Cognitive dispersion across neuropsychological measures within a single testing session is a promising marker predictive of cognitive decline and development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, little is known regarding brain changes underlying cognitive dispersion, and the association of cognitive dispersion with in vivo AD biomarkers and regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) has received limited study. We therefore examined associations among cognitive dispersion, amyloid-beta (Aβ) positivity, and regional CBF among older adults free of dementia.

One hundred and forty-eight Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) participants underwent neuropsychological testing and neuroimaging. Pulsed arterial spin labeling (ASL) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was acquired to quantify CBF. Florbetapir positron emission tomography (PET) imaging determined Aβ positivity.

Adjusting for age, gender, education, and mean cognitive performance, older adults who were Aβ+ showed higher cognitive dispersion relative to those who were Aβ-. Across the entire sample, higher cognitive dispersion was associated with reduced CBF in inferior parietal and temporal regions. Secondary analyses stratified by Aβ status demonstrated that higher cognitive dispersion was associated with reduced CBF among Aβ+ individuals but not among those who were Aβ-.

Cognitive dispersion may be sensitive to early Aβ accumulation and cerebrovascular changes adjusting for demographics and mean neuropsychological performance. Associations between cognitive dispersion and CBF were observed among Aβ+ individuals, suggesting that cognitive dispersion may be a marker of brain changes among individuals on the AD continuum. Future studies should examine whether cognitive dispersion predicts brain changes in diverse samples and among those with greater vascular risk burden.

Parkinson’s disease patients with subjective cognitive decline (PD-SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) have an increased risk of dementia (PDD). Thus, the identification of early cognitive changes that can be useful predictors of PDD is a highly relevant challenge. Posterior cortically based functions, including linguistic processes, have been associated with PDD. However, investigations that have focused on linguistic functions in PD-MCI are scarce and none of them include PD-SCD patients. Our aim was to study language performance in PD-SCD and PD-MCI. Moreover, language subcomponents were considered as predictors of PDD.

Forty-six PD patients and twenty controls were evaluated with a neuropsychological protocol. Patients were classified as PD-SCD and PD-MCI. Language production and comprehension was assessed. Follow-up assessment was conducted to a mean of 7.5 years after the baseline.

PD-MCI patients showed a poor performance in naming (actions and nouns), action generation, anaphora resolution and sentence comprehension (with and without center-embedded relative clause). PD-SCD showed a poor performance in action naming and action generation. Deficit in action naming was an independent risk factor for PDD during the follow-up. Moreover, the combination of deficit in action words and sentence comprehension without a center-embedded relative clause was associated with a greater risk.

The results are of relevance because they suggest that a specific pattern of linguistic dysfunctions, that can be present even in the early stages of the disease, can predict future dementia, reinforcing the importance of advancing in the knowledge of linguistic dysfunctions in predementia stages of PD.

Relative to youth with early-treated phenylketonuria (ETPKU), much less is known regarding the cognitive profile of adults with ETPKU. The present study aimed to address this gap by providing a comprehensive assessment of neuropsychological functioning among adults with ETPKU.

A sample of 40 adults with ETPKU (ages 18 – 36) and a demographically matched group of 32 healthy individuals without PKU participated. Participants completed a comprehensive neuropsychological battery including the NIH Toolbox, Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence – Second Edition (WASI-II), Conners’ Continuous Performance Test (CPT-3), select subtests from the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale – Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) as well as several self-report measures of cognitive and psychoemotional functioning. Scores from these tests were combined to create cognitive composites reflecting overall task performance in the areas of verbal ability, visuospatial skills, executive functioning, motor skills, and processing speed.

No group differences were observed for full scale IQ or verbal ability. However, individuals with ETPKU demonstrated poorer performance on measures of executive functioning, processing speed, motor skills, and visuospatial skills as compared to the non-PKU group. Within the ETPKU group, recent blood phenylalanine levels (an indicator of metabolic control) were significantly correlated with performance across most cognitive domains and aspects of psychological functioning.

Present findings suggest that the neuropsychological profile of adult ETPKU is characterized by circumscribed impairments in select cognitive domains. In addition, the results underscore the importance of maintaining metabolic control across the lifespan in individuals with ETPKU.

Cognitive symptoms are common in the initial weeks after mTBI, but recovery is generally expected within three months. However, there is limited information about recovery specifically in older age cohorts. Therefore, this study investigated cognitive outcome three months after mTBI in older adults (≥ 65 years) compared to trauma and community age-matched controls and explored risk factors for outcome after traumatic injury.

