Biomedical subjects

A Ardila

Publications and source records attributed to A Ardila.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed1999

A neuropsychological approach to intelligence.

This paper proposes that current psychometric intelligence tests are limited in evaluating cognitive activity. From a neuropsychological perspective, they fail to measure some fundamental cognitive abilities such as executive functions, memory, and visuospatial abilities. The analysis of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale presented shows that the original rationale for selecting the specific subtests included in the WAIS was unclear. The concept of a g factor in cognition is also analyzed, with the conclusion that the g factor continues to be controversial. The value of intelligence tests in predicting school performance is also criticized. It is proposed that the psychometric concept of general intelligence should be deleted from cognitive and neurological sciences. Finally, it is proposed that, in the future, neuropsychological instruments sensitive to more specific cognitive abilities replace current psychometric intelligence tests.

Cognition↗

PubMed1999

Prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms in 4- to 17-year-old children in the general population.

The purposes of this study were (a) to estimate the prevalence of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) symptoms in the general preschool and school population; and (b) to analyze the influence of gender, age, and socioeconomic status (SES) variables on AD/HD symptoms. Out of the 80,000 preschool and schoolchildren living in Manizales, Colombia, a random sample of 540 children was selected. Two gender, three age (4- to 5-year olds, 6- to 11-year olds, and 12- to 17-year olds), and three SES (low, middle, and high) groups were used. The 18 DSM-IV symptoms corresponding to AD/HD Criterion A were assessed on a scale of 0 (never) to 3 (almost always). All three demographic variables established statistically significant differences: AD/HD symptoms were more frequent in 6- to 11-year-old, low-SES, male participants. DSM-IV Criterion A for AD/HD was fulfilled by 19.8% of the boys and 12.3% of the girls. However, this difference was marginally significant only in the AD/HD Subtype I: Combined. It was concluded that demographic variables are significant correlates of the AD/HD diagnosis. The prevalence found in this study was higher than usually reported, even though only the symptomatic DSM-IV AD/HD criterion was analyzed. We failed to confirm the assumed AD/HD gender ratio.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Spanish applications of Luria's assessment methods.

Luria's neuropsychology has been particularly influential in the Spanish-speaking world. Its impact is observed with regard to not only assessment, but also rehabilitation, and, especially, neuropsychological theorization. In this article, Luria's approach to neuropsychological assessment is examined. A distinction between Luria's neuropsychological tests and Luria's neuropsychological approach is introduced. It is pointed out that, according to Luria, the specific tests used in the neuropsychological assessment are secondary; the theory supporting the neuropsychological testing is of primary importance. The development of neuropsychology in the Spanish-speaking world is briefly presented, and the use of Luria's neuropsychological assessment procedures in Latin America and Spain is analyzed. Finally, neo-Lurianism in the Spanish-speaking world is considered.

Brain↗

PubMed1999

The future of neuropsychology with Hispanic populations in the United States.

This article discusses neuropsychology within the Spanish-speaking world; it reviews its recent history, existing efforts, and future directions. It also addresses the practice of neuropsychology with Hispanics in the United States and posits that it should take into account the heterogeneity of this population (the largest minority group in the country). Hispanic heterogeneity includes, among other variables, ethnicity, language, acculturation, age and education. Data from current research suggest that these are relevant variables affecting the psychometrics of cognition and therefore, the practice of neuropsychology with this population. Suggestions for future research are also addressed.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1998

Toward a model of neuropsychological activity.

The main purpose of this research was to establish the intercorrelations existing among different psychological and neuropsychological test scores in a normal and homogeneous population. A second purpose was to attempt further step in the component analysis of cognitive activity measured by means of neuropsychological tests. A comprehensive neuropsychological test battery was assembled and individually administered to a 300-subject sample, aged 17-25 year-old. All of them were right-handed male university students. The battery included some basic neuropsychological tests directed to assess language, calculation abilities, spatial cognition, praxic abilities, memory, perceptual abilities, and executive functions. In addition, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale was administered. Forty-one different scores were calculated. Correlations among the different test scores were analyzed. It was found that some of the tests presented a quite complex intecorrelation system, whereas other tests presented few or no significant correlations. Mathematical ability tests and orthography knowledge represented the best predictors of Full Scale IQ. A factor analysis with varimax rotation disclosed five factors (verbal, visuoperceptual, executive function, fine movements, and memory) accounting for 63.6% of the total variance. Implications of these results for a neuropsychological model about brain organization of cognition were analyzed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Neuropsychological test performance in illiterate subjects.

