Reaction time performance in adults with HIV/AIDS

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Infectious Diseases

Background:

• Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Type 1 (HIV-1) infection is linked to cognitive decline in adults.
• Cognitive slowing is a key neuropsychological symptom associated with HIV-1 infection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the literature on reaction time (RT) performance in HIV-1 infected adults.
• To emphasize the role of mental chronometry in assessing HIV-1 associated cognitive impairment.
• To examine the utility of RT paradigms in evaluating various cognitive functions and treatment responses.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing literature on reaction time (RT) studies in HIV-1 infected adults.
• Analysis of RT paradigms assessing simple, choice, selective attention, covert orienting, sustained attention, divided attention, working memory, and implicit memory.
• Inclusion of studies on pharmacologic interventions and treatment response tracking.

Main Results:

• HIV-1 infection is associated with mild cognitive slowing, which may worsen with disease severity.
• Brinley plot analyses indicate that AIDS patients are approximately 22% slower than uninfected controls.
• A significant percentage of studies did not find a correlation between HIV-1 infection and RT slowing.

Conclusions:

• RT tasks are sensitive indicators of HIV-1 associated cognitive slowing.
• Cognitive slowing in HIV-1 infected individuals can be ameliorated by pharmacologic interventions, such as methylphenidate.
• Incorporating RT tasks into routine clinical evaluations of HIV-1 infected patients is recommended.