Fonctionnement et dysfonctionnement cognitifs: les âges de la vie

Abstract Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by intracerebral accumulations of extracellular amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques and intracellular tau pathology that spread in the brain. Three types of tau lesions occur in the form of neuropil threads, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuritic plaques i.e. tau aggregates within neurites surrounding Aβ deposits. The cascade of events linking these lesions and synaptic or memory impairments are still debated. Intracerebral infusion of human AD brain extracts in Aβ plaque-bearing mice that do not overexpress pathological tau proteins induces tau pathologies following heterotopic seeding of mouse tau protein. There is however little information regarding the downstream events including synaptic or cognitive repercussions of tau pathology induction in these models. In the present study, human AD brain extracts (AD be ) and control-brain extracts (Ctrl be ) were infused into the hippocampus of Aβ plaque-bearing APP swe /PS1 dE9 mice. Memory, synaptic density, as well as Aβ plaque and tau aggregate loads, microgliosis, astrogliosis at the inoculation site and in connected regions (perirhinal/entorhinal cortex) were evaluated 4 and 8 months post-inoculation. AD be inoculation produced the following effects: (i) memory deficit; (ii) increased Aβ plaque deposition in proximity to the inoculation site; (iii) tau pathology induction; (iv) appearance of neuropil threads and neurofibrillary tangles next to the inoculation site with a spreading to connected regions. Neuritic plaque pathology was detected in both AD be - and Ctrl be -inoculated animals but AD be inoculation increased the severity close to and at distance of the inoculation site. (v) Finally, AD be inoculation reduced synaptic density in the vicinity to the inoculation site and in connected regions as the perirhinal/entorhinal cortex. Synaptic impairments were correlated with increased severity of neuritic plaques but not to other tau lesions or Aβ lesions, suggesting that neuritic plaques are a culprit for synaptic loss. Synaptic density was also associated with microglial load. Graphical abstract

<h2>Summary</h2><h3>Background</h3> The youngest children in a school class are more likely than the oldest to be diagnosed with ADHD, but this relative age effect is less frequent in older than in younger school-grade children. However, no study has explored the association between relative age and the persistence of ADHD diagnosis at older ages. We aimed to quantify the association between relative age and persistence of ADHD at older ages. <h3>Methods</h3> For this meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and PubPsych up to April 1, 2022, with terms related to "cohort" and "ADHD" with no date, publication type, or language restrictions. We gathered individual participant data from prospective cohorts that included at least ten children identified with ADHD before age 10 years. ADHD was defined by either a clinical diagnosis or symptoms exceeding clinical cutoffs. Relative age was recorded as the month of birth in relation to the school-entry cutoff date. Study authors were invited to share raw data or to apply a script to analyse data locally and generate anonymised results. Our outcome was ADHD status at a diagnostic reassessment, conducted at least 4 years after the initial assessment and after age 10 years. No information on sex, gender, or ethnicity was collected. We did a two-stage random-effects individual participant data meta-analysis to assess the association of relative age with persistence of ADHD at follow-up. This study was registered with PROSPERO, CRD42020212650. <h3>Findings</h3> Of 33 119 studies generated by our search, we identified 130 eligible unique studies and were able to gather individual participant data from 57 prospective studies following up 6504 children with ADHD. After exclusion of 16 studies in regions with a flexible school entry system that did not allow confident linkage of birthdate to relative age, the primary analysis included 41 studies in 15 countries following up 4708 children for a period of 4 to 33 years. We found that younger relative age was not statistically significantly associated with ADHD persistence at follow-up (odds ratio 1·02, 95% CI 0·99–1·06; p=0·19). We observed statistically significant heterogeneity in our model (Q=75·82, p=0·0011, <i>I</i>²=45%). Participant-level sensitivity analyses showed similar results in cohorts with a robust relative age effect at baseline and when restricting to cohorts involving children with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD or with a follow-up duration of more than 10 years. <h3>Interpretation</h3> The diagnosis of ADHD in younger children in a class is no more likely to be disconfirmed over time than that of older children in the class. One interpretation is that the relative age effect decreases the likelihood of children of older relative age receiving a diagnosis of ADHD, and another is that assigning a diagnostic label of ADHD leads to unexplored carryover effects of the initial diagnosis that persist over time. Future studies should be conducted to explore these interpretations further. <h3>Funding</h3> None.

