ABSTRACT
In the present experiment, children with mild spastic cerebral palsy and a control group carried out a memory recognition task. The key question was if errors of the patient group are foreshadowed by attention lapses, by weak motor preparation, or by both. Reaction times together with event-related potentials associated with motor preparation (frontal late contingent negative variation), attention (parietal P300), and response evaluation (parietal error-preceding positivity) were investigated in instances where 3 subsequent correct trials preceded an error. The findings indicated that error responses of the patient group are foreshadowed by weak motor preparation in correct trials directly preceding an error.
Subject(s)
Attention/physiology , Brain/physiopathology , Cerebral Palsy/physiopathology , Psychomotor Performance/physiology , Adolescent , Child , Electroencephalography , Evoked Potentials , Female , Humans , Male , Reaction Time , Severity of Illness IndexABSTRACT
This study evaluated the brain activation state during error making in youth with mild spastic cerebral palsy and a peer control group while carrying out a stimulus recognition task. The key question was whether patients were detecting their own errors and subsequently improving their performance in a future trial. Findings indicated that error responses of the group with cerebral palsy were associated with weak motor preparation, as indexed by the amplitude of the late contingent negative variation. However, patients were detecting their errors as indexed by the amplitude of the response-locked negativity and thus improved their performance in a future trial. Findings suggest that the consequence of error making on future performance is intact in a sample of youth with mild spastic cerebral palsy. Because the study group is small, the present findings need replication using a larger sample.
Subject(s)
Attention/physiology , Awareness/physiology , Cerebral Palsy/physiopathology , Contingent Negative Variation/physiology , Electroencephalography , Memory, Short-Term/physiology , Pattern Recognition, Visual/physiology , Self-Assessment , Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted , Adolescent , Cerebral Cortex/physiopathology , Cerebral Palsy/psychology , Child , Executive Function/physiology , Female , Humans , Learning Disabilities/physiopathology , Learning Disabilities/psychology , Male , Reaction Time/physiologyABSTRACT
The aim of the present study is to investigate visual orientation in hospitalized boys with severe early onset conduct disorder and borderline intellectual functioning. It is tested whether boys with the dual diagnosis have a stronger action-oriented response style to visual-cued go signals than the norm. To this end, boys with the dual diagnosis were compared with a peer control group on Posner's (1980) visual-spatial detection test. Here, on each trial, a visual cue points either in the direction of the location of a subsequent go signal (valid cue), or points in the opposite direction away from the location of the subsequent go signal (invalid cue). Findings indicated superior orientation (a strong action-oriented response style) of children with the dual diagnosis in valid-cued trials as well as in invalid-cued trials in both the left and the right visual hemifield. Findings were controlled for attention scores on the Child Behavior Checklist -Teacher Form and IQ scores.
Subject(s)
Conduct Disorder/physiopathology , Intellectual Disability/physiopathology , Orientation/physiology , Visual Perception/physiology , Adolescent , Attention/physiology , Child , Cues , Humans , Inpatients , Male , Reaction Time/physiologyABSTRACT
The study investigated stimulus evaluation time, event preparation, and motor action planning of patients with mild spastic cerebral palsy and a peer control group in the age range of 9 to 18 years. To this end, participants were carrying out a stimulus recognition task. Findings indicated an overall slowness and inaccurate reaction time performance of the patient group. An event-related potential analysis revealed that the stimulus evaluation processing, indexed by the parietal P300, was intact in the group of patients. Also event preparation and action planning, indexed by respectively the frontal late contingent negative variation and the frontal P2, were intact in the group of patients. It was concluded that patients' motor slowness reflected poor motor execution processes.
Subject(s)
Brain/physiopathology , Cerebral Palsy/pathology , Contingent Negative Variation/physiology , Executive Function/physiology , Psychomotor Performance/physiology , Recognition, Psychology , Adolescent , Analysis of Variance , Attention/physiology , Cerebral Palsy/physiopathology , Child , Electroencephalography , Female , Humans , Male , Photic Stimulation , Reaction Time/physiologyABSTRACT
Youth with mild spastic cerebral palsy (n = 14) and a peer control group were compared on an oddball paradigm. Here, visual stimuli were presented with low and high probability and participants were instructed to count in silence the number of rare stimuli. The infrequent stimulus typically elicits an enhanced frontal central N2 and a centroparietal P300 event-related brain potential, reflecting orientation and evaluation of stimulus novelty. No differences in latency and amplitude of the N2-P300 complex were found between the 2 groups, indicating that some fundamental attention processes are intact in youth with mild spastic cerebral palsy.
