OBJECTIVES: Intra-individual variability of cognitive performance across different tests or domains has been reported as an important index of cognitive function. The aim of the current study is to examine the intra-individual variability across different cognitive domains and tests in patients with schizophrenia, their unaffected siblings, and normal controls. We also compared the variability among three patient sub-groups divided according to the duration of illness. METHODS: Comprehensive neurocognitive tests were administered in order to stabilize patients with schizophrenia (n=129), healthy siblings (n=38) of the patients, and normal controls (n=110). Intra-individual variability was computed from the variance of the scores of six cognitive domains of the Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia consensus battery. We examined intra-individual variability across six factor-based cognitive scores and individual test scores of each cognitive domain. RESULTS: Compared to the normal control and sibling groups, patients showed significantly increased intra-individual variability across six cognitive domains and individual cognitive tests of each domain. Compared to the normal control, siblings showed significantly increased intra-individual variability only across individual tests of the processing of speed domain. Among patient sub-groups, those with the longest duration of illness (> or =11 years) showed significantly higher intra- individual variability across six cognitive domains and across individual tests of the processing of speed domain compared to the other two groups. CONCLUSION: This study identified cognitive dissonances across six cognitive domain schizophrenia patients. These cognitive characteristics were not observed in the sibling groups and seemed to progress during the course of illness.
Cognition ; Cognitive Dissonance ; Consensus ; Humans ; Neuropsychological Tests* ; Schizophrenia* ; Siblings*

BACKGROUND: Impairments of language function represent patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) from the early stage and as the disease progresses the damage spreads over a much broader range of cognition and communicative functions. And, performances of the naming tasks in AD patients may reveal the gradual deterioration of their naming ability. METHODS: In this study, naming ability was studied in patients with questionable AD (CDR 0.5, n=10), mild AD (CDR 1, n=10), moderate AD (CDR 2, n=10) and 10 healthy controls matched for age, gender and educational level using confrontation naming and naming by verbal definition tasks. The purpose of present study was 1) to investigate whether the confrontation naming and naming by verbal definition in Alzheimer's disease is different depending on the severity, 2) to examine the effects of the syllabic cue on the two naming ability for the errors questions. RESULTS: The results from this study are as follow: 1) The two naming performances of the all AD groups were lower than those of normal people and showed significant difference. 2) There were differences between the two naming tasks, significantly lower performance on confrontation naming task than naming by verbal definition. 3) The effects of syllabic cue decreased gradually as severity progressed. 4) The effects of syllabic cue were no significant differences between the two naming tasks. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that anomia in patients with AD is due to various impairment including to lexico-semantic system, visual processing, phonological processing and auditory comprehension.
Alzheimer Disease ; Anomia ; Cognition ; Comprehension ; Cues ; Humans

No abstract available.
Cognition*

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to ascertain the effectiveness of horticultural therapy by analyzing researches on horticultural therapy applied to elderly Koreans. METHODS: We evaluated 401 research papers including dissertations on horticultural therapy applied to elderly Koreans from Jan. 2000 to Feb. 2016. We reviewed the appropriate 12 papers among them for the final analysis. RESULTS: Horticultural therapy had physiological and psychosocial effects. First of all, it showed the physiological effects of reducing stress hormones. Outdoor horticultural therapy improved the gross motor movements of the body. Indoor horticulture therapy improved delicate cognitive & operating functions. Second, horticultural therapy showed the psychosocial effects of reducing depression and improving cognitive functions, language abilities, comprehension, daily activity, life satisfaction and sociality. But the effects appeared differently dependent on the implementation protocol & period of horticultural therapy, as well as the professionalism of the therapists. Therefore, if horticultural therapy were to be administered through nursing, it should be based on its key principle, in other words, the principle of action-interaction-response of horticultural therapy. CONCLUSION: The results of this study will be useful for developing therapeutic interventions through nursing. Also they will be helpful in applying horticultural therapy programs in nursing practice.
Aged* ; Cognition ; Comprehension ; Depression ; Horticultural Therapy* ; Humans ; Language ; Nursing ; Professionalism

Patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are at increased risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Currently, no disease-modifying or preventive drugs for AD are available. Non-pharmacological interventions, including cognitive intervention and physical exercise, could assist in the prevention and treatment of AD. Cognitive interventions can improve cognition and prevent dementia, and promote cognitive reserve and plasticity. As there are few standardized intervention programs for the treatment of MCI, development and effective study of cognitive interventions are needed. Psychiatrists should have a great interest in this kind of non-pharmacological interventions regarding neurocognitive disorders.
Alzheimer Disease ; Cognition ; Cognitive Reserve ; Dementia ; Exercise ; Humans ; Mild Cognitive Impairment ; Neurocognitive Disorders ; Plastics ; Psychiatry

This review aims to introduce the basic neurobiological aspects of dream. There have been long debates on whether the neurobiology of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is identical to that of dream. However, many theories on dream are based on the findings of REM sleep. Bizarre cognition and intense emotion in dream have been suggested to derive from physiological (e.g. desynchronized gamma oscillation and postsynaptic inhibition), chemical (e.g. decreased noradrenalin and serotonin, increased acetylcholine and modulation of dopamine), anatomical (e.g. deactivation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and activation of limbic and paralimbic areas) change in REM sleep. In addition, dream has been suggested to play its neurobiological roles. Processing of negative emotion may be one of the functions of dream. Dream is also supposed to consolidate memory, especially semantic memory. Despite a number of hypotheses and debates, the neurobiological mechanism of dream generation has not been concluded.
Acetylcholine ; Cognition ; Dreams ; Memory ; Neurobiology ; Prefrontal Cortex ; Semantics ; Serotonin ; Sleep, REM

