The cognitive-behavioral model of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) implicates impaired cognition; yet existing evidence of cognitive impairment in the disorder is often inconsistent. To date, cognitive performance in BDD has not been measured utilizing the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV), a gold standard cognitive assessment in clinical settings. Accordingly, this study compared WAIS-IV performance between individuals with BDD and healthy controls.

Participants included 59 BDD patients and 56 controls. Cognitive performance was evaluated via the WAIS-IV, and clinical characteristics of the BDD group were examined via multiple clinician and self-report questionnaires.

The BDD group demonstrated significantly poorer performance compared to the control group in the WAIS-IV index and subtests that reflect processing speed abilities (Processing Speed Index: d = −0.55, 95% CI [−0.92, −0.18], Symbol Search: d = −0.70, 95% CI [−1.07, −0.32], Coding: d = −0.79, 95% CI [−1.17, −0.41]), yet other indices were not significantly different. These impairments were not correlated with anxiety or BDD-YBOCS symptom severity. Reduced overall cognitive performance was primarily driven by impairments in processing speed.

The study suggests that in BDD, processing speed is notably lower than other index scores, falling in the low average range. This may reflect difficulties with rapid visual processing, attention to detail, or motor speed. Performance in domains reflective of reasoning and verbal functioning were unimpaired relative to controls. This selective cognitive pattern in BDD may be driven by increased cognitive load associated with perfectionistic traits. This has clinical implications for cognitive-behavioral treatment.

Cognitive symptoms are common in functional neurological disorder (FND), yet evidence of impaired neurocognitive test performance is variable. We aimed to assess self-reported cognitive symptoms, neurocognitive test performance, and metacognitive confidence in patients with functional seizures (FS) and functional motor symptoms (FMS).

Participants with FS (n = 50) and FMS (n = 50) were compared to age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC, n = 50), and clinical controls with depression and/or anxiety disorders (CC, n = 50). The Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery was used to examine response speed, working memory, executive functions, and social–emotional processing, with subjective confidence rated for each test. Intellectual functioning, performance validity, and self-reported cognitive symptoms were also assessed.

The FND groups reported elevated cognitive symptoms compared to HC and CC (p-values<0.001). Impaired performance was demonstrated in both FND groups on tests of sustained attention (p-values = 0.03- < 0.001) and set-shifting (p-values = 0.01–0.001). Performance validity was comparable between groups (p = 0.64). The FND groups reported reduced post-diction confidence for sustained attention (p < 0.001). Executive performance deficits correlated with reduced test-specific confidence in FS/FMS (p-values = 0.02- < 0.001). In FMS, post-diction confidence for sustained attention performance correlated negatively with cognitive symptoms (p = 0.002). Cognitive symptoms were associated with psychological/physical symptom load, quality-of-life, and/or general functioning in FND and CC groups (p-values = 0.04- < 0.001).

Patients with FS and FMS displayed localized deficits on tests of executive functioning, with reduced domain-specific metacognitive confidence, alongside significant cognitive symptoms. These neurocognitive features were associated with poorer clinical status, warranting interventions targeting cognitive control and/or cognitive symptoms in everyday life.

Deficits in working memory (WM) and attention have a considerable functional impact on people with bipolar disorder (PBD). Understanding the neurocognitive underpinnings of these cognitive constructs might facilitate the discovery of more effective pro-cognitive interventions. Therefore, we employed a paradigm designed for jointly studying attentional control and WM encoding.

We used a visuospatial change-detection task using four Gabor Patches with differing orientations in 63 euthymic PBD and 76 healthy controls (HCS), which investigated attentional competition during WM encoding. To manipulate bottom-up attention using stimulus salience, two Gabor patches flickered, which were designated as either targets or distractors. To manipulate top-down attention, the Gabor patches were preceded by either a predictive or a non-predictive cue for the target locations.

Across all task conditions, PBD stored significantly less information in visual WM than HCS (significant effect of group). However, we observed no significant group-by-salience or group-by-cue interactions. This indicates that impaired WM was not caused by deficits in attentional control.

While WM was disturbed in PBD, attentional prioritization of salient targets and distractors, as well as the utilization of external top-down cues, were not compromised. Thus, the control of attentional selection appears to be intact at least for our specific manipulation of this cognitive construct. These findings provide valuable clues for models of WM dysfunction in PBD by suggesting that later stages of WM encoding, such as WM consolidation, are likely primarily impaired, while selective attention is not a main source of impairment.

The influence of severity of migraine-like symptoms on different levels of executive functions is not well established. In this study, we investigate the impact of severity of migraine-like symptoms on the relationship between core-level executive functions (attention and memory) and fluid intelligence.

A cross-sectional study was conducted on university students (n = 427, age = 20.7 + 1.8 years). Participants completed self-report measures of Migraine Screen Questionnaire (MS-Q), single-item visual analogue scales (VASs) each for the subjective accounts of problems in core-level executive functions (attention and memory), and a single-item VAS for problems in fluid intelligence (PFI), and sociodemographics tool. The mediation effect model was used to determine the relationship.

The study found a correlation between i) attention problems and severity of migraine-like symptoms (b = 0.109, standard error (SE) = 0.026, p < 0.001), ii) severity of migraine-like symptoms and memory problems (b = 0.318, SE = 0.076, p < 0.001), and iii) severity of migraine-like symptoms – PFI (b = 0.243, SE = 0.083, p < 0.003), with an indirect effect of attention problems on memory problems and PFI and no correlation between severity of migraine-like symptoms and PFI.