Subject(s)
Attention/physiology , Cerebral Palsy/physiopathology , Event-Related Potentials, P300/physiology , Visual Perception/physiology , Adolescent , Analysis of Variance , Brain Mapping , Child , Electroencephalography , Female , Humans , Male , Photic Stimulation/methods , Reaction Time/physiologyABSTRACT
Dependent on criteria used, between 35% and 53% of the participants with cerebral palsy fulfilled the criteria of clinically relevant executive function problems as defined by Conners' (1994) Continuous Performance Test. Executive function problems were noticed mainly in participants with bilateral brain lesions and who had been born preterm. Findings highlight the need to check for attention problems in children with cerebral palsy.
Subject(s)
Attention/physiology , Cerebral Palsy/physiopathology , Cerebral Palsy/psychology , Cognition Disorders/diagnosis , Cognition Disorders/physiopathology , Cognition/physiology , Executive Function/physiology , Adolescent , Cerebral Palsy/complications , Child , Cognition Disorders/etiology , Female , Humans , Infant, Newborn , Male , Motor Skills Disorders/diagnosis , Motor Skills Disorders/etiology , Motor Skills Disorders/physiopathologyABSTRACT
The ability to deal with sources of conflict, that is, interference control, was evaluated in a group of 11 children with first episode Major Depression and a peer control group. To this end, the Eriksen and Schultz (1979) task was used. Here, the participant is presented with a stimulus that simultaneously activates two conflicting response channels: One response is activated by the instructions, whereas the other response is activated by elements in the array that strongly invite an alternative - yet incorrect - response. Findings provided no evidence for an undisturbed interference control nor impaired overall processing speed in children with first episode Major Depression.
Subject(s)
Attention , Conflict, Psychological , Depressive Disorder, Major/psychology , Adolescent , Case-Control Studies , Child , Depressive Disorder, Major/diagnosis , Female , Humans , Male , Neuropsychological Tests , Reaction TimeABSTRACT
It is well recognized that reaction time performance of term-born children with a normal birth weight (NBW > 2500 g) who fulfill the DSM-IV criteria for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the primary school age is sensitive for the presentation rate of stimuli. They have been found to perform more poorly in conditions of relatively slow event rates as compared with fast event rates. The purpose of the current study was to explore whether reaction time performance of children with very low birth weight (VLBW < 1500 g) with or without ADHD showed the same sensitivity for the factor presentation rate of stimuli compared to children with a normal birth weight plus ADHD. To this end, reaction time performance of four groups of children was compared on a Go/No-Go test with a fast presentation rate of 1 second and a slow presentation rate of 6 seconds. Groups were: children with VLBW plus ADHD, children with VLBW only, children born full term with normal birth weight (NBW >2500 g) plus ADHD, and children born full term without ADHD (the control group). Findings indicated that, compared to the non-ADHD groups, the groups with ADHD (NBW and VLBW) showed a more dramatic decline in their reaction time performance in the slow condition: a state regulation deficit. In addition, both groups showed a response inhibition deficit. No difference was found in reaction time performance between the groups of children with VLBW only and the control group.
Subject(s)
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/psychology , Attention , Infant, Very Low Birth Weight/psychology , Reaction Time , Child , Female , Humans , Infant, Newborn , Male , Neuropsychological Tests , Psychomotor PerformanceABSTRACT
The study is designed to investigate response inhibition in children with conduct disorder and borderline intellectual functioning. To this end, children are compared to a normal peer control group using the Alertness test. The test has two conditions. In one condition, children are instructed to push a response button after a visual "go" signal is presented on the screen. In a second condition the "go" signal is preceded by an auditory signal, telling the child that a target stimulus will occur soon. Compared to the control group, the group carrying the dual diagnosis made many preliminary responses (responses before the presentation of the "go" signal), especially in the condition with an auditory signal. This impulsive response style was controlled for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder characteristics of the children.