The purpose of this study was to further analyze the effects of education across different age ranges on neuropsychological test performance. Two different analyses were performed. The first analysis was conducted in order to pinpoint the impact of school attendance on neuropsychological testing. A group of 64 illiterate normal subjects was selected in the Mexican Republic. Their performance was compared with two barely schooled control groups (1-2 and 3-4 years of schooling). The subjects' ages ranged from 16 to 85 years. In the second analysis, the illiterate subjects were further matched by age and sex with individuals with 1 to 4, 5 to 9, and 10 to 19 years of formal education. The Spanish version of the NEUROPSI neuropsychological test battery (Ostrosky, Ardila, & Rosselli, 1997) was used. Results indicated a significant educational effect on most of the tests. Largest educational effect was noted in constructional abilities (copying of a figure), language (comprehension), phonological verbal fluency, and conceptual functions (similarities, calculation abilities, and sequences). Aging effect was noted in visuoperceptual (visual detection) and memory scores. In the first subject sample, it was evident that, despite using such limited educational range (from 0-4 years of formal education), and such a wide age range (from 16-85 years), schooling represented a stronger variable than age. It is proposed that education effect on neuropsychological test performance represents a negatively accelerated curve, tending to a plateau.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1998

A note of caution: normative neuropsychological test performance: effects of age, education, gender and ethnicity: a comment on Saykin et al. (1995).

Recently Saykin et at. (1995), departing from their results in a sample of normal individuals, concluded that, "Demographic factors infrequently account for more than 10% of the variance for many neuropsychological teat scores" (p. 79). In this short article it is pointed out that their results have to be interpreted with extreme caution, because the education and age ranges they used are not valid to analyze the education and age effects on neuropsychological test performance. Educational effect does not represent a linear effect; rather, it represents a kind of negatively accelerated curve, and age effect becomes evident only in a population older than the sample they have selected.

Comment↗

PubMed1998

Memory abilities during normal aging.

One hundred and five normal subjects from 20 to 89 years old, and with a minimum of six years of formal education were selected. Subjects were divided into seven age ranges, with 15 subjects in each group. The following tests were individually administered: (1) Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) (Wechsler, 1945); (2) Serial Verbal Learning (Ardila, Rosselli & Puente, 1994; Ardila & Ostrosky, 1991); (3) The Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) (Osterrieth, 1944) (copy, immediate, and delayed reproduction); (4) Corsi's blocks (Milner, 1971) (forwards and backwards); and (5) Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (Wilson, Cockburn, & Baddeley, 1985). This last test may be considered as a functional or ecological memory test. All test scores declined across ages between 4.1% and 76.6%. In all the tests, excepting Digits, standard deviations increased with age. It was observed that the youngest subjects could retain about three-fourths of the information presented, whereas the oldest retained around one-third of this information. About half of the test significantly correlated with the Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test. A factor analysis revealed four different factors accounting for 63.3% of the variance. A single nonverbal memory factor accounted for over 40% of the variance.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Arithmetical abilities in Alzheimer disease.

The purpose of this research was to analyze the calculation abilities in Alzheimer Disease (AD). Twenty right-handed patients meeting the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria for AD were studied. Age ranged from 64- to 88-year-old. A neuropsychological test battery including language, memory, constructional abilities, attention, mathematics, and abstraction tests was administered. In addition, the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) (Folstein, Folstein, McHugh, 1975) was also administered. Mathematical subtests correlated higher than the MMSE with the scores in the different neuropsychological tests. Highest correlations of the mathematical subtests were observed with language repetition, non-verbal memory, and attention tasks. It is proposed that mathematical ability tests represent in AD an excellent predictor of general intellectual performance. It is further proposed that disturbances in arithmetical ability should be included as a diagnostic criteria for AD.

