Biomedical subjects

L M Rilling

Publications and source records attributed to L M Rilling.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1997

Variable memory profiles in Parkinson's disease.

Thirty-nine patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) were categorized into one of three subgroups using discriminant function analysis and three key indices from the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT). Patients were classified as having one of three memory profiles: (a) a normal memory profile; (b) a memory profile often observed in patients with Huntington's disease (HD); or (c) a memory profile often observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Twenty of the patients with PD were classified as having a normal profile, 10 as having an HD profile, and 9 as having an AD profile. The three subgroups did not differ on measures of global cognitive functioning, letter fluency, confrontation naming, or visuo-construction, suggesting that the patients with PD with an AD memory profile were not experiencing AD, per se. These results demonstrate that the memory deficits associated with PD can be similar to those found in patients with either HD or AD, and argues against the notion that the behavioral manifestations of PD are homogeneous.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1997

Performance of Parkinson's disease patients on the Visual Search and Attention Test: impairment in single-feature but not dual-feature visual search.

Nondemented patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and a group of age and education matched controls were administered a modified version of the Visual Search and Attention Test (VSAT). This task measures subjects' speed at localizing letter or symbol targets based on either a single-feature or a dual-feature search. Three indices were derived from the VSAT: (a) the amount of time taken to complete each of the trials (completion time), (b) the number of target items not crossed out (omissions), and (c) the number of nontarget items crossed out (commissions). The results indicated that, in terms of completion time, the PD patients were impaired on the single-feature search conditions but not on the dual-feature search conditions, suggesting that PD patients are impaired in selective attention processes. It was also found that the number of target items omitted by the normal controls on the VSAT varied as a function of the nature of the target (letter or form) and the search requirements (single-feature or dual-feature search), whereas the number of targets omitted by the PD patients was not affected by these factors. Correlational analyses suggested that the three measures derived from the VSAT assessed different components of attentional performance in these patients. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the VSAT can be used to detect subtle attentional impairments in nondemented PD patients, and that the pattern of their impairment on this clinical test is similar to that found on experimental attentional measures.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1996

Neuropsychological dysfunction in parents of schizophrenics.

Neuropsychological measures designed to examine aspects of attention, learning efficiency, and memory were investigated in 14 schizophrenic probands, their 28 parents, and 18 normal individuals. Probands performed at levels significantly below normals on measures of attention and of learning efficiency and performed below their parents on a subset of the same measures. Eight families had one parent with a personal or ancestral pedigree history consistent with schizophrenia; the other parent's personal and ancestral history was negative for schizophrenia. In these families, the probands were significantly different from the negative-history parents, but not the positive-history parents on an aggregate index of attention. Schizophrenics were significantly different from both the positive- and negative-history parents on an aggregate index of learning efficiency. These results extend previous findings of specific neuropsychological dysfunction in attention and learning in schizophrenics to show that some of the deficits are present in a subgroup of their parents, those who are likely carriers of genes conveying risk for schizophrenia. The data suggest that a heritable component of the neuropsychological deficit is a primary dysfunction in attention, and that a secondary or additional deficit in learning may be evident in family members who actually express the disorder of schizophrenia.

Adult↗