Methods: Patients with cerebellar stroke and healthy controls were tested in two serial reaction time experiments. In Experiment 1,
participants performed practice runs (always same sequence) and interference runs (new sequence for each run) in a strictly alternating fashion. In Experiment 2, participants rested between successive practice www.selleckchem.com/products/gsk2126458.html runs: the duration of rests was adapted to the duration of interference runs in the other experiment. Participants of Experiment 1 were also tested for cognitive-executive functions (Wisconsin Card Sort, Word Fluency, Trail Making, Digit Span backwards).
Results: (1) Patients in Experiment 1, although always slower than controls, acquired motor skills in the first run before interference but in contrast to controls failed to improve their performance in subsequent runs. (2) Patients
in Experiment 2 improved their performance consistently over several runs. (3) Patients of Experiment 1 were worse than controls in several cognitive-executive functions; however, these deficits did not correlate with the degree of interference in motor skill acquisition.
Interpretation: Simple movement coordination and higher order context-related movement organisation are ISRIB ic50 separate cerebellar functions. In cerebellar patients, impaired movement coordination is associated with generally slower reaction times whereas organisational deficits are associated with a specific impairment to change between motor sets. Motor-executive functions responsible for the latter impairment might be independent from cognitive-executive functions. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.”
“Previous studies have suggested that social cognition is affected in individuals with schizophrenia. The purpose of this study was to explore to what extent social cognition deficits are shared by unaffected first-degree relatives, and the nature of the relationship between performance in different paradigms of social cognition. 20 Schizophrenia patients (7 females, 31 +/-
10 years), 20 healthy age- and gender-matched individuals, 20 unaffected first-degree relatives of the schizophrenia patients (11 females, 50 +/- 20 years), and 20 healthy individuals matched Interleukin-3 receptor for age and gender were recruited. Patients showed deficits in the detection of social Faux Pas (0.80 +/- 0.17 vs. controls: 0.94 +/- 0.09, p=0.025) and the correct identification of Theory of Mind stories (0.71 +/- 0.13 vs. controls: 0.82 +/- 0.12, p=0.038). Relatives performed poorly in the Faces Test (0.83 +/- 0.14 vs. controls: 0.9 +/- 0.08, p=0.048), the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (0.59 +/- 0.17 vs. controls: 0.71 +/- 0.14, p = 0.046) and the detection of social Faux Pas (0.8 +/- 0.2 vs. controls: 0.93 +/- 0.09, p=0.024).