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PubMedDate not supplied

Age and diabetes related changes in verbal fluency.

Non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus is present in 7-10% of the aged. This disease appears to be associated with an acceleration of the aging process and results in compromised performance on learning and memory tasks. The present study used a verbal fluency test to examine semantic memory performance in two age groups (55-64 and 65-74 years) of diabetic subjects and controls. In addition, immediate and secondary memory were also examined using the digit symbol and digit span tests and a serial learning task. Results showed that digit symbol performance was poorer for older subjects and diabetics while serial learning was poorer only for diabetic subjects. However, the number of words generated on the verbal fluency test was similar for all groups. Qualitative analyses of the verbal output revealed that older subjects and diabetics produced the greatest number of previously recited words (repetitions). Repetitions may signal a failure to adequately monitor behavior which in turn could contribute to cognitive decline.

Aged↗
PubMed1987

Parkinson's disease. Cognitive changes in relation to treatment response.

Four groups of patients with Parkinson's disease matched for age, education and IQ were categorized by response to treatment and compared with a normal control group. The patient groups were (1) No Treatment (de novo); (2) Good Response (including minor fluctuations in symptoms); (3) Fluctuations (significant, including 'on-off' phenomena) and/or marked Abnormal Involuntary Movements (dyskinesias); and (4) Poor Response ('secondary treatment failure' characterized by significant deterioration over time in all major symptoms). As a previous investigation had established that neuropsychological tests thought to be sensitive to the functional integrity of the frontal lobes are selectively impaired in Parkinson's disease, the first phase of this study compared the five groups on five such tests and two tests of psychomotor ability. While all patient groups displayed deficits on the psychomotor tests and on several tests associated with frontal lobe function compared with normals, only the Poor Response group was impaired on all tasks. In a second phase, comprehensive testing of additional cognitive processes such as attention, mnemonic, and visuospatial functions, the latter two traditionally thought to depend primarily on posterior cortical regions, revealed no significant cognitive deficits in any patient group. Results are discussed with respect to the involvement of the nigrostriatal and mesocortical dopaminergic systems.

Aged↗
PubMed1979

Lateralized neuropsychological dysfunction in affective disorder and schizophrenia.

The authors compared the cognitive functioning of 22 schizophrenic patients, 105 patients with affective disorder, and 99 age-matched normal control subjects. Results of an aphasia screening test indicated that the schizophrenic patients made more total errors and more dominant temporal/temporoparietal errors than patients with affective disorders and that patients in both groups made more errors than controls. Patient sex, age, drug treatment received at test time, previous neuroleptic drug treatment, and severity of illness did not account for the differences. These findings support the validity of the authors' diagnostic research criteria and confirm prior reports of differences in dominant hemisphere dysfunction between schizophrenic patients and patients with affective disease.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

[Peculiar lexicon in hysteria].

A psycholinguistic association experiment was used to examine 19 hysterical patients with different functional-neurological motor disorders, such as unilateral or bilateral pseudopareses, pseudoataxia and 9 healthy individuals (a control group). The method included three tests: a free associative experiment and different types of the directed associative experiment (grammatically mediated or semantically mediated). According to these tests verbal activity was significantly decreased in the patients as compared with controls and patients with left-sided pseudoparesis as compared with the right-sided one. In addition, there were correlations of verbal activity with the degree of paresis (a positive correlation) and with the level of demonstrability of personality (a negative one).

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Unusual test score combinations and unusual test score differences.

Vocabulary and Abstraction scores on the Shipley Institute of Living Scale are used to illustrate the relation between unusual test score combinations and unusual test score differences. It is demonstrated that a combination of two scores can be unusual even though the corresponding difference is not and that a difference between two scores can be unusual even though the corresponding combination is not. Clinicians should be aware that although the two methods of pattern analysis generally will lead to the same conclusion, they need not do so.

Educational Measurement↗
PubMed2006

Functional imaging analysis contest (FIAC) analysis according to AFNI and SUMA.

