Working memory and affective decision-making in addiction: A neurocognitive comparison between heroin addicts, pathological gamblers and healthy controls

Aims:Decision making, as well as working memory and executive functions are among the most significant cognitive processes, associated with prefrontal cortex function. Decision making is associated with the orbitofrontal cortex function. Working memory and executive functions are dependent on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Orbitofrontal, as well as dorsolateral prefrontal cortex dysfunction in bipolar disorder has been reported. The aim of the study was to assess decision making and executive functions in euthymic bipolar patients.Methods:The study included 13 euthymic bipolar patients (6 female, 7 male), aged 43±11 years and 11 age, sex and education years matched healthy controls. Decision making was assessed with Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Working memory and executive functions were assessed with Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Trail Making Test (TMT). Depressive and/ or manic symptoms were measured with Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D) and Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS).Results:Euthymic bipolar patients made more nonperseverative errors (t=2,53, p=0,01), gave less conceptual level responses (t=-2,33, p=0,03), completed less categories (t=-1,66, p=0,005) and used more cards to complete first category (t=1,49, p=0,003) in WCST. They also gained less money in IGT (t=-1,34, p=0,03).Conclusions:Bipolar patients performed significantly worse on several measures of WCST. Euthymic bipolar patients gained less money in IGT compared to healthy controls, although no significant differences in responding style in IGT were found.

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Myopic decision making and impaired inhibitory control in heroin addicts

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e683152011-244 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Jiuqing Cheng ◽

Claudia Gonzalez-Vallejo

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Heroin Addicts

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Discerning cognitive stages in a working memory and decision making task from human fMRI data using multivariate time series analysis

Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/conf.fncom.2012.55.00228 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

Author(s):

Durstewitz Daniel

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Working Memory ◽

Time Series ◽

Time Series Analysis ◽

Multivariate Time Series ◽

Fmri Data ◽

Series Analysis ◽

Multivariate Time Series Analysis

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Decision Making Under Ambiguity and Under Risk in Depressed Suicide Attempters, Depressed Non-attempters and Healthy Controls

10.26226/morressier.5885d719d462b8028d892b9d ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Eberhard A. Deisenhammer

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Suicide Attempters

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Differences in Reward and Persistency characterise Behavior in Chronic Pain for the Iowa Gambling Task in a Web-based Lab-in-the-field study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.26307 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Lili Zhang ◽

Himanshu Vashisht ◽

Alekhya Nethra ◽

Brian Slattery ◽

Tomas Ward

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Social Media ◽

Chronic Pain ◽

Iowa Gambling Task ◽

Learning Curves ◽

Self Report ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Gambling Task ◽

Convenience Sample ◽

Pain Experiences

BACKGROUND Chronic pain is a significant world-wide health problem. It has been reported that people with chronic pain experience decision-making impairments, but these findings have been based on conventional lab experiments to date. In such experiments researchers have extensive control of conditions and can more precisely eliminate potential confounds. In contrast, there is much less known regarding how chronic pain impacts decision-making captured via lab-in-the-field experiments. Although such settings can introduce more experimental uncertainty, it is believed that collecting data in more ecologically valid contexts can better characterize the real-world impact of chronic pain. OBJECTIVE We aim to quantify decision-making differences between chronic pain individuals and healthy controls in a lab-in-the-field environment through taking advantage of internet technologies and social media. METHODS A cross-sectional design with independent groups was employed. A convenience sample of 45 participants were recruited through social media - 20 participants who self-reported living with chronic pain, and 25 people with no pain or who were living with pain for less than 6 months acting as controls. All participants completed a self-report questionnaire assessing their pain experiences and a neuropsychological task measuring their decision-making, i.e. the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) in their web browser at a time and location of their choice without supervision. RESULTS Standard behavioral analysis revealed no differences in learning strategies between the two groups although qualitative differences could be observed in learning curves. However, computational modelling revealed that individuals with chronic pain were quicker to update their behavior relative to healthy controls, which reflected their increased learning rate (95% HDI from 0.66 to 0.99) when fitted with the VPP model. This result was further validated and extended on the ORL model because higher differences (95% HDI from 0.16 to 0.47) between the reward and punishment learning rates were observed when fitted on this model, indicating that chronic pain individuals were more sensitive to rewards. It was also found that they were less persistent in their choices during the IGT compared to controls, a fact reflected by their decreased outcome perseverance (95% HDI from -4.38 to -0.21) when fitted using the ORL model. Moreover, correlation analysis revealed that the estimated parameters had predictive value for the self-reported pain experiences, suggesting that the altered cognitive parameters could be potential candidates for inclusion in chronic pain assessments. CONCLUSIONS We found that individuals with chronic pain were more driven by rewards and less consistent when making decisions in our lab-in-the-field experiment. In this case study, it was demonstrated that compared to standard statistical summaries of behavioral performance, computational approaches offered superior ability to resolve, understand and explain the differences in decision- making behavior in the context of chronic pain outside the lab.

