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Objective and subjective neurocognitive functioning in functional motor symptoms and functional seizures: preliminary findings

Pick, Susannah; Millman, LS Merritt; Sun, Yiqing; Short, Eleanor; Stanton, Biba; Winston, Joel S; Mehta, Mitul A; ... Chalder, Trudie; + view all (2023) Objective and subjective neurocognitive functioning in functional motor symptoms and functional seizures: preliminary findings. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 10.1080/13803395.2023.2245110. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to provide a preliminary assessment of objective and subjective neurocognitive functioning in individuals with functional motor symptoms (FMS) and/or functional seizures (FS). We tested the hypotheses that the FMS/FS group would display poorer objective attentional and executive functioning, altered social cognition, and reduced metacognitive accuracy. METHOD: Individuals with FMS/FS (n = 16) and healthy controls (HCs, n = 17) completed an abbreviated CANTAB battery, and measures of intellectual functioning, subjective cognitive complaints, performance validity, and comorbid symptoms. Subjective performance ratings were obtained to assess local metacognitive accuracy. RESULTS: The groups were comparable in age (p = 0.45), sex (p = 0.62), IQ (p = 0.57), and performance validity (p-values = 0.10-0.91). We observed no impairment on any CANTAB test in this FMS/FS sample compared to HCs, although the FMS/FS group displayed shorter reaction times on the Emotional Bias task (anger) (p = 0.01, np2 = 0.20). The groups did not differ in subjective performance ratings (p-values 0.15). Whilst CANTAB attentional set-shifting performance (total trials/errors) correlated with subjective performance ratings in HCs (p-values<0.005, rs = -0.85), these correlations were non-significant in the FMS/FS sample (p-values = 0.10-0.13, rs-values = -0.46-0.50). The FMS/FS group reported more daily cognitive complaints than HCs (p = 0.006, g = 0.92), which were associated with subjective performance ratings on CANTAB sustained attention (p = 0.001, rs = -0.74) and working memory tests (p < 0.001, rs = -0.75), and with depression (p = 0.003, rs = 0.70), and somatoform (p = 0.003, rs = 0.70) and psychological dissociation (p-values<0.005, rs-values = 0.67-0.85). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest a discordance between objective and subjective neurocognitive functioning in this FMS/FS sample, reflecting intact test performance alongside poorer subjective cognitive functioning. Further investigation of neurocognitive functioning in FND subgroups is necessary.

Type: Article
Title: Objective and subjective neurocognitive functioning in functional motor symptoms and functional seizures: preliminary findings
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/13803395.2023.2245110
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2023.2245110
Language: English
Additional information: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Keywords: Cognitive, attention, conversion disorder, executive, functional movement disorder, functional neurological disorder, memory, metacognition, neuropsychological, psychogenic non-epileptic seizures
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry > Institute of Mental Health
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10177385
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