Past empirical studies have suggested that older adults preferentially use gaze-based mood regulation to lessen their negative experiences while watching an emotional scene. This preference for a low cognitively demanding regulatory strategy leaves open the question of whether the effortful processing of a more cognitively demanding reappraisal task is really spared from the general age-related decline. Because it does not allow perceptual attention to be redirected away from the emotional source, music provides an ideal way to address this question. The goal of our study was to examine the affective, behavioral, physiological, and cognitive outcomes of positive and detached reappraisal in response to negative musical emotion in younger and older adults. Participants first simply listened to a series of threatening musical excerpts and were then instructed to either positively reappraise or to detach themselves from the emotion elicited by music. Findings showed that, when instructed to simply listen to threatening music, older adults reported a more positive feeling associated with a smaller SCL in comparison with their younger counterparts. When implementing positive and detached reappraisal, participants showed more positive and more aroused emotional experiences, whatever the age group. We also found that the instruction to intentionally reappraise negative emotions results in a lesser cognitive cost for older adults in comparison with younger adults. Taken together, these data suggest that, compared to younger adults, older adults engage in spontaneous downregulation of negative affect and successfully implement downregulation instructions. This extends previous findings and brings compelling evidence that, even when auditory attention cannot be redirected away from the emotional source, older adults are still more effective at regulating emotions. Taking into account the age-associated decline in executive functioning, our results suggest that the working memory task could have distracted older adults from the reminiscences of the threat-evoking music, thus resulting in an emotional downregulation. Hence, even if they were instructed to implement reappraisal strategies, older adults might prefer distraction over engagement in reappraisal. This is congruent with the idea that, although getting older, people are more likely to be distracted from a negative source of emotion to maintain their well-being.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the link between mothers' posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and their adult offspring's attitudes toward reconciliation and psychopathology among survivors of the 1994 genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi in Rwanda. We also sought to examine whether parenting styles mediate the relationship between mothers' PTSD symptoms and their adult offspring's psychopathology, if any. METHOD: = 181) were recruited in Rwanda and completed measures of trauma exposure, PTSD, depression, attitudes toward reconciliation, and parenting styles. RESULTS: Adult offspring of mothers who suffered from more severe PTSD symptoms had less favorable attitudes toward reconciliation, even after controlling for their own PTSD symptoms. Mothers' PTSD symptoms were not associated with their adult offspring's PTSD or depression symptoms. In addition, mothers' PTSD symptoms did not predict their parenting styles. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the mental health of survivors of mass violence has repercussions on the intergroup attitudes of the following generation. This study has practical implications for sustainable peacebuilding in postconflict societies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Individuals with left unilateral spatial neglect (USN) following a right hemisphere lesion show difficulty in orienting their attention toward stimuli presented on the left. In normal cognition, others' gaze direction and a pointing arrow naturally guide visual attention. Here, we explore a method to identify patients who may benefit from these skills as a base for compensation during rehabilitation. We tested gaze and arrow cueing effects in 26 healthy participants and in 13 patients with USN. Our data show that brain injuries causing USN do not affect gaze and arrow cueing in a consistent manner from one patient to another.

People with left unilateral spatial neglect (USN) following a right brain lesion show difficulty in orienting their attention toward stimuli presented on the left. However, cuing the stimuli with gaze direction or a pointing arrow can help some of them to compensate for this difficulty. In order to build a tool that helps to identify these patients, we needed a short version of the paradigm classically used to test gaze and arow cuing effects in healthy adults, adapted to the capacities of patients with severe attention deficit. Here, we tested the robustness of the cuing effects measured by such a short version in 48 young adult healthy participants, 46 older healthy participants, 10 patients with left USN following a right brain lesion (USN+), and 10 patients with right brain lesions but no USN (USN-). We observed gaze and arrow cuing effects in all populations, independently of age and presence or absence of a right brain lesion. In the neglect field, the USN+ group showed event greater cuing effect than older healthy participants and the USN- group. We showed that gaze and arrow cuing effects are powerful enough to be detected in a very short test adapted to the capacities of older patients with severe attention deficits, which increases their applicability in rehabilitation settings. We further concluded that our test is a suitable basis to develop a tool that will help neuropsychologists to identify USN patients who respond to gaze and/or arrow cuing in their neglect field.

La perspective temporelle future (PTF) se définit comme la capacité à se projeter dans le temps futur. C’est un indicateur important des changements motivationnels, émotionnels et cognitifs avec l’avancée en âge. Au cours du vieillissement, la PTF est perçue comme de plus en plus limitée. L’échelle Future Time Perspective Scale (FTPS) mesure la PTF mais n’a jamais fait l’objet d’une validation psychométrique en langue française, ce qui limite son usage. L’objectif de cette étude est de proposer une validation psychométrique de cet outil en langue française grâce à une procédure de validation transculturelle. La démarche de validation, réalisée auprès d’une population jeune et âgée, révèle de bonnes propriétés psychométriques et offre à la communauté des chercheurs et cliniciens français un nouvel outil permettant d’investiguer la dimension temporelle future en rapport avec le fonctionnement psychologique des individus.

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Recent work has shown that being looked at, touched or called out by someone are conditions that improve interoceptive accuracy (i.e. the ability to perceive one’s own internal states) of young adults’ aged between 25 to 35 years, when compared to other conditions without social contact. However, these effects have been tested in very standardized, unnatural experimental conditions. The aim of this research is to determine whether social contact can be used in natural settings as well, to improve interoceptive accuracy.

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Les processus émotionnels sont de plus en plus étudiés en psychologie, que ce soit à travers leurs modalités d’expression ou à travers leur effet sur les processus cognitifs.Si la théorisation du lien entre processus émotionnels et processus cognitifs a varié au cours des siècles, l’impact des émotions sur les fonctions cognitives est aujourd’hui indéniable et étayé par des arguments expérimentaux. Les processus psychologiques sont actuellement considérés comme étant nécessaires à l’émergence des émotions, ou influencés par celles-ci. Les apprentissages étant au coeur du développement de l’individu et faisant intervenir différents processus cognitifs, l’étude des processus émotionnels en situation d’apprentissage n’est bien sûr pas en reste.Processus émotionnels en situation d’apprentissage présente les apports de différentes disciplines de la psychologie dans la compréhension du rôle des processus émotionnels en situation d’apprentissage, dans une perspective développementale et vie-entière.

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