Contrast Sensitivity Mediated by Inferred Magno- and Parvocellular Pathways in Type 2 Diabetics with and without Nonproliferative Retinopathy

PURPOSE. To evaluate achromatic contrast sensitivity (CS) with magnocellular-(M) and parvocellular-(P) probing stimuli in type 2 diabetics, with (DR) or without (NDR) nonproliferative retinopathy. METHODS. Inferred M-and P-dominated responses were assessed with a modified version of the steady-/pulsed-pedestal paradigm (SP/PP) applied in 26 NDR (11 male; mean age, 55 +/- 9 years; disease duration, 5 +/- 4 years); 19 DR (6 male; mean age, 58 +/- 7 years; disease duration = 9 +/- 6 years); and 18 controls (CTRL; 12 male; mean age, 55 +/- 10 years). Thresholds were measured with pedestals at 7, 12, and 19 cd/m(2), and increment durations of 17 and 133 ms. The thresholds from the two stimulus durations were used to estimate critical durations (Tc) for each data set. RESULTS. Both DR and NDR patients had significant reduction in CS in both SP and PP paradigms in relation to CTRL (Kruskal-Wallis, P < 0.01). Patients` critical duration estimates for either paradigm were not significantly different from CTRL. CONCLUSIONS. The significant reduction of CS in both paradigms is consistent with losses of CS in both M and P pathways. The CS losses were not accompanied by losses in temporal processing speed in either diabetic group. Significant CS loss in the group without retinopathy reinforces the notion that neural changes associated with the cellular and functional visual loss may play an important role in the etiology of diabetic visual impairment. In addition, the results show that the SP/PP paradigm provides an additional tool for detection and characterization of the early functional damage due to diabetes. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2011; 52:1151-1155) DOI:10.1167/iovs.09-3705

The effect of overweight/obesity on cognitive function in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder

Background. - Persistent impairment in cognitive function has been described in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder. Collective work indicates that obesity is associated with reduced cognitive function in otherwise healthy individuals. This sub-group post-hoc analysis preliminarily explores and examines the association between overweight/obesity and cognitive function in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder. Methods. - Euthymic adults with DSM-IV-TR-defined bipolar I or II disorder were enrolled. Subjects included in this post-hoc analysis (n = 67) were divided into two groups (normal weight, body mass index [BMI] of 18.5-24.9 kg/m(2); overweight/obese, BMI >= 25.0 kg/m(2)). Demographic and clinical information were obtained at screening. At baseline, study participants completed a comprehensive cognitive battery to assess premorbid IQ, verbal learning and memory, attention and psychomotor processing speed, executive function, general intellectual abilities, recollection and habit memory, as well as self-perceptions of cognitive failures. Results. - BMI was negatively correlated with attention and psychomotor processing speed as measured by the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (P < 0.01). Overweight and obese bipolar individuals had a significantly lower score on the Verbal Fluency Test when compared to normal weight subjects (P < 0.05). For all other measures of cognitive function, non-significant trends suggesting a negative association with BMI were observed, with the exception of measures of executive function (i.e. Trail Making Test B) and recollection memory (i.e. process-dissociation task). Conclusion. - Notwithstanding the post-hoc methodology and relatively small sample size, the results of this study suggest a possible negative effect of overweight/obesity on cognitive function in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder. Taken together, these data provide the impetus for more rigorous evaluation of the mediational role of overweight/obesity (and other medical co-morbidity) on cognitive function in psychiatric populations. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Sistemi riconfigurabili a basso consumo per applicazioni di monitoraggio distribuito

