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At least 883 records · Page 49Linked to original sources
PubMed2001

Neuropsychological performance of right- and left-frontotemporal dementia compared to Alzheimer's disease.

The performance of 16 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) was compared to 11 patients with right-frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and 11 patients with left-FTD on a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Standardized scores (i.e., z scores based on normal control data) were analyzed for 5 cognitive domains. The results revealed that the AD group displayed significant impairment in visual-constructional ability relative to the two FTD groups; however, no significant difference was found between the groups on memory scores (verbal and nonverbal). Patients with left-FTD scored significantly below patients with AD on the language measures (e.g., word retrieval, verbal semantic memory), and verbal executive ability (phonemic fluency); AD patients did not differ from patients with right-FTD on these measures. Patients with right-FTD exhibited significantly more perseverative behavior than AD patients; AD patients did not differ from left-FTD patients on this parameter. These results indicate that the pattern of neuropsychological performance of AD patients is distinguishable from patients with left and right frontal frontotemporal dementia.

Alzheimer Disease↗
PubMed2000

The Awkward Moments Test: a naturalistic measure of social understanding in autism.

Details are given of a new advanced theory of mind task, developed to approximate the demands of real-life mentalizing in able individuals with autism. Excerpts of films showing characters in social situations were presented, with participants required to answer questions on characters' mental states and on control, nonsocial questions. When compared with control participants, adults with high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome were most impaired in their ability to answer the questions requiring mind-reading ability. Although the present findings have implications for task modification, such naturalistic, dynamic stimuli are held to offer an important means of studying subtle difficulties in mentalistic understanding.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Spatial representation of words in the brain implied by studies of a unilateral neglect patient.

Reading and writing require access to stored knowledge about the spelling of words. Presumably, we recognize chair but not chare or chiar as a word of English, and similarly would write 'chair' but not 'chare' or 'chiar', because we access orthographic representations that specify the identity and the order of the graphemes (abstract letter representations) that comprise the spelling of words. Thus, a fundamental problem concerns the content and structure of the hypothesized orthographic representations, and how information about grapheme order is represented and processed. We present evidence from a brain-damaged patient (N.G.) with unilateral neglect that this information is coded spatially. Unilateral neglect is a disorder clinically characterized by the inability to perceive or respond to stimuli presented to the side contralateral to the site of lesion, despite the absence of significant sensory or motor deficits. The patient made reading and spelling errors only on the right half of words, regardless of length. Furthermore, she produced the same pattern of errors in reading and spelling, irrespective of the topographic arrangement of stimuli in reading (horizontal, vertical or mirror-reversed words) and of the type of response in spelling (written, oral or backward oral spelling). This pattern of performance suggests that order information in orthographic representations is coded spatially in a word-centred coordinate system; that is, in a spatially defined coordinate frame whose centre corresponds to the midpoint of a canonical, orientation-invariant representation of the word and not the midpoint of the word stimulus.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Developmental apraxia of speech: I. Descriptive and theoretical perspectives.

Developmental apraxia of speech (DAS) is a putative diagnostic category for children whose speech errors presumedly (a) differ from the errors of children with developmental speech delay (SD) and (b) resemble the errors of adults with acquired apraxia of speech. The studies reported in this series (Shriberg, Aram, & Kwiatkowski, 1997a, 1997b) concern both premises, with primary focus on the first--that children with DAS can be differentiated from children with SD on the basis of one or more reliable differences in their speech error profiles. Immediate goals are to identify a diagnostic marker for DAS and to consider implications for research and clinical practice. A long-term goal is to identify the phenotype marker for DAS, on the assumption that it may be a genetically transmitted disorder. This first paper reviews relevant descriptive and theoretical perspectives. Findings from a local ascertainment study support the clinical functionality of the term suspected DAS.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Encoding tasks and the processing of perceptual information in young and older adults.

This study examined the degree to which different tasks promote the encoding of the characteristics of a talker's voice in young and older adults, and whether these characteristics encoded in long-term memory facilitate spoken word identification under difficult listening conditions. During the encoding phase, participants were given extensive exposure to the voices of two talkers and performed tasks that focused their attention on either voice characteristics (explicitly or incidentally) or linguistic information. Subsequently, participants identified novel words masked by noise, half of which were spoken by one of the familiar talkers and half by an unfamiliar talker. Young adults identified with greater accuracy words spoken in a familiar voice, whereas older adults benefited from voice familiarity only under instructions that promoted attention to voice characteristics either explicitly or incidentally. Age-related declines in sensory uptake (hearing loss) accounted for most of these task-dependent voice effects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Premature aging in female alcoholics. A neuropsychological study.

