Speed of processing and executive functions in adults with phenylketonuria:quick in finding the word, but not the ladybird

Abstract

A reduction in processing speed is widely reported in phenylketonuria (PKU), possibly due to white matter pathology. We investigated possible deficits and their relationships with executive functions in a sample of 37 early-treated adults with PKU (AwPKUs). AwPKUs were not characterized by a generalized speed deficit, but instead their performance could be explained by two more specific impairments: (a) a deficit in the allocation of visuo-spatial attention that reduced speed in visual search tasks, in some reading conditions and visuo-motor coordination tasks; and (b) a more conservative decision mechanism that slowed down returning an answer across domains. These results suggest that the impairments in executive functions seen in AwPKUs are not the consequence of a generalized speed deficit. They also suggest that processing speed is linked to the efficiency of a particular cognitive component and cannot be considered a general function spanning domains. Similarities with patterns in ageing are discussed.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02643294.2017.1320278
Divisions: College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Psychology
College of Health & Life Sciences > Clinical and Systems Neuroscience
College of Health & Life Sciences
College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Optometry > Vision, Hearing and Language
Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Cognitive Neuropsychology on 20/6/17, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02643294.2017.1320278
Uncontrolled Keywords: ageing,executive functions,feature vs. conjunction search,Phenylketonuria,serial vs. parallel search,speed of processing,Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology,General Medicine,Experimental and Cognitive Psychology,Developmental and Educational Psychology,Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous),Cognitive Neuroscience
Publication ISSN: 1464-0627
Last Modified: 03 Oct 2024 07:15
Date Deposited: 27 Jul 2017 12:35
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2018-05-19
Published Online Date: 2017-06-20
Accepted Date: 2017-04-10
Submitted Date: 2016-09-28
Authors: Romani, Cristina (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-5693-4131)
MacDonald, Anita
de Felice, Sara
Palermo, Liana (ORCID Profile 0000-0001-8047-7201)

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