The term Ambient Intelligence (AmI) refers to a vision on the future of the information society where smart, electronic environment are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people and their activities (Context awareness). In an ambient intelligence world, devices work in concert to support people in carrying out their everyday life activities, tasks and rituals in an easy, natural way using information and intelligence that is hidden in the network connecting these devices. This promotes the creation of pervasive environments improving the quality of life of the occupants and enhancing the human experience. AmI stems from the convergence of three key technologies: ubiquitous computing, ubiquitous communication and natural interfaces. Ambient intelligent systems are heterogeneous and require an excellent cooperation between several hardware/software technologies and disciplines, including signal processing, networking and protocols, embedded systems, information management, and distributed algorithms. Since a large amount of fixed and mobile sensors embedded is deployed into the environment, the Wireless Sensor Networks is one of the most relevant enabling technologies for AmI. WSN are complex systems made up of a number of sensor nodes which can be deployed in a target area to sense physical phenomena and communicate with other nodes and base stations. These simple devices typically embed a low power computational unit (microcontrollers, FPGAs etc.), a wireless communication unit, one or more sensors and a some form of energy supply (either batteries or energy scavenger modules). WNS promises of revolutionizing the interactions between the real physical worlds and human beings. Low-cost, low-computational power, low energy consumption and small size are characteristics that must be taken into consideration when designing and dealing with WSNs. To fully exploit the potential of distributed sensing approaches, a set of challengesmust be addressed. Sensor nodes are inherently resource-constrained systems with very low power consumption and small size requirements which enables than to reduce the interference on the physical phenomena sensed and to allow easy and low-cost deployment. They have limited processing speed,storage capacity and communication bandwidth that must be efficiently used to increase the degree of local ”understanding” of the observed phenomena. A particular case of sensor nodes are video sensors. This topic holds strong interest for a wide range of contexts such as military, security, robotics and most recently consumer applications. Vision sensors are extremely effective for medium to long-range sensing because vision provides rich information to human operators. However, image sensors generate a huge amount of data, whichmust be heavily processed before it is transmitted due to the scarce bandwidth capability of radio interfaces. In particular, in video-surveillance, it has been shown that source-side compression is mandatory due to limited bandwidth and delay constraints. Moreover, there is an ample opportunity for performing higher-level processing functions, such as object recognition that has the potential to drastically reduce the required bandwidth (e.g. by transmitting compressed images only when something ‘interesting‘ is detected). The energy cost of image processing must however be carefully minimized. Imaging could play and plays an important role in sensing devices for ambient intelligence. Computer vision can for instance be used for recognising persons and objects and recognising behaviour such as illness and rioting. Having a wireless camera as a camera mote opens the way for distributed scene analysis. More eyes see more than one and a camera system that can observe a scene from multiple directions would be able to overcome occlusion problems and could describe objects in their true 3D appearance. In real-time, these approaches are a recently opened field of research. In this thesis we pay attention to the realities of hardware/software technologies and the design needed to realize systems for distributed monitoring, attempting to propose solutions on open issues and filling the gap between AmI scenarios and hardware reality. The physical implementation of an individual wireless node is constrained by three important metrics which are outlined below. Despite that the design of the sensor network and its sensor nodes is strictly application dependent, a number of constraints should almost always be considered. Among them: • Small form factor to reduce nodes intrusiveness. • Low power consumption to reduce battery size and to extend nodes lifetime. • Low cost for a widespread diffusion. These limitations typically result in the adoption of low power, low cost devices such as low powermicrocontrollers with few kilobytes of RAMand tenth of kilobytes of program memory with whomonly simple data processing algorithms can be implemented. However the overall computational power of the WNS can be very large since the network presents a high degree of parallelism that can be exploited through the adoption of ad-hoc techniques. Furthermore through the fusion of information from the dense mesh of sensors even complex phenomena can be monitored. In this dissertation we present our results in building several AmI applications suitable for a WSN implementation. The work can be divided into two main areas:Low Power Video Sensor Node and Video Processing Alghoritm and Multimodal Surveillance . Low Power Video Sensor Nodes and Video Processing Alghoritms In comparison to scalar sensors, such as temperature, pressure, humidity, velocity, and acceleration sensors, vision sensors generate much higher bandwidth data due to the two-dimensional nature of their pixel array. We have tackled all the constraints listed above and have proposed solutions to overcome the current WSNlimits for Video sensor node. We have designed and developed wireless video sensor nodes focusing on the small size and the flexibility of reuse in different applications. The video nodes target a different design point: the portability (on-board power supply, wireless communication), a scanty power budget (500mW),while still providing a prominent level of intelligence, namely sophisticated classification algorithmand high level of reconfigurability. We developed two different video sensor node: The device architecture of the first one is based on a low-cost low-power FPGA+microcontroller system-on-chip. The second one is based on ARM9 processor. Both systems designed within the above mentioned power envelope could operate in a continuous fashion with Li-Polymer battery pack and solar panel. Novel low power low cost video sensor nodes which, in contrast to sensors that just watch the world, are capable of comprehending the perceived information in order to interpret it locally, are presented. Featuring such intelligence, these nodes would be able to cope with such tasks as recognition of unattended bags in airports, persons carrying potentially dangerous objects, etc.,which normally require a human operator. Vision algorithms for object detection, acquisition like human detection with Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification and abandoned/removed object detection are implemented, described and illustrated on real world data. Multimodal surveillance: In several setup the use of wired video cameras may not be possible. For this reason building an energy efficient wireless vision network for monitoring and surveillance is one of the major efforts in the sensor network community. Energy efficiency for wireless smart camera networks is one of the major efforts in distributed monitoring and surveillance community. For this reason, building an energy efficient wireless vision network for monitoring and surveillance is one of the major efforts in the sensor network community. The Pyroelectric Infra-Red (PIR) sensors have been used to extend the lifetime of a solar-powered video sensor node by providing an energy level dependent trigger to the video camera and the wireless module. Such approach has shown to be able to extend node lifetime and possibly result in continuous operation of the node.Being low-cost, passive (thus low-power) and presenting a limited form factor, PIR sensors are well suited for WSN applications. Moreover techniques to have aggressive power management policies are essential for achieving long-termoperating on standalone distributed cameras needed to improve the power consumption. We have used an adaptive controller like Model Predictive Control (MPC) to help the system to improve the performances outperforming naive power management policies.