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Effects of neuroactive metabolites of the tryptophan pathway on working memory and cortical thickness in schizophrenia

Translational Psychiatry ◽

10.1038/s41398-021-01311-z ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Junchao Huang ◽

Jinghui Tong ◽

Ping Zhang ◽

Yanfang Zhou ◽

Yimin Cui ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Cortical Thickness ◽

Serum Levels ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Tryptophan Pathway ◽

Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass ◽

Therapeutic Development ◽

Tryptophan Metabolites ◽

Insight Into

AbstractA number of tryptophan metabolites known to be neuroactive have been examined for their potential associations with cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Among these metabolites, kynurenic acid (KYNA), 5-hydroxyindole (5-HI), and quinolinic acid (QUIN) are documented in their diverse effects on α-7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR) and/or N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR), two of the receptor types thought to contribute to cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. In this study, serum levels of KYNA, 5-HI, and QUIN were measured in 195 patients with schizophrenia and in 70 healthy controls using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry; cognitive performance in MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery and cortical thickness measured by magnetic resonance imaging were obtained. Patients with schizophrenia had significantly lower serum KYNA (p < 0.001) and QUIN (p = 0.02) levels, and increased 5-HI/KYNA (p < 0.001) and QUIN/KYNA ratios (p < 0.001) compared with healthy controls. Multiple linear regression showed that working memory was positively correlated with serum 5-HI levels (t = 2.10, p = 0.04), but inversely correlated with KYNA concentrations (t = −2.01, p = 0.05) in patients. Patients with high 5-HI and low KYNA had better working memory than other subgroups (p = 0.01). Higher 5-HI levels were associated with thicker left lateral orbitofrontal cortex (t = 3.71, p = 2.94 × 10−4) in patients. The different effects of 5-HI and KYNA on working memory may appear consistent with their opposite receptor level mechanisms. Our findings appear to provide a new insight into the dynamic roles of tryptophan pathway metabolites on cognition, which may benefit novel therapeutic development that targets cognitive impairment in schizophrenia.

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Cognitive Control of Working Memory: A Model-Based Approach

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11060721 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 721

Author(s):

Russell J. Boag ◽

Niek Stevenson ◽

Roel van Dooren ◽

Anne C. Trutti ◽

Zsuzsika Sjoerds ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Working Memory ◽

Cognitive Control ◽

Relevant Information ◽

Decision Time ◽

Control Processes ◽

Prepotent Response ◽

New Information ◽

Empirical Performance ◽

Flow Of Information

Working memory (WM)-based decision making depends on a number of cognitive control processes that control the flow of information into and out of WM and ensure that only relevant information is held active in WM’s limited-capacity store. Although necessary for successful decision making, recent work has shown that these control processes impose performance costs on both the speed and accuracy of WM-based decisions. Using the reference-back task as a benchmark measure of WM control, we conducted evidence accumulation modeling to test several competing explanations for six benchmark empirical performance costs. Costs were driven by a combination of processes, running outside of the decision stage (longer non-decision time) and showing the inhibition of the prepotent response (lower drift rates) in trials requiring WM control. Individuals also set more cautious response thresholds when expecting to update WM with new information versus maintain existing information. We discuss the promise of this approach for understanding cognitive control in WM-based decision making.

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Decision making under ambiguity and risk in adolescent-onset schizophrenia

BMC Psychiatry ◽

10.1186/s12888-021-03230-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Dandan Li ◽

Fengyan Zhang ◽

Lu Wang ◽

Yifan Zhang ◽

Tingting Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Executive Function ◽

Iowa Gambling Task ◽

Clinical Symptoms ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Syndrome Scale ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Abnormal Pattern ◽

Negative Syndrome ◽

The Relationship

Abstract Objective Numerous studies have identified impaired decision making (DM) under both ambiguity and risk in adult patients with schizophrenia. However, the assessment of DM in patients with adolescent-onset schizophrenia (AOS) has been challenging as a result of the instability and heterogeneity of manifestations. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Game of Dice Task (GDT), which are frequently used to evaluate DM respectively under ambiguity and risk, are sensitive to adolescents and neuropsychiatric patients. Our research intended to examine the performance of DM in a relatively large sample of patients with AOS using the above-mentioned two tasks. We also aimed to take a closer look at the relationship between DM and symptom severity of schizophrenia. Methods We compared the performance of DM in 71 patients with AOS and 53 well-matched healthy controls using IGT for DM under ambiguity and GDT for DM under risk through net scores, total scores and feedback ration. Neuropsychological tests were conducted in all participants. Clinical symptoms were evaluated by using Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) in 71 patients with AOS. Pearson’s correlation revealed the relationship among total score of DM and clinical and neuropsychological data. Results Compared to healthy controls, patients with AOS failed to show learning effect and had a significant difference on the 5th block in IGT and conducted more disadvantageous choices as well as exhibited worse negative feedback rate in GDT. Apart from DM impairment under risk, diminished DM abilities under ambiguity were found related to poor executive function in AOS in the present study. Conclusions Our findings unveiled the abnormal pattern of DM in AOS, mainly reflected under the risky condition, extending the knowledge on the performance of DM under ambiguity and risk in AOS. Inefficient DM under risk may account for the lagging impulse control and the combined effects of developmental disease. In addition, our study demonstrated that the performance on IGT was related to executive function in AOS.

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