Neurocognitive dysfunction is present in early BD and is clinically significant for a proportion of patients. Our findings also suggest that neurocognitive dysfunction may increase with illness progression.

The functional significance of neuropsychological impairment is discussed. Differences regarding some aspects of executive function may be related to psychomotor speed, and not primarily to dysexecutive functioning. ERP results must be interpreted with caution, but the differences found in MMN latency and amplitudes may be related to fronto-temporal circuitry underlying pre-attentive stimulus change detection as measured by MMN, and are discussed in relation to previous research on MMN in other neuropsychiatric conditions.

No abstract

This study is the first to find neurocognitive sex differences for bipolar disorder and replicated previous findings for schizophrenia. The data did not support the hypothesis that sex is a moderator between neurocognition and social functioning. Clinical implications include the use of different cognitive remediation strategies based on sex.