Depressive symptoms in Friedreich ataxia.

Background/Objective: Almost no attention has been paid to depression in Friedreich ataxia (FRDA), a highly disabling cerebellar degenerative disease. Our aim was to study the presence and the profile of depressive symptoms in FRDA and their relationship with demographic-disease variables and cognitive processing speed. Method: The study groups consisted of 57 patients with a diagnosis of FRDA. The Beck Depression Inventory-II was used to assess symptoms of depression. Speed of information processing was measured with a Choice Reaction time task. Results: The mean BDI score for patients was significantly higher than the mean score in the general population. Twenty one percent of participants scored in the moderate/severe range. A Cognitive-Affective score and a Somatic-Motivational score was calculated for each patient. Patients' scores in both dimensions were significantly higher than the scores in the general population. Demographic and disease variables were not related with symptoms of depression, except for severity of ataxia. Depressive symptoms predict cognitive reaction times. The greater proportion of variance was explained by the Cognitive-Affective dimension. Conclusions: Our data show that both somatic-motivational and cognitive affective symptoms of depression are frequent in individuals with FRDA. In addition, depressive symptoms may influence cognition, especially, the cognitive and affective symptoms.

Antecedentes/Objetivo: La depresión en la ataxia de Friedreich (FRDA), una enfermedad degenerativa cerebelosa altamente incapacitante, ha recibido poca atención. Nuestro objetivo es evaluar la presencia y el perfil de los síntomas depresivos en FRDA y su relación con variables clínico-demográficas y la velocidad de procesamiento cognitivo. Método: Se estudiaron 57 pacientes con diagnóstico de FRDA. Se usó el Inventario de Depresión de Beck-II para evaluar los síntomas de depresión. La velocidad de procesamiento se midió con una tarea de tiempos de reacción. Resultados: La puntuación media de los pacientes en el BDI fue significativamente mayor que en la población general. El 21% de los participantes obtuvo puntuaciones en el rango moderado/grave. Se calculó una puntuación cognitiva-afectiva y una puntuación somática-motivacional para cada paciente. Las puntuaciones en ambas dimensiones fueron significativamente mayores que en la población general. Las variables clínico-demográficas no estaban relacionadas con los síntomas de depresión, a excepción de la gravedad de la ataxia. Los síntomas depresivos predicen los tiempos de reacción cognitivos. Conclusiones: Nuestros datos muestran que en la FRDA son frecuentes los síntomas de depresión, tanto los síntomas somático-motivacionales como los cognitivo-afectivos. Además, los síntomas de depresión pueden influir en la cognición, especialmente, los de tipo cognitivo-afectivo.

Striatal hypoactivation and cognitive slowing in patients with partially remitted and remitted major depression.

The present pilot study investigated neuronal correlates of executive functioning in patients previously diagnosed with recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD). The aim of the study was to examine a partially remitted and remitted MDD patient group with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using a cognitive activation paradigm in order to probe aspects of response inhibition, attention shift, and working memory. Twenty MDD patients and 19 healthy controls, matched for age and sex, participated in the study. A working memory n-back task with single presentations of incongruent Stroop words was used, with the instruction to either remember the color of the ink the word was written in, or the color word itself, presented two or three words back in the presentation series. MR images were acquired on a 1.5-T GE Signa HD MR scanner. In addition to MR data, response time (RT) and response accuracy (RA) behavioral data were recorded. The behavioral results showed longer RT and lower RA in the MDD group compared to the control group across instruction conditions and working memory load. Based on previous studies of executive function, a composite region of interest (ROI) mask of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), caudate, and putamen was used in statistical analysis. Significant activation was observed in controls throughout this corticostriatal network. When compared to controls, patients showed no significant difference in the level of activation in the ACC and the DLPFC. However, in the putamen and caudate, hypoactivation in the patient group was observed. It was concluded that these effects could be due to a scar effect as a result of previous episodes of MDD.

Emotional Stroop Dilution: The boundary conditions of attentional capture by threat words.

It is widely believed that threatening stimuli in our environment capture attention. Much of the core evidence for attentional capture by threatening stimuli comes from the Emotional Stroop task. Yet recent evidence suggests that the Emotional Stroop task does not measure attentional capture (e.g., Algom et al., 2004). The present paper assesses whether threat words can capture attention using a modified Stroop Dilution procedure (e.g., Kahneman & Chajczyk, 1983), where attentional capture by a threat word is inferred from a reduction in color-word interference for threat words compared to non-threat words (emotional Stroop Dilution). The outcome of the present experiments indicates that threat words can capture attention, but only when task demands do not require that a word be attended. It is suggested that threat words produce (1) cognitive slowing, and influence two processes of selective attention (2) attentional capture and (3) the ability to filter irrelevant dimensions of an attended stimulus.

Are There Any Connections between Language Deficits and Cognitive Slowing in Alzheimer's Disease?

BACKGROUND: Speech disorders already occur in the early phases of Alzheimer's disease (AD). As a possible cause, problems of executive processes are discussed. Cognitive slowing is also repeatedly addressed. AIMS: Are there any connections between cognitive slowing and speech disorders in AD? And is there a relationship between cognitive slowing and executive processes? METHODS: The data of 72 healthy controls and 52 AD patients were examined with regard to their language performance and their response times in a computerized Stroop paradigm. RESULTS: The AD patients showed significantly worse results in all language tests as well as much longer reaction times in all Stroop conditions, especially in the interference condition (Stroop 3). Speech errors and response times correlated with severity (MMSE), and the speech errors correlated with the reaction times in Stroop 3 (interference condition, which reflects the processing time of executive processes). CONCLUSION: The most interesting question now is: How are language processing and executive processing time (Stroop 3) related?