Domain specificity of error monitoring: An ERP study in young and older adults.

Metacognition refers to the ability to monitor and control one's cognitive processes, which plays an important role in decision-making throughout the lifespan. It is still debated whether metacognitive abilities decline with age. Neuroimaging evidence suggests that metacognition is served by domain-specific mechanisms. These domains may differentially decline with increasing age. The current investigates whether the error-related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe) which reflect error detection and error awareness, respectively, differ across perceptual and memory domains in young and older adults. In total, 38 young adults and 37 older adults completed a classic Flanker Task (perceptual) and an adapted memory-based version. No difference in ERN amplitude was found between young and older adults and across domains. Perceptual ERN peaked earlier than Memory ERN. Memory ΔERN was larger than Perceptual ΔERN. Pe was smaller in older adults and ΔPe was larger for perceptual than memory flanker. Memory Pe peaked earlier in young as compared to older adults. Multivariate analyses of whole scalp data supported cross-domain differences. During the task, ERN decreased in young but not in older adults. Memory Pe decreased in young adults but increased in older adults while no significant change in perceptual Pe was found. The study's findings suggest that neural correlates of error monitoring differ across cognitive domains. Moreover, it was shown that error awareness declines in old age but its within-task dynamics vary across cognitive domains. Possible mechanisms underlying metacognition impairments in aging are discussed.

Subjective Sleep Quality as it Relates to Cognitive and Physical Function in Spinal Muscular Atrophy Patients.

Sleep quality and its association with cognition has been widely studied in some neurodegenerative diseases, but less is known about this association in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In adult SMA (n = 21) patients and age-matched controls (n = 23), we assessed subjectively measured sleep quality and daytime somnolence. Cognition was assessed with a multi-domain neuropsychological battery. Further, we investigated the association between clinical functional scores and sleep questionnaire scores. Among SMA patients, better motor and limb function was associated with better subjective sleep quality (p's< 0.05). Clinicians should consider sleep quality in patient care and future studies are needed to better understand these relationships.

Cognitive profiles and clinical factors in type III spinal muscular atrophy: a preliminary study.

Cognitive abilities are often affected in progressive neurodegenerative disorders, but there is a lack of understanding about whether spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) patients experience cognitive deficits and, if so, whether they are associated with clinical factors. A sample of 22 type III SMA patients and 22 healthy controls completed a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, including tests in memory, executive function, language, visuospatial, and global cognitive functioning. Clinical severity was assessed using the Hammersmith Functional Motor Scale, the Revised Upper Limb Module and the Six Minute Walk Test. SMA patients showed poorer performance in visuospatial abilities, executive functions and language as compared to healthy controls. In the SMA sample, patients with greater motor difficulties had lower performance in attention, but higher performance in measures of language, verbal fluency, and memory. In men, but not women, cognitive test performance was associated with motor functioning. Our findings showing cognitive changes in SMA type III may reflect the presence of intrinsic brain pathology and cognitive adaptation mechanisms following physical dysfunction, which may be mediated by other factors, such as sex.

New insights into neural networks of error monitoring and clinical implications: a systematic review of ERP studies in neurological diseases.

Error monitoring allows for the efficient performance of goal-directed behaviors and successful learning. Furthermore, error monitoring as a metacognitive ability may play a crucial role for neuropsychological interventions, such as rehabilitation. In the past decades, research has suggested two electrophysiological markers for error monitoring: the error-related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe), thought to reflect, respectively, error detection and error awareness. Studies on several neurological diseases have investigated the alteration of the ERN and the Pe, but these findings have not been summarized. Accordingly, a systematic review was conducted to understand what neurological conditions present alterations of error monitoring event-related potentials and their relation with clinical measures. Overall, ERN tended to be reduced in most neurological conditions while results related to Pe integrity are less clear. ERN and Pe were found to be associated with several measures of clinical severity. Additionally, we explored the contribution of different brain structures to neural networks underlying error monitoring, further elaborating on the domain-specificity of error processing and clinical implications of findings. In conclusion, electrophysiological signatures of error monitoring could be reliable measures of neurological dysfunction and a robust tool in neuropsychological rehabilitation.

Age differences in resting state EEG and their relation to eye movements and cognitive performance.

