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Two Novel Psychomotor Tasks in Idiopathic Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus
- Maria A. Rossetti, Irene Piryatinsky, Fayeza S. Ahmed, Petra M. Klinge, Norman R. Relkin, Stephen Salloway, Lisa D. Ravdin, Einat Brenner, Paul F. Malloy, Bonnie E. Levin, Michael Broggi, Rebecca Gavett, James S. Maniscalco, Heather Katzen
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 22 / Issue 3 / March 2016
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 28 January 2016, pp. 341-349
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Objective: Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (INPH) is a neurological disorder presenting with gait, cognitive, and bladder symptoms in the context of ventricular enlargement. Although gait is the primary indicator for treatment candidacy and outcome, additional monitoring tools are needed. Line Tracing Test (LTT) and Serial Dotting Test (SDT), two psychomotor tasks, have been introduced as potential outcome measures but have not been widely studied. This preliminary study examined whether LTT and SDT are sensitive to motor dysfunction in INPH and determined if accuracy and time are important aspects of performance. Methods: Eighty-four INPH subjects and 36 healthy older adults were administered LTT and SDT. Novel error scoring procedures were developed to make scoring practical and efficient; interclass correlation showed good reliability of scoring procedures for both tasks (0.997; p<.001). Results: The INPH group demonstrated slower performance on SDT (p<.001) and made a greater number of errors on both tasks (p<.001). Combined Time/Error scores revealed poorer performance in the INPH group for original-LTT (p<.001), modified-LTT (p≤.001) and SDT (p<.001). Conclusions: These findings indicate LTT and SDT may prove useful for monitoring psychomotor skills in INPH. While completion time reflects impaired processing speed, reduced accuracy may suggest planning and self-monitoring difficulties, aspects of executive functioning known to be compromised in INPH. This is the first study to underscore the importance of performance accuracy in INPH and introduce practical/reliable error scoring for these tasks. Future work will establish reliability and validity of these measures and determine their utility as outcome tools. (JINS, 2016, 22, 341–349)
Linking lacustrine cycles with syn-sedimentary tectonic episodes: an example from the Codó Formation (late Aptian), northeastern Brazil
- J. D. S. PAZ, D. F. ROSSETTI
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- Journal:
- Geological Magazine / Volume 142 / Issue 3 / May 2005
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 16 June 2005, pp. 269-285
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The Codó Formation exposed in the eastern Grajaú Basin, northeastern Brazil, consists mostly of black shales, limestones and evaporites arranged into several shallowing-upward cycles formed by progradation of lake deposits. Three ranks of cycles are distinguished. The lower-rank cycles correspond to millimetric interbeddings of: bituminous black shales with evaporites, calcimudstones or peloidal wackestone–packstone; grey/green shale with calcimudstone, peloidal wackestone–packstone or ostracodal wackestone/grainstone; and ostracodal wackestone/grainstone and/or calcimudstones with cryptomicrobial mats and ooidal/pisoidal packstones. The intermediate-rank cycles average 1.7 m in thickness and are formed by complete and incomplete cycles. Complete cycles show a transition from central to intermediate and then to marginal facies associations and include two types: C1 cycle with central lake deposits consisting of evaporites and black shales; and C2 cycle with central lake deposits formed by grey/green shale. Complete cycles were produced by the upward gradation from central to marginal environments of the lake or saline pan–sabkha system. Incomplete cycles are those where at least one facies association is lacking, having been formed by successions either with central and intermediate facies associations (I1) or intermediate and marginal facies associations (I2). The higher-rank cycles are, on average, 5.2 m thick and consist of four depositional units that display shallowing-upward successions formed by complete and incomplete intermediate-rank cycles that vary their distribution upward in the section, and are bounded by sharp surfaces. While the lower-rank cycles display characteristics that reveal their seasonal signature, detailed sedimentological characterization and understanding of stratal stacking patterns related to the intermediate and higher-rank cycles support a genesis linked to syn-sedimentary tectonic activity. This is particularly suggested by the high facies variability, limited lateral extension, and frequent and random thickness changes of the intermediate-rank cycles. Additionally, the four higher-rank cycles recognized in the Codó Formation match with stratigraphic zones having different styles of soft-sediment deformation structures attributed to seismic activities. Therefore, the several episodes of lake shallowing recorded in the Codó Formation are linked to seismic pulses that alternated with sediment deposition. This process would have created significant changes in the lake water level and resulted in sharply bounded successions with upward gradation from deeper to relatively shallower facies associations.