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Neuropsychological trauma processing techniques based on hippocampal-dependent spatial and episodic memory were trialled with 71 newly recruited officers within one UK police force between March 2018 and February 2019. Results indicate that the skills are teachable within an operational training environment, have a positive impact on feelings of ease about difficult or traumatic work-related incidents, can improve recall of events and may mitigate against the impact of age and trauma exposure on memory. Participants report the techniques to be useable, sharable and operationally relevant to trauma management and personal resilience. Results will inform a larger randomised controlled trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Neuropsychological test batteries validated for Sri Lankan population are extremely scarce. Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) is a language-independent test battery used in many countries, but the original UK norms may not be representative in the local setting due to sociocultural differences. Our aim was to generate age-, sex-, and education-adjusted norms for the CANTAB for Sri Lankan adults. Method: Three-hundred and eleven healthy, community-living adults aged 20–64 years completed CANTAB subtests of visual attention (Reaction Time and Rapid Visual Information Processing), visual memory (Paired Associates Learning and Delayed Matching to Sample); and executive functions (Stockings of Cambridge, Stop Signal Task, and Spatial Working Memory). We conducted multiple linear regression analyses with sex, age and years of education fitted as predictors to model the CANTAB outcome variables. Results: Younger age and longer education were associated with better performance in most CANTAB measures. Men outperformed women in few measures of psychomotor speed and visuospatial skills, but sex explained only a small proportion of test variance. We report regression equations to predict CANTAB norms based on sex, age and years of education; and the test variances accounted by these factors. Conclusions: We propose sex-, age- and education-adjusted CANTAB norms for Sri Lankans aged 20–64 years and supplement the regression formulae with a calculator that produces predicted and standard scores of a given test subject. These norms would help in interpreting the results of clinical samples in future studies, taking into account the variability introduced by sex, age and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is robust evidence for sex differences in domain-specific cognition, where females typically show an advantage for verbal memory, whereas males tend to perform better in spatial memory. Sex differences in brain connectivity are well documented and may provide insight into these differences. In this study, we examined sex differences in cognition and structural covariance, as an index of morphometric connectivity, of a large healthy sample (n = 28,821) from the UK Biobank. Using T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans and regional cortical thickness values, we applied jackknife bias estimation and graph theory to obtain subject-specific measures of structural covariance, hypothesizing that sex-related differences in brain network global efficiency, or overall covariance, would underlie cognitive differences. As predicted, females demonstrated better verbal memory and males showed a spatial memory advantage. Females also demonstrated faster processing speed, with no observed sex difference in executive functioning. Males showed higher global efficiency, as well as higher regional covariance (nodal strengths) in both hemispheres relative to females. Furthermore, higher global efficiency in males mediated sex differences in verbal memory and processing speed. Findings contribute to an improved understanding of how biological sex and differences in cognition are related to morphometric connectivity as derived from graph-theoretic methods., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permission@oup.com.)

