Individuals born very preterm (VPT) are at increased risk of perinatal brain injury and long-term cognitive and behavioral problems. Executive functioning, in particular, has been shown to be impaired in VPT children and adolescents. This study prospectively assessed executive function in young adults who were born VPT (<33 weeks of gestation) [n = 61; mean age, 22.25 (±1.07) years; range, 20.62–24.78 years] and controls [n = 64; mean age, 23.20 (±1.48) years; range, 19.97–25.46 years]. Tests used comprised the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI), the Hayling Sentence Completion Test (HSCT), the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), the Animal and Object test, the Trail-Making Test (TMT), and the Test of Attentional Performance (TAP). VPT participants showed specific executive function impairments in tasks involving response inhibition and mental flexibility, even when adjusting for IQ, gender, and age. No significant associations were observed between executive function test scores and perinatal variables or neonatal ultrasound classification. The results suggest that, although free from major physical disability, VPT young adults perform worse than controls on tasks involving selective aspects of executive processing, such as mental flexibility and response inhibition. (JINS, 2007, 13, 571–581.)

There is controversy regarding the nature and degree of intellectual and memory deficits in chronic Lyme disease. In this study, 81 participants with rigorously diagnosed chronic Lyme disease were administered the newest revisions of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III) and Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-III), and compared to 39 nonpatients. On the WAIS-III, Lyme disease participants had poorer Full Scale and Performance IQ's. At the subtest level, differences were restricted to Information and the Processing Speed subtests. On the WMS-III, Lyme disease participants performed more poorly on Auditory Immediate, Immediate, Auditory Delayed, Auditory Recognition Delayed, and General Memory indices. Among WMS-III subtests, however, differences were restricted to Logical Memory (immediate and delayed) and Family Pictures (delayed only), a Visual Memory subtest. Discriminant analyses suggest deficits in chronic Lyme are best characterized as a combination of memory difficulty and diminished processing speed. Deficits were modest, between one-third and two-thirds of a standard deviation, consistent with earlier studies. Depression severity had a weak relationship to processing speed, but little other association to test performance. Deficits in chronic Lyme disease are consistent with a subtle neuropathological process affecting multiple performance tasks, although further work is needed to definitively rule out nonspecific illness effects. (JINS, 2006, 12, 119–129.)

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) experiments frequently administer substantially adapted cognitive tests. This study was designed to identify FMRI correlates of a well-standardized clinical measure presented with minor adaptations. We administered the WAIS–III Symbol Search (SS) and a visuospatial control task to fifteen adults during FMRI. SS-related brain activity was identified, followed by analyses of activity related to performance level. Compared to the control task, SS was associated with greater activity in bilateral medial occipital, occipitoparietal, occipitotemporal, parietal, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (DLPFC). Across both tasks, slower processing speed was also related to greater activity in these areas, except right DLPFC. Greater activity in left DLPFC was specifically related to slower processing speed during SS. Performance was consistent with education levels. Findings suggest that SS performance involves regions associated with executive and visual processing. Furthermore, slower SS performance was related to greater recruitment of left hemisphere regions associated with executive function in other studies. (JINS, 2005, 11, 471–476.)