Introducing the North American Association of Practicum Sites in Neuropsychology (NAPSN): development of a new organization devoted to facilitating high quality practicum training.

Introduction: In February 2023, a work group began to develop a new North American organization in neuropsychology to represent and support practicum-training sites. While other training-focused organizations such as the Association of Postdoctoral Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology (APPCN) and the Association of Internship Training in Clinical Neuropsychology (AITCN) have existed for many years, no organization exists to promote and support practicum level training outside of doctoral degree programs. The work group developed such an organization, subsequently named the North American Association of Practicum Sites in Neuropsychology (NAPSN), beginning with a mission statement and general purpose of the organization. Methods: The work group divided members into five task forces focused on various tasks needed to start the organization, including Mission/Vision, Administrative Structure, Membership, Financials, and Bylaws. The entire work group met monthly with additional meetings and work via email for the various task forces, which resulted in the development of a mission statement and bylaws, as well as a framework for program administration, membership requirements and financial needs. Conclusions: The group developed NAPSN primarily as a resource to support diverse practicum programs in urban, suburban, and rural areas in the US and Canada to provide optimal graduate level clinical training in neuropsychology. Didactics aimed specifically at practicum students was one need identified early in the process. NAPSN is developing a website-based resource in collaboration with other training organizations to increase the didactic offerings to practicum students. Other initiatives and collaborative efforts will be undertaken over time as circumstances warrant.

The relationship between performance validity testing, external incentives, and cognitive functioning in long COVID.

INTRODUCTION: Performance validity test (PVT) failures occur in clinical practice and at higher rates with external incentives. However, little PVT research has been applied to the Long COVID population. This study aims to address this gap. METHODS: Participants were 247 consecutive individuals with Long COVID seen for neuropsychological evaluation who completed 4 PVTs and a standardized neuropsychological battery. The sample was 84.2% White and 66% female. The mean age was 51.16 years and mean education was 14.75 years. Medical records were searched for external incentive (e.g., disability claims). Three groups were created based on PVT failures (Pass [no failures], Intermediate [1 failure], and Fail [2+ failures]). RESULTS: A total of 8.9% participants failed 2+ PVTs, 6.4% failed one PVT, and 85% passed PVTs. From the full sample, 25.1% were identified with external incentive. However, there was a significant difference between the rates of external incentives in the Fail group (54.5%) compared to the Pass (22.1%) and Intermediate (20%) groups. Further, the Fail group had lower cognitive scores and higher frequency of impaired range scores, consistent with PVT research in other populations. External incentives were uncorrelated with cognitive performance. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with other populations, results suggest Long COVID cases are not immune to PVT failure and external incentives are associated with PVT failure. Results indicated that individuals in the Pass and Intermediate groups showed no evidence for significant cognitive deficits, but the Fail group had significantly poorer cognitive performance. Thus, PVTs should be routinely administered in Long COVID cases and research.

Emotional functioning in long COVID: Comparison to post-concussion syndrome using the Personality Assessment Inventory.

Objective: Recent studies on Long COVID found that patients report prominent emotional distress and significant correlations between distress and cognitive performance have been identified, raising the question of how to manage or treat these issues. To understand psychological functioning in Long COVID further, this study examined personality responses on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) to compare psychological functioning in a Long COVID group with a post-concussion syndrome (PCS) group, a syndrome with a significant psychological component. Participants and methods: Participants included 201 consecutive Long COVID outpatients (Mean age = 48.87 years, mean education = 14.82, 71.6% Female, 82.6% White) and a comparison group of 102 consecutively referred PCS outpatients (Mean age = 46.08, mean education = 14.17, 63.7% Female, 88.2% White). Effect sizes and t-tests were calculated using the PAI validity, clinical, interpersonal, and treatment consideration scales as well as clinical subscales. Results: The results replicated earlier findings on the PAI in Long COVID by demonstrating that both Long COVID and PCS groups had the highest mean elevations on SOM and DEP scales but no statistically significant between group differences in mean scale elevations. Results support similarities in psychological functioning between Long COVID and PCS patients emphasizing the importance of evaluating psychological functioning in neuropsychological evaluations for these populations. Further, results suggest that psychological treatment strategies for PCS patients may be helpful for Long COVID patients, but more research is needed.

White matter microstructure in Parkinson's disease with and without elevated rapid eye movement sleep muscle tone.

