To examine the association between psychological tests of executive functioning and functional outcomes among high-IQ adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Subjects were high-IQ adults with (n=64) and without ADHD (n=53). Subjects were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests assessing executive functioning.

High-IQ adults with ADHD performed less well than those without ADHD on several psychological tests of executive functioning, including the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Stroop Color and Word Test, Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCF), California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) and an auditory continuous performance test (CPT). Test performance in the high-IQ adult ADHD group, however, was average. In the entire sample, performance on several tests of executive functioning including the ROCF and the CVLT were significant predictors of real-world functioning.

High-IQ adults with ADHD perform less well on tests of executive functioning relative to high-IQ control participants. Performance on several tests of executive functioning was a significant predictor of functioning.

Epinephrine enhances emotional memory whereas β-adrenoceptor antagonists (β-blockers, BBs) impair it. However, the effects of BB administration on memory are sex dependent. Therefore, we predicted differential effects of epinephrine and the BB metoprolol given to male and female patients after cardiac surgery (CS) on traumatic memories and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.

We performed a prospective observational study and determined the number of standardized traumatic memories (NTRM) and PTSD symptom intensity in cardiac surgical patients at 1 day before surgery, and at 1 week and 6 months after the procedure. PTSD symptoms and NTRM were quantified using validated questionnaires. Metoprolol could be administered any time post-operatively.

Baseline NTRM was not significantly different between male (n=95) and female patients (n=33). One week after CS, the NTRM in male patients was significantly higher. Metoprolol had no significant effect in either sex. At 6 months, females with metoprolol (n=18) showed a significantly lower NTRM and significantly lower PTSD symptom scores than females without BBs (n=15, p=0.02). By contrast, the totally administered dosage of epinephrine correlated with NTRM in males (r=0.33, p<0.01) but not in females (r=0.21, p=0.29).

β-Adrenergic stimulation with epinephrine enhances memory for adverse experiences in males but not in females whereas β-blockade selectively reduces memory for post-operative adverse events and PTSD symptoms in females.

Previous behavioural and neuroimaging studies of emotion processing in autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) have focused on the use of facial stimuli. To date, however, no studies have examined emotion processing in autism across a broad range of social signals.

This study addressed this issue by investigating emotion processing in a group of 23 adults with ASD and 23 age- and gender-matched controls. Recognition of basic emotions (‘happiness’, ‘sadness’, ‘anger’, disgust' and ‘fear’) was assessed from facial, body movement and vocal stimuli. The ability to make social judgements (such as approachability) from facial stimuli was also investigated.

Significant deficits in emotion recognition were found in the ASD group relative to the control group across all stimulus domains (faces, body movements and voices). These deficits were seen across a range of emotions. The ASD group were also impaired in making social judgements compared to the control group and this correlated with impairments in basic emotion recognition.

This study demonstrates that there are significant and broad-ranging deficits in emotion processing in ASD present across a range of stimulus domains and in the auditory and visual modality; they cannot therefore be accounted for simply in terms of impairments in face processing or in the visual modality alone. These results identify a core deficit affecting the processing of a wide range of emotional information in ASD, which contributes to the impairments in social function seen in people with this condition.