Older mTBI patients (n = 40) and older adults with mild traumatic injury but without head injury (n = 66) were compared to a noninjured community control group (n = 47). Cognitive assessment included neuropsychological and computerized tests. Group differences were compared on individual tasks and overall cognitive performances using composite scores. Regression analyses identified predictors of outcome for trauma patients and moderator analyses explored possible interactions of mTBI severity with age and cognition.

As well as lower performances in processing speed and memory, both trauma groups had significantly lower performance on composite neuropsychological (d = .557 and .670) and computerized tasks (d = .783 and .824) compared to noninjured controls. Age, education, and history of depression were direct predictors of cognitive performance after mild traumatic injury (with or without head injury). Further moderation analysis demonstrated that mTBI severity (Glasgow Coma Scale < 15) moderated the impact of older age on computerized assessment (β = -.138).

Three months after mild trauma (regardless of head injury), older people demonstrate lower cognition compared to noninjured peers. However, severity of mTBI (Glasgow Coma Scale < 15) can interact with older age to predict poorer cognitive outcomes.

The internet serves an increasingly critical role in how older adults manage their personal health. Electronic patient portals, for example, provide a centralized platform for older adults to access lab results, manage prescriptions and appointments, and communicate with providers. This study examined whether neurocognition mediates the effect of older age on electronic patient portal navigation.

Forty-nine younger (18–35 years) and 35 older adults (50–75 years) completed the Test of Online Health Records Navigation (TOHRN), which is an experimenter-controlled website on which participants were asked to log-in, review laboratory results, read provider messages, and schedule an appointment. Participants also completed a neuropsychological battery, self-report questionnaires, and measures of health literacy and functional capacity.

Mediation analyses revealed a significant indirect effect of older age on lower TOHRN accuracy, which was fully mediated by the total cognitive composite.

Findings indicate that neurocognition may help explain some of the variance in age-related difficulties navigating electronic patient health portals. Future studies might examine the possible benefits of both structural (e.g., human factors web design enhancement) and individual (e.g., training and compensation) cognitive supports to improve the navigability of electronic patient health portals for older adults.

Loss of empathy is a hallmark feature of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). Change in socioemotional functioning identified by others is often the primary initial presenting concern in this disorder, in contrast to more subtle early cognitive changes and limited patient insight. The present study examined the predictive utility of an empathy informant-report measure for discriminating clinician-diagnosed bvFTD from other dementia syndromes.

Data from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC) database were used to study individuals with bvFTD (n = 406) and other dementia syndromes (n = 385). Participants were administered neuropsychological measures and collateral informants completed an informant-report of empathy.

Informants reported that patients with bvFTD demonstrated significantly lower levels of empathic concern [F(1, 789) = 120.91, p < .001, η 2 = 0.13] and perspective taking [F(1, 789) = 153.08, p < .001, η 2 = 0.16] than patients with other dementia syndromes. These differences were not attributable to the level of global cognitive impairment. Empathy scores were not significantly associated with any neurocognitive measure when controlling for age. ROC curve analyses showed fair to good clinical utility of the informant-report empathy measure for distinguishing bvFTD from non-bvFTD, whereas a traditional measure of executive functioning failed to differentiate the groups.

These findings indicate that informant ratings of empathy offer a unique source of clinical information that may be useful in detecting neurobehavioral changes specific to bvFTD before a clear neurocognitive pattern emerges on testing.

People living with HIV (PLWH) often experience deficits in the strategic/executive aspects of prospective memory (PM) that can interfere with instrumental activities of daily living. This study used a conceptual replication design to determine whether cognitive intraindividual variability, as measured by dispersion (IIV-dispersion), contributes to PM performance and symptoms among PLWH.

Study 1 included 367 PLWH who completed a comprehensive clinical neuropsychological test battery, the Memory for Intentions Test (MIsT), and the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ). Study 2 included 79 older PLWH who completed the Cogstate cognitive battery, the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test (CAMPROMPT), an experimental measure of time-based PM, and the PRMQ. In both studies, a mean-adjusted coefficient of variation was derived to measure IIV-dispersion using normative T-scores from the cognitive battery.