Prior research has focused on EEG differences across age or EEG differences across cognitive tasks/eye tracking. There are few studies linking age differences in EEG to age differences in behavioural performance which is necessary to establish how neuroactivity corresponds to successful and impaired ageing. Eighty-six healthy participants completed a battery of cognitive tests and eye-tracking measures. Resting state EEG (n = 75, 31 young, 44 older adults) was measured for delta, theta, alpha and beta power as well as for alpha peak frequency. Age deficits in cognition were aligned with the literature, showing working memory and inhibitory deficits along with an older adult advantage in vocabulary. Older adults showed poorer eye movement accuracy and response times, but we did not replicate literature showing a greater age deficit for antisaccades than for prosaccades. We replicated EEG literature showing lower alpha peak frequency in older adults but not literature showing lower alpha power. Older adults also showed higher beta power and less parietal alpha power asymmetry than young adults. Interaction effects showed that better prosaccade performance was related to lower beta power in young adults but not in older adults. Performance at the trail making test part B (measuring task switching and inhibition) was improved for older adults with higher resting state delta power but did not depend on delta power for young adults. It is argued that individuals with higher slow-wave resting EEG may be more resilient to age deficits in tasks that utilise cross-cortical processing.

The Petrified Self 10 Years After: Current Evidence for Mnemonic anosognosia.

Lack of awareness about disease, its symptoms and consequences, also termed anosognosia, is a common feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). It has been hypothesized that memory disorder may be a key contributing factor to anosognosia, with people with AD not being able to update their personal information about performance and relying on older consolidated material about ability. This potentially outdated sense of self has been named, as a metaphor, the petrified self. In the current review, evidence from the past 10 years in relation to this concept is critically appraised. In particular, focus is given to empirical evidence produced on anterograde memory deficits about performance, the profile of autobiographical retrograde memory loss and the role of frontal lobes in anosognosia in AD. Finally, wider consequences of this metaphor for the understanding of selfhood in dementia are discussed.

Recognition of emotions conveyed by facial expression and body postures in myotonic dystrophy (DM).

INTRODUCTION: Neuromuscular diseases may be of neuropsychological interest insofar as they may affect representations based on embodied cognition theories. Previous studies have shown impaired ability to recognize facial emotions and an association between facial emotion recognition and visuospatial abilities in myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) patients. Here we examined the ability of both DM1 and DM2 patients to recognize emotions expressed by body postures and its relation, and their association with cognitive performance. METHODS: Participants included 34 DM1 patients, 8 DM2 patients, and 24 healthy control subjects. Emotional recognition ability was assessed through two computerized matching tasks (face and bodies). A neuropsychological battery was used to measure cognition in three domains and global cognition. We used univariate and adjusted linear regression models to investigate the association between cognition and emotion recognition performance. RESULTS: DM patients (combined DM1 and DM2) performed worse on emotional facial expression (p = .006) and body posture (p = .004) accuracy measures than healthy controls. In linear regression models, DM patients' facial expression accuracy was associated with executive function (p = .013) and visuospatial (p < .001) z-scores. Body posture accuracy was associated with visuospatial (p = .001) and memory (p = .012) z-scores. There were no associations among controls or between cognition and reaction time. DISCUSSION: These findings suggest that impaired emotional recognition among DM patients is also extended to emotions conveyed by body postures. Consistent with embodied cognition theories, people affected in their body and its movement may have impaired sensorimotor representation in ways that have yet to be fully understood.

The Role of Motor System in Mental Rotation: New Insights from Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1.

OBJECTIVE: This study explored mental rotation (MR) performance in patients with myotonic dystrophy 1 (DM1), an inherited neuromuscular disorder dominated by muscular symptoms, including muscle weakness and myotonia. The aim of the study was twofold: to gain new insights into the neurocognitive mechanisms of MR and to better clarify the cognitive profile of DM1 patients. To address these aims, we used MR tasks involving kinds of stimuli that varied for the extent to which they emphasized motor simulation and activation of body representations (body parts) versus visuospatial imagery (abstract objects). We hypothesized that, if peripheral sensorimotor feedback system plays a pivotal role in modulating MR performance, then DM1 patients would exhibit more difficulties in mentally rotating hand stimuli than abstract objects. METHOD: Twenty-four DM1 patients and twenty-four age- and education-matched control subjects were enrolled in the study and were required to perform two computerized MR tasks involving pictures of hands and abstract objects. RESULTS: The analysis of accuracy showed that patients had impaired MR performance when the angular disparities between the stimuli were higher. Notably, as compared to controls, patients showed slower responses when the stimuli were hands, whereas no significant differences when stimuli were objects. CONCLUSION: The findings are coherent with the embodied cognition view, indicating a tight relation between body- and motor-related processes and MR. They suggest that peripheral, muscular, abnormalities in DM1 lead to alterations in manipulation of motor representations, which in turn affect MR, especially when body parts are to mentally rotate.