Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

A PDE10A inhibitor may also have the potential to treat the cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. The principal evidence for this claim is papaverine reversal of a PCP-induced deficit in the EDID-set shifting assay in rats [35]. This assay translates into human behavior in the form of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). EDID-set shifting is a test of executive function, a measure in which schizophrenics have a robust deficit. It has also been shown recently that papaverine is efficacious in the Novel Object Recognition cognition assay [36]. 

Heaton, R. K., Chelune, G. J., Talley, J. L., Kay, G. G., Curtiss, G. (1993). Wisconsin Card Sorting Test Manual Expanded and revised. Odessa, FL Psychological Assessment Resources. 

Finally, there is evidence that blood flow is reduced in schizophrenics, particularly to the frontal lobes, and that glucose metabolism, as measured by positron emission tomography, is reduced in the same area. This is particularly evident when a patient is stimulated with a mental task that induces frontal lobe activity, such as the Wisconsin Card Sort Test. 

Roberts AC, Desalvia MA, Wilkinson LS, Collins P, Muir JL, et al. 1994. 6-Hydroxydopamine lesions of the prefrontal cortex in monkeys enhance performance on an analog of the Wisconsin card sort test Possible interactions with subcortical dopamine. J Neurosci 14 2531-2544. 

NAA levels in DLPFC of patients correlated with activation of DLPFC, TL and inferior parietal cortex during Wisconsin Card Sort Test no correlation in the ACC and STG 4 NAA/Cre in Flippo region and DLPFC of patients no differences in the thalamus, putamen, occipital cortex, ACC, posterior cingulate, prefrontal WM or STG 4 NAA/Cre and NAA/CFIO in Flippo region and DLPFC of patients, no differences found in the thalamus, putamen,... 

High-energy phosphates in the frontal lobe correlate with Wisconsin card sort test performance in controls, not in schizophrenics A 31phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopic and neuropsychological investigation. Schizophr Res 31 37-47. 

In a 7-month open study 39 patients (mean age 52 years 26% men) taking olanzapine (mean dose 15 mg/ day) had limited non-significant improvement in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test for cognitive assessment (48). The following adverse events were considered to have been treatment-related weight gain (n = 6), extrapyramidal disorders (n = 2), and increased appetite, weakness, and confusion (n = 1 each). 

In human prefrontal patients, a striking experimental demonstration of working memory disruption due to dorsolateral damage is the Wisconsin Card sorting Test, here described by Dudai ... 

Heaton RK (1981) Wisconsin Card Sort Test Manual. Odessa, EL Psychological Assessment Resources. 

Neuropsychological tests considered to be particularly sensitive to prefrontal cortical functioning - such as the tests of motor planning, visual search, and verbal fluency the Tower of Hanoi the Stroop Color World Test and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test-havebeen used to test this hypothesis. Diamond etal. (1994) reported that early and continuously treated children (with blood phenylalanine levels... 

Volz et al (1997) studied brain activation during the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) by using functional MRI. In healthy volunteers WCST stimulation resulted... 

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