in cognitive
tests (p < 0.05) and showed a significant decrease in behavioral symptoms (p < 0.01) after the
treatment. Conclusions: The results suggest that a cognitive stimulation treatment for PWDs
would improve not only their cognition, but also behavioral symptom
Motivation-Cognition Interaction: From Neurocognitive Models to Clinical Applications
Full text linkEditorial Materia
- …
