title: Cognitive symptoms facilitatory for diagnoses in neuropsychiatric disorders: executive functions and locus of control.
abstract: Cognitive symptoms, considered in conjunction both with their regional brain and biomarkers as well as affective, attributional and neurodevelopmental components, demonstrate ever-increasing complexity to facilitate conceptualization yet, unavoidably, bedevil diagnosis in neuropsychiatry even before considerations of the enigmatic processes in memory, such as executive function and working memory, are drawn into the myriads of equations that await remedial interpretations. Prefrontal and limbic regions of the brain are involved in a diversity of expressions of cognition, normal or dysfunctional, at synaptic, intracellular and molecular levels that mobilize a concatenation of signaling entities. Serotoninergic neurotransission at prefrontal regions directs cognitive-affective entities that mediate decision-making and goal-directed behaviour. Clinical, non-clinical and basic studies challenge attempts to consolidate the multitude of evidence in order to obtain therapeutic notions to alleviate the disordered status of the diagnosed and yet-to-be diagnosed individuals. Locus of control, a concept of some utility in health-seeking procedures, is examined in three self-report studies from the perspective of a cognitive-emotional situation through observations of ordinary, 'healthy' young and middle-aged individuals, to assess the predictors of internal and external locus of control. A notion based on high level executive functioning in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in individuals characterised by internal locus of control is contrasted with a hypofunctional executive DLPFC, characterising individuals that express an external locus of control, is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Box 500, SE-40530 Gothenburg, Sweden. Trevor.archer@psy.gu.se
authors.forename: Trevor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Archer
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Kostrzewa
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Beninger
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Palomo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory