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B N Axelrod

Publications and source records attributed to B N Axelrod.

44 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Longitudinal sensitivity of the Fuld cholinergic profile to Alzheimer's disease.

The diagnostic sensitivity of a profile (Fuld, 1984) thought to mark cholinergic changes in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) was examined in a sample of 53 patients meeting criteria for AD on two occasions and in 19 patients for three occasions. The low obtained sensitivities of the Fuld profile (17%-26%) across testings is consistent with previous studies that used a single time point. The findings also revealed unstable positive and negative profiles over time. There were no performance differences on intellectual or memory measures when comparing subjects identified as positive or negative by the Fuld index. The results demonstrate that the index is insensitive to the dementing process and is a poor diagnostic marker for AD.

Aged↗
PubMed1992

Effect of instructional cues on schizophrenic patients' performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.

OBJECTIVE: Schizophrenic patients are particularly deficient on measures of executive functioning, notably the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. This study was conducted to determine the efficacy of a cuing strategy in facilitating performance on this cognitive measure of the integrity of prefrontal brain structures and functioning. METHOD: Twenty-four schizophrenic inpatients and 24 demographically matched inpatients with mood disorders were administered the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test either with instructional cues at the beginning of the task or with the standard administration procedure. RESULTS: There was a significant benefit of cues for the patients with affective disorders as well as for the schizophrenic patients. The schizophrenic subjects in the uncued condition maintained poor but stable performance throughout the course of the task. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that the deficit in executive functioning of schizophrenic patients may lie in the formation of concepts, not in their application.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Cognitive and motor deficits in selected unilateral brain-injured patients.

16 right hemisphere and 16 left hemisphere, nonaphasic brain-injured stroke patients were compared with 16 matched normal controls on the verbal and visuospatial paired-associate tasks developed by Stark in 1961 as a partial replication to a more severely impaired population. Right brain-injured patients showed a significant visuospatial deficit and contralateral motor impairment; while left brain-injured patients, screened for aphasia, showed contralateral motor impairment but did not show impairment on the verbal task. Examination of the areas of infarct resulting from the cerebrovascular accident in the left-hemisphere patients suggested that the presence of a contralateral motor deficit without verbal impairment results from specific focal occlusions of branches of the middle cerebral artery in this selective group of patients.

Brain Damage, Chronic↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Validation of the 16-item Negative Symptom Assessment.

The dimensional structure of the 16-item Negative Symptom Assessment (NSA-16) was validated in a sample of 223 unmedicated schizophrenic inpatients and cross-validated on an independent sample of 276 patients with schizophrenia. Using a confirmatory factor analytic procedure, a five factor model was found to best characterize the structure of this rating instrument. These factors include: Communication, Emotion/Affect, Social Involvement, Motivation, and Retardation. The latent structure of the NSA-16 is similar to the larger instrument from which it was derived. The findings provide support for a multidimensional model of negative symptoms in schizophrenia and offer a useful measure for their assessment.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Clinical utility of a recognition paradigm of the Visual Form Discrimination Test.

The utility of the Visual Form Discrimination Test as a motor free test of visual discrimination and recognition memory was first evaluated in samples of young and elderly community dwelling adults. Weighted score performance on the discrimination test was approximately two points higher than that of the recognition test for both age groups. The older group made more peripheral errors on both versions of the test and fewer correct responses on the recognition test than the younger group. In Study 2, the Visual Form tasks were administered to patient groups with left or right hemisphere stroke. Both patient groups were lower on both the discrimination and recognition versions of the Visual Form Test relative to the controls in Study 1. When evaluating the visual field in which major rotations and major distortions occurred, the expected contralateral neglect was observed for the stroke groups. The recognition version of the Visual Form Test appears to be sensitive to subtle hemi-spatial neglect. The results from these studies support the utility of these motor-free visual processing tasks.

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Neuropsychological symptoms associated with low-level exposure to solvents and (meth)acrylates among nail technicians.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate reports of neuropsychological symptoms among women occupationally exposed to products commonly used in nail studios. BACKGROUND: Typical preparations found in nail studios contain a variety of organic solvents (e.g., toluene, acetone, formaldehyde) and (meth)acrylates with known neurotoxic properties. Little research has focused on the neuropsychological sequelae of exposure to these substances occurring in the cosmetics industry. METHOD: Participants included nail salon technicians (n = 150) and controls (n = 148). Nail technicians were compared with demographically similar controls using the Neuropsychological Impairment Scale, a self-reported measure of neuropsychological and psychological symptoms. Aspects of the workplace environment (e.g., square footage of the salon, adequacy of ventilation, hours worked) also were assessed. RESULTS: A MANOVA revealed small but significant differences in the overall level of symptoms as well as in individual scales measuring neurologic complaints, cognitive efficiency, memory, verbal learning, and academic skills (p < 0.001). Moreover, nail technicians were significantly more likely to score above the clinical cutoffs than were controls on four of the seven clinical scales and two of the three summary indices. Multiple regression analysis indicated that the severity of symptoms was associated with level of occupational exposure (p < 0.01). The cumulative impact of workplace size and ventilation were most strongly associated with symptom severity. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to low-level neurotoxins common to nail studios results in the self-reported experience of cognitive and neurologic symptoms similar to other types of solvent and (meth)acrylate exposure. The profile of reported symptoms is consistent with deficits typically observed in this type of neurotoxic exposure: neurologic complaints as well as perceived problems with cognitive efficiency, memory, and learning. Additionally, the nail technicians reported a higher overall level of complaints and greater severity of symptoms than did the controls.

Adolescent↗