Subject(s)
Cognition Disorders/epidemiology , Conduct Disorder/epidemiology , Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders/epidemiology , Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/diagnosis , Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/epidemiology , Child , Cognition Disorders/diagnosis , Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders/diagnosis , Humans , Male , Neuropsychological Tests , Reaction Time , Severity of Illness IndexABSTRACT
This study was designed to investigate attention and impulse control in 21 boys with dual diagnoses of conduct disorder and borderline intelligence and in 19 boys with borderline intelligence only. Using the Continuous Performance Test A-not-X, it appeared that children with the dual diagnosis made substantially more errors reflecting poor impulse control than the other group. The frequency of these errors was associated with scores on Impulsiveness, Aggression, and Delinquency subscales of the Child Behavior Checklist (Teacher Version). Also, the group with the dual diagnosis showed signs of a deficit in attention.
Subject(s)
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/diagnosis , Borderline Personality Disorder/diagnosis , Conduct Disorder/diagnosis , Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders/diagnosis , Aggression/psychology , Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/epidemiology , Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders/diagnosis , Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders/epidemiology , Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders/psychology , Borderline Personality Disorder/epidemiology , Borderline Personality Disorder/psychology , Child , Cognition Disorders/diagnosis , Cognition Disorders/epidemiology , Conduct Disorder/epidemiology , Conduct Disorder/psychology , Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders/epidemiology , Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders/psychology , Humans , Male , Severity of Illness Index , Wechsler ScalesABSTRACT
UNLABELLED: The aim of the study was to investigate associations between the severity of motor limitations, cognitive difficulties, language and motor speech problems in children with cerebral palsy. Also, the predictive power of neonatal cranial ultrasound findings on later outcome was investigated. For this purpose, 36 children (age range 1 year 10 months to 9 years 0 months) with cerebral palsy due to premature birth and white-matter damage (periventricular leukomalacia) participated in the study. Twenty-two children (62%) had an intelligence level above 70. One-half of this group exhibited motor speech problems. Children with an intelligence level below 70 (n=14, 38%) showed problems in motor speech skills as well as in verbal expressive and comprehensive skills. Neonatal cranial ultrasonography findings were moderately associated with the severity of functional motor limitations. LEARNING OUTCOMES: Readers will be able to: (1) describe different hypotheses regarding the relationship between language, speech, intelligence level and severity of cerebral palsy, (2) discuss how intelligence and functional motor limitations impact language and speech performance for children with cerebral palsy and (3) discuss the predictability of the ultrasound methodology.
Subject(s)
Apraxias/epidemiology , Cerebral Palsy/epidemiology , Language Disorders/epidemiology , Apraxias/diagnosis , Cerebral Palsy/etiology , Child , Child, Preschool , Cognition Disorders/diagnosis , Cognition Disorders/epidemiology , Female , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Language Disorders/diagnosis , Leukomalacia, Periventricular/complications , Male , Neuropsychological Tests , Severity of Illness Index , Speech Disorders/diagnosis , Speech Disorders/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Sixty children with functional motor limitations (age range from 15 months to 7 years 3 months) and their parents participated in the study. The objective was to explore the relationship of the severity of their restrictions on family strengths. Functional motor abilities of the children were assessed using Autti-Ramo's Scale. Cognitive functions were assessed using the Swedish standardized version of the Griffiths Scales of Mental Development. Family strengths were indexed using the Family Functioning Style Scale. The social-economical status, children's age and caretakers' age were taken into account. Overall, the results indicated that family strengths were rather strong. Only families rearing a child with severe participation limitations (functional motor limitations and cognitive difficulties) showed less strengths concerning family identity and internal coping relative to families with a child with milder participation limitations.
Subject(s)
Adaptation, Psychological , Family Relations , Motor Skills Disorders , Nuclear Family/psychology , Adult , Age Factors , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Finland , Humans , Infant , Male , Regression Analysis , Socioeconomic FactorsABSTRACT
The study presents the results on neonatal cranial ultrasonography (US) and later intelligence (Wechsler Intelligence Scale-Third Edition and Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised) and Neuropsychological assessments of 15 children with spastic diplegia. The assessments were undertaken when the children were 5 to 12 years of age. The children's IQ scores were, as a group, at the lower end of the normal distribution. The neuropsychological assessment indicated that deficits in visuomotor and visuospatial processing were characteristic of the children. No association was found between the neonatal cranial US findings and the IQ and neurocognitive scores. However, the cranial US findings strongly predicted functional motor limitations of the children.