Neuropsychological problems after paediatric stroke: two year follow-up of Swiss children

AIM: The aim of this study was to obtain information about neurological and cognitive outcome for a population-based group of children after paediatric ischaemic stroke. METHODS: Data from the Swiss neuropaediatric stroke registry (SNPSR), from 1.1.2000 to 1.7.2002, including children (AIS 1) and neonates (AIS 2). At 18-24 months after a stroke, a follow-up examination was performed including a history, neurological and neuropsychological assessment. RESULTS: 33/48 children (22 AIS 1, 11 AIS 2) participated in the study. Neurological outcome was good in 16/33. After childhood stroke mean IQ levels were normal (94), but 6 children had IQ < 85 (50-82) and neuropsychological problems were present in 75%. Performance IQ (93) was reduced compared to verbal IQ (101, p = 0.121) due to problems in the domain of processing speed (89.5); auditory short-term memory was especially affected. Effects on school career were common. Outcome was worse in children after right-sided infarction. Children suffering from stroke in mid-childhood had the best prognosis. There was no clear relationship between outcome and localisation of the lesion. After neonatal stroke 7/11 children showed normal development and epilepsy indicated a worse prognosis in the remaining 4. CONCLUSION: After paediatric stroke neuropsychological problems are present in about 75% of children. Younger age at stroke as well as an emergence of epilepsy were predictors for worse prognosis.

Cognitive functioning in the schizophrenia prodrome

In the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in cognitive alterations during the early course of schizophrenia. From a clinical perspective, a better understanding of cognitive functioning in putative at-risk states for schizophrenia is essential for developing optimal early intervention models. Two approaches have more recently been combined to assess the entire course of the initial schizophrenia prodrome: the predictive "basic symptom at-risk" (BS) and the ultra high-risk (UHR) criteria. Basic symptoms are considered to be present during the entire disease progression, including the initial prodrome, while the onset of symptoms captured by the UHR criteria expresses further disease progression toward frank psychosis. The present study investigated the cognitive functioning in 93 subjects who met either BS or UHR criteria and thus were assumed to be at different points on the putative trajectory to psychosis. We compared them with 43 patients with a first episode of psychosis and to 49 help-seeking patient controls. All groups performed significantly below normative values. Both at-risk groups performed at intermediate levels between the first-episode (FE) group and normative values. The UHR group demonstrated intermediate performance between the FE and BS groups. Overall, auditory working memory, verbal fluency/processing speed, and declarative verbal memory were impaired the most. Our results suggest that cognitive impairments may still be modest in the early stages of the initial schizophrenia prodrome and thus support current efforts to intervene in the early course of impending schizophrenia because early intervention may prevent or delay the onset of frank psychosis and thus prevent further cognitive damage.

