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Updated: Aug 1, 2025
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The Attentional Set Shifting Task: A Measure of Cognitive Flexibility in Mice
Published on: February 4, 2015
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Impaired cognitive flexibility across psychiatric disorders
Jon E Grant1, Samuel R Chamberlain2,3
1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
CNS Spectrums
|April 28, 2023
Summary
Cognitive flexibility problems are common in many psychiatric disorders, including depression and PTSD. This study found widespread deficits in cognitive flexibility across various mental health conditions in young adults.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Cognitive flexibility deficits are linked to various psychiatric disorders.
- Understanding cross-disorder cognitive flexibility is crucial for targeted interventions.
- Repetitive behaviors in obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders suggest potential flexibility impairments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare cognitive flexibility problems across a spectrum of psychiatric disorders in young adults.
- To investigate the trans-diagnostic nature of cognitive flexibility deficits.
- To test the hypothesis that obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders exhibit pronounced flexibility problems.
Main Methods:
- A trans-diagnostic computerized flexibility paradigm was employed.
- 576 non-treatment seeking young adults (18-29 years) participated.
- The intra-extra-dimensional (IED) task measured set-shifting ability, focusing on total and ED errors.
Main Results:
- Depression and PTSD showed moderate effect size increases in total errors.
- Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), antisocial personality disorder, and binge-eating disorder had small effect size deficits.
- PTSD, GAD, and binge-eating disorder exhibited medium effect size deficits in extra-dimensional (ED) errors, with other disorders showing small effect size deficits.
Conclusions:
- Cognitive flexibility deficits are prevalent across a diverse range of mental disorders.
- These findings highlight the trans-diagnostic nature of cognitive flexibility impairments.
- Further research is needed to develop and test novel treatments for these deficits.
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