Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in patients with focal frontal and posterior brain damage: effects of lesion location and test structure on separable cognitive processes

Stuss, Donald T.; Levine, Brian; Alexander, Michael P.; Hong, Juimiin; Palumbo, Carole L.; Hamer, Lisa; Murphy, Kelly J.; Izukawa, Dennis

doi:10.1016/s0028-3932(99)00093-7

Cited by 525 publications

(369 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Lesions of the dorsolateral PFC in primates, and of the analogous mPFC in rats, specifically impaired performance on ED set-shifting tasks (Birrell and Brown, 2000;Dias et al, 1996). Similar impairment of performance on the WCST was seen in patients with lesions of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Stuss et al, 2000), and in patients suffering from a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders in which mPFC dysfunction has been implicated (Fossati et al, 1999;Goldstein et al, 2002;Moritz et al, 2002). These results indicate that optimal functioning of the mPFC is important in the cognitive processes that underlie attentional setshifting.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…The primary dependent measure in this procedure was the number of trials required to reach the criterion of six consecutive correct responses at each test stage (Trials to Criterion, TTC). In addition, we also analyzed the occurrence of set loss errors, a measure adapted from the analysis of errors on the WCST as described by Stuss et al (1983Stuss et al ( , 2000. In scoring the WCST, with the criterion for successful mastery of a test stage set at 10 consecutive correct responses, Heaton (1981) defined a set loss as an error made after five or more consecutive correct responses, that is, after reaching 50% or more of criterion.…”

Section: Attentional Set-shifting Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Chronic Treatment with Desipramine Improves Cognitive Performance of Rats in an Attentional Set-Shifting Test

Lapiz

Bondi

Morilak

2006

Neuropsychopharmacol

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Alterations in central monoaminergic neurotransmission are important in the actions of many antidepressants. This study tested the hypothesis that tonic elevation of noradrenergic (NA) neurotransmission in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) by chronic treatment with the selective norepinephrine (NE) reuptake blocker desipramine (DMI) may contribute to the beneficial cognitive effects of this antidepressant drug (AD). Male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with DMI acutely (15 mg/kg, i.p.) or chronically for 21 days (7.5 mg/ kg/day via osmotic minipump) before assessing performance on an attentional set-shifting test. The extradimensional set-shifting component of this test reflects a process of cognitive flexibility that is dependent upon mPFC, and that we have shown previously to be facilitated by NA activity in mPFC. Microdialysis was performed to measure NE release in mPFC concurrently with behavioral testing. Acute DMI treatment produced an increase in extracellular NE levels in mPFC, and a modest improvement in overall performance across all task stages of the attentional set-shifting test, but failed to produce a significant improvement in any of the individual specific tasks comprising the test sequence. Chronic DMI treatment tonically elevated basal extracellular NE levels in mPFC, associated with a significant improvement in performance specifically on the extradimensional set-shifting component of the test. There was also a significant reduction in set loss errors in rats treated chronically with DMI. Hence, tonic elevation of NA transmission in mPFC by chronic DMI treatment was associated with a time-dependent facilitation of cognitive flexibility that may contribute to the mechanism whereby chronic treatment with ADs, specifically NE reuptake blockers, may exert a beneficial therapeutic effect on cognition in depressed patients.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Attentional Set-shifting Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic Treatment with Desipramine Improves Cognitive Performance of Rats in an Attentional Set-Shifting Test

Lapiz

Bondi

Morilak

2006

Neuropsychopharmacol

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“…Reasoning with neutral content resulted in greater activation in L/DLPFC cortex (over and above the neutral baseline) than reasoning with emotionally salient content (over and above the emotionally salient baseline). Consistent with this role, the L/DLPFC has been implicated in a series of "executive" cognitive tasks including the WCST (Drewe, 1974;Stuss et al, 2000), Tower of London (Fincham et al, 2002;Rowe et al, 2001;Shallice, 1988), the Stroop task (Perret, 1974;Weekes and Zaidel, 1996), design fluency (Jones-Gotman and Milner, 1977), cognitive estimation (Smith and Milner, 1984), planning and design (Goel and Grafman, 2000;, and tasks (like humor appreciation) requiring the "breaking of mental sets" (Goel and Dolan, 2001a;Shammi and Stuss, 1999).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Reciprocal neural response within lateral and ventral medial prefrontal cortex during hot and cold reasoning