The hypothesis of premature aging in middle-aged female alcoholics was tested by comparing their level pattern of neuropsychological test performance with age-equated nonalcoholic females and elderly nonalcoholic women. Alcoholics had significantly poorer performance on the tests than nonalcoholic peers but performed significantly better than the elderly. A subsample of more severe alcoholics was not significantly different from the elderly in level of performance although they were approximately 20 years younger. However, there were no differences among the groups in pattern of test performance. The data on level of performance partially support the hypothesis of premature aging in alcoholics. Stronger support would be attained if it were demonstrated that the alcoholics and elderly have a similar impairment in the neuropsychological processes eventuating in lowered performance.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Hemispatial neglect, balance and eye-movement control.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Disorders of spatial awareness and balance following stroke are common but often under-diagnosed. They lead to poor outcome and frequently coexist. Here we focus on recent progress in the understanding of the mechanisms underlying these disorders and potential therapeutic advances. RECENT FINDINGS: Right-hemisphere networks are important for both spatial attention and postural awareness. Neglect patients show multiple oculomotor impairments including reduced saccade amplitude and difficulty retaining spatial locations across saccades. There has been controversy regarding the brain regions associated with neglect, although most studies show the right inferior parietal lobe to be crucial and new imaging modalities have provided insight into neglect caused by subcortical stroke. The 'pusher syndrome' is a poorly understood balance disorder where patients push towards their paretic side, resulting in falls. It may involve impairment of subjective verticality but experimental studies have reported diverse findings. Advances in treatment for neglect include the successful use of prism adaptation and pilot data suggesting noradrenergic stimulation may improve search in selected patients. SUMMARY: New experimental techniques have provided insight into the debilitating disorders of spatial and postural awareness that often follow stroke. There are currently no widely used therapies for neglect but both new behavioural techniques and pharmacological methods are promising.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Contributions of phonological memory, language comprehension and hearing to the expressive language of adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Expressive language constitutes a major challenge to the development of individuals with Down syndrome. This paper investigates the relationships between expressive language abilities, language comprehension and the deficits in verbal short-term memory and hearing which are also associated with the syndrome. METHODS: Tests of nonverbal ability, expressive language, verbal short-term memory, visuo-spatial memory, language comprehension and hearing were administered. RESULTS: Phonological memory, measured by nonword repetition, was significantly correlated with expressive language abilities measured by MLU and sentence recall. Adjusting for word repetition skills did not reduce this correlation, suggesting that the relationship did not depend on the fact that both tests required spoken output. Hearing did not contribute significantly to expressive language scores of participants who provided an intelligible narrative. However, level of hearing loss as well as other language and memory measures did differentiate these participants from those who were unable to produce an intelligible narrative. CONCLUSION: Phonological memory was closely associated with the expressive language abilities of individuals with Down syndrome. Hearing loss appeared to be less closely related except that individuals with uncorrected mild to moderate hearing loss had difficulty with the narrative task. Further research is necessary to establish the nature of these relationships.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Cognitive remediation for adolescents with early onset psychosis: a 1-year follow-up study.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the long-term effects of a cognitive remediation programme for adolescents with early onset psychosis. METHOD: Twenty-five subjects (cognitive remediation, n=14; control, n=11) were assessed on cognitive, clinical and psychosocial measures 1 year after discharge. All patients had received a psychoeducational programme, while the experimental group received the addition of a 30-h cognitive remediation programme. RESULTS: A significant overall improvement for eight of 10 cognitive and three of four outcome measures was found. After controlling for IQ, there was a differential improvement in early visual information processing (P<0.05) in favour of the remediation group. No other between-group differences were found. CONCLUSION: The remediation programme may have a favourable long-term effect for early visual information processing. Improved cognitive functioning in both groups may be caused by beneficial elements in the psychoeducational programme. Because the study may be underpowered, the results should be interpreted with caution.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

The nature and prevalence of memory disorder late after stroke.

This study aimed to investigate the incidence and nature of memory impairment late after stroke. Out of 193 patients between 12 to 36 months post-cerebrovascular accident contacted in a postal survey, 113 replied that they had experienced memory impairment following the stroke. Seventy of these patients were assessed on an adapted version of the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test, Warrington's Recognition Memory Test for words and faces, and an every day memory questionnaire. The Token Test and the Benton Facial Recognition Test were also administered as measures of language and visuoperceptual processing. Thirty-five of the patients were impaired on one or more of the memory measures. Of these, 16 showed no evidence of dysphasia or visuoperceptual impairment. The 16 cases of selective memory impairment typically had mild to moderate deficits, and only three were impaired across all three tests. The results suggest that memory impairment following stroke does not necessarily involve general memory impairment. The evidence for material-specific memory deficits was much weaker.

Adult↗