Executive dysfunction in treated phenylketonuric patients

Objectives: Executive function deficits have been described in early and continuously treated patients with phenylketonuria (PKU). The aim of this study was to examine performance on executive function tasks of treated patients with PKU diagnosed by 2 years of age. Patients and methods: Ten patients with PKU and normal intelligence score who were diagnosed before the age of 2 years and subsequently treated continuously, were compared with 15 typically developing control children on a battery of neuropsychological tests, including the tower of London (TOL), continuous performance test (CPT), and Stroop test. Results: PKU cases showed significantly poorer performance on the TOL task compared to the control group with the difference being significant in the first three levels of the test. With the CPT, PKU cases had significantly more omission errors than control subjects. On the Stroop test there was no statistically significant difference between the groups. No significant correlation was found between the concurrent serum phenylalanine (Phe) level and results of the executive tests in PKU patients. Conclusion: This study identified executive dysfunction in early-treated PKU patients with normal IQ, particularly in the planning and attention domains. Further studies are required to compare the results with those from other neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD and autism, to establish whether the pattern of findings is specific to PKU

EFFECT OF ARCUATE INCISION ON POST-KERATOPLASTY ASTIGMATISM

This work is a report 0/9 cases ofarcuate incision for correction 0/astigmatism, after penetrating keratoplasty. Plannings were based OJJ corneal topography, and the first operation was always arcuate incision alone. 11,e secondary plans were based on refractive errors. The mean of preoperative astigmatism was 6D with the range of5 to 9/). After arcuate incision a/the graft-host interface in the firs' operation, 'he mean reduction ofastigmatism was 3. OS/) with the range 0[0.5- 4.5]). Mean spherical equivalent change was O.16D. Arcuate incision is an appropriate methodfor correction ofastigmatism after PK and can he considered a.s a single procedure for [ow astigmatism, although the results may be unprediaable

Theory of Mind in Adolescents with Bipolar Disorder in Euthymic Phase: ‎Using the Strange Stories Test

Objective: This study evaluated the theory of mind (ToM) in adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder ‎‎(BD) during their euthymic period compared to a typically developing (TD) group.‎ Method: The BD group consisted of thirty 11-18 year old inpatients in euthymic phase. The TD ‎group included 30 age, gender, and IQ matched volunteer students. To assess the diagnosis and ‎comorbid disorders, we performed the semi-structured interview of the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders ‎and Schizophrenia-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL) for the BD adolescents. To ‎evaluate the severity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and mania, Conner's ‎Parent Rating Scale-Revised version (CPRS-R), and Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) were ‎used, respectively. Ravens Progressive Matrices was conducted to evaluate intellectual ability in ‎the both groups. Happe Strange Stories test was performed to assess ToM in the participants. Data were ‎analyzed using the independent t-test, analysis of covariance, and Pearson Correlation analysis.‎ Results: The two groups did not show any differences in comprehending the stories; however, the BD ‎group’s mentalizing scores were significantly weaker than the TD group (p<0.05).‎‎ Conclusion: The ToM impairments in adolescents with BD may be explained as a trait marker which may lead ‎to continuation of social problems even during remission‏.

Comparison between Face and Object Processing in Youths with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An event related potentials study.

Incapability in face perception and recognition is one of the main issues in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Event related potential (ERP) studies have revealed controversial insights on autistic brain responses to faces and objects. The current investigation examined the ERP components of young children with ASD compared to a typically developing (TD) group when looking at the upright and inverted images of faces and cars.Fourteen children and adolescents aged between 9 and 17 diagnosed as having ASD were compared with 18 age- gender matched normally developing individuals. All participants' ERPs were recorded while they were seeing the images of human faces and objects in both upright and inverted positions. The ERP components including N170 (latency and amplitude) were compared between the two groups in two conditions of upright and inverted using the repeated measure analysis method.The processing speed for upright faces was faster than the inverted faces in the TD group; however, the difference was not significant. A significant difference was observed in terms of N170 latency between the two groups for different stimulus categories such as objects and faces(

Cognitive functions in methamphetamine induced psychosis compared to schizophrenia and normal subjects.