Aged↗

PubMed1998

Executive dysfunctions in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

One hundred and twenty-four male children ranging in age from seven to 12 years-old were selected. The sample was divided into two groups: (1) sixty-two with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children; and (2) sixty-two normal matched controls (N-ADHD). Three tests were individually administered: (1) Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST); (2) Verbal fluency and semantics (animals and fruits); and, (3) Picture Arrangement subtest of the WISC-R. For all the test scores, statistically significant differences were found between both ADHD and N-ADHD groups. Two separate factor analyses were performed, using the normal and ADHD groups. Four factors were found for the N-ADHD group, which accounted for 85.7% of the variance. The factor structure presented some similarities in both groups: Factor 2, 3 and 4 in the control group corresponded to factors 1, 2 and 3 in the ADHD group. Nonetheless, in the ADHD group Factor 1 (Abstraction and Flexibility Factor) was absent. Results are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis of executive dysfunction in children with ADHD.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗

PubMed1998

Individual differences in memory and executive function abilities during normal aging.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of some individual variables on memory and executive function test performance in normal aging individuals. Sixty subjects (21 males and 39 females), with a mean age of 69.66 (SD = 7.09) were selected. The following neuropsychological tests were selected. The following neuropsychological tests were administered: Associative Learning and Logical Memory from the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) (Wechsler, 1945), Associative Memory with Semantic Enhancement Test (AMSET) (Pineda, Galeano and Giraldo, 1991), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WSCT) (Heaton, 1981), and Verbal Fluency (phonologic and semantic). The effects of demographic (age, education, and sex) and some individual variables (academic history, working history, physical activity, and leisure activities) were measured. Age and education effects on test scores were observed, but no sex effect was found. Working history and leisure activities established significant differences in some test scores. A multiple regression analysis was performed. Not only demographic variables, but also individual variables were associated with memory, and albeit at a lesser extend, with executive function test scores. It was emphasized that not only demographic factors, but also individual variables have a significant effect on cognitive changes observed during normal aging.

Aged↗

PubMed1998

[Variability of the Boston test for the diagnosis of aphasia in active working adults].

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of age, gender, socioeconomic status (SES), academic achievement (education), and type of occupation, on the performance of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE) Spanish version. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The BDAE was administered to a group of 156, 19 to 60 years old, occupationally active normal subjects. RESULTS: A descriptive analysis showed that some subjects (1 to 3%) scored in the pathological range of the centiles and profiles of the BDAE. A MANOVA (p < 0.05) demonstrated a significant effect of education over most of the BDAE subtests. Females outperformed males on some reading and writing subtests. SES had an effect over body part identification and naming. Significant differences were observed between younger and middle age groups in confrontation naming, oral and word picture reading. The older group scored significantly lower than the younger group in serial writing and sentences to dictation. No differences were observed between the older and the middle groups. Only oral spelling was affected by the type of occupation but a significant interaction of occupation and level of education was found. CONCLUSIONS: Language tests are influenced by demographic variables, particularly education. Normal variability on the BDAE should be considered when dealing with clinical populations.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Specific learning disabilities: a neuropsychological perspective.

A dispersion in cognitive abilities is expected in normal populations. Specific learning disabilities would represent an extreme polarity in a continuum of normal cognitive dispersion. Three propositions relative to learning disabilities are advanced in the present paper. First, specific learning disabilities are expected to be found for diverse cognitive functions, even though some of these specific learning disorders have yet to be described in scientific literature. Second, it is noted that specific "factors" can be affected in cases of learning disabilities. Lastly, a parallel between focal neuropsychological syndromes and specific learning disabilities is proposed. Developmental learning difficulties would represent dysfunctional or dysmaturational defects; whereas neuropsychological syndromes represent a consequence of acquired structural brain pathology.

Dyslexia↗

PubMed1997

Alexia and agraphia in posterior cortical atrophy.

A 65-year-old woman with progressive visuospatial dysfunction for 2 years complained of later-onset associated memory impairment. MRI revealed diffuse cerebrocortical atrophy, which was especially severe in both parieto-occipital regions but spared the calcarine and pericalcarine cortices. Examination 5 years after onset revealed left visual hemi-neglect, oculomotor apraxia, optic ataxia, simultanagnosia, verbal alexia, lexical and spatial agraphia, and anterograde amnesia. This patient's disorder is considered in the context of previous reports on the array of cognitive disturbances associated with posterior cortical atrophy (pCA). Special emphasis is made on her reading and writing disturbances, because their prevalence and range of individual variability have not been established in pCA. This array of neuropsychological manifestations may help to distinguish among different clinical and etiological types of pCA, and to elucidate the pathophysiology of a syndrome that has been associated with conditions as diverse as Alzheimer's disease, subcortical gliosis, and prion diseases. The parameters described in our case may thus help to address these issues in clinico-pathological studies with large numbers of patients with pCA.