The Functional Imaging Analysis Contest (FIAC) datasets were analyzed with the AFNI software package. Two types of linear regression analyses were carried out: "fixed shape" hemodynamic response, where a preselected incomplete gamma function is used to model each brief activation episode, and "variable shape" analysis, where the temporal shape of the response model in each stimulus block class is allowed to vary separately in each voxel. These time series regressions were carried out both in the volume and on the original data projected to individual standardized cortical surface models. Intersubject analyses were carried out voxel-wise on the regression amplitudes obtained from these time series results, using a multi-way within-subject analysis of variance (ANOVA). Group analysis of the block design demonstrated a significant repetition suppression of the BOLD signal within blocks in the superior and middle temporal gyrus. This effect may represent differences in the response to the first stimulus following a period of silence compared to the remaining sentences in the block. Analyzing the event-related data, Brodmann area 31 showed significant sentence effect and consecutive-sentence repetition effect. However, no significant speaker effect was found; these results may be consistent with the instructions to the subjects that they would be tested on the sentence content. Sentence by speaker interaction effects were found in bilateral middle temporal gyrus, left inferior frontal, and left inferior temporal gyrus.

Brain Mapping↗
PubMed2005

Self-ordered pointing in children with autism: failure to use verbal mediation in the service of working memory?

This study tested the hypothesis that children with autism are impaired in using verbal encoding and rehearsal strategies in the service of working memory. Participants were 24 high-ability, school-age children with autism and a comparison group matched on verbal and non-verbal IQ, receptive and expressive vocabulary, and visual memory. Working memory was assessed using verbal and non-verbal variants of a non-spatial, self-ordered pointing test [Petrides, M., & Milner, B. (1982). Deficits on subject-ordered tasks after frontal- and temporal-lobe lesions in man. Neuropsychologia, 20, 249-262] in which children had to point to a new stimulus in a set upon each presentation without repeating a previous choice. In the verbal condition, the stimuli were pictures of concrete, nameable objects, whereas in the non-verbal condition, the stimuli were not easily named or verbally encoded. Participants were also administered a verbal span task to assess non-executive verbal rehearsal skills. Although the two groups were equivalent in verbal rehearsal skills, the autism group performed significantly less well in the verbal, but not the non-verbal, self-ordered pointing test. These findings suggested that children with autism are deficient in the use of verbal mediation strategies to maintain and monitor goal-related information in working memory. The findings are discussed in terms of possible autistic impairments in episodic memory as well as working memory.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Role of the anterior temporal lobe in repetition and semantic priming: evidence from a patient with a category-specific deficit.

Neuroimaging studies in healthy participants have implicated anterior temporal lobe regions and the fusiform gyrus in repetition priming and semantic priming. Only the investigation of patients with selective lesions, however, can establish the necessity of these particular regions. To this end, we administered three tests of repetition priming (pseudoword identification; masked-form priming; category-exemplar generation) and a test of semantic priming to a patient (J.P.) with a category-specific deficit stemming from bilateral damage to the anterior fusiform gyrus and anterior temporal regions. On all of the repetition priming tasks, J.P. showed priming effects within 1 S.D. of 10 age- and education-matched CON; ANOVAs indicated no interaction between group and prime condition. These findings suggest that the anterior fusiform and anterior temporal lobe are not required for these priming effects. J.P. also showed normal repetition priming even for items that he had never been able to name or to provide semantic information about. On the semantic priming task, J.P. showed normal levels of priming across categories. When we separately analyzed his priming for items he could never name or access information about versus items that he had been able to name on at least two testing sessions, we found priming for the latter items, but not for the former. This result suggests that category-specific deficits resulting from damage to the anterior temporal lobes may disrupt the automatic, rapid access of semantic information of some items.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Corpus callosum atrophy, white matter lesions, and frontal executive dysfunction in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease. A community-based study: the Tajiri Project.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cerebral MRIs of normal aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD) frequently reveal corpus callosum (CC) atrophy, white matter hyperintensity (WMH), and hippocampal atrophy. However, their relationship or the relationship between these findings and cognitive function has not been fully studied. We investigated the relationship between CC atrophy, WMH, and hippocampal atrophy, together with frontal executive dysfunction in both normal aging and AD. METHOD: We examined 170 randomly selected residents from a designated community: 99 Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0 (healthy, control group, HC) participants, 54 CDR 0.5 (very mild AD) patients, and 17 CDR 1 & 2 (probable AD) patients. By means of MRI, WMH and CC atrophy were visually rated. Four portions of the CC and the hippocampal width were measured. A Mini-Mental State Examination and Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI) were performed to assess global function. For the frontal function, the CASI subitems of attention and word fluency, letter-based fluency, the Digit Symbol test of the WAIS-R, and Trail Making Tests were performed. RESULTS: Those patients with CDR 1 & 2 had both hippocampal and CC atrophy, whereas the CDR 0.5 patients had only hippocampal atrophy. Frontal executive dysfunction was associated with CC atrophy in both the HC and AD groups. Significant Spearman correlations were noted between CC atrophy and WMH in both groups. The combined effect of CC atrophy and WMH was noted only in the verbal fluency test in the HC group. CONCLUSION: In both groups, CC atrophy was associated with frontal executive dysfunction. The combined effect of CC atrophy and WMH in normal aging was probably due to subclinical ischemic conditions.