Objective: The purpose of this research was to study the cognitive functions in patients with methamphetamine-induced psychosis (MIP) in comparison with schizophrenia patients and normal subjects. Method: This was a cross-sectional study, 30 patients with MIP, 30 patients with schizophrenia and 30 normal individuals were selected via convenient sampling and were matched on age, sex and education. Wisconsin Cards Sorting, Stroop, Visual Search and Attention and Wechsler Memory Tests were used to assess the subjects. Results: The study showed that patients with MIP and schizophrenia have more deficits in executive functions, selective attention, sustained attention and memory than normal subjects. There were no significant differences in cognitive functions between patients with MIP and schizophrenia except for visual search and attention that showed more impairment in patients with schizophrenia. Conclusion: Although, cognitive dysfunctions of patients with MIP are mostly similar to patients with schizophrenia, some differences seem to exist, especially in those functions that are not primarily dependent on frontal lobe

Executive Dysfunction in Children and adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

"nObjective: The purpose of this study is to compare the executive functions children and adolescents who suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder "n(ADHD) with normal children. "nMethod: Twenty children with ADHD were compared to 19 healthy children terms of some executive functions using the computerized version of Tower London, Continuous Performance Test (CPT), and Stroop Color Test. "nResults: In "Tower of London", the performance of children with ADHD was "nworse than normal children (p&lt;0.05). In Continuous Performance Test, the "ncommission errors in children with ADHD were significantly more than the "nnormal group (p&lt;0.01). In Stroop Test, the time spent to name the colors was "nsignificantly higher in ADHD group. A significant correlation was also found "nbetween the performance of children on Tower of London and CPT (P&lt;0.05). "nConclusions: This study demonstrates that children and adolescents who "nsuffer from ADHD have some impairment of executive functions, particularly "nplanning and inhibition to response, but not in attention

Visual attention to emotional face in schizophrenia: an eye tracking study.

Objective: Deficits in the processing of facial emotions have been reported extensively in patients with schizophrenia. To explore whether restricted attention is the cause of impaired emotion processing in these patients, we examined visual attention through tracking eye movements in response to emotional and neutral face stimuli in a group of patients with schizophrenia and healthy individuals. We also examined the correlation between visual attention allocation and symptoms severity in our patient group. Method: Thirty adult patients with schizophrenia and 30 matched healthy controls participated in this study. Visual attention data were recorded while participants passively viewed emotional-neutral face pairs for 500 ms. The relationship between the visual attention and symptoms severity were assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) in the schizophrenia group. Repeated Measures ANOVAs were used to compare the groups. Results: Comparing the number of fixations made during face-pairs presentation, we found that patients with schizophrenia made fewer fixations on faces, regardless of the expression of the face. Analysis of the number of fixations on negative-neutral pairs also revealed that the patients made fewer fixations on both neutral and negative faces. Analysis of number of fixations on positive-neutral pairs only showed more fixations on positive relative to neutral expressions in both groups. We found no correlations between visual attention pattern to faces and symptom severity in schizophrenic patients. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that the facial recognition deficit in schizophrenia is related to decreased attention to face stimuli. Finding of no difference in visual attention for positive-neutral face pairs between the groups is in line with studies that have shown increased ability to positive emotional perception in these patients

Delayed Face Recognition in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Objective: Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have great problems in social interactions including face recognition. There are many studies reporting deficits in face memory in individuals with ASDs. On the other hand, some studies indicate that this kind of memory is intact in this group. In the present study, delayed face recognition has been investigated in children and adolescents with ASDs compared to the age and sex matched typically developing group.Methods: In two sessions, Benton Facial Recognition Test was administered to 15 children and adolescents with ASDs (high functioning autism and Asperger syndrome) and to 15 normal participants, ages 8-17 years. In the first condition, the long form of Benton Facial Recognition Test was used without any delay. In the second session, this test was administered with 15 seconds delay after one week. The reaction times and correct responses were measured in both conditions as the dependent variables.Results: Comparison of the reaction times and correct responses in the two groups revealed no significant difference in delayed and non-delayed conditions. Furthermore, no significant difference was observed between the two conditions in ASDs patients when comparing the variables. Although a significant correlation (p<0.05) was found between delayed and non-delayed conditions, it was not significant in the normal group. Moreover, data analysis revealed no significant difference between the two groups in the two conditions when the IQ was considered as covariate. Conclusion: In this study, it was found that the ability to recognize faces in simultaneous and delayed conditions is similar between adolescents with ASDs and their normal counterparts

Visual Memory of Meaningless Shapes in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

objective: Visual memory is an important cognitive ability, which has been studied in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). In such studies meaningful shapes were used more frequently. Since meaningless shapes provide a better assessment of short term visual memory, in this study we used them to evaluate visual memory in children and adolescents with ASDs compared to the normal group.Methods: Four visual memory tests of Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) including Paired Associates Learning (PAL), Pattern Recognition Memory (PRM), Spatial Recognition Memory (SRM) and Delayed Matching to Sample (DMS) were administered to 15 children and adolescents with ASDs (high functioning autism and Asperger syndrome) and to 15 normal participants aged 8 to 17,with IQ of above 70.Results: Individuals with ASDs performed worse than the normal group on visual memory tasks. After eliminating IQ as a covariate, no significant difference was observed between the two groups in terms of visual memory performance.Conclusion: It seems that deficits on visual memory tasks in youths with ASDs could be related to their general intellectual abilities