Journal of Neuropsychology最新文献

To explore possible new directions for sensorimotor research, we created experiential workshops for people with lived experience. Seven people with Parkinson's and six older autistic adults attended artist-led drop-in art-science workshops, designed with advisors with lived experience. Open-ended activities based on sensorimotor experiments provoked spontaneous and unexpected conversations between visitors and researchers about their experiences of movement and the body. We invite others to apply this informal playful approach, which was both enjoyable and effective in generating future research ideas.

The present study examined whether a subset of patients with left unilateral neglect (USN) exhibited lower spatial than shape (non-spatial) working memory performance, and whether such performance was associated with revisit errors (repeated cancellations of previously marked lines) in line cancellation tasks. Participants were patients with left USN and healthy controls. Participants completed spatial and shape working memory tasks in which stimuli were presented near the right edge of the display to minimise the influence of rightward attentional bias, thereby enabling a more accurate assessment of working memory performance. In the spatial working memory task, participants were required to focus on the locations of stimuli, whereas in the shape working memory task, they were required to focus on the shapes of stimuli. Participants also completed line cancellation tasks under two conditions, one in which markings remained visible (visible task) and the other in which markings were invisible (invisible task), with the instruction to cancel each line only once. The results revealed that some patients showed lower performance on the spatial than on the shape working memory task, whereas no patients showed the opposite pattern. Patients made more revisit errors in the invisible than in the visible task. Moreover, spatial working memory performance was negatively correlated with the frequency of revisit errors. These findings suggest that, in a subset of patients with left USN, spatial working memory deficits may be related to revisit errors during visual search, although the results should be interpreted with caution given the limited sample size.

The Cognitive Reserve (CR) hypothesis attempts to account for individual differences in vulnerability to age- or pathology-related brain changes, where lifetime experiences (e.g., education, literacy attainment) have protective effects on cognitive decline. While evidence suggests CR proxies predict cognitive performance in Parkinson's disease (PD), it is less clear whether CR proxies attenuate decline on social cognition tasks. This study examined the influence of distinct CR proxies on performance on social cognition tasks assessing theory of mind and emotion perception. Twenty non-demented PD patients and 20 healthy control participants completed the Test di Intelligenza Breve (TIB) and the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire (CRIq) as proxies of CR and the Story-based Empathy Task (SET; emotion attribution and intention attribution), the FACE Test and the Emotion Recognition Task (ERT; faces only, voices only and faces-voices) as tests of social cognition. Older age and having PD were associated with poorer performance on SET emotion attribution, while older age, having PD and lower TIB and CRIq scores independently predicted poorer performance on SET intention attribution. For the FACE Test, a lower TIB index predicted poorer performance. Finally, for ERT performance, older age and being male independently predicted poorer performance on faces only; older age and lower TIB scores predicted poorer performance on voices only; and being male and having lower TIB scores predicted faces-voices performance. This study demonstrated that CR is associated with performance on social cognition tasks, but it depends on the proxy adopted, and the protective role is not specific to PD.

The Towers of Kuwait-Arabic Neurocognitive Assessment (ToK-ArNA) was developed as a culturally relevant tool to assess executive functions (EF) and visuospatial (VS) abilities in the Omani population. This study established demographically adjusted normative data and evaluated the instrument's temporal stability through formal test-retest reliability analyses. A community sample of 138 cognitively intact Omani adults aged 50 years and above was enrolled. The ToK-ArNA consists of 12 problems scored independently for Time and Accuracy. Normative data were generated using multiple linear regression analysis and traditional stratification by sex, age group (50-64 vs. ≥ 65 years) and education level (0-5 vs. ≥ 6 years). Test-retest reliability was evaluated in a subsample (n = 29) across a 7-10 days interval using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and Pearson's correlations (r). Both age and education level significantly influenced time and accuracy scores across analyses (p < 0.001), with younger and more educated participants performing better. Sex was significantly associated with accuracy scores in the univariate analysis only, where men outperformed women. Test-retest reliability was good for Time scores (ICC = 0.76, r = 0.76, p < 0.001) but moderate for Accuracy scores (ICC = 0.45, r = 0.47, p = 0.010). This study provides the first normative framework for the ToK-ArNA, enhancing its clinical diagnostic utility. The findings demonstrate that age and education strongly affect executive performance, highlighting the necessity of demographically adjusted norms. The instrument exhibits acceptable temporal stability, particularly for Omani adults aged 50-65 years.

More precise subtyping within dementia syndromes leads to better prediction of pathology, supporting individualized, disease-specific treatments, and measuring emotion recognition abilities is particularly important for disorders like semantic behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (sbvFTD). To evaluate current tools' effectiveness, we compared two dynamic video-based affect labelling tests—the Dynamic Affect Recognition Test (DART), The Awareness of Social Inference Test-Emotion Evaluation Test (TASIT-EET)—and a static image-based Comprehensive Affect Testing System-Name Affect (CATS-NA) test. A total of 555 persons with dementia (PwD), diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (n = 154), progressive supranuclear palsy syndrome (n = 88), non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA) (n = 77), semantic variant PPA (svPPA) (n = 53), bvFTD (n = 124), sbvFTD (n = 65) and 133 healthy participants underwent emotion testing and MRI. All emotion labelling tests differentiated PwD from healthy controls, and FTD with social cognition deficits (sbvFTD, bvFTD and svPPA) from other PwDs. DART outperformed TASIT-EET and CATS-NA in differentiating sbvFTD from bvFTD and svPPA. Beyond emotion reading, TASIT-EET performance was also mediated by verbal memory and semantics, and CATS-NA was predicted by visuospatial and executive functions, while DART required only semantic knowledge. DART corresponded to expected structural anatomy of emotion, including predominantly right insula, anterior temporal and orbitofrontal lobes. While both TASIT-EET and CATS-NA shared that pattern, TASIT-EET additionally correlated with left temporal structures and CATS-NA associated with more dorsal frontoparietal regions. Careful selection of tests that utilize dynamic stimuli, reflect key neural circuits related to emotion and minimize demands from other cognitive domains may yield more accurate diagnoses.