2003

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Logic is widely considered the basis of rationality. Logical choices, however, are often influenced by emotional responses, sometimes to our detriment, sometimes to our advantage. To understand the neural basis of emotionally neutral ("cold") and emotionally salient ("hot") reasoning we studied 19 volunteers using event-related fMRI, as they made logical judgments about arguments that varied in emotional saliency. Despite identical logical form and content categories across "hot" and "cold" reasoning conditions, lateral and ventral medial prefrontal cortex showed reciprocal response patterns as a function of emotional saliency of content. "Cold" reasoning trials resulted in enhanced activity in lateral/dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (L/DLPFC) and suppression of activity in ventral medial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). By contrast, "hot" reasoning trials resulted in enhanced activation in VMPFC and suppression of activation in L/DLPFC. This reciprocal engagement of L/DLPFC and VMPFC provides evidence for a dynamic neural system for reasoning, the configuration of which is strongly influenced by emotional saliency.

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“…This process of cognitive flexibility depends on the mPFC in rats, and the analogous dorsolateral PFC in primates, as lesions in these regions specifically impaired performance on ED setshifting (Birrell and Brown, 2000;Dias et al, 1996). Deficits in such cognitive flexibility are detected on the WCST in human patients with dorsolateral prefrontal cortical lesions (Stuss et al, 2000), and with a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders that involve deficits of mPFC functioning (Fossati et al, 1999;Goldstein et al, 2002). Further, deficits in cognitive flexibility, resulting in perseverative perceptual, emotional, and memory biases have been suggested to be important in depression and anxiety disorders (Beck, 1976;Beck et al, 1987;Coles and Heimberg, 2002;Mathews and Mackintosh, 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…This has been shown to be mediated by the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in rats (Birrell and Brown, 2000). In humans, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) has been used to assess strategyswitching deficits in patients with frontal lobe damage, depression, and other neuropsychiatric conditions thought to involve the prefrontal cortex (Merriam et al, 1999;Stuss et al, 2000;Tollefson, 1996). To address more specifically the different components of behavioral flexibility assessed in the WCST, Roberts et al (1992) developed a visual discrimination task to investigate attentional set formation in both humans and primates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic Unpredictable Stress Induces a Cognitive Deficit and Anxiety-Like Behavior in Rats that is Prevented by Chronic Antidepressant Drug Treatment

Bondi

Rodríguez

Gould

et al. 2007

Neuropsychopharmacol

353

263

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Chronic stress is a risk factor for the development of many psychopathological conditions in humans, including major depression and anxiety disorders. There is a high degree of comorbidity of depression and anxiety. Moreover, cognitive impairments associated with frontal lobe dysfunction, including deficits in cognitive set-shifting and behavioral flexibility, are increasingly recognized as major components of depression, anxiety disorders, and other stress-related psychiatric illnesses. To begin to understand the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the cognitive and emotional consequences of chronic stress, it is necessary to employ an animal model that exhibits similar effects. In the present study, a rat model of chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) consistently induced a cognitive impairment in extradimensional set shifting capability in an attentional set shifting test, suggesting an alteration in function of the medial prefrontal cortex. CUS also increased anxiety-like behavior on the elevated plus-maze. Further, chronic treatment both with the selective norepinephrine reuptake blocker, desipramine (7.5 mg/kg/day), and the selective serotonin reuptake blocker, escitalopram (10 mg/kg/ day), beginning 1 week before CUS treatment and continuing through the behavioral testing period, prevented the CUS-induced deficit in extradimensional set-shifting. Chronic desipramine treatment also prevented the CUS-induced increase in anxiety-like behavioral reactivity on the plus-maze, but escitalopram was less effective on this measure. Thus, CUS induced both cognitive and emotional disturbances that are similar to components of major depression and anxiety disorders. These effects were prevented by chronic treatment with antidepressant drugs, consistent also with clinical evidence that relapse of depressive episodes can be prevented by antidepressant drug treatment.

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Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in patients with focal frontal and posterior brain damage: effects of lesion location and test structure on separable cognitive processes

Cited by 525 publications

References 59 publications

Chronic Treatment with Desipramine Improves Cognitive Performance of Rats in an Attentional Set-Shifting Test

Chronic Treatment with Desipramine Improves Cognitive Performance of Rats in an Attentional Set-Shifting Test

Reciprocal neural response within lateral and ventral medial prefrontal cortex during hot and cold reasoning

Chronic Unpredictable Stress Induces a Cognitive Deficit and Anxiety-Like Behavior in Rats that is Prevented by Chronic Antidepressant Drug Treatment

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