Cerebellar disorders in childhood: cognitive problems

Over the last decade, increasing evidence of cognitive functions of the cerebellum during development and learning processes could be ascertained. Posterior fossa malformations such as cerebellar hypoplasia or Joubert syndrome are known to be related to developmental problems in a marked to moderate extent. More detailed analyses reveal special deficits in attention, processing speed, visuospatial functions, and language. A study about Dandy Walker syndrome states a relationship of abnormalities in vermis lobulation with developmental problems. Further lobulation or volume abnormalities of the cerebellum and/or vermis can be detected in disorders as fragile X syndrome, Downs's syndrome, William's syndrome, and autism. Neuropsychological studies reveal a relation of dyslexia and attention deficit disorder with cerebellar functions. These functional studies are supported by structural abnormalities in neuroimaging in these disorders. Acquired cerebellar or vermis atrophy was found in groups of children with developmental problems such as prenatal alcohol exposure or extreme prematurity. Also, focal lesions during childhood or adolescence such as cerebellar tumor or stroke are related with neuropsychological abnormalities, which are most pronounced in visuospatial, language, and memory functions. In addition, cerebellar atrophy was shown to be a bad prognostic factor considering cognitive outcome in children after brain trauma and leukemia. In ataxia teleangiectasia, a neurodegenerative disorder affecting primarily the cerebellar cortex, a reduced verbal intelligence quotient and problems of judgment of duration are a hint of the importance of the cerebellum in cognition. In conclusion, the cerebellum seems to play an important role in many higher cognitive functions, especially in learning. There is a suggestion that the earlier the incorrect influence, the more pronounced the problems.

Thalamic stimulation for tremor. Subtle changes in episodic memory are related to stimulation per se and not to a microthalamotomy effect

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of unilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the ventrointermediate (Vim) thalamic nucleus on neuropsychological functioning comparing stimulation-on with stimulation-off conditions. Nine patients [five patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD), two patients with essential tremor (ET) and 2 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS)] underwent comprehensive neuropsychological testing for cognitive functions, including general mental impairment, aphasia, agnosia, executive and constructional abilities, learning, memory, cognitive processing speed and attention as well as depression. The neuropsychological assessments were performed at least 6 months postoperatively (mean 9 months). Testing in the stimulation-on and stimulation-off condition was obtained within a period of 3 to 4 weeks. Unilateral DBS resulted in improvement of tremor in all patients. There were no significant differences between the stimulation-on and the stimulation-off condition with the exception of a decrement of word-recall in the short delay free-recall subtest of the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). Subgroup analysis indicated that the impairment in word-recall was related to left-sided thalamic stimulation. Our study confirms that chronic unilateral DBS is a safe method with regard to cognitive function. The subtle changes in episodic memory are related to stimulation per se and not to a microthalamotomy effect.

Cognitive deficits after recovery from thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura

BACKGROUND: Patients with apparent complete recovery from thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) often complain of problems with memory, concentration, and fatigue. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Twenty-four patients who were enrolled in the Oklahoma TTP-HUS Registry for their initial episode of TTP, 1995-2006, and who had ADAMTS13 activity of less than 10 percent were evaluated for a broad range of cognitive functions 0.1 to 10.6 years (median, 4.0 years) after their most recent episode. At the time of their evaluation, they had normal physical and Mini-Mental State Examinations and no evidence of TTP. RESULTS: The patients, as a group, performed significantly worse on 4 of the 11 cognitive domains tested than standardized US data from neurologically normal individuals adjusted for age, sex, and education (p < 0.05). These four domains measured complex attention and concentration skills, information processing speed, rapid language generation, and rote memorization. Twenty-one (88%) patients performed below expectations on at least 1 of the 11 domains. No clear patterns were observed between cognitive test results and patients' characteristics or features of the preceding TTP, including age, occurrence of severe neurologic abnormalities, multiple episodes, and interval from an acute episode. CONCLUSION: Patients who have recovered from TTP may have persistent cognitive abnormalities. The abnormalities observed in these patients are characteristic of disorders associated with diffuse subcortical microvascular disease. Studies of larger patient groups will be required to confirm these preliminary observations and to determine patient characteristics that may contribute to persistent cognitive abnormalities.

Increased parietal activity after training of interference control

Recent studies suggest that computerized cognitive training leads to improved performance in related but untrained tasks (i.e. transfer effects). However, most study designs prevent disentangling which of the task components are necessary for transfer. In the current study, we examined whether training on two variants of the adaptive dual n-back task would affect untrained task performance and the corresponding electrophysiological event-related potentials (ERPs). Forty three healthy young adults were trained for three weeks with a high or low interference training variant of the dual n-back task, or they were assigned to a passive control group. While n-back training with high interference led to partial improvements in the Attention Network Test (ANT), we did not find transfer to measures of working memory and fluid intelligence. ERP analysis in the n-back task and the ANT indicated overlapping processes in the P3 time range. Moreover, in the ANT, we detected increased parietal activity for the interference training group alone. In contrast, we did not find electrophysiological differences between the low interference training and the control group. These findings suggest that training on an interference control task leads to higher electrophysiological activity in the parietal cortex, which may be related to improvements in processing speed, attentional control, or both.

