Dopamine and Working Memory: Genetic Variation, Stress and Implications for Mental Health

2019 ◽  
pp. 369-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristel Klaus ◽  
Kyla Pennington
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Genetic Variation

scholarly journals Child maltreatment, cognitive functions and the mediating role of mental health problems among maltreated children and adolescents in Uganda

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert E. Ainamani ◽  
Godfrey Z. Rukundo ◽  
Timothy Nduhukire ◽  
Eunice Ndyareba ◽  
Tobias Hecker
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Problems

Abstract Background Child maltreatment poses high risks to the mental health and cognitive functioning of children not only in childhood but also in later life. However, it remains unclear whether child maltreatment is directly associated with impaired cognitive functioning or whether this link is mediated by mental health problems. Our study aimed at examining this research question among children and adolescents in Uganda. Methods A sample of 232 school-going children and adolescents with a mean age of 14.03 (SD = 3.25) was assessed on multiple forms of maltreatment using the Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology Exposure—Pediatric Version (pediMACE). Executive functions were assessed by the Tower of London task and working memory by the Corsi Block Tapping task, while mental health problems were assessed using the Child PTSD Symptom Scale for PTSD and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC). Results In total, 232 (100%) of the participant reported to have experienced at least one type of maltreatment in their lifetime including emotional, physical, and sexual violence as well as neglect. We found a negative association between child maltreatment and executive functions (β = − 0.487, p < 0.001) and working memory (β = − 0.242, p = 0.001). Mental health problems did not mediate this relationship. Conclusions Child maltreatment seems to be related to lower working memory and executive functioning of affected children and adolescents even after controlling for potential cofounders. Our study indicates that child maltreatment the affects children’s cognitive functionality beyond health and well-being.

Poster #M195 THE INTERACTION BETWEEN CNR1 GENETIC VARIATION AND CANNABIS EXPOSURE PREDICTS PREFRONTAL FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY AND BEHAVIOR DURING WORKING MEMORY

2014 ◽  
Vol 153 ◽  
pp. S261
Author(s):  
Marco Colizzi ◽  
Leonardo Fazio ◽  
Laura Ferranti ◽  
Annamaria Porcelli ◽  
Rita Masellis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
And Behavior

scholarly journals Freeze or forget? Virtual attack effects in an Emotional Sternberg Task

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 342-358
Author(s):  
Thomas Edward Gladwin ◽  
Matthijs Vink
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Interference Effects ◽  
Warning Signals ◽  
Emotional Interference ◽  
Neutral Face ◽  
Sternberg Task

Emotionally salient stimuli have the ability to disrupt cognitive processing. This kind of disruption involves effects on working memory and may be related to mental health problems. To explore the nature of such emotional interference on working memory, a Virtual Attack Emotional Sternberg Task (VAEST) was used. Neutral faces were presented as distractors and warning signals, which were sometimes followed by a virtual attack, created by having the neutral face turn angry while the image was enlarged. The attack was hypothesized to have one of two effects: to disrupt cognitive processing and thereby increase interference effects, or to terminate a state of freezing and thereby reduce interference effects. The task was successfully completed online by a sample of 59 students. Results clearly show that the virtual attack caused a reduction of interference relative to no-attack trials. The apparent cognitive disruption caused by emotional distractors may thus reflect freezing, which can be reversed by a freeze-terminating stimulus.

scholarly journals Child maltreatment, cognitive functions and the mediating role of mental health problems among maltreated children and adolescents in Uganda

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert E Ainamani ◽  
Godfrey Z Rukundo ◽  
Timothy Nduhukire ◽  
Eunice Ndyareba ◽  
Tobias Hecker
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Problems

Abstract Background: Child maltreatment poses high risks to the mental health and cognitive functioning of children not only in childhood but also in later life. However, it remains unclear whether child maltreatment is directly associated with impaired cognitive functioning or whether this link is mediated by mental health problems. Our study aimed at examining this research question among children and adolescents in Uganda. Methods: A sample of 232 school-going children and adolescents with a mean age of 14.03 (SD = 3.25) was assessed on multiple forms of maltreatment using the Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology Exposure – Pediatric Version (pediMACE). Executive functions were assessed by the Tower of London task and working memory by the Corsi Block Tapping task, while mental health problems were assessed using the Child PTSD Symptom Scale for PTSD and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC).Results: In total, 232(100%) of the participant reported to have experienced at least one type of maltreatment in their lifetime ranging from having been intentionally pushed by an authority figure (89.7%, n = 208) to entering an object in the participant’s body (2.6%, n =6). We found a negative association between child maltreatment and executive functions (β = -0.487, p < .001) and working memory (β = -0.242, p = .001). Mental health problems did not mediate this relationship.Conclusions: Child maltreatment seems to be related to lower working memory and executive functioning of affected children and adolescents even after controlling for potential cofounders. Our study indicates that child maltreatment affects children’s cognitive functionality beyond health and well-being.