Apathy is a common behavioural impairment in neurodegenerative conditions and is conceptualized within the Dimensional Apathy Framework as comprising Executive, Emotional and Initiation subtypes. The Dimensional Apathy Scale (DAS) is widely used to assess these domains, yet no validated German version has been available. This study aimed to translate and validate the German DAS (G-DAS) in control participants (HC) and to characterize apathy profiles in German-speaking people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (pwALS). Seventy-seven HC and 32 pwALS completed self-rated and caregiver-rated measures of apathy, depression, disinhibition and executive dysfunction. The G-DAS was translated using a multi-round back-translation procedure. Psychometric validation was undertaken in the HC cohort. A subsample of HC matched to pwALS on age and sex was used for between-group comparisons and for deriving exploratory reference thresholds. The G-DAS demonstrated good to high internal consistency across subscales (α = .76–.85) and total scores (self-rated: α = .88; caregiver-rated: α = .86). Convergent validity was supported by significant correlations with the Apathy Evaluation Scale and Frontal Systems Behavior subscales, particularly for the Initiation and Executive subscales. Divergent validity was evidenced by the absence of associations with anxiety and depression. PwALS showed significantly higher Executive and Initiation apathy compared with matched HC, whereas Emotional apathy did not differ. Exploratory threshold scores derived from matched HC indicated that up to 47% of pwALS exhibited clinically elevated Initiation apathy. The G-DAS is a reliable and valid German-language measure of multidimensional apathy. It effectively captures the characteristic Executive and Initiation apathy profile in ALS, supporting its clinical and research utility.

Pure apathy is relatively common in people with Multiple Sclerosis (PwMS), but its neural mechanisms remain unexplored. Therefore, we investigated the neural correlates of pure apathy in PwMS, differentiating it from depression. Sixty-two PwMS underwent neuropsychological assessments and Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans. Pure apathy is primarily associated with lesions in the cortical-limbic-subcortical system implicated in goal-directed behaviour and motivation. Apathy and depression arise from distinct yet partially overlapping neural mechanisms, with basal ganglia and limbic structures playing a key role.

Apathy is a common neuropsychiatric symptom in Alzheimer's disease (AD) associated with cognitive and functional impairment. Longitudinal studies have examined the associations between apathy and cognition in AD and other dementias, but more information is needed to understand whether the relationships are consistent longitudinally, and whether apathy relates to decline in AD-related cognitive domains or to drop-out rates in the follow-up. We used data from 236 people (age M = 75.15 and 51.3% female at baseline) with very mild or mild AD from the Finnish ALSOVA study with up to 5 years of follow-up. Global cognition was measured with the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's disease-Neuropsychological Battery, apathy with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, and disease severity with the Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes. Associations between cognition and apathy were examined with correlation analyses, linear regression analyses and linear mixed models. In longitudinal analyses, we found that apathy was associated with worse global cognition (B = −0.39, SE = 0.12, p = .001) after adjusting for disease severity. However, apathy and global cognition were not consistently associated with one another in cross-sectional analyses. Older age (OR = 0.95, p = .02), but not apathy, was associated with a lower likelihood of participating in the final follow-up visit. In conclusion, apathy associates with worse global cognition longitudinally, but when examined cross-sectionally, the apathy-cognition associations are inconsistent. Apathy at baseline does not seem to affect drop-out rates in a long follow-up of individuals with very mild or mild AD.

Executive function (EF) is associated with higher cognitive functions in the prefrontal cortex, and its assessment may support daily life activities. The reliability and validity of the Japanese Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version (J-BRIEF-A) were evaluated in this study. Gender and age differences in EF among adults were explored as a secondary objective. This cross-sectional study involved an online survey among 1378 adults (age: 18–89 years; 689 men) across Japan. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the nine subscales and three-factor model of the J-BRIEF-A (comparative fit index = .98, root mean square error of approximation = .094). Internal consistency and high test–retest stability were also confirmed. Construct validity was confirmed using the Dysexecutive Questionnaire as an external criterion. Younger age groups tended to have higher scores for each item. This study confirmed the reliability of the J-BRIEF-A and provided partial evidence for its validity. The factor analysis supported the theoretical structure of the scale, suggesting factorial validity. The significant correlation between the J-BRIEF-A and Dysexecutive Questionnaire partially supports the J-BRIEF-A's construct validity. Despite relying on self-reported data and there being no direct comparisons with performance-based EF tests, the J-BRIEF-A remains valuable for assessing EF in daily life.