Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was investigated using the parent-as-respondent, 200-item, Coolidge Personality and Neuropsychology Inventory (CPNI) and a quantitative electroencephalograph (QEEG). Parents of 183 children (mean age = 12.2 years) brought to an outpatient private clinic for behavioral and/or emotional problems completed the CPNI including the 18-item DSM-IV-based ...

Depressive illness is generally associated with cognitive impairment. Serotonergic selective antidepressant drugs, fluoxetine (FLX), sertraline (SER) and tianeptine (TIA), are claimed to have less or no effect on cholinergic system, the key system involved in memory. In the present study, these drugs were evaluated for their influence on cognitive behavior in both depressive and non-depressive ...

BACKGROUND Pathological gambling (PG) is an impulse control disorder characterized by excessive monetary risk seeking in the face of negative consequences. We used tools from the field of behavioral economics to refine our description of risk-taking behavior in pathological gamblers. This theoretical framework allowed us to confront two hypotheses: (1) pathological gamblers distort winning prob...

Structural econometric methods that assume agents have rational expectations are often criticized. Yet, little is known about the relative costs and benefits of adopting alternative empirical strategies. This paper compares three procedures for inference about a single structural parameter using data from a laboratory price search experiment. Our novel experimental design induces preferences up...

Many empirical studies support the premise that animals consider both the benefits of feeding and the cost of mortality when making behavioral decisions, and many theoretical studies predict animal behavior in the presence of a feeding-mortality trade-off. However, empirical work is lacking in studies that quantitatively assess alternative models. Using data from two sets of behavioral experime...

Loss of previously established behaviors in early childhood constitutes a markedly atypical developmental trajectory. It is found almost uniquely in autism and its cause is currently unknown (Baird et al., 2008). We present an artificial neural network model of developmental regression, exploring the hypothesis that regression is caused by overaggressive synaptic pruning and identifying the mec...

Huntington's disease (HD) is genetically determined but with variability in symptom onset, leading to uncertainty as to when pharmacological intervention should be initiated. Here we take a computational approach based on neurocognitive phenotyping, computational modeling, and classification, in an effort to provide quantitative predictors of HD before symptom onset. A large sample of subjects-...

OBJECTIVE To examine set shifting in a group of women previously diagnosed with anorexia nervosa who are now weight-restored (AN-WR) and then apply a biologically based computational model (Competition between Verbal and Implicit Systems [COVIS]) to simulate the pattern of category learning and set shifting performances observed. METHOD Nineteen AN-WR women and 35 control women (CW) were admi...

Ketogenic diets are high in fat and low in carbohydrates, and have long been used as an anticonvulsant therapy for drug-intractable and pediatric epilepsy. Additionally, ketogenic diets have been shown to provide neuroprotective effects against acute and chronic brain injury, including beneficial effects in various rodent models of neurodegeneration. Huntington's disease is a progressive neurod...

The effects of social-cognitive variables on preventive nutrition and behavioral intentions were studied in 580 adults at 2 points in time. The authors hypothesized that optimistic self-beliefs operate in 2 phases and made a distinction between action self-efficacy (preintention) and coping self-efficacy (postintention). Risk perceptions, outcome expectancies, and action self-efficacy were spec...