Applied Neuropsychology-Adult最新文献

Introduction: The Ruche test is a visuospatial form of the Rey auditory verbal learning test (RAVLT), with initial evidence of utility in the diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE)-related memory disorders.

Aims: To present the translation to Brazilian Portuguese and modification of the Ruche test (RUCHE-M) and compare the RUCHE-M and RAVLT performance between patients with right and left TLE.

Methods: Twenty-five neuropsychologists participated in instrument adaptation. Thirty-seven patients with right (n = 19) and left (n = 18) TLE participated. Data were compared with the Mann-Whitney U test.

Results: All specialists considered the final RUCHE-M to be adequate. The RUCHE-M forgetting speed index (FSI) score and several RAVLT scores differed significantly between patients with right and left TLE.

Conclusion: The RUCHE-M showed limited utility for the assessment of visuospatial episodic memory in patients with TLE. The manipulation of memory binding as demonstrated by FSI score seems to be a promising paradigm for the assessment of right hippocampal function.

Objective: We assessed the effect of visual learning and recall impairment on Victoria Symptom Validity Test (VSVT) accuracy and response latency for Easy, Difficult, and Total Items.

Method: A sample of 163 adult patients administered the VSVT and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised were classified as valid (114/163) or invalid (49/163) groups via independent criterion performance validity tests (PVTs). Classification accuracies for all VSVT indices were examined for the overall sample, and separately for subgroups based on visual memory functioning.

Results: In the overall sample, all indices produced acceptable classification accuracy (areas under the curve [AUCs] ≥ 0.79). When stratified by visual learning/recall impairment, accuracy indices yielded acceptable classification for both the unimpaired (AUCs ≥0.79) and impaired subsamples (AUCs ≥0.75). Latency indices had acceptable classification accuracy for the unimpaired subsample (AUCs ≥0.74), but accuracy and sensitivity dropped for the impaired sample (AUCs ≥0.67).

Conclusions: VSVT accuracy and response latency yielded acceptable classification accuracies in the overall sample, and this effect was maintained in those with and without visual learning/recall impairment for the accuracy indices. Findings indicate that the VSVT is a psychometrically robust PVT with largely invariant cut-scores, even in the presence of bona fide visual learning/recall impairment.

The d2 Test of Attention (d2) is widely used for assessing sustained attention and we aimed at verifying whether working memory may be a secondary construct measured by d2. 70 university students were assessed using d2 conventional paper-and-pencil and computational version. The experimental group and control group performed the task with or without target key, respectively. Continuous Performance Test (CPT) and N-back (1 and 2-back) tasks were used to measure sustained attention and working memory, respectively. Computational d2 performance was predicted by CPT (p < .05; R² = .15) in the experimental group, and it was predicted by 2-back (p < .05; R² = .28) in the control group. Conventional d2 performance was predicted by 2-back for both control group (p = .01; R² = .20) and experimental group (p = .02, R² = .17). Results suggest the involvement of working memory in d2, possibly a secondary construct assessed by this instrument.

Introduction: There is an overall left visual field/right hemisphere advantage in young adults for masked, tachistoscopically presented images on the Rod-and-Frame Test (RFT). This study explored potential age-related lateralization differences in processing of visual context on the RFT.

Methods: The 35 young and 33 older adults aligned a rod surrounded either by no frame, a vertical, or leftward/rightward tilted frame to their perceived vertical. Algebraic errors of rod alignment were used to derive the rod-and-frame effect (RFE) and asymmetry index.

Results: Young adults had frequent indirect effects, mostly to the right-tilted frame, while older adults hardly produced any. Compared with nontilted frames, young adults displayed larger alignment errors with left-tilted frames; however, older adults exhibited this same effect for both frame tilt conditions. Young adults had smaller RFE values than older adults for the right-tilted frame, with no age-related difference in RFE for the left-tilted frame or asymmetry index. The negative asymmetry index was statistically different from the true vertical only in young adults.

Conclusion: There is an age-related reduction in the right hemisphere processing of left-sided visual contexts on the RFT. Such findings can assist clinicians to improve interpretation of RFT findings in clinical patients.

Objectives: To assess the usefulness of a computerized tasks module designed for the rehabilitation of social cognition (SC) in acquired brain injury.

Methods: Quasi-randomized controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov:NCT03479970) involving 45 patients with moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in a subacute inpatient rehabilitation hospital. The experimental group (n = 28) received treatment with a computerized SC module in combination with a non-SC module. The control group (n = 26) only received a treatment with non-SC module.

Results: Intragroup comparisons showed that the experimental group had better results for all SC measures, except for International Affective Picture System (IAPS). The control group improved for Facial Expressions of cEmotion-Stimuli and Tests (FEEST) and Moving Shapes Paradigm (MSP), showing no changes with respect to pretreatment in IAPS, MSP and Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). Intergroup comparisons did not present differences between the two groups for pretreatment measures. Post-treatment comparison showed that the experimental group obtained better results for RMET than the control group.

Conclusion: The computerized SC module was useful for the rehabilitation of SC in patients with moderate-severe TBI in the subacute phase. The group that received combined rehabilitative treatment (SC + non-SC) obtained better results for SC than the group that received treatment intended only for non-SC.