OBJECTIVE: This research was performed to improve the health of Korean adolescents and to prepare adequate teaching programs by investigating their sexual cognition and behavior and preparing for adequate programs. METHODS: We conducted a survey of eighty thousand middle and high school students whose ages range from 13 to 18, during the period of September 1st, 2006 to October 30th, 2006. RESULTS: 78,593 people are polled and 71,404 people responded. Accordingly, the response rate was 90.0%: 52.1% (37,204) of the respondents were boys and 47.9% (34,200) were girls; 52.4% (37,420) of respondents were middle school students, 32.9% (23,500) of them were high school students, and 14.7% (10,479) of them were technical high school students. The rate of respondents who had experienced sexual relationship was 5.1%. The average age of starting sexual relationship was 14.2 year old. The rate of respondents who had experienced sexual relationship before they go to the middle school was 1.0%. The rate of pregnancy experience was 0.5%. The rate of respondents who were using a contraceptive method was 38.1%. The average boys age of having the first wet dream was 13.1 years old and girls of starting menstruation was 12.5 year old. The rate of using inappropriate contraception was 24.3%. The rate of having a sex education per a year was 62.0%. CONCLUSION: This research shows that the rate of adolescents who are experiencing sexual relationship is increasing. Besides, the age of adolescents starting sexual relationship is decreasing as their age of starting wet dream and menstruation decreases. As a result, it is strongly asserted that adequate sex education programs are indispensable to adolescents.
Adolescent ; Cognition ; Contraception ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Dreams ; Female ; Humans ; Menstruation ; Pregnancy ; Sex Education ; Sexual Behavior

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a disorder that usually occurs in the elderly, leading to dementia in some progressive cases. The purpose of this study is to examine the utility of central auditory processing tests as early diagnostic tools for identifying the elderly with MCI. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This study was conducted on 20 elderly patients with MCI and 20 healthy matched peers. The speech perception ability in a quiet environment and in the presence of background noise and also temporal resolution were assessed by using Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) and Gap in Noise (GIN) tests, respectively. RESULTS: The results indicated that the ability to understand speech in a quiet environment did not differ significantly between the two groups. However, SPIN at the three signal-tonoise ratios and the temporal resolution scores were significantly different between the two groups (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with MCI appear to have poorer speech comprehension in noise and a lower temporal resolution than those of the same age, but without cognitive defects. Considering the utility of these tests in identifying cognitive problems, we propose that since the GIN test seems to be less influenced by intervening factors, this test can therefore, be a useful tool for the early screening of elderly people with cognitive problems.
Aged ; Auditory Perceptual Disorders ; Cognition ; Cognition Disorders ; Comprehension ; Dementia ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Mild Cognitive Impairment ; Noise ; Speech Perception

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to find the sex differences of the way how educational attainment influence on cognitive function in the mild cognitive impairment patients. METHODS: A total of 1,704 patients were recruited from a large hospital-based multi-center cohort. Cognitive subdomains were evaluated using the Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery-Dementia version. We employed multiple linear regression analysis to compare the score of cognitive subdomains between the groups with high versus low educational attainment based on the high school graduate. Interaction between educational attainment and sex was also included in the analysis RESULTS: High and low educational attainment group had 41.2% and 58.8% of patients in the study population. In the multiple regression analysis, score of all cognitive subdomains were significantly higher in the high educational attainment group. The score of attention, language, and visuospatial function were also significantly affected by interaction between educational attainment and sex. CONCLUSION: In the female patients, educational attainment showed higher influence on the attention, language, and visuospatial function score.
Cognition ; Cognitive Reserve ; Cohort Studies ; Dementia* ; Education* ; Female ; Humans ; Korea* ; Linear Models ; Mass Screening ; Mild Cognitive Impairment* ; Seoul ; Sex Characteristics

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the effects of the social engagement (size of the social networks, social support, social conflict) by relationship types (spouse, family and kin, and neighbor and friends) on the cognitive functions of older adults in rural communities. METHODS: The participants of this study were normal older adults who participated in the first wave of the Korean Social Life, Health and Aging Project. Five hundred two older adults (men 218, women 284) aged 60 and over (mean age=71.44±6.81) participated. We analyzed the effects of different types of social engagement on Mini-Mental State Examination for Dementia Screening (MMSE-DS) performance using hierarchical multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: The result showed that, after controlling for the education level and age, the social support from the spouse, the conflict with neighbors or friends, the number of neighbors or friends significantly predicted MMSE-DS scores. These three variables accounted for additional 5.2% of the total variance of MMSE-DS. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that social engagement (network size, support, conflict) is associated with cognitive function among older adults. However, social engagement in different types of social relationship may contribute differently to cognitive function of older adults.
Adult* ; Aging ; Cognition ; Cognitive Aging ; Cognitive Reserve ; Dementia ; Education ; Female ; Friends ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Rural Population ; Spouses