title: Convergence and divergence of neuroanatomic correlates and executive task performance in healthy controls and psychiatric participants.
abstract: The associations between brain matter volume in the cerebral cortex and set shifting and attentional control as operationalized by the Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST) and Condition Three of the Delis-Kaplan version of the Color Word Interference Test (CWIT) were investigated in 15 healthy controls and 16 heterogeneously diagnosed psychiatric patients with self-control problems using voxel based morphometry. Both groups underwent standardized magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychological assessment. WCST and CWIT variables, and a composite, were regressed across the whole brain. Although CWIT performance levels were the same in both groups, neuroanatomic correlates for the psychiatric participants invoked the left hemisphere language system, but the bilateral dorsal attention system in the healthy controls. On its own, no neuroanatomic correlates were observed for the WCST. But when part of a composite with CWIT, neuroanatomic correlates in the dorsal attention system emerged for the psychiatric participants. Psychometric combinations of manifest executive task variables may best represent higher level latent neuro-cognitive control systems. Factor analytic studies of neuropsychological test performances suggest the constructs being measured are the same across psychiatric and non-diagnosed participants, however, imaging modalities indicate the relevant neural architecture can vary by group.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Suffolk University, 41 Temple Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ming-Tak Chung
authors.forename: Matthew W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Jerram
authors.forename: Jonathan K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Harvey
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Katz
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Gansler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003116:Color; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D014922:Wisconsin
keywords: Cognitive control; Frontal lobe; Neuropsychology; Psychopathology; Set shirting; Structural brain image analysis