Biomedical subjects

Stephanie Cosentino

Publications and source records attributed to Stephanie Cosentino.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2026

Age at menopause and subjective cognitive symptoms predict digital cognitive outcomes at the gynecological Well-Woman visit.

INTRODUCTION: Women are at increased risk for Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Growing evidence suggests that the menopausal transition may represent a vulnerable window for development of AD-related pathology. Yet, women are diagnosed with AD later than men. Conducting routine cognitive screenings and integrating information about both cognitive symptoms and age at menopause may help address sex-based disparities in detection and prevention. This study investigated whether subjective cognitive symptoms, in combination with age at menopause, were associated with performance on a digital cognitive task in postmenopausal women. METHODS: 183 postmenopausal women (mean age = 63.8, range = 45-85) were recruited after their Well-Woman visit. Participants completed the Screener for Cognitive Problems in Everyday Life (SCoPE) to assess subjective cognitive symptoms, followed by a sensitive measure of objective cognition: the Linus Health Digital Clock and Recall (DCR™). Information was also collected on age at menopause. We examined associations of subjective cognitive symptoms and age at menopause with digital cognitive performance, adjusting for age, education and depression. Model fit was evaluated using adjusted R2, AIC, and BIC. RESULTS: 48.1% of women reported one or more cognitive symptoms on the SCoPE. On objective testing, 73.2% scored in the normal range, 20.8% in the borderline range, and 6.0% in the impaired range. SCoPE total score was negatively associated with objective cognitive performance in adjusted models (B = -.12, p = .03). Age at menopause showed a significant quadratic association with cognitive performance (B = -0.006, p<.001). SCoPE total was not associated with DCR subtests, while age at menopause predicted both Delayed Recall and Clock Drawing. CONCLUSION: Subjective cognitive symptoms and age at menopause were associated with lower performance on a sensitive, objective cognitive test. Findings support routine cognitive screening and suggest that subjective cognitive symptoms as well as age at menopause are associated with cognitive function.

Humans↗

PubMed2006

How does the brain support script comprehension? A study of executive processes and semantic knowledge in dementia.

The neuropsychological substrate of scripts, routines which guide much of human behavior, is unclear. We propose a model of script comprehension characterized by the interaction of semantic knowledge for script content, and executive resources that organize this knowledge into goal directed behavior. We examined these neuropsychological components by asking participants with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (behavioral disorder/dysexecutive syndrome (BDD) and semantic dementia (SD) subtypes), to judge the coherence of four-phrase scripts. The BDD group detected significantly fewer sequencing errors than semantic errors; the AD and SD groups detected these errors with equal frequency. Independent semantic measures predicted both semantic and sequencing script errors, while executive measures predicted sequencing errors only. Findings support a multi-component model of script comprehension.

Aged↗

PubMed2006

Verbal fluency predicts mortality in Alzheimer disease.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the predictive value of neuropsychologic profiles, at diagnosis, for mortality in incident Alzheimer disease (AD). BACKGROUND: Rate of AD progression varies significantly across individuals for reasons that are not well understood. Several studies have linked rapid decline with disproportionately impaired executive functioning, presumably reflecting greater impairment of frontal networks. To the extent that differential neuropsychologic profiles reflect various neuropathologic presentations of AD, such profiles may inform survival estimates early in the disease. METHODS: Five neuropsychologic indices were used to characterize performance in 161 individuals at diagnosis of AD during a 15-year, longitudinal, primarily community-based study. RESULTS: Fifty-two percent of participants reached the mortality end point with a median survival of 5.52 years (95% confidence interval, 4.41-6.63). Cox proportional hazards analyses indicated that older age at diagnosis was associated with higher risk of mortality (risk ratios, 1.08; 95% confidence interval, 1.04-1.12) whereas Hispanic ethnicity predicted lower mortality [0.22 (0.09-0.55)]. Controlling for these 2 demographic variables, higher verbal fluency scores at diagnosis predicted lower mortality [0.69 (0.49-0.96)]. CONCLUSIONS: Disproportionate impairment of both category and letter fluency at the earliest stages of AD predicts mortality. The prognostic value of these tests may derive from their general psychometric properties, or may reflect the measures' sensitivity to an early or critical level of compromise to frontal networks.

Aged↗

PubMed2004

Clock drawing errors in dementia: neuropsychological and neuroanatomical considerations.

OBJECTIVES: A clock drawing test scoring system is presented to explore the neuropsychological/neuroanatomic components underlying clock drawing in patients initially diagnosed with Alzheimer disease, ischemic vascular dementia associated with white matter alterations, and Parkinson disease. METHODS: Fourteen clock drawing test errors were scored to create 4 clock drawing test subscales that assess different underlying cognitive operations. RESULTS: In the command condition, errors on the Time subscale were correlated with impairment on executive control measures. In the copy condition, errors on the Perseveration/Pull to Stimulus subscale was also correlated with executive control measures. Patients presenting with mild (low) magnetic resonance imaging white matter alterations, significant (high) white matter alterations, and Parkinson disease were compared. In the command condition, the low white matter alterations group made fewer total errors than the Parkinson disease group. In the copy condition, the low white matter alterations group made fewer errors on the Time, Spatial Layout, and Perseveration/Pull to Stimulus clock drawing test subscales than the high white matter alterations or Parkinson disease groups. Few differences were noted between the high white matter alterations and Parkinson disease groups. DISCUSSION: Our data suggest that heavy demands on executive control associated with the interruption of large-scale cortical-subcortical neural networks underlie impairment in clock drawing in mild dementia.

Aged↗