Contrasting deficits on executive functions between ADHD and reading disabled children

BACKGROUND. The object of this study was to analyze the executive functioning of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or reading disability (RD) independent of their non-executive deficits. METHODS: Three carefully diagnosed groups of children, aged between 7 and 12 years (35 ADHD, 22 RD and 30 typically developing children), were tested on a wide range of tasks related to five major domains of executive functioning (EF): inhibition, visual working memory, planning, cognitive flexibility, and verbal fluency. Additional tasks were selected for each domain to control for non-executive processing. RESULTS: ADHD children were impaired on interference control, but not on prepotent and ongoing response suppression. ADHD showed deficits on visual working memory, planning, cognitive flexibility and phonetic fluency. RD children were impaired on phonetic fluency. The only EF measure that differentiated ADHD from RD was planning. CONCLUSIONS: The present sample of ADHD children showed several EF deficits, whereas RD children were almost spared executive dysfunction, but exhibited deficits in phonetic fluency

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory is a second generation water Cherenkov detector designed to determine whether the currently observed solar neutrino deficit is a result of neutrino oscillations. The detector is unique in its use of D2O as a detection medium, permitting it to make a solar model-independent test of the neutrino oscillation hypothesis by comparison of the charged- and neutral-current interaction rates. In this paper the physical properties, construction, and preliminary operation of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory are described. Data and predicted operating parameters are provided whenever possible.Comment: 58 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Nucl. Inst. Meth. Uses elsart and epsf style files. For additional information about SNO see http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca . This version has some new reference

The effect of pulmonary tuberculosis on neurocognitive function in HIV infected adult patients in Lusaka, Zambia

Objective: To explore the effects of Pulmonary Tuberculosis on neurocognitive functions in HIV+ adults in Lusaka, Zambia.Materials and methods: In a retrospective and prospective case-control study, Global Deficit Score (GDS) was used as an overall measure for cognitive impairments between groups and also within the PTB+/HIV+ group, and Domain Deficit Scores (DDS) were used to summarize cognitive impairments within each of the seven domains. To examine group differences in neurocognitive status, we used Wilcoxon ranked sum tests to compare the performance between groups on neuropsychological test battery.Results: Out of 324, only 244 were studied. Results indicated significant neurocognitive impairment in PTB+/HIV+ group than PTB-/HIV+ in the GDS, p<.001, significant lower CD4 cell count with a mean of 323 cells/μl compared to 510 cells//μl for the control group. The PTB+/HIV+ group, CD4 cell count was in the range 201-499 cells//μl compared to their cohort CD4 cell count above 500 cells//μl indicating immune compromise in the PTB+/HIV+. 95% of PTB+ were stages 3 and 4 indicating AIDS defining stage, whereas 95% of PTB negative were stage 1 suggesting immunocompetent. Linear regression model (p<.01), PTB status was predictive of GDS even while accounting for demographic and medical variables that have previously been associated with neurocognitive impairments. Specifically, a linear regression model identified PTB status (F=6.26, p < .02) as a significant predictor of Global Deficit Score (GDS). Age (F =3.21, p <.08) approached significance, while years of schooling (F =0.54), current WHO stage (F=1.41) and gender (F= .13) were not significant independent predictors of GDS (all ps > .10).Conclusion: This study highlights the fact that PTB has neurocognitve impairment in HIV+ adult individuals. Findings of the present study show the presence of neuropsychological impairments in all the seven domains except motor in the PTB+/HIV+ adults in Lusaka district, Zambia

Sensory-specific satiety is intact in amnesics who eat multiple meals.

What is the relationship between memory and appetite? We explored this question by examining preferences for recently consumed food in patients with amnesia. Although the patients were unable to remember having eaten, and were inclined to eat multiple meals, we found that sensory-specific satiety was intact in these patients. The data suggest that sensory-specific satiety can occur in the absence of explicit memory for having eaten and that impaired sensory-specific satiety does not underlie the phenomenon of multiple-meal eating in amnesia. Overeating in amnesia may be due to disruption of learned control by physiological aftereffects of a recent meal or to problems utilizing internal cues relating to nutritional state