COVID-19 is an airway disease that also affects the nervous system. 1 Therefore, neurological and neurocognitive symptoms may be a part of the postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) syndrome. PASC may be found to affect a high proportion of people who had mild cases of COVID-19, and there is an urgent need for a detailed description of PASC in nonhospitalized patients. 2,3 This cohort study examines self-reported memory problems 8 months after COVID-19 infection. MethodsThis cohort study was approved by the Regional Research Ethics Committee according to the Declaration of Helsinki. Eligible participants provided informed consent by signing an online electronic consent form and completing an online baseline questionnaire and follow-up questionnaires. This study used the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) reporting guideline.We followed a cohort of 13 001 adults who were invited after (1) having their clinical specimen analyzed for SARS-CoV-2 at 4 large accredited laboratories in Norway or (2) being randomly selected from the Norwegian population (untested). All adults who were tested for COVID between February Author affiliations and article information are listed at the end of this article.

Binge drinking leads to brain damage. However, at present few studies have taken into account the continuity in the binge drinking phenomenon, and treated binge drinking as a clearly separable category from other types of drinking patterns. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether severity of binge drinking can predict specific neurocognitive changes in healthy young adults. A total of 121 students aged 18 to 25 were assessed by means of the three last questions of the Alcohol Use Questionnaire combined into binge score. The binge score was entered as a predictor of cognitive performance of the CANTAB Stop Signal Task including reaction time, inhibition processing time, and response adjustment. Anxiety and depression symptoms were also measured. Binge score significantly predicted less adjustment following failures, and faster reaction times. Binge score did not predict inhibition performance. Symptoms of depression and anxiety were not significantly related to binge score. Binge drinking in healthy young adults predicts impairment in response adjustment and fast reaction time, but is unrelated to inhibition. The study supports the view that binge drinking is a continuous phenomenon, rather than discrete category, and the findings are possibly shedding light on why binge drinkers continue their drinking pattern despite negative consequences. (JINS, 2016, 22, 38-46).

BackgroundImpulsive binge drinking is a serious public health issue, and to reveal predisposing factors to this consumption pattern is, therefore, required. Impulsivity-related traits are important predictors of alcohol use and abuse. Nonetheless, previous research in binge drinking has been confounded by various definitions and cut-off scores, implying that existing studies contributed to limited comprehension on the specific role of different impulsivity facets. The current study thus disentangles the role of impulsivity facets in binge drinking by adopting a dimensional approach, considering the condition on a continuum, to avoid relying on debatable and non-definitive criteria.Methods162 students underwent assessment of alcohol consumption, including drinking patterns and impulsive traits, as captured in the UPPS-P framework (i.e., negative urgency, positive urgency, sensation seeking, lack of perseverance, lack of premeditation). Multiple regression analyses were utilized in order to investigate the predictive role of each impulsivity facet in binge drinking.ResultsBinge drinking was associated with sensation seeking. However, when statistically controlling for gender, age and global alcohol consumption, this effect disappeared, and negative urgency remained the only impulsivity component that significantly predicted binge drinking.ConclusionWe found the severity of binge drinking to be associated with negative urgency, suggesting that the binge drinking pattern is displayed in reaction to negative emotional states, and can be conceptualized as a maladaptive and short-term emotional coping. The study calls for prevention and treatment interventions designed to improve self-control, and more adaptive emotion regulation strategies.

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Serotoninergic transmission is reliably implicated in inhibitory control processes. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis if serotonin transporter polymorphisms mediate inhibitory control in healthy people. 141 healthy subjects, carefully screened for previous and current psychopathology, were genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR and rs25531 polymorphisms. Inhibitory control was ascertained with the Stop Signal Task (SST) from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). The triallelic gene model, reclassified and presented in a biallelic functional model, revealed a dose-dependent gene effect on SST performance with Individuals carrying the low expressive allele had inferior inhibitory control compared to high expressive carriers. This directly implicates serotonin transporter polymorphisms (5-HTTLPR plus rs25531) in response inhibition in healthy subjects.

Background: Impairments in executive functions (EFs) are related to binge drinking in young adulthood, but research on how EFs influence future binge drinking is lacking. The aim of the current report is therefore to investigate the association between various EFs and later severity of, and change in, binge drinking over a prolonged period during young adulthood.Methods: At baseline, 121 students reported on their alcohol habits (Alcohol use disorder identification test; Alcohol use questionnaire). Concurrently, EFs [working memory, reversal, set-shifting, response inhibition, response monitoring and decision-making (with ambiguity and implicit risk)] were assessed. Eighteen months later, information on alcohol habits for 103 of the participants were gathered. Data were analyzed by means of multilevel regression modeling.Results: Future severity of binge drinking was uniquely predicted by performance on the Information sampling task, assessing risky decision-making (β = -1.86, 95% CI: -3.69, -0.04). None of the study variables predicted severity or change in binge drinking.Conclusion: Future severity of binge drinking was associated with making risky decisions in the prospect for gain, suggesting reward hypersensitivity. Future studies should aim at clarifying whether there is a causal association between decision-making style and binge drinking. Performance on all executive tasks was unrelated to change in binge drinking patterns; however, the finding was limited by overall small changes, and needs to be confirmed with longer follow-up periods.

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Depression is a common illness which tends to have a relapsing progression. Revealing vulnerability factors is an important step towards improved treatment and prevention. Previous studies of individuals in remission indicate that inhibitory control is more strongly impaired than other cognitive functions. Studies have mostly used Stroop tasks; it is unclear how this population performs on other measures of inhibition. Abnormal reactions to errors may also promote depression relapse, but this has rarely been studied in remitted depression. We used a Stop Signal task and Stroop inhibition task to investigate inhibitory function and post-error reaction time adjustments in 54 individuals with a history of depression and 185 never-depressed controls. Inhibitory processing was slower among the remitted depressed individuals on the Stop Signal task, but no difference was found in Stroop inhibition. The groups were not different on post-error adjustments. This finding extends the understanding of inhibitory deficiency in this population and offers insight into trait markers of depression.