Journal of Neuropsychology最新文献

Understanding lexico-semantic processing is crucial for dissecting the complexities of language and its disorders. Relatedness-based measures, or those which investigate the degree of relatedness in meaning between either task items or items produced by participants, offer the opportunity to harness novel computational and analytical techniques from cognitive network science. Recognizing the need to deepen our understanding of lexico-semantic deficits through diverse experimental and analytical approaches, this review explores the use of such measures in research into language disorders. A comprehensive search of four electronic databases covering publications from the last 11 years (October 2013–September 2024) identified 38 original experimental studies employing relatedness-based measures in populations with language disorders or other neurological conditions. Articles were examined for the types of tasks used, populations studied, item selection methods and analytical approaches. The predominant use of category fluency tasks emerged across studies, with a notable absence of relatedness judgement tasks or comparable paradigms. Commonly discussed populations included individuals with post-stroke aphasia, mild cognitive impairment and schizophrenia. Analytical methods varied significantly, ranging from more traditional approaches of clustering and switching to more sophisticated computational techniques. Despite the evident utility of category fluency tasks in research and clinical settings, the review underscores a critical need to diversify experimental paradigms and probe lexico-semantic processing in a more multifaceted manner. A broadened approach in future language disorder research should incorporate innovative analytical techniques, investigations of neural correlates and a wider array of tasks employing relatedness-based measures already present in healthy populations.

Spatial neglect is a post-stroke attention deficit for which there is no evidence-based intervention. Immersive virtual reality (IVR) may increase treatment efficacy, as it allows to train spatial attention in a rich environment. This study evaluated the efficacy and feasibility of an IVR patient-tailored training (HEMIRehApp). Using a cross-over design, an active (spatially biased) and placebo (spatially unbiased) IVR intervention were compared. We aimed to recruit 8 per-protocol left-sided neglect patients. The primary outcome was response times on the Posner cueing task. To evaluate feasibility, we documented the number of recruited patients, cybersickness and patients' experience with HEMIRehApp. After 2 years of recruitment, we were able to enrol 6 patients, of whom 2 completed the full protocol. The target sample size was not feasible due to a lower than expected prevalence of left-sided neglect and a higher than expected drop-out rate. The planned group-level analysis was therefore replaced by a single-case analysis. The results in the 2 per-protocol cases suggest a superior effect of spatially biased IVR training than unbiased IVR training inside IVR. IVR training was feasible as all 6 enrolled patients were able to complete 10 IVR training sessions, but the cross-over protocol itself was unfeasible. While the low sample size prevented us from conclusively evaluating the efficacy of HEMIRehApp, our preliminary single-case results suggest that neglect patients were able to improve attentional orientation towards eccentric target locations in IVR. Follow-up studies are needed to further validate these findings.

Autobiographical memory is diminished in patients with behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), and research has focused on the hampered ability of patients to retrieve specific memories. In this study, we implemented a methodology seeking to provide a qualitative analysis of autobiographical specificity. We invited patients with bvFTD and control participants to retrieve autobiographical memories and we distinguished between specific, categoric, extended and semantic autobiographical retrieval. The analysis demonstrated that patients with bvFTD produced more categoric than specific, extended or semantic memories. Thus, despite the decreased ability to retrieve specific memories, an increased ability to produce categoric memories can be observed in patients with bvFTD. These results support a positive view according to which autobiographical retrieval in bvFTD is not solely characterized by over-generality, but also by increased retrieval of categoric memories. Categoric memories, albeit lacking uniqueness, nevertheless, involve retrieval of similar or related events upon which patients may draw knowledge related to their self-image and life story.