The common requirement to set the time to "10 past 11" on the Clock Drawing Test is intended to elicit a stimulus bound response (SBR), in which the responder is "pulled" to the salient stimulus "10," resulting in hands set at "10 before 11." SBRs are considered markers of executive dysfunction, although this assumption has not yet been validated. We compared SBR and other time-setting errors on inhibitory control tests, hypothesizing that they represent related constructs. The role of semantic dysfunction in the formation of those errors was also investigated. We examined baseline test performance of participants with Mild Cognitive Impairment or a history of depression, and control participants, enrolled in a dementia prevention study. Among 258 participants, we identified clocks with SBRs (n = 16), other time errors (n = 22), or no errors at all (n = 42). Performance between the groups with SBRs and other time-setting errors did not differ on any of the executive tests, and both error groups performed significantly worse than the No Error group on the semantic tests. Control for covariates further supported semantic and executive components in time-setting errors. Both semantic and inhibitory control deficits may underlie time representation errors in general.

The present study investigated abbreviation methods for the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) in relation to traditional manual-based test cutoffs and independently derived more stringent cutoffs suggested by recent research (≤48 on Trial 2 or 3). Consecutively referred outpatient U.S. military veterans (n = 260) were seen for neuropsychological evaluation for mild traumatic brain injury or possible attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Performance on TOMM Trial 1 was evaluated, including the total score and errors on the first 10 items (TOMMe10), to determine correspondence and redundancy with Trials 2 and 3. Using the traditional cutoff, valid performance on Trials 2 and 3 was predicted by zero errors on TOMMe10 and by Trial 1 scores greater than 41. Invalid performance was predicted by commission of more than three errors on TOMMe10 and by Trial 1 scores less than 34. For revised TOMM cutoffs, a Trial 1 score above 46 was predictive of a valid score, and a TOMMe10 score of three or more errors or a Trial 1 score below 36 was associated with invalid TOMM performance. Conditional abbreviation of the TOMM is feasible in a vast majority of cases without sacrificing information regarding performance validity. Decision trees are provided to facilitate administration of the three trials.

When patients fail symptom validity tests (SVTs) and/or performance validity tests (PVTs), their self-reported symptoms and test profiles are unreliable and cannot be taken for granted. There are many well-established causes of poor symptom validity and malingering is only of them. Some authors have proposed that a cry for help may underlie poor symptom validity. In this commentary, we argue that cry for help is a (1) metaphorical concept that is (2) difficult to operationalize and, at present, (3) impossible to falsify. We conclude that clinicians or forensic experts should not invoke cry for help as an explanation for poor symptom validity. To encourage conceptual clarity, we propose a tentative framework for explaining poor symptom validity.

Objective: Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is one of the commonest neurologic diseases. Along with sensory and motor symptoms, cognitive impairment and psychiatric features can be seen with RLS. The present study, was planned to look for evidence of cognitive impairment by evaluating facial emotion recognition (FER) in patients with RLS.

Methods: In this study, 80 patients with RLS and 50 healthy controls (HCs) were included. Demographic data were recorded. All patients with RLS and HCs were tested with Beck anxiety inventory (BAI), Beck depression inventory (BDI) and with Ekman's test for recognition of facial emotions.

Results: Sixty-three of the patients with RLS and 37 of the HCs were female. The mean age of the patients was 45.41 ± 8.24, and the mean age of HCs was 43.12 ± 10.35. The patients and HCs were similar regarding sex, age, educational status, and marital status. Patients with RLS had FER difficulties comparing HCs. There was a negative correlation between Ekman's test scores and BDI (r = -0.311, p < 0.001) and BAI scores (r = -0.379, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: FER is an invaluable research topic regarding cognitive function in RLS, which may help us develop different perspectives in terms of revealing the pathophysiology and is very important for the well-being of the patients' social interactions.

Purpose: To assess whether performance in attention and executive functions evaluated with the Epitrack screening tool before surgery can differentiate memory and quality of life (QOL) profiles, and detect different post-surgical change patterns in these variables in patients with epilepsy.

Methods: This is a longitudinal study. Seventy-seven patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (mean age = 37.91) underwent a neuropsychological assessment before and one year after surgery. Epitrack, a screening tool that exclusively evaluates attention and executive functioning, was administered in the pre-surgical assessment, and verbal and visual memory and QOL were assessed before and after surgery.

Results: Patients with impaired Epitrack performance had poorer verbal and visual memory than those with intact Epitrack performance, regardless of the time point (for all, p < 0.0001). They also showed a post-surgical decline in immediate verbal recall (p = 0.04) and discriminability (p = 0.001). Patients with intact Epitrack performance did not exhibit this decline. Epitrack total score significantly contributed to 13 and 11% of the variance of post-surgical changes in immediate verbal recall and discriminability, respectively. Epitrack groups did not differ in QOL profiles or changes, but post-surgical immediate verbal recall improvements were related to post-surgical QOL improvements.

Conclusion: Our findings underline the utility of Epitrack screening tool to detect different patterns of verbal and visual memory dysfunction, as well as to predict post-surgical verbal memory decline in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Patients with lower pre-surgical Epitrack scores appear to be at increased risk for post-surgical memory decline.