OBJECTIVETo discuss the present status and progress of clinical research on the cognitive effects caused by different types of brain tumors and common treatments.

DATA SOURCESThe data used in this review were mainly from PubMed articles published in English from 1990 to Febuary 2012. Research terms were "cognitive deficits" or "cognitive dysfunction".

STUDY SELECTIONArticals including any information about brain tumor related cognitive deficits were selected.

RESULTSIt is widely accepted that brain tumors and related treatments can impair cognitive function across many domains, and can impact on patients' quality of life. Tumor localization, lateralization, surgery, drugs, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are all thought to be important factors in this process. However, some conflicting findings regarding brain tumor-related cognitive deficits have been reported. It can be difficult to determine the mechanism of these treatments, such as chemotherapy, antibiotics, antiepileptics, and steroids. Future research is needed to clarify these potential treatment effects.

CONCLUSIONSCognitive function is important for patients with brain tumor. Much more focus has been paid on this field. It should be regarded as an important prognostic index for the patients with brain tumor, and neuropsychological tests should be used in regular examinations.

Brain Neoplasms ; physiopathology ; Cognition ; physiology ; Cognition Disorders ; physiopathology ; Glioma ; physiopathology ; Humans

Research on the effect of sleep deprivation (SD) is an approach to shedding light on the working mechanism of sleep for cognitive brain function. To explore how SD affects cognitive function, a number of measures involving psychology, brain imaging and electrophysiology, have been adopted in this area. Research groups from domestic and verseas have focused on many aspects of cognitive science and have acquired initial results, but uniform conclusion has not been made because of mixed factors. Starting from the mechanism of SD, this paper summarizes the progress in the search of effect of SD, including the neurophysiologic change by brain imaging and the use of EEG for evaluating the decline of cognitive function, and then analyzes the main influential factors and orientation of future research in this area.
Brain ; physiopathology ; Cognition ; physiology ; Cognition Disorders ; etiology ; physiopathology ; Electroencephalography ; methods ; Event-Related Potentials, P300 ; physiology ; Humans ; Sleep Deprivation ; complications ; physiopathology

Objective: To investigate the association between people who were under lack of care in childhood and the development of cognitive impairment in their middle-aged and elderly life spans. Methods: Based on the baseline survey data of the third phase of "Guangzhou Biobank Cohort study" conducted from January 2007 to January 2008, 9 223 residents aged ≥50 years with records on Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) were included in a retrospective survey on received childhood care of their early lives. Questions would include: feelings of care and support from their close relatives during childhood, the status of separation from their mothers for ≥1 year, and the current status of their parents. Linear regression, unconditional and multinomial logistic regression models were used to analyze the associations between the received childhood care and cognitive function (i.e., MMSE scores and cognitive impairment) in middle and old age, of this population under study. Results: After adjusting for age, gender, education, place of residence, marital status, physical activity, smoking, drinking, occupation, personal income, childhood socioeconomic position and depressive symptoms etc., factors as feeling lack of concern and support from close relatives (LC), status of separation from the mother for ≥1 year (SM), and the current status of their parents etc., were all negatively associated with the MMSE score when in middle and old age, with partial regression coefficient β (95%CI) as -0.44 (-0.65- -0.23), -0.26 (-0.38- -0.14) and -0.61 (-0.96- -0.27), respectively. The presence of LC, SM or PD were associated with the increased risks of cognitive impairment, and the adjusted odds ratio OR (95%CI) appeared as 1.43 (1.15-1.78), 1.26 (1.08-1.47) and 1.64 (1.16-2.31) respectively in all the participants, but 1.27 (1.01-1.62), 1.29 (1.09-1.55) and 1.75 (1.19-2.55) respectively, in those with education level of primary school or below. In those with secondary school education or above, only the presence of item A was associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment (OR=2.26, 95%CI: 1.41-3.50). Conclusion: We noticed that 'lack of care' in childhood was associated with cognitive impairment during middle and old age, mainly in those population with lower education.
Aged ; Cognition/physiology* ; Cognition Disorders/physiopathology* ; Cognitive Dysfunction/physiopathology* ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Middle Aged ; Odds Ratio ; Retrospective Studies ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Child ; Child Behavior Disorders ; etiology ; Cognition Disorders ; physiopathology ; Humans ; Sleep Apnea Syndromes ; psychology

Brain ; physiopathology ; Brain Neoplasms ; surgery ; Cognition Disorders ; physiopathology ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; methods ; Oxygen ; blood

OBJECTIVETo study the relationship between the degrees of peripheral auditory dysfunction and clinical dementia rating (CDR) in the patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD).

METHODSPure-tone thresholds (PT), word recognition scores (WRS), acoustic immittance and auditory brain-stem responses (ABR) were done to evaluate the auditory function in 24 cases of the patients with MCI and in 31 cases of the patients with AD and in 50 subjects of the control group. Clinical dementia rating (CDR) questionnaire was used to define the dementia degree of the subjects.

RESULTSTwenty-four MCI patients and 31 AD patients were selected, with average age of 72.0 +/- 6. 5 and 73.1+/-7. 5 of whom 70.8% and 67.7% were female separately. There was no significant difference in PTT and WRS between the MCI and AD groups (P > 0.05). In order to ascertain the relationship between hearing level and degree of dementia, all subjects were divided into 4 groups according their hearing loss (PTA <25 dB:0, 25-30 dB:1, 31-35 dB:2, >35 dB:3) to compare their CDR scores (the control:0, MCI:0. 5, mild AD:1). The more the CDR scores have, the more hearing impairment after controlling the confounder factors (Kendalls tau b = - 0.285, P = 0.018). No significant difference was found between the two groups in audiometry reliability, acoustic immittance and ABR (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe positive relationship was founded the peripheral hearing impairment and the score of CDR questionnaire in less than 0.5 score of CDR groups and mild AD patients.