Aged↗

PubMed1996

Cognitive effects of cocaine and polydrug abuse.

One hundred and eighty-three participants were divided into three groups containing: 61 cocaine-dependent; 59 polydrug-dependent; and 63 normal subjects. All were evaluated using a basic neuropsychological assessment battery. The dependent groups exhibited significantly lower scores on short-term memory, attention, and concept formation tests. Performance on some subtests correlated negatively with the length of dependency and frequency of substance use. As compared with the control group, the dependent groups exhibited significant differences in the following personal and family areas: (a) depression and anxiety traits; (b) self-aggression and lack of fear in childhood; (c) family history of substance dependency; and (d) difficulties with interpersonal relationships. The operation of predisposing developmental factors for substance dependence is suggested.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Spontaneous language production and aging: sex and educational effects.

Sex and educational level effects on spontaneous language production at different ages were analyzed in a 180-normal subject sample taken from the general population. Subjects were divided into groups according to three variables: (1) age (16-30, 31-50, and 51-65 years), (2) educational level (3-7, 8-12 and more than 12 years of formal educational), and (3) sex (males and females) with 10 subjects in each cell. The oral description of the Plate #1 ("The Cookie Theft") from the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (Goodglass & Kaplan, 1972) was selected. Number of nouns, verbs, adjectives and grammatical connectors were scored for each subject's picture description. It was concluded that: (1) the ratio among different phrase elements was very uniform across age, educational level and sex groups; (2) the total number of words used to describe the "The Cookie Theft" picture significantly increased with the subject's educational level; (3) the amount of spontaneous language in general decreased with age; however, a significant interaction-effect between age and sex was observed. A steady and pronounced spontaneous language decrease across age-groups was observed in males. However, only mild differences across age-groups were observed in female subjects. It was hypothetized that language changes during aging are strongly sex-dependent: while in men spontaneous language rapidly decreases with aging, in women spontaneous language production remains quite well-preserved.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1995

Directions of research in cross-cultural neuropsychology.

Comparable cognitive disturbances associated with brain pathology have similar manifestations across members of the human species. However, cognitive abilities measured by neuropsychological tests represent, at least in their contents, culturally learned abilities. Performance is under the influence of a vast array of moderating variables, including: culture, ecological demands, primary language, and educational level. Test scores are associated therefore, not only with the subject's learning opportunities, but also with those variables which a culture dictates are worthy of cognitive amplification. Different cultural environmental contexts will result in the development of different patterns of abilities. The evaluation of an alien cultural group using our current neuropsychological instruments, procedures and norms, results in conceptual errors in assessment. Cross-cultural neuropsychology is in need of addressing several key focal points of neglected research: (1) the normalization of current basic neuropsychological instruments, in different cultural contexts, (2) the development of new neuropsychological instruments, appropriate for different cultural contexts, (3) the analysis of educational factors and subcultural variations in relation to test performance, (4) the analysis of cognitive disturbances in cases of brain pathology in different cultural and educational contexts, (5) the search for commonality in neuropsychological performance among existing human groups, and (6) the analysis of the origins of cognitive activity.

Cognition↗

PubMed1994

Averbia as a selective naming disorder: a single case report.

After a moderate head injury a 33-year-old woman presented a selective defect in finding verbs and name actions. Objects, colors, body parts, and qualities were named in a normal way. No other associated aphasic defects were observed. It was proposed that the selection and use of verbs in their correct forms implies two different aspects, which eventually can become dissociated: (1) the ability to retrieve the lexical item (the action name); and (2) the ability to use the correct affixation, that is, to select the morphological form according to the current context. Only the second would be associated with agrammatism. Defects in the first aspect (selection of the lexical item) would represent a particular form of anomia, a category-specific anomia, or anomia for verbs (averbia). Our patient illustrated this particular type of category-specific naming disorder.

Adult↗