Biomedical subjects

Cecil R Reynolds

Publications and source records attributed to Cecil R Reynolds.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Symptom validity assessment: practice issues and medical necessity NAN policy & planning committee.

Symptom exaggeration or fabrication occurs in a sizeable minority of neuropsychological examinees, with greater prevalence in forensic contexts. Adequate assessment of response validity is essential in order to maximize confidence in the results of neurocognitive and personality measures and in the diagnoses and recommendations that are based on the results. Symptom validity assessment may include specific tests, indices, and observations. The manner in which symptom validity is assessed may vary depending on context but must include a thorough examination of cultural factors. Assessment of response validity, as a component of a medically necessary evaluation, is medically necessary. When determined by the neuropsychologist to be necessary for the assessment of response validity, administration of specific symptom validity tests are also medically necessary.

Diagnosis, Differential↗

PubMed2004

Sequential memory: a developmental perspective on its relation to frontal lobe functioning.

The multidimensional nature of the frontal lobes serves to organize and coordinate brain functionings playing a central and pervasive role in human cognition. The executive processes implicated in complex cognition such as novel problem solving, modifying behavior as appropriate in response to changes in the environment, inhibiting prepotent or previous responses, and the implementation of schemas that organize behavior over time are believed to be mediated by the frontal regions of the brain. Overall, the functioning of the frontal lobes assists individuals in goal directed and self-regulatory behavior. Additional theories of frontal lobe functioning have focused on its involvement in temporal, or time-related domains. The organizational and strategic nature of frontal lobe functioning affects memory processes by enhancing the organization of to-be-remembered information. Among the specific memory systems presumed to be based on anterior cerebral structures is the temporal organization of memory. An essential component of memory that involves temporal organization is sequential ordering entailing the ability to judge which stimuli were seen most recently and the temporal ordering of events in memory. Focal lesion studies have demonstrated the importance of the frontal lobes on retrieval tasks in which monitoring, verification, and placement of information in temporal and spatial contexts of critical importance. Similarly, frontal lobe damage has been associated with deficits in memory for the temporal ordering, or sequencing, of events. The acquisition of abilities thought to be mediated by the frontal lobes, including sequential memory, unfolds throughout childhood, serving to condition patterns of behavior for the rest of the brain. Development of the frontal regions of the brain is known to continue through late adolescence and into early adulthood, in contrast to the earlier maturation of other cortical regions. The developmental patterns of the frontal lobes are thought to involve a hierarchical, dynamic, and multistage process.

Child↗

PubMed2004

Clinical perspectives on neurobiological effects of psychological trauma.

Physical trauma to the brain has always been known to affect brain functions and subsequent neurobiological development. Research primarily since the early 1990s has shown that psychological trauma can have detrimental effects on brain function that are not only lasting but that may alter patterns of subsequent neurodevelopment, particularly in children although developmental effects may be seen in adults as well. Childhood trauma produces a diverse range of symptoms and defining the brain's response to trauma and the factors that mediate the body's stress response systems is at the forefront of scientific investigation. This paper reviews the current evidence relating psychological trauma to anatomical and functional changes in the brain and discusses the need for accurate diagnosis and treatment to minimize such effects and to recognize their existence in developing treatment programs.

Amygdala↗

PubMed2004

A critique of Miller and Rohling's statistical interpretive method for neuropsychological test data.

A critical review of the 24-step procedure of Miller and Rohling's (in press) proposed standardization of clinician's use of neuropsychological assessment batteries is presented. Each step is examined for statistical sources of invalidity. It was concluded that parts of the procedure are quite vulnerable to between-battery variability that cannot be easily estimated or controlled, leading to significant errors in analysis and classification. A second fatal flaw is the failure to distinguish in the procedures between standard error measurement and standard error of the estimate in calculations in several steps. The purpose of the process remains viable, however, and is an important contribution toward the improvement of clinical diagnosis.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2003

Can the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III) data help resolve the controversy over low blood lead levels and neuropsychological development in children?

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III) was designed to provide national estimates of the health and nutritional status of the United States population aged 2 months and above. A Youth data subset includes individuals from ages 2 months to 16 years totaling 13,944 individuals. Lanphear, Dietrich, Auinger, and Cox [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Reports, Public Health Report 2000, Vol. 115, p. 521] examined these data and concluded that deficits in cognitive and academic skills associated with lead exposure occur at blood lead concentrations of less than 5microg/dl. Attempts to replicate and extend these findings reveal serious shortcomings in the NHANES III data that center around missing data, odd distributions of blood lead levels as well as cognitive and academic scores, and potential inaccuracies in the data collection itself. A review of these issues is presented along with a series of empirical analyses of the data under multiple sets of assumptions leading to the conclusion that the NHANES III data are inherently inadequate for use in addressing neurodevelopmental issues. Policy issues and scientific issues related to cognitive and other neurodevelopmental phenomena should not be considered on the basis of the NHANES III Youth dataset.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Multivariate analyses of the profile stability of intelligence tests: high for IQs, low to very low for subtest analyses.