Aged↗
PubMed1982

Measurement of reading comprehension in aphasia with the RCBA.

Information is presented regarding the Reading Comprehension Battery for Aphasia (RCBA). The results of reliability and validity measures show the test to be psychometrically adequate. Multidimensional and plus-minus methods of scoring the test are equally effective, but plus-minus scoring appears to be more efficient. Order of subtest difficulty is consistent for the entire subject group and does not vary significantly for fluent and nonfluent aphasics. Finally, both auditory comprehension and overall severity of aphasia correlate significantly with reading comprehension.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Facial expressions and speechreading performance.

In the present study, the role of facial expressions in visual speechreading (lipreading) was examined. Speechreading was assessed by three different tests: sentence-based speechreading, word-decoding, and word discrimination. Twenty-seven individuals participated as subjects in the study. The results revealed that no general improvement as a function of expression was obtained across all tests. Nevertheless, skilled speechreaders could significantly improve their performance as a function of emotional expression in the word-decoding and word-discrimination conditions. Furthermore, a correlational analysis indicated that there was a significant relationship between the subjects' rating of confidence regarding their responses to each test-item and performance on speechreading tests where lexical analysis is a necessary task-demand. The results are discussed with respect to how information from facial expressions is integrated with the information given by the lip movements in visual speechreading, and also with respect to general models of face-processing (i.e., Bruce & Young, 1986; Young & Bruce, 1991).

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The supermarket test: preliminary normative data in our milieu].

INTRODUCTION: Semantic verbal fluency (SVF) tests are often used in basic neuropsychological evaluation. They are not time consuming and are easy to apply, but the normative data have been validated mainly for the Anglo-Saxon population, which can lead us to make mistakes in classifying normality. AIMS: To evaluate the category 'things you can buy at a supermarket' as a task for exploring SVF applied to a Castilian-speaking population of Spaniards with the aim of conducting a pilot normative test in our milieu. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The 'things you can buy at a supermarket' task was applied to a sample of 139 healthy subjects without cognitive impairment, whose mother tongue is Spanish. The subjects were subclassified according to their level of schooling in years, age groups and sex. RESULTS: Total mean production (1 minute) = 20.1 +/- 8. No differences were seen in the comparative analysis according to sexes. By age: < 50 years = 33 +/- 6; 50-59 = 24.6 +/- 6; 60-69 = 16.5 +/- 5; 70-79 = 15.5 +/- 6; > 79 years = 13.5 +/- 6. By years of schooling: < 10 years = 19 +/- 6; > 10 years = 29 +/- 5. CONCLUSIONS: Mean output of words is 20 in one minute, with a percentile distribution where the deficit criterion (p10) would be in an output below 10 words. Overall, greater output is observed in the first half minute. There are a number of socio-demographic factors, such as age and mean number of years of schooling, that have been proved statistically to exert an influence on semantic capacity in this test. No differences were observed according to sex. We present the mean results, as well as the overall percentile distribution and results according to age and schooling, because we think they can serve as preliminary normative data in our milieu.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1993

Confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory: two approaches for exploring measurement invariance.

