Objective
Dysregulated children experience significant impairment in regulating their affect, behavior, and cognitions and are at risk for numerous adverse sequelae. The unclear phenomenology of their symptoms presents a barrier to evidence-based diagnosis and treatment.
Method
The cognitive, behavioral, and psychophysiological mechanisms of dysregulation were examined in a mixed clinical and community sample of 294 children ages 7-17 using the Research Domain Criteria constructs of cognitive control and frustrative nonreward.
Results
Results showed that caregivers of dysregulated children viewed them as having many more problems with everyday executive function than children with moderate or low levels of psychiatric symptoms; however, during standardized assessments of more complex cognitive control tasks, performance of dysregulated children differed only from children with low symptoms on tests of cognitive flexibility. In addition, when frustrated, dysregulated children performed more poorly on the Go/No-Go Task and demonstrated less autonomic flexibility as indexed by low respiratory sinus arrhythmia and pre-ejection period scores.
Conclusion
The findings of this study suggest that autonomic inflexibility and impaired cognitive function in the context of frustration may be mechanisms underlying childhood dysregulation.

What can a speech reveal about someone’s state? We tested the idea that greater stress reactivity would relate to lower linguistic cognitive complexity while speaking. In Study 1, we tested whether heart rate and emotional stress reactivity to a stressful discussion would relate to lower linguistic complexity. In Studies 2 and 3, we tested whether a greater cortisol response to a standardized stressful task including a speech (Trier Social Stress Test) would be linked to speaking with less linguistic complexity during the task. We found evidence that measures of stress responsivity (emotional and physiological) and chronic stress are tied to variability in the cognitive complexity of speech. Taken together, these results provide evidence that our individual experiences of stress or “stress signatures”—how our body and mind react to stress both in the moment and over the longer term—are linked to how complex our speech under stress.

This pilot study attempted to study the applicability of neurofeedback for elderly persons living in nursing homes. We hypothesized an improve of cognitive functioning and the independence in daily life (IDL) of elderly people by using low beta (12-15HZ) EEG neurofeedback training (E-NFT). The participants (active E-NFT group, n=10; control group, n=6) were community living elderly women without dementia. Neurofeedback training was adjusted ten times within 9 weeks, with a training duration of 21 minutes by use of a single electrode, which was centrally placed on the skull surface. Executive functioning (measured with the Rey and fluency tasks), memory capacity (measured with the 15 words test), and IDL (measured with the Groningen Activity Restriction Scale) were measured before and after ten E-NFT sessions in nine weeks. No effects were found for IDL nor executive functioning. Interestingly, performance on the memory test improved in the experimental group, indicating a possible positive effect of E-NFT on memory in elderly women. This study demonstrates that E-NFT is applicable to older institutionalized women. The outcome of this pilot-study justifies the investigation of possible memory effects in future studies.

INTRODUCTION Disrupted rest-activity rhythms (RARs) have been linked to poorer cognitive function and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) biomarkers. Here we extend this work to midlife women, who commonly experience menopause-related sleep and cognitive problems. METHODS One hundred ninety-four postmenopausal participants underwent a neuropsychological evaluation, 72 h of wrist actigraphy generating RAR variables, and a blood draw to measure AD biomarkers: phosphorylated tau (p-tau181, p-tau231) and amyloid beta (Aβ40, Aβ42). RESULTS Lower interdaily stability (IS) and relative amplitude (RA) and higher interdaily variability (IV) and least active 5 h (L5) were associated with worse processing speed, independent of sleep. Adjustment for sleep significantly attenuated the associations of RA with memory. Lower RA was associated with higher p-tau231 level, independent of sleep. Further adjustment for menopause-related factors modestly accounted for the associations between RAR, cognitive measures, and AD biomarkers. DISCUSSION Weaker RAR, particularly RA, was associated with worse cognitive functions, and higher AD biomarkers levels, possibly linking RAR with AD pathology in women. Highlights Lower rhythm stability and robustness and higher fragmentation were associated with worse processing speed. Lower robustness was associated with higher levels of phosphorylated tau-231. Menopause factors did not attenuate the association between rest-activity rhythms and cognitive function.