Profile stability involves the consistency of a set of scores over time. That is, does a profile of scores change on retesting and does this change affect clinical decisions? While psychologists routinely examine the reliability of individual scores, little research has examined the stability of a profile or set of scores. The first study described in this paper examined potential measures of profile stability using a simulation computer program. The results suggest that several measures show promise in this context, particularly Cattell's coefficient of pattern similarity (r(p)), salient variable similarity index (S), and the D(2) coefficient. In the second study, selected measures of profile stability were applied to Wechsler test-retest data. The results suggest that profiles composed of IQ and index scores demonstrate acceptable stability and can be usefully interpreted in clinical and research situations. However, subtest score profiles are inherently less stable and provide little useful clinical information.

Cattell Personality Factor Questionnaire↗

PubMed2003

Evaluation of the accuracy of two regression-based methods for estimating premorbid IQ.

Two premorbid IQ estimation procedures were compared in a normal, non-brain-impaired sample and a clinical sample of known brain-impaired individuals. The methods used for comparison were the purely demographically based regression index (DI) developed by and the Oklahoma Premorbid Intelligence Estimate (OPIE) equation by, which uses demographic information combined with current performance tasks. The data for the normal sample were gathered from the WAIS-R standardization sample of 1880 subjects. The clinical sample was 100 patients with known cognitive impairment who had been referred to a private neuropsychology practice. The DI appeared to provide the most clinical utility as an estimate of premorbid IQ in a cognitively impaired sample. Significant differences between the two methods for specific locations of brain injury were not observed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Gender differences in memory test performance among children and adolescents.

Gender differences among children and adolescents were examined on 14 separate measures of short-term memory. A nationally stratified sample of 1,279 children and adolescents, 637 males and 642 females, ranging in age between 5 and 19 years, were assessed on the 14 subtests of the Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL). Factor structure of the TOMAL was determined to be invariant as a function of gender. Using age-corrected deviation scaled scores calculated at 1-year intervals, results of a one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed only two significant differences in absolute scores across gender on the 14 memory subtests. A profile of normal variations in patterns of memory test performance across gender revealing relative strengths for females on verbal tasks and males on spatial tasks is presented for clinical use and future normative comparisons.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

An essay on the Houston Conference policy statement: static yet incomplete or a work in progress?

Ardila (Neuropsychol. Rev. 12: 3, 2002) criticizes the Policy Statement from the Houston Conference on Specialty Education and Training in Clinical Neuropsychology (Hannay et al., Arch. Clin. Neuropsychol. 13: 157-250, 1998) as possessing deficiencies in the training of clinical neuropsychologists in three fundamental knowledge areas: the history of the discipline, neuropsychological syndromes, and neuropsychological theory. These problems are seen here as a result of a more pervasive problem associated with the Houston Conference training model's emphasis on technical skill over science and the attempt to micromanage the training of the clinical neuropsychologist at the administrative level.

Humans↗

PubMed2002

The continuous performance test: a window on the neural substrates for attention?

Attention is a complex process whose disturbance is considered a core deficit in a number of disorders [e.g., Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia]. In 1956, Rosvold and colleagues [J. Consult. Psychol. 20 (1956) 343.] demonstrated that the continuous performance test (CPT) as a measure of sustained attention was highly sensitive to brain damage or dysfunction. These findings have been replicated with various populations and with various versions of the CPT. The CPT is now cited as the most frequently used measure of attention in both practice and research. Across studies, results are consistent with models of sustained attention that involve the interaction of cortical (frontal, temporal, parietal), subcortical (limbic, basal ganglia), and functional systems including the pathways between the basal ganglia, thalamus, and frontal lobes. Right hemisphere involvement (asymmetric response) is also evident across multiple studies. As such, the CPT demonstrates sensitivity to dysfunction of the attentional system whether this is due to diffuse or more focal damage/dysfunction or in conjunction with any specific disorder. CPT performance can be viewed as symptom specific (attentional disturbance), but it is not disorder specific (e.g., ADHD). Implications for neuropsychological interpretation of CPT results are presented.

Journal Article↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Misconceptions in Van den Broeck's representation of misconceptions about learning disability research.

The methods and conclusions of Van den Broeck (in this issue) are evaluated from two perspectives: (a) statistical considerations and (b) theoretical models of IQ and achievement, specifically reading achievement. We consider the statistical model proposed by Van den Broeck for the regression-based discrepancy model (RDM) to be either irrelevant or conceptually inconsistent with current models of IQ and achievement. The resulting simulation produced exemplar cases that are not realistic in terms of practice. The theoretical representations of IQ and achievement were, in our understanding, inconsistent with contemporary models of either. We suggest that acceptable models support the use of the RDM as it has been proposed by us and by others as one component of the determination of the presence or absence of a learning disability.

Child↗