This study investigated the utility of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and item response theory (IRT) models for testing the comparability of psychological measurements. Both procedures were used to investigate whether mood ratings collected in Minnesota and China were comparable. Several issues were addressed. The first issue was that of establishing a common measurement scale across groups, which involves full or partial measurement invariance of trait indicators. It is shown that using CFA or IRT models, test items that function differentially as trait indicators across groups need not interfere with comparing examinees on the same trait dimension. Second, the issue of model fit was addressed. It is proposed that person-fit statistics be used to judge the practical fit of IRT models. Finally, topics for future research are suggested.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Linguistic deficits in the acute phase of stroke.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: For the diagnosis of aphasia early after stroke, several screening tests are available to support clinical judgment. None of these tests enables the clinician to assess the underlying linguistic deficits, i. e. semantic, phonological and syntactic deficits, which provides indispensable information for early therapeutic decisions. The ScreeLing was designed as a screening test to detect semantic, phonological and syntactic deficits. The ScreeLing's sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in detecting aphasia and semantic, phonological and syntactic deficits were determined. METHODS: The ScreeLing was validated in an acute stroke population against a combined reference diagnosis of aphasia (aphasia according to at least two of the following measures:ne urologist's judgment, linguist's judgment, Tokentest-score). The three ScreeLing subtests were validated in the aphasic population against the presence or absence of a semantic, phonological and/or syntactic deficit according to an experienced clinical linguist. RESULTS: From a consecutive series of 215 stroke patients, 63 patients were included. The ScreeLing was an accurate test for the detection of aphasia (0.92),with a sensitivity of 86% and specificity of 96%. Sensitivity of subtests was 62 % for semantics, 54 % for phonology and 42 % for syntax. Specificity was 100 % for semantics and phonology and 80 % for syntax, and accuracy 0.84 for semantics, 0.87 for phonology and 0.64 for syntax. CONCLUSIONS: The ScreeLing is an accurate test that can be easily administered and scored to detect aphasia in the first weeks after stroke. Furthermore, the ScreeLing is suitable for revealing underlying linguistic deficits, especially semantic and phonological deficits.

Aged↗
PubMed1992

Discovery and expository methods in teaching visual consonant and word identification.

An experiment was conducted to examine the processes involved in lipreading as well as to investigate an optimal approach to teaching lipreading skill. We compared discovery and expository methods of learning to lip-read. Twenty-six college students with normal hearing were trained over 3 days to lip-read consonant-vowel (CV) syllables. The training material consisted of a prerecorded videotape of four different talkers. The task was a forced-choice procedure with feedback. Subjects learned with training, but there was no difference between the two learning methods. As a retention measure, subjects returned 4 weeks later and repeated the training. There were significant savings of the original learning. Three weeks after the retention phase, subjects were tested with a 10-item forced-choice monosyllabic word task. Those subjects who had extensive training on CV syllables did no better on identifying the monosyllabic words than did a control group of 9 subjects with no training. Nevertheless, performance for all three groups (discovery, expository, and no training) improved during training in the word identification task.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Parkinson's disease and depression. A critical re-evaluation.

The possibility of an 'organically' based depression intrinsic to the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease (PD) and comparable to endogenous depression (Major Depressive Episode) has been raised. It has also been argued that signs of depression observed in PD are merely the natural reaction of the patients to their progressive and inevitable physical limitations and loss of independent function. Because conventional depression rating scales are limited in scope, a psychometric investigation of depression in PD was pursued. Based on the known impairment of short-term memory (STM) in endogenous depression, which was confirmed in a group of psychiatric patients in the present study, measures of STM were also obtained in groups of depressed and nondepressed PD patients and in 15 normal control subjects. Regardless of depression severity, PD patients performed as well as control subjects and both these groups consistently obtained scores significantly better than those of the endogenously depressed patients. A relative weakness in the PD patients on order-dependent STM tests was further explored and interpreted as an indication of mild frontal lobe dysfunction. It was concluded that PD patients are frequently depressed when confronted with their behavioural limitations and that this reaction may be exacerbated by a form of emotional liability related to pathophysiological processes which may involve prefrontal cortical areas.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Delay versus deviance in autistic social behavior.

The pattern of acquisition of social, communication, and daily living skills was examined for autistic children, compared to retarded and normal controls, by quantifying intradomain scatter on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Autistic children were matched to normal children and mentally retarded children on Vineland raw scores; group differences in scatter were examined for each domain of adaptive behavior. Autistic children had significantly more scatter on Communication and Socialization than both control groups. Item analyses showed that the autistic children had particular weaknesses on items reflecting attention to and pragmatic use of language, as well as play and reciprocal social interaction; the autistic children had particular strengths on items reflecting written language and rote language skills, and rule-governed social behavior. The number of items showing consistent group differences, however, was small, suggesting that although autistic development appears sequentially deviant and not merely delayed, individual autistic children derive their scatter from different items, and are a developmentally heterogeneous group.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1985

The growth and development of twins compared with singletons at ages 9 and 11.

The growth and development of 9 and 11-year old twins who have been studied at birth, and at ages 3, 5, and 7 years was compared with that of a large group of singletons. The twins were not significantly different to the singletons in language development, reading, spelling or Performance IQ. They remained significantly shorter, lighter and had smaller head circumferences. This difference was shown to have been fairly consistent from age 3. The twins had significantly lower Verbal and Full Scale IQ, but in view of a lack of disadvantage in educational progress this was not considered to be of any practical importance.

Anthropometry↗