Thinking about social and nonsocial alternative possibilities in premature preschoolers.

INTRODUCTION: Prematurely born preschoolers show developmental cognitive delay compared to full-term children. There are important neurological networks developing at preschool age related to perspective taking about the attribution of belief and to deduction with contrary-to-fact situations. Other deductive abilities may be completed during that period. METHOD: A group of very prematurely born children (N = 35) aged between 4 and 5 years was compared with a control group of children born at full term (N = 35). They completed different cognitive tasks that required making inferences about possible true facts and false facts, and about others' beliefs. RESULTS: Results showed that preterm children had more difficulties with false beliefs and counterfactual tasks than the controls but they did not differ in equivalent deductive tasks. CONCLUSIONS: We discuss the possible difficulties of preterm children when they first reach primary school age, not only with social perspective taking, but also with considering nonsocial contrary-to-fact alternatives. Prematurity is not a syndrome, but could be a risk condition. Therefore, these results are relevant in the field of differential diagnosis-in particular, for children with difficulties in perspective taking, a condition with which children born prematurely could share some characteristics.

Déficit mnésicos y perceptivos en la fibromialgia y la artritis reumatoide / Cognition and perception deficits in fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis

Introducción: El deterioro cognitivo en los pacientes con dolor crónico es hoy día un tema de gran interés clínico, debido a que estas personas con frecuencia se quejan de problemas cognitivos. Objetivo: Investigar las capacidades de atención, perceptivas y de memoria visuoespacial en los pacientes con dolor crónico en comparación con un grupo control y evaluar si entre estos pacientes hay diferencias, teniendo en cuenta las características de la propia enfermedad y la capacidad de reserva cognitiva. Material y métodos: Se seleccionó a 2 grupos de pacientes, enfermos de fibromialgia y artritis reumatoide con corta duración de la enfermedad, y se los comparó con un grupo control. Todos los sujetos completaron un protocolo de exploración de memoria visual y espacial, velocidad de procesamiento, memoria de trabajo, visuopercepción, atención y orientación. Para todos ellos se obtuvo una medida de reserva cognitiva. Resultados: Los pacientes con dolor crónico presentan una peor ejecución cognitiva que los controles. Los pacientes con artritis ejecutan la tarea peor que los de fibromialgia cuando requiere mayor velocidad de procesamiento visuomotor y un déficit en la integración en tareas visuoperceptivas. Los enfermos de fibromialgia obtuvieron peores puntuaciones en las tareas de memoria espacial y orientación. Conclusiones: Los pacientes aquejados de fibromialgia y artritis tienen déficit aun cuando la cronicidad de la enfermedad sea breve. Dicho déficit parece no explicarse por efectos colaterales de dichas afecciones, ya que los perfiles cognitivos no son similares y aparecen desde el inicio de la enfermedad (AU)

Introduction: Cognitive disturbance in patients with fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis is today a topic of a great clinical interest, largely due to the fact that these persons often complain about cognitive problems. Objective: This study is aimed to assess the visuospatial memory, attention and perceptive capacities in chronic pain patients. Material and methods: Groups were constituted by fibromyalgia patients and rheumatoid arthritis patients, as well as a control group. All the subjects completed a battery of visual and spatial memory, speed of processing, working memory, attention, orientation and visuoperceptive abilities. A cognitive reserve measurement was obtained. Results: Results show that chronic pain patients displayed worse cognitive performance than controls. Moreover, arthritis patients execute poorly when compared to the group of fibromyalgia in tasks that demand visuoperceptive integration and visuomotor processing. Patients suffering fibromyalgia obtained worse punctuations than those with arthritis in spatial memory and spatial orientation tasks. Conclusions: Both groups developed important cognitive deficits, which cannot be explained by the collateral effects of such pathologies, because cognitive profiles are not similar and appear from the beginning of the disease (AU)

[Cognition and perception deficits in fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis]. / Déficit mnésicos y perceptivos en la fibromialgia y la artritis reumatoide.

INTRODUCTION: Cognitive disturbance in patients with fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis is today a topic of a great clinical interest, largely due to the fact that these persons often complain about cognitive problems. OBJECTIVE: This study is aimed to assess the visuospatial memory, attention and perceptive capacities in chronic pain patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Groups were constituted by fibromyalgia patients and rheumatoid arthritis patients, as well as a control group. All the subjects completed a battery of visual and spa-tial memory, speed of processing, working memory, attention, orientation and visuoperceptive abilities. A cognitive reserve measurement was obtained. RESULTS: Results show that chronic pain patients displayed worse cognitive performance than controls. Moreover, arthritis patients execute poorly when compared to the group of fibromyalgia in tasks that demand visuoperceptive integration and visuomotor processing. Patients suffering fibromyalgia obtained worse punctuations than those with arthritis in spatial memory and spatial orientation tasks. CONCLUSIONS: Both groups developed important cognitive deficits, which cannot be explained by the collateral effects of such pathologies, because cognitive profiles are not similar and appear from the beginning of the disease.