title: Symposium: Cognitive processes and sleep disturbances: The disturbance of cognitive processes in narcolepsy.
abstract: Neuropsychological methods have been applied by different authors to investigate cognitive processes such as attention, information processing, memory and psychomotor performance in narcoleptic patients. A review of the results strongly suggests that cognitive processes in narcoleptic patients are not impaired on a functional but only on a temporal level. Providing that short and challenging tasks were used, the performance of narcoleptic patient did not differ significantly from that of healthy subjects. Performance was impaired mainly when a low and monotonous information input had to be processed, a situation which is typical for tests of vigilance. This was supported by this study measuring critical flicker fusion (CFF) at 15-min intervals for 10 hours in 10 narcoleptic patients and matched healthy controls. While peak performance did not differ between groups, narcoleptic patients were unable to perform at a steady level through the day. Tiredness and episodes of sleepiness seem to be the main reason for cognitive impairments in narcolepsy.
authors.affiliation: Free University Berlin, University Clinic Rudolf Virchow (UKRV), Department of Psychiatry and Department of Neurology, Berlin, Germany.
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wilde-Frenz