Cognitive offloading refers to the use of physical action and the external environment to simplify mental demand. One form of this—intention offloading—involves the use of external reminders to support delayed intentions. Both beliefs of poor memory ability and a preference to avoid cognitive effort lead to offloading intentions rather than using internal memory. Schizophrenia is a population with deficits in prospective memory and to overcome this difficulty, neuropsychological interventions can propose external aids such as reminders. However, it is unknown what motivates individuals with schizophrenia to spontaneously use reminders. Twenty-seven individuals with schizophrenia and twenty-seven non-clinical individuals were recruited to perform a prospective memory task, with two levels of difficulty, by deciding whether to use reminders or their internal memory. The proportion of reminder use, performance (hits and errors), subjective effort and metacognitive beliefs were recorded. The results show a non-optimal use of reminders in the schizophrenia group: this group used more reminders than the non-clinical group when the task was easy but did not increase reminder usage when the task became more difficult. Individuals with schizophrenia perceived the task to be more effortful than the non-clinical individuals in the easy task, but also had a high estimation of their memory ability. Reminder usage in schizophrenia is atypical and non-optimal. This may relate to effort and metacognition but the direct influence of these factors remains to be demonstrated. The overall results open perspectives on the neuropsychological treatment of prospective memory in this population.

Surface dyslexia and dysgraphia are considered diagnostic features of semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA) and are useful signs in English, a language whose attributes afford numerous opportunities to observe these phenomena. This, however, is not the case in many languages, including Italian, that have high transparency between orthography and phonology, making surface reading and spelling errors scarce. This creates a problem in applying the diagnostic recommendations for svPPA in such languages. Surface dyslexia and dysgraphia are examples of ‘regularization’ errors in which semantic knowledge loss leads to a failure to recognize exceptions that do not follow standard rules of pronunciation. Another form of regularization involves the incorrect inflection of irregular verbs using the rules that govern regular verbs. Unlike irregularly pronounced words, Italian, as with many languages, has numerous irregular verbs. The Italian Verb Inflection Test (IVIT) was developed to test the hypothesis that svPPA would regularize irregular verbs when inflecting them into two Italian past tenses. Results confirmed that people with svPPA made a significantly greater proportion of regularization errors compared to people with typical Alzheimer's disease or logopenic variant PPA. Without recourse to the other diagnostic features of PPA subgroups, the IVIT on its own could separate svPPA from these other two groups with 70% sensitivity and ~ 80% specificity. Regularization of irregular verb inflection offers a solution to the problem of applying the surface dyslexia/dysgraphia criterion for svPPA diagnosis in Italian.

Biological, clinicobiological and clinical conceptions of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias are being promoted simultaneously to different practical ends. The co-existence of contemporary conceptions and the ‘scary label’ associated with older diagnostic criteria create the possibility of misunderstanding and harm. In this comment, we argue in favour of socio-ethical interventions targeted to health workers and the general public so as to lower the uncertainties introduced by contemporary diagnostic criteria and to articulate how they relate to established criteria.

This study introduces the translation and validation of the Prefrontal Symptoms Inventory (PSI) into English, aiming to provide an ecologically valid tool for assessing prefrontal symptoms in English-speaking populations in the United States. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a crucial role in executive functions and other higher-order cognitive processes, with dysfunctions in this area associated with various cognitive, emotional and behavioural changes. Despite the existence of established tools like the Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX), the PSI addresses limitations found in the literature, presenting a novel ecologically valid tool for assessing prefrontal symptoms. The current study, involving 226 English-speaking participants, lays a foundational step for validating the PSI for use in a new population. Semi-confirmatory factorial analysis revealed a unidimensional structure, mirroring the Spanish version with robust fit indicators. Additionally, in assessing convergent validity, the abbreviated version (PSI-20) exhibited high correlations with DEX scores and moderate correlations with Psychological Stress Scale and General Health Questionnaire-12 scores. These findings align with previous reports, supporting the PSI-20's measurement of similar constructs related to prefrontal cortex activity and mental health components. The results of this study overall highlight the PSI's potential contribution to advancing prefrontal symptom evaluation in clinical and non-clinical settings.