scholarly journals Gender Differences in Symptoms, Health-Related Quality of Life, Sleep Quality, Mental Health, Cognitive Performance, Pain-Cognition, and Positive Health in Spanish Fibromyalgia Individuals: The Al-Ándalus Project

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Víctor Segura-Jiménez ◽  
Fernando Estévez-López ◽  
Alberto Soriano-Maldonado ◽  
Inmaculada C. Álvarez-Gallardo ◽  
Manuel Delgado-Fernández ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Gender Differences ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Health Related Quality ◽  
Tender Points ◽  
Positive Health ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
Health Related

Objective. To test the gender differences in tenderness, impact of fibromyalgia, health-related quality of life, fatigue, sleep quality, mental health, cognitive performance, pain-cognition, and positive health in Spanish fibromyalgia patients and in age-matched nonfibromyalgia individuals from the same region. To test the optimal cut-off score of the different tender points for women and men.Methods. A total of 405 (384 women) fibromyalgia versus 247 (195 women) nonfibromyalgia control participants from southern Spain (Andalusia) took part in this cross-sectional study. The outcomes studied were assessed by means of several tests.Results. In the fibromyalgia group, men showed better working memory than women (all,P<0.01), whereas sleep latency was lower in women compared to men (P=0.013). In the nonfibromyalgia group, men showed higher pain threshold in all the tender points (all,P<0.01), except in right and left lateral epicondyle. Furthermore, men showed better working memory than women (all,P<0.01), whereas memory performance was better in women compared to men (all,P≤0.01).Conclusion. The results of the present study do not support consistent evidence of gender differences in fibromyalgia-related symptoms. However, it seems that detriment of some symptoms (especially pain) in fibromyalgia men compared with their nonfibromyalgia counterparts is greater than those of fibromyalgia women compared with their nonfibromyalgia peers.

‘Understanding developmental cognitive science from different cultural perspectives’ – In Conversation with Tochukwu Nweze

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Cultural Perspectives ◽  
Nigerian Children ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Brain Sciences

Tochukwu Nweze, lecturer in the Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and, PhD student in MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge talks about his recent paper on parentally deprived Nigerian children having enhanced working memory ability, how important is it to study cultural differences in cognitive adaption during and following periods of adversity, and how can mental health professionals translate this understanding of difference into their work.

M65 CNTN5 GENETIC VARIATION IN METABOLIC AND MENTAL HEALTH

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. S201-S202
Author(s):  
Soddy Sau Yu Leung ◽  
Mark Bailey ◽  
Breda Cullen ◽  
Amy Ferguson ◽  
Nicholas Graham ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Genetic Variation

scholarly journals The Effects of Stress Across the Lifespan on the Brain, Cognition and Mental Health: A UK Biobank study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth McManus ◽  
Hamied Haroon ◽  
Niall W Duncan ◽  
Rebecca Elliott ◽  
Nils Muhlert
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Stress Response ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
High Stress ◽  
Uk Biobank ◽  
Stressful Experiences

Repeated overstimulation of the stress response system, caused by exposure to prolonged highly stressful experiences, is thought to affect brain structure, cognitive ability, and mental health. We tested the effects of highly stressful experiences during childhood and adulthood using data from the UK Biobank, a large-scale national health and biomedical study with over 500,000 participants. To do this, we defined four groups with high and low levels of childhood and adulthood stress. We then used T1- and diffusion-weighted MRI data to assess the macrostructure in grey matter and microstructure in white matter of limbic brain regions, commonly associated with the stress response. We also compared executive function and working memory between these groups. Our findings suggest that in females, higher levels of both childhood and adulthood stress were associated with reduced connectivity within the posterior thalamic radiation. High stress in both childhood and adulthood was associated with decreases in both executive function and working memory. Finally, stress across the lifespan was positively associated with the number of diagnosed mental health problems, with a stronger effect in females than in males. Together our findings demonstrate links between stress across the lifespan, brain structure and mental health outcomes that may differ between males and females. Our findings also suggest that exposure to highly stressful life events has a negative impact on cognitive abilities in later life regardless of sex.

Children’s working memory: Maternal and child sociodemographic, cognitive, and mental health predictors.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-154
Author(s):  
Paola Passareli-Carrazzoni ◽  
Karina Pereira-Lima ◽  
Sonia Regina Loureiro
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Health Predictors
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