Intelligence is related to specific processes in visual change detection: Fixed-links modeling of hit rate and reaction time

By means of fixed-links modeling, the present study identified different processes of visual short-term memory (VSTM) functioning and investigated how these processes are related to intelligence. We conducted an experiment where the participants were presented with a color change detection task. Task complexity was manipulated through varying the number of presented stimuli (set size). We collected hit rate and reaction time (RT) as indicators for the amount of information retained in VSTM and speed of VSTM scanning, respectively. Due to the impurity of these measures, however, the variability in hit rate and RT was assumed to consist not only of genuine variance due to individual differences in VSTM retention and VSTM scanning but also of other, non-experimental portions of variance. Therefore, we identified two qualitatively different types of components for both hit rate and RT: (1) non-experimental components representing processes that remained constant irrespective of set size and (2) experimental components reflecting processes that increased as a function of set size. For RT, intelligence was negatively associated with the non-experimental components, but was unrelated to the experimental components assumed to represent variability in VSTM scanning speed. This finding indicates that individual differences in basic processing speed, rather than in speed of VSTM scanning, differentiates between high- and low-intelligent individuals. For hit rate, the experimental component constituting individual differences in VSTM retention was positively related to intelligence. The non-experimental components of hit rate, representing variability in basal processes, however, were not associated with intelligence. By decomposing VSTM functioning into non-experimental and experimental components, significant associations with intelligence were revealed that otherwise might have been obscured.

The assessment of visual short-term memory in considering the underlying processes and their relation to psychometric intelligence

By means of fixed-links modeling the present study assessed processes involved in visual short-term memory functioning and investigates how these processes are related to intelligence. Using a color change detection task, short-term memory demands increased across three experimental conditions as a function of number of presented stimuli. We measured amount of information retained in visual short-term memory by hit rate as well as speed of visual short-term memory scanning by reaction time. For both measures, fixed-links modeling revealed a constant process reflecting processes irrespective of task manipulation as well as two increasing processes reflecting the increasing short-term memory demands. For visual short-term memory scanning, a negative association between intelligence and the constant process was found but no relationship between intelligence and the increasing processes. Thus, basic processing speed, rather than speed influenced by visual short-term memory demands, differentiates between high- and low-intelligent individuals. Intelligence was positively related to the experimental processes of shortterm memory retention but not to the constant process. In sum, significant associations with intelligence were only obtained when the specific processes of short-term memory were decomposed emphasizing the importance of a thorough assessment of cognitive processes when investigating their relation to intelligence.

A Stratified Model for Psychosis Prediction in Clinical Practice

Objective: Impaired cognition is an important dimension in psychosis and its at-risk states. Research on the value of impaired cognition for psychosis prediction in at-risk samples, however, mainly relies on study-specific sample means of neurocognitive tests, which unlike widely available general test norms are difficult to translate into clinical practice. The aim of this study was to explore the combined predictive value of at-risk criteria and neurocognitive deficits according to test norms with a risk stratification approach. Method: Potential predictors of psychosis (neurocognitive deficits and at-risk criteria) over 24 months were investigated in 97 at-risk patients. Results: The final prediction model included (1) at-risk criteria (attenuated psychotic symptoms plus subjective cognitive disturbances) and (2) a processing speed deficit (digit symbol test). The model was stratified into 4 risk classes with hazard rates between 0.0 (both predictors absent) and 1.29 (both predictors present). Conclusions: The combination of a processing speed deficit and at-risk criteria provides an optimized stratified risk assessment. Based on neurocognitive test norms, the validity of our proposed 3 risk classes could easily be examined in independent at-risk samples and, pending positive validation results, our approach could easily be applied in clinical practice in the future.