Higher IIV-dispersion was significantly associated with lower time-based PM performance at small-to-medium effect sizes in both studies (mean r s  = −0.30). The relationship between IIV-dispersion and event-based PM performance was comparably small in magnitude in both studies (r s  = −0.19, −0.20), but it was only statistically significant in Study 1. IIV-dispersion showed very small, nonsignificant relationships with self-reported PM symptoms in both samples (r s < 0.10).

Extending prior work in healthy adults, these findings suggest that variability in performance across a cognitive battery contributes to laboratory-based PM accuracy, but not perceived PM symptoms, among PLWH. Future studies might examine whether daily fluctuations in cognition or other aspects of IIV (e.g., inconsistency) play a role in PM failures in everyday life.

Computerized neglect tests could significantly deepen our disorder-specific knowledge by effortlessly providing additional behavioral markers that are hardly or not extractable from existing paper-and-pencil versions. This study investigated how testing format (paper versus digital), and screen size (small, medium, large) affect the Center of cancelation (CoC) in right-hemispheric stroke patients in the Letters and the Bells cancelation task. Our second objective was to determine whether a machine learning approach could reliably classify patients with and without neglect based on their search speed, search distance, and search strategy.

We compared the CoC measure of right hemisphere stroke patients with neglect in two cancelation tasks across different formats and display sizes. In addition, we evaluated whether three additional parameters of search behavior that became available through digitization are neglect-specific behavioral markers.

Patients’ CoC was not affected by test format or screen size. Additional search parameters demonstrated lower search speed, increased search distance, and a more strategic search for neglect patients than for control patients without neglect.

The CoC seems robust to both test digitization and display size adaptations. Machine learning classification based on the additional variables derived from computerized tests succeeded in distinguishing stroke patients with spatial neglect from those without. The investigated additional variables have the potential to aid in neglect diagnosis, in particular when the CoC cannot be validly assessed (e.g., when the test is not performed to completion).

Despite the public health burden of traumatic brain injury (TBI) across broader society, most TBI studies have been isolated to a distinct subpopulation. The TBI research literature is fragmented further because often studies of distinct populations have used different assessment procedures and instruments. Addressing calls to harmonize the literature will require tools to link data collected from different instruments that measure the same construct, such as civilian mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and sports concussion symptom inventories.

We used item response theory (IRT) to link scores from the Rivermead Post Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ) and the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT) symptom checklist, widely used instruments for assessing civilian and sport-related mTBI symptoms, respectively. The sample included data from n = 397 patients who suffered a sports-related concussion, civilian mTBI, orthopedic injury control, or non-athlete control and completed the SCAT and/or RPQ.

The results of several analyses supported sufficient unidimensionality to treat the RPQ + SCAT combined item set as measuring a single construct. Fixed-parameter IRT was used to create a cross-walk table that maps RPQ total scores to SCAT symptom severity scores. Linked and observed scores were highly correlated (r = .92). Standard errors of the IRT scores were slightly higher for civilian mTBI patients and orthopedic controls, particularly for RPQ scores linked from the SCAT.

By linking the RPQ to the SCAT we facilitated efforts to effectively combine samples and harmonize data relating to mTBI.

Dementia among migrants is an emerging phenomenon worldwide and the development of neuropsychological tests sensitive to cultural differences is increasingly regarded as a priority. The Clock Drawing Test (CDT) is one of the most used screening tools for the detection of cognitive decline. Nevertheless, there is still a debate about its adoption as a cross-cultural assessment.

To identify cultural variables influencing performance at CDT, we performed a systematic review of literature on three databases of all studies considering the role of at least one of the following: (1) language; (2) education; (3) literacy; (4) acculturation; and (5) ethnicity.

We extrapolated 160 analyses from 105 studies. Overall, an influence of cultural determinants on performance at CDT was found in 127 analyses (79.4%). Regarding specific cultural factors, 22 analyses investigated the effect of ethnicity on CDT scores, reporting conflicting results. Only two scoring systems turned out to be sufficiently accurate in a multicultural population. Language influenced performance in only 1 out of 8 analyses. A higher level of education positively influenced test performance in 118 out of 154 analyses (76.6%), and a better quality of education in 1 analysis out of 2. A negative influence of illiteracy on CDT performance emerged in 9 out of 10 analyses. Acculturation affected performances at CDT in 1 out of 2 studies.

Based on the present findings, caution is needed when using CDT in a multicultural context, even if it requires limited linguistic competence.