Self-reported accounts of problems in core-level executive functions and fluid intelligence are correlated. Severity of migraine-like symptoms may mediate the inter-relationship between some core-level and higher-level executive functions.

Body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) include activities like hair pulling and skin-picking that can lead to functional impairment. The neurocognitive underpinnings of BFRBs remain unclear, with inconsistent findings across domains.

This online study aimed to investigate the neuropsychological capacities of individuals with self-reported BFRBs. We administered the Go/No-Go test to assess inhibitory control and attention and the Verbal Learning and Memory Test to evaluate learning, recall, and memory confidence. From the 2,129 participants who entered the survey, 412 individuals with self-reported BFRBs and 412 matched controls from the general population were included. Drop-out was high.

Individuals with BFRBs showed no inhibitory deficits on the Go/No-Go test but made fewer hits on the Go trials compared to controls, indicating attentional lapses. Regarding memory, only immediate recall was worse in the BFRB sample. Controls were biased toward being more confident. When we divided the sample by impairment (>1 SD below the mean of controls), a minority of the BFRB group showed deficits in attention and immediate recall.

Our findings suggest that neurocognitive deficits are not prevalent in BFRB, affecting less than 20% of our sample. Yet, attentional problems in a subgroup of individuals with BFRB highlights the need to study heterogeneity within BFRBs. Potential moderators such as motivation, stress, and self-stigma remain to be explored. Our findings must be interpreted with caution given the study’s limited generalizability due to its online format, high drop-out rate, and absence of independent diagnostic confirmation.

This study investigated the impact of residual dizziness after successful canalith repositioning manoeuvre on cognitive functions and dual-task performance in patients with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV).

Forty-four patients with posterior canal BPPV were assessed 1 week after successful treatment and divided into 2 groups: with residual dizziness (n = 22) and without residual dizziness (n = 22). Cognitive function was evaluated using the Stroop test and digit span test. Dual-task performance was assessed with a combination of the timed up and go test and the digit span test.

Residual dizziness was associated with longer BPPV duration, and higher anxiety and disability levels (p < 0.05). Patients with residual dizziness performed worse on the Stroop test (p < 0.05), while no significant differences were found in digit span or dual-task performance (p > 0.05).

The results highlight a dynamic interplay between cognitive and vestibular systems. Residual dizziness may impair cognitive performance, while baseline cognitive deficits may also increase vulnerability to residual dizziness.

Remote videoconference neuropsychological assessments offer opportunities that remain under-exploited. We aimed to evaluate teleneuropsychology (TeleNP)-suitable oral and digital versions of the Symbol Digit Modalities Task (SDMT) and Trail Making Test (TMT) – widely used measures of speed and attention – by comparing them to their written counterparts.

Three-hundred and twenty-one Australian Epilepsy Project (AEP) adult participants with seizure disorders completed the written SDMT and TMT in-person. One-hundred and forty-four of these participants also completed the oral SDMT and TMT during a remote videoconference-based assessment while 177 completed a novel, examiner-administered digital SDMT analogous measure named Symbol Decoding and a novel digital TMT remotely via custom videoconference-based software.

Oral SDMT and digital Symbol Decoding strongly correlated with in-person written SDMT (r (133) = .77, p < .001 and r (126) = .76, p < .001, respectively). Oral TMT-B was only moderately associated (r (126) = .52, p < .001) with written TMT-B and, less strongly related to measures of sustained attention and spatial working memory than its written counterpart. Digital TMT better reproduced the written test’s properties with improved association with written TMT-B (r (154) = .71, p < .001).

Oral SDMT and digital Symbol Decoding are strongly correlated with in-person written SDMT. The digital TMT better captures the cognitive demands and performance characteristics of the in-person written form than does oral TMT. Videoconference-integrated digital tasks offer increased standardization and automation in administration and scoring and the potential for rich metadata, making them an attractive area for further development.

We investigated differences in cognition between variants of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) including PSP-Richardson (PSP-RS) and subcortical and cortical variants using updated diagnostic criteria and comprehensive neuropsychological assessment.

We recruited 140 participants with PSP (age = 71.3 ± 6.9 years; education = 15.0 ± 2.8 years; 49.3% female) who completed neurological and neuropsychological assessment. Participants received diagnoses of PSP clinical variants at their evaluation (or retrospectively if evaluated before 2017) according to the Movement Disorder Society PSP criteria. We grouped variants as PSP-RS (62 participants), PSP-Cortical (25 with PSP-speech/language and 9 with PSP-corticobasal syndrome), and PSP-Subcortical (27 with PSP-parkinsonism, 11 with PSP-progressive gait freezing, and 6 with PSP-postural instability). Analysis of covariance adjusted for age assessed for differences in neuropsychological performance between variants across cognitive domains.

PSP-Cortical participants performed worst on measures of visual attention/working memory (Spatial Span Forward/Backward/Total), executive function (Frontal Assessment Battery), and language (Letter Fluency). PSP-RS participants performed worst on verbal memory (Camden Words). There were no significant group differences for the MoCA or indices of visuospatial function. There were no sex or education differences between PSP groups; however, there were differences in age at visit and disease duration.

In a large sample of participants with PSP, there were differences in cognition across PSP-RS, PSP-Subcortical, and PSP-Cortical variants, with PSP-Cortical and, to a lesser extent, PSP-RS, performing worse on tests of attention and executive function. These findings suggest cognitive distinctions among PSP clinical variants and highlight the value of neuropsychological assessment in differential diagnosis of PSP subtypes for more accurate and timely clinical classification.