How Much Does WAIS-IV Perceptual Reasoning Decline Across the 20 to 90-Year Lifespan When Processing Speed is Controlled?

Thirteen Independent Genetic Loci Associated with Preserved Processing Speed in a Study of Cognitive Resilience in 330,097 Individuals in the UK Biobank

Cognitive resilience is the ability to withstand the negative effects of stress on cognitive functioning and is important for maintaining quality of life while aging. The UK Biobank does not have measurements of the same cognitive phenotype at distal time points. Therefore, we used education years (EY) as a proxy phenotype for past cognitive performance and current cognitive performance was based on processing speed. This represented an average time span of 40 years between past and current cognitive performance in 330,097 individuals. A confounding factor was that EY is highly polygenic and masked the genetics of resilience. To overcome this, we employed Genomics Structural Equation Modelling (GenomicSEM) to perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS)-by-subtraction using two GWAS, one GWAS of EY and resilience and a second GWAS of EY but not resilience, to generate a GWAS of Resilience. Using independent discovery and replication samples, we found 13 independent genetic loci for Resilience. Functional analyses showed enrichment in several brain regions and specific cell types. Gene-set analyses implicated the biological process "neuron differentiation", the cellular component "synaptic part" and the "WNT signalosome". Mendelian randomisation analysis showed a causative effect of white matter volume on cognitive resilience. These results may contribute to the neurobiological understanding of resilience.

The relationship of symptom dimensions with premorbid adjustment and cognitive characteristics at first episode psychosis: Findings from the EU-GEI study

Premorbid functioning and cognitive measures may reflect gradients of developmental impairment across diagnostic categories in psychosis. In this study, we sought to examine the associations of current cognition and premorbid adjustment with symptom dimensions in a large first episode psychosis (FEP) sample. We used data from the international EU-GEI study. Bifactor modelling of the Operational Criteria in Studies of Psychotic Illness (OPCRIT) ratings provided general and specific symptom dimension scores. Premorbid Adjustment Scale estimated premorbid social (PSF) and academic adjustment (PAF), and WAIS-brief version measured IQ. A MANCOVA model examined the relationship between symptom dimensions and PSF, PAF, and IQ, having age, sex, country, self-ascribed ethnicity and frequency of cannabis use as confounders. In 785 patients, better PSF was associated with fewer negative (B = -0.12, 95% C.I. -0.18, -0.06, p < 0.001) and depressive (B = -0.09, 95% C.I. -0.15, -0.03, p = 0.032), and more manic (B = 0.07, 95% C.I. 0.01, 0.14, p = 0.023) symptoms. Patients with a lower IQ presented with slightly more negative and positive, and fewer manic, symptoms. Secondary analysis on IQ subdomains revealed associations between better perceptual reasoning and fewer negative (B = -0.09, 95% C.I. -0.17, -0.01, p = 0.023) and more manic (B = 0.10, 95% C.I. 0.02, 0.18, p = 0.014) symptoms. Fewer positive symptoms were associated with better processing speed (B = -0.12, 95% C.I. -0.02, -0.004, p = 0.003) and working memory (B = -0.10, 95% C.I. -0.18, -0.01, p = 0.024). These findings suggest that the negative and manic symptom dimensions may serve as clinical proxies of different neurodevelopmental predisposition in psychosis.