Background/Aims: Impairment in executive function is associated with a heightened risk for falls in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. The purpose of this study was to determine which aspects of executive function are associated with falls risk. Methods: Forty-two participants with a mean age of 81.6 years and a diagnosis of MCI or mild dementia completed five different executive function tests from the computerised CANTAB test battery and a comprehensive falls risk assessment. Results: A hierarchical regression analysis showed that falls risk was significantly associated with spatial memory abilities and inhibition of a pre-potent response. Conclusion: The concept of executive function may be too general to provide meaningful results in a research or clinical context, which should focus on spatial memory and inhibition of a pre-potent response. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years there has been a rejuvenation of interest in cloud-resolving simulations of radiative-convective equilibrium. Programmes such as RCEmip are focussed on the organization of convection stimulated by interactive radiation over large domains. While there is much interesting work ongoing in that area, this presentation revisits very simple idealized numercal experiments in which moist convection is allowed to reach an equilibrium against a prescribed forcing. We argue that the study of such cases is very far from exhausted and that there is still much to be learnt that may be valuable for parameterization developments.The ParaCon programme is a large joint effort between UK universities and the Met Office to develop the next-generation parameterization for the operational Unified Model. High resolution simulations of equilibrium convective archetypes have been performed and analysed as part of the programme, and we highlight some important findings relevant for the future parameterization development. Topics of interest include the equilibrium response to imposed shear and to strength of forcing, the characterisation of convective memory and spatial organization, the variability and internal structures of convective updrafts, diagnosing the turbulent budgets and the possibilities for decomposition of turbulent transports into a spectral representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Neuropsychological investigations can help untangle the aetiological and phenomenological heterogeneity of schizophrenia but have scarcely been employed in the context of treatment-resistant (TR) schizophrenia. No population-based study has examined neuropsychological function in the first-episode of TR psychosis., Methods: We report baseline neuropsychological findings from a longitudinal, population-based study of first-episode psychosis, which followed up cases from index admission to 10 years. At the 10-year follow up patients were classified as treatment responsive or TR after reconstructing their entire case histories. Of 145 cases with neuropsychological data at baseline, 113 were classified as treatment responsive, and 32 as TR at the 10-year follow-up., Results: Compared with 257 community controls, both case groups showed baseline deficits in three composite neuropsychological scores, derived from principal component analysis: verbal intelligence and fluency, visuospatial ability and executive function, and verbal memory and learning (p values⩽0.001). Compared with treatment responders, TR cases showed deficits in verbal intelligence and fluency, both in the extended psychosis sample (t = -2.32; p = 0.022) and in the schizophrenia diagnostic subgroup (t = -2.49; p = 0.017). Similar relative deficits in the TR cases emerged in sub-/sensitivity analyses excluding patients with delayed-onset treatment resistance (p values<0.01-0.001) and those born outside the UK (p values<0.05)., Conclusions: Verbal intelligence and fluency are impaired in patients with TR psychosis compared with those who respond to treatment. This differential is already detectable - at a group level - at the first illness episode, supporting the conceptualisation of TR psychosis as a severe, pathogenically distinct variant, embedded in aberrant neurodevelopmental processes.

Objectives: Cognitive deficits are a common feature of neuropsychiatric disorders. We investigated the relationship between cognitive performance and a deletion allele within GluK4 protective against risk for bipolar disorder, in 1,642 individuals from the TwinsUK study. Methods: Cognitive performance was assessed using the National Adult Reading Test, four CANTAB tests (Spatial Working Memory, Paired Associates Learning, Pattern Recognition Memory and Reaction Time), and two Principal-Component Analysis-derived factors. Performance in individuals homozygous for the insertion allele was compared to deletion carriers and analysis was adjusted for age of diagnosis, medication and clinical diagnosis. Results: Individuals with the GluK4 protective deletion allele performed significantly better in Spatial Working Memory compared to insertion homozygotes when adjusted for a clinical diagnosis. GluK4 deletion carriers who had a mental health problem (predominately depression) showed better performance in visuo-spatial ability and mental processing speed compared to individuals with mental health problems homozygous for the insertion. Conclusions: These findings of genotype-dependent cognitive enhancement across clinical groups support the potential clinical use of the GluK4 deletion allele in personalised medicine strategies and provide new insight into the relationship between genetic variation and mood disorders.

Background: Chronic opioid exposure is common world-wide, but behavioural performance remains under-investigated. This study aimed to investigate visuospatial memory performance in opioid-exposed and dependent clinical populations and its associations with measures of intelligence and cognitive impulsivity., Methods: We recruited 109 participants: (i) patients with a history of opioid dependence due to chronic heroin use (n = 24), (ii) heroin users stabilised on methadone maintenance treatment (n = 29), (iii) participants with a history of chronic pain and prescribed tramadol and codeine (n = 28) and (iv) healthy controls (n = 28). The neuropsychological tasks from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery included the Delayed Matching to Sample (DMS), Pattern Recognition Memory, Spatial Recognition Memory, Paired Associate Learning, Spatial Span Task, Spatial Working Memory and Cambridge Gambling Task. Pre-morbid general intelligence was assessed using the National Adult Reading Test., Results: As hypothesised, this study identified the differential effects of chronic heroin and methadone exposures on neuropsychological measures of visuospatial memory (p &lt; 0.01) that were independent of injecting behaviour and dependence status. The study also identified an improvement in DMS performance (specifically at longer delays) when the methadone group was compared with the heroin group and also when the heroin group was stabilised onto methadone. Results identified differential effects of chronic heroin and methadone exposures on various neuropsychological measures of visuospatial memory independently from addiction severity measures, such as injecting behaviour and dependence status.