This paper presents a review of all patients with Down syndrome seen over a 5-year period by one consultant neurologist in general outpatient and specialist cognitive function clinics. It revealed only 7 cases in greater than 4500 general referrals (= 0.2%), all referred with suspected seizure disorders. The diagnosis of epilepsy was confirmed in…

The relation between general intelligence (psychometric "g") and temporal resolution capacity of the central nervous system was examined by assessing performance on eight different temporal tasks in a sample of 100 participants. Correlational and principal component analyses suggested a unitary timing mechanism, referred to as temporal "g".…

On the basis of a review of the literature and the results of three experiments with dog experts, Robbins and McKone [Robbins, R. A., & McKone, E. (2006). No face-like processing for objects-of-expertise in three behavioural tasks, "Cognition"] argue that there is little or no evidence supporting an expertise account of the differences in…

The detection of errors is known to be associated with two successive neurophysiological components in EEG, with an early time-course following motor execution: the error-related negativity (ERN/Ne) and late positivity (Pe). The exact cognitive and physiological processes contributing to these two EEG components, as well as their functional…

Background: Developmental dyscalculia is a heterogeneous disorder with largely dissociable performance profiles. Though our current understanding of the neurofunctional foundations of (adult) numerical cognition has increased considerably during the past two decades, there are still many unanswered questions regarding the developmental pathways of…

Background: Many popular educational programmes claim to be "brain-based", despite pleas from the neuroscience community that these neuromyths do not have a basis in scientific evidence about the brain. Purpose: The main aim of this paper is to examine several of the most popular neuromyths in the light of the relevant neuroscientific and…

When serial neurocognitive assessments are performed, 2 main factors are of importance: test-retest reliability and practice effects. With children, however, there is a third, developmental factor, which occurs as a result of maturation. Child tests recognize this factor through the provision of age-corrected scaled scores. Thus, a ready-made…

Introduction: The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) provides guidelines for continuing medical education (CME) materials to mitigate problems in the independence or validity of content in certified activities; however, the process of peer review of materials appears largely unstudied and the reproducibility of…

Behavioral and electrophysiological processing of sequential tones were investigated in reading delayed (RD) and non-reading delayed (NRD) children matched on intelligence and reading level. NRD children performed consistently better on sequencing of tonal patterns. Middle latency event-related potentials from the RD group indicated reduced…

This document presents two articles on the topic of the existence of genetic predisposition for delinquent behavior. In the first article, "The Individual Offender," Richard J. Herrnstein reviews the rich and rapidly growing body of research literature on the relationship between genes and the predisposition for certain social behaviors. He makes…

Neuropsychology combines psychometrics and the study of brain processes. There are two approaches to neuropsychology. The neurologic approach uses brief tests flexibly. The psychometric approach uses standardized graded scales in a set battery. Cortical testing in the form of intellectual abilities testing is 70 years old, yet psychometric…

This experiment investigated the capability for movement and muscle spindle function at successive stages during the development of ischemic nerve block (INB) by pressure cuff. Two male subjects were observed under six randomly ordered conditions. The duration of index finger oscillation to exhaustion, paced at 1.2Hz., was observed on separate…

Described are two different statistical methods (component and discriminant analysis) used to compare electroencephalographic patterns of normal and three types of mentally retarded persons ages 7- to 41-years-old. (CL)

Evidence of a relationship between the electrical responses of the human brain and psychometric measure of intelligence is presented. These involuntary cortical responses, known as average evoked potentials are considered to be the electrical signs of information processing by the brain. The time delays of these responses from presentation of a…

The percentage of rapid eye movement (REM) during sleep is substantially greater in neonates (infants in first month after birth) than in other children or adults. It was hypothesized that REM rate may decline as rates of many response sequences do when repeatedly elicited. Electrical recordings of eye movements were obtained from a 3-day-old male…