Aged ; Alzheimer Disease ; physiopathology ; Case-Control Studies ; Cognition Disorders ; physiopathology ; Female ; Hearing Loss ; Humans ; Male

This study aims to explore the differences of event-related potential (ERP) between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and normal children, so that these differences provide scientific basis for the diagnosis of ADHD. Eight children were identified to be ADHD group by the diagnostic criteria of DSM-IV (diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders-IV), and the control group also consisted of 8 normal children. Modified visual-continuous performance test (CPT) was used as the experiment paradigm. The experiment included two major conditions, i. e. Go and NoGo. All the 16 subjects participated in the study. A high density EEG acquisition instrument was used to record the EEG signal and processed these EEG data by means of ERP and spectrum analysis. P2-N2 peak-peak value and spectral peak around 11 Hz were analyzed between ADHD subjects and those in the control group, and then statistical tests were applied to these two groups. Results showed that: (1) Under the condition of Go, ADHD group had a significant lower P2-N2 peak-peak value than the values in the control group (P < 0.05); but under the condition of NoGo there was no significant difference in between. (2) Compared with the control group, the ADHD group had significant lower spectral amplitude around 11 Hz under the condition of NoGo (P < 0.05). However, under the condition of Go the difference was insignificant. In conclusion, there is certain cognitive dysfunction in ADHD children. P2-N2 peak-peak value and spectral peak around 11 Hz could be considered as clinical evaluation indexes of ADHD children's cognitive function. These two objective indexes provide an early diagnosis and effective treatment of ADHD.
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity ; diagnosis ; physiopathology ; Brain ; physiopathology ; Case-Control Studies ; Child ; Cognition Disorders ; diagnosis ; physiopathology ; Electroencephalography ; Evoked Potentials ; Humans

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia and a neurodegenerative disease with progressive cognitive dysfunction as the main feature. How to identify the early changes of cognitive dysfunction and give appropriate treatments is of great significance to delay the onset of dementia. Some other researches have shown that AD is associated with abnormal changes of brain networks. To study human brain functional connectivity characteristics in AD, 16 channels electroencephalogram (EEG) were recorded under resting and eyes-closed condition in 15 AD patients and 15 subjects in the control group. The synchronization likelihood of the full-band and alpha-band (8-13 Hz) data were evaluated, which resulted in the synchronization likelihood coefficient matrices. Considering a threshold T, the matrices were converted into binary graphs. Then the graphs of two groups were measured by topological parameters including the clustering coefficient and global efficiency. The results showed that the global efficiency of the network in full-band EEG was significantly smaller in AD group for the values of T = 0.06 and T = 0.07, but there was no statistically significant difference in the clustering coefficients between the two groups for the values of T (0.05-0.07). However, the clustering coefficient and global efficiency were significantly lower in AD patients at alpha-band for the same threshold range than those of subjects in the control group. It suggests that there may be decreases of the brain connectivity strength in AD patients at alpha-band of the resting-state EEG. This study provides a support for quantifying functional brain state of AD from the brain network perspective.
Alzheimer Disease ; physiopathology ; Brain ; physiopathology ; Brain Mapping ; Case-Control Studies ; Cluster Analysis ; Cognition Disorders ; physiopathology ; Electroencephalography ; Humans ; Probability ; Rest

OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical characteristics and cognitive dysfunction of bipolar depression and unipolar depression. METHODS: Fifty patients with unipolar depression, 48 bipolar depression, and 50 normal controls were assessed with Hamilton Depression Scale, Hamilton Anxiety Scale, Life Events Scale, and The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. General demographic data, clinical data, and the scores of recognitive function in the 3 groups were compared. RESULTS: The patients with bipolar depression occured at young age and had obvious family history compared with those with unipolar depression. The patients with bipolar or unipolar disorders had lower scores in most neuropsychological tests than those in the control group (P<0.05). The patients with bipolar depression in understanding memory and Wisconsin card sorting test were worse than those with unipolar depression (P<0.05). CONCLUSION There is cognitive dysfunction in patients with bipolar or unipolar disorder. Understanding memory and executive function damage may be cognitive features in bipolar disorder.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Bipolar Disorder ; complications ; diagnosis ; physiopathology ; China ; Cognition ; physiology ; Cognition Disorders ; complications ; physiopathology ; Depressive Disorder ; complications ; diagnosis ; physiopathology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Young Adult

With the development of information technology, as one of the research frontiers in neurophysiology, event-related potentials (ERP) is concerned increasingly by international scholars, which provides a feasible and objective method for exploring cognitive function. There are many advances in neuropsychology due to new assessment tool for the last years. The basic theories in the field of ERP and neuropsychology were reviewed in this article. The research and development in evaluating cognitive function of patients with syndrome after brain trauma were focused in this review, and the perspectives for the future research of ERP was also explored.
Brain/physiopathology* ; Brain Injuries/physiopathology* ; Cognition Disorders/physiopathology* ; Electroencephalography ; Event-Related Potentials, P300/physiology* ; Evoked Potentials/physiology* ; Humans ; Language Disorders/physiopathology* ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Neuropsychology