Apolipoprotein E genotypes and cognitive functions in healthy elderly persons

Objectives- We investigated whether apoE genotypes correlate with cognitive functions in clinically healthy persons. Methods - In 1993 and 1995, we measured information processing speed, delayed free recall and semantic aspects of long-term memory in 227 men and 105 women aged 65 and over, a randomly selected subsample of the prospective Basel Study. Cardiovascular risk factors and education were assessed. Results -E2 were more prevalent in old-old (>75 years, 23.5% vs 15%) compared to E4 than in young-old (<75 years, 19.3% vs 23.5%). Taking into account age and education, subjects with ɛ3/ɛ4 or ɛ4/ɛ4 alleles (E4) performed lowest in all 3 tests compared to those homozygous for ɛ3 (E3) or carriers of one or two ɛ2 alleles (E2) (reaction time P=0.009, free recall P=0.05, WAIS-R vocabulary P<0.05). In old-old there was a significant difference between E2 and E4 for reaction time (P=0.02) and free recall (P<0.02) but not for vocabulary (P=0.086). In all 3 groups there were no significant changes after 2 years. The subgroup with the genotype ɛ2/ɛ4 performed consistently best in the cognitive tests. Cholesterol was significantly increased in the E4 and E3 group compared to the E2 group. Conclusion - ApoE genotype correlates with cognitive performance. The increased prevalence of E2 in the old-old and the significantly lower plasma cholesterol levels suggest differential morbidity and mortality as important factors influencing the prevalence of cognitive disorders in late life.

Neuropsychological long-term sequelae after posterior fossa tumour resection during childhood

The importance of the cerebellum for non‐motor functions is becoming more and more evident. The influence on cognitive functions from acquired cerebellar lesions during childhood, however, is not well known. We present follow‐up data from 24 patients, who were operated upon during childhood for benign cerebellar tumours. The benign histology of these tumours required neither radiotherapy nor chemotherapy. Post‐operatively, these children were of normal intelligence with a mean IQ of 99.1, performance intelligence quotient (PIQ) of 101.3 and verbal intelligence quotient (VIQ) of 96.8. However, 57% of patients showed abnormalities in subtesting. In addition, more extensive neuropsychological testing revealed significant problems for attention, memory, processing speed and interference. Visuo‐constructive problems were marked for copying the Rey figure, but less pronounced for recall of the figure. Verbal fluency was more affected than design fluency. Behavioural deficits could be detected in 33% of patients. Attention deficit problems were marked in 12.5%, whereas others demonstrated psychiatric symptoms such as mutism, addiction problems, anorexia, uncontrolled temper tantrums and phobia. Age at tumour operation and size of tumour had no influence on outcome. Vermis involvement was related to an increase in neuropsychological and psychiatric problems. The observation that patients with left‐sided cerebellar tumours were more affected than patients with right‐sided tumours is probably also influenced by a more pronounced vermian involvement in the former group. In summary, this study confirms the importance of the cerebellum for cognitive development and points to the necessity of careful follow‐up for these children to provide them with the necessary help to achieve full integration into professional life.

Memory and attention problems in children with brain tumors at diagnosis

Purpose: Results from previous studies indicate that children with brain tumors (BT) might present with cognitive problems at diagnosis and thus before the start of any medical treatment. The question remains whether these problems are due to the underlying tumor itself or due to the high level of emotional and physical stress which is involved at diagnosis of a malignant disorder. All children with a de novo oncological diagnosis not involving the central nervous systems (CNS) are usually exposed to a comparable level of distress. However, patients with cancer not involving the CNS are not expected to show disease-related cognitive problems. Thus they serve as a well-balanced control group (CG) to help distinguish between the probable causes of the effect. Method: In a pilot study we analyzed an array of cognitive functions in 16 children with BT and 17 control patients. In both groups, tests were administered in-patient at diagnosis before any therapeutic intervention such as surgery, chemotherapy od irradiation. Results: Performance of children with BT was comparable to that of CG patients in the areas of intelligence, perceptual reasoning, verbal comprehension, working memory, and processing speed. In contrast, however, BT patients performded significantly worse in verbal memory and attention. Conclusion: Memory and attention seem to be the most vulnerable funstions affected by BT, with other functions being preserved at the time of diagnosis. It ist to be expected that this vulnerability might exacerbate the cognitive decline after chemotherapy and radiation treatment - known to impair intellectual performance. The findings highlight the need of early cognitive assessments in children with BT in order to introduce cognitive training as early as possible to minimize or even prevent cognitive long-term sequelae. This might improve long-term academic and professional outcome of these children, but especially helps their return to school after hospitalization.