1,721,002 research outputs found
Controversial neuropsychological issues in Alzheimer's disease: influence of onset-age and hemispheric asymmetry of impairment
No full textA battery of 21 standardized neuropsychological tests was used in a retrospective study carried out on 52 mildly demented Alzheimer patients to analyse the relationship between age at onset of disease and the progress of cognitive impairment. Early onset was found to be associated with a more severe impairment. Possible sampling biases are discussed. Forty-seven patients were also tested for hemisphere asymmetry of cognitive impairment with two subsets of tests predominantly tapping left and right hemisphere abilities, respectively. We found a significant predominance of left-sided impairment which was not related to age at onset of disease. Possible relationship of this finding to healthy brain asymmetries is discussed
Are hallucinations and extrapyramidal signs associated with a steeper cognitive decline in degenerative dementia patients?
No full textThe aim of this study was to verify if visual hallucinations and extrapyramidal signs are associated with a high speed of cognitive decline in degenerative dementia patients with amnesic onset. The analysis of 1082 consecutive patients showed that hallucinations, but not extrapyramidal signs, were associated with a faster cognitive decline. However, patients with hallucinations were also more severe at the time of examination with the Milan Overall Dementia Assessment (MODA). One interpretation is that hallucinations are the marker of a distinct process of nervous degeneration that specifically causes a steeper cognitive decline from onset. Another interpretation is that the speed of cognitive decline is set along a continuum, and the incidence of hallucinations is simply proportional to the level of cognitive decline. The statistical analysis of our data was consistent with the latter interpretation, in that we were able to quantify the probability of presenting visual hallucinations on the basis of the overall severity of cognitive decline
Focal hemisphere damage and visuo-perceptual categorization
No full textVisuoperceptual categorization was investigated in patients with unilateral brain damage by a task in which meaningless shapes had to be classified with reference to a number of prototype patterns. Right brain-damaged subjects with visual field defect turned out to have a narrower categorization span. As this outcome seems to be scarcely consonant with a lower level disorder of visual processing, a major competence of the right hemisphere is suggested for visuoperceptual categorization
Cognitive deterioration in Alzheimer's disease: Is early course predictive of later stages?
No full textThis study investigated the predictive value of the early progression rate of Alzheimer's disease on that of the later stages. We retrospectively evaluated 91 patients affected by possible Alzheimer's disease; the patients had been examined twice with the Milan overall dementia assessment (MODA) scale at an interval of 12 months (53 patients) or 24 months (38 patients). At the first assessment, speed of progression was calculated for each patient dividing the MODA difference from the normality threshold by the time elapsed from the cognitive decline onset. The second assessment of speed of progression was calculated dividing the difference between the two MODA scores by the time elapsed from the first examination. Patients with a slow progression rate in the early stage were unlikely to show a subsequent fast progression rate, and vice versa for patients with a fast early progression. A tool is provided for predicting the speed of cognitive decline of patients from a single MODA assessment. We suggest that, in future clinical trials on Alzheimer's disease, a stratification of participants based on the early rate of cognitive deterioration may be considered
A neuropsychological instrument adding to the description of patients with suspected cortical dementia: the Milan overall dementia assessment
No full textA new, short, neuropsychologically oriented test for dementia assessment-the Milan Overall Dementia Assessment (MODA)-is described. Age and education adjusted norms based on 217 healthy controls are given. A validation study on 312 outpatients suspected of dementia (121 with probable Alzheimer's disease) showed that the MODA differentiated patients with cognitive impairment from normal subjects more effectively than did the DSM III-R. The correlation between the MODA and the mini mental state examination was 0-63 in controls and 0*84 in patients with Alzheimer's dementia. The MODA test-retest reliability was 083. The test proved to be well suited to longitudinal studies
Temporal gradients for media-mediated memory : Italian norms
No full textTemporal gradient (TG), i.e., differential recallof recent and old memories, is a well known feature ofamnesia. A recent study provided evidence of a classicalTG for media-mediated events in elderly healthy people,showing that they recall remote events significantly betterthan recent ones, while a reverse TG, i.e., better recall ofmore recent events, was demonstrated in younger normalsubjects. In the present study we present normative datawhich, using the same test, allow evaluation of TG in singlecases and their qualification as classical or reverse. Thenormative procedure was also applied to a small sample ofsubjects with probable Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitiveimpairment. Norms for TG may be helpful not only toassess healthy people's performance, but also to judge anyapparent TG in pathological subjects
Intelligence and left hemisphere disease. The role of aphaisa, apraxia and size of lesion
No full textThe Raven Progressive Matrices and 4 subtests of the Wechsler-Bellevue Performance Scale were given to 173 left hemisphere patients subdivided according to presence/absence, type (fluent/non-fluent) and severity (moderate/severe) of aphasia. Constructive and ideomotor apraxia scores and CT scan data of each subject entered the statistical analysis. Factors significant in producing a low score on Progressive Matrices and Wechsler-Bellevue were presence of aphasia and constructive apraxia. Site and size of lesion per se failed to account for the intelligence scores. The relationship between aphasia, apraxia, intelligence test scores, and CT scan data were discussed in an attempt to clarify the meaning of these low intelligence test scores in aphasics and to assess the underlying roles of the brain lesions in this deficit. It appears that there are a number of methodological difficulties complicating interpretation of the intellectual deficit based on the Progressive Matrices and Wechsler-Bellevue scores, since performance on these tests is adversely affected by both aphasia and apraxia
Gottschaldt's hidden figures test: sensitivity of perceptual attention to aging aging and dementia
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