People with Parkinson's disease who have elevated muscle activity during rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep without atonia) typically have a worse motor and cognitive impairment compared with those with normal muscle atonia during rapid eye movement sleep. This study used tract-based spatial statistics to compare diffusion MRI measures of fractional anisotropy, radial, mean and axial diffusivity (measures of axonal microstructure based on the directionality of water diffusion) in white matter tracts between people with Parkinson's disease with and without rapid eye movement sleep without atonia and controls and their relationship to measures of motor and cognitive function. Thirty-eight individuals with mild-to-moderate Parkinson's disease and 21 matched control subjects underwent ultra-high field MRI (7 T), quantitative motor assessments of gait and bradykinesia and neuropsychological testing. The Parkinson's disease cohort was separated post hoc into those with and without elevated chin or leg muscle activity during rapid eye movement sleep based on polysomnography findings. Fractional anisotropy was significantly higher, and diffusivity significantly lower, in regions of the corpus callosum, projection and association white matter pathways in the Parkinson's group with normal rapid eye movement sleep muscle tone compared with controls, and in a subset of pathways relative to the Parkinson's disease group with rapid eye movement sleep without atonia. The Parkinson's disease group with elevated rapid eye movement sleep muscle tone showed significant impairments in the gait and upper arm speed compared with controls and significantly worse scores in specific cognitive domains (executive function, visuospatial memory) compared with the Parkinson's disease group with normal rapid eye movement sleep muscle tone. Regression analyses showed that gait speed and step length in the Parkinson's disease cohort were predicted by measures of fractional anisotropy of the anterior corona radiata, whereas elbow flexion velocity was predicted by fractional anisotropy of the superior corona radiata. Visuospatial memory task performance was predicted by the radial diffusivity of the posterior corona radiata. These findings show that people with mild-to-moderate severity of Parkinson's disease who have normal muscle tone during rapid eye movement sleep demonstrate compensatory-like adaptations in axonal microstructure that are associated with preserved motor and cognitive function, but these adaptations are reduced or absent in those with increased rapid eye movement sleep motor tone.

Outcomes in post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) at 6 months post-infection Part 1: Cognitive functioning.

OBJECTIVE: Long-term cognitive sequelae of COVID-19 have not been extensively studied. This study provides initial results on cognitive outcomes in Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC).Participants and Methods: This study examined 53 consecutive outpatients diagnosed with COVID-19. Four participants were excluded due to performance validity test failure. All participants had positive COVID-19 tests, reported cognitive concerns, and completed neuropsychological tests to assess performance validity, attention/working memory, processing speed, memory, language, visual-spatial, executive functioning, motor, and emotional functioning. The sample was mostly white (89.8%), female (83.7%), and never hospitalized (69.4%) for COVID-19. RESULTS: Analyses indicated no mean scores in the Impaired range (>2 standard deviations [SD] below normative mean) on objective cognitive testing and a low base rate of Impaired test scores. Higher (>20%) base rates of Borderline performance (1-2 SDs below normative mean) were found on some measures. There was also evidence for frequently elevated mean scores on mood measures which correlated with some cognitive measures and the number of Borderline scores per participants. CONCLUSIONS: The results were noteworthy for infrequent Impaired scores, and significant correlations between cognition and mood/anxiety measures, but not between cognitive performance and premorbid vascular risk factors, psychiatric diagnoses, or COVID-19 disease severity. Results suggest that psychological distress was prominent in PASC and related to objective cognitive performance, but objective cognitive performance was unrelated to cognitive complaints. Other contributing factors may include fatigue/sleep issues. Neurologically based cognitive deficits were not suggested by the results.

Outcomes in post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) at 6 months post-infection part 2: Psychological functioning.

Limited research investigating the long-term psychological and emotional correlates of COVID-19 infection has been completed. The current study begins to address this limitation in patients experiencing Post-Acute Sequelae SARS-CoV-2 (PASC; e.g. "Long COVID").Participants were 43 consecutive neuropsychological outpatients diagnosed with PASC and who completed the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI). The sample was predominantly female (n = 36) and white (n = 32). Effect sizes compared to the normative mean T scores and base rates of elevated (T > 69) scores were calculated.PAI scales measuring somatic preoccupation and depression had large effect sizes and the highest base rates of scale elevations, with the mean T score at approximately the normative cutoff for clinical significance (T = 70). The Schizophrenia Thought Disorder subscale (SCZ-T) also had a large effect size and high base rate of elevation, likely reflecting cognitive concerns. Scales measuring anxiety had medium effect sizes. The other PAI scales generally had small to negligible effect sizes. There were no significant differences between hospitalized and non-hospitalized participants on the PAI.Overall, PAI scales measuring psychological distress, particularly somatic preoccupation and depression, were the most frequently elevated in the participants. The specific reasons for somatic preoccupation could not be determined in this study. Potential explanations include a vulnerability to distress in Long COVID patients, premorbid somatic preoccupation perhaps motivating these patients to seek clinical attention, or socioenvironmental factors leading some COVID patients to be somatically preoccupied with minor physiological changes and attribute those changes to COVID-19.

Neurocognitive deficits in severe COVID-19 infection: Case series and proposed model.

Objective: To date, very few studies investigating neurocognitive deficits in COVID-19 have been published. This case series addresses cognition in post-COVID-19 patient by describing three patients in acute rehabilitation to inform a model of cognitive sequelae of COVID-19. Methods: Three English-speaking inpatients with severe symptoms and long-term intensive care unit (ICU) treatment are described. All patients had a premorbid history of hypertension and hyperlipidemia and experienced delirium and hypoxemia when hospitalized. Patient 1 is a 62-year-old male with 15 years of education with additional history of obstructive sleep apnea and type 2 diabetes. Patient 2 is a 73-year-old female with 12 years of education with a premorbid medical history of alcohol use disorder and Guillain-Barre syndrome. Patient 3 is a 75-year-old male with 14 years of education. No patients had premorbid psychiatric histories. Results: The three patients demonstrated deficits on formal neuropsychological testing, particularly with encoding and verbal fluency. Memory measures improved with a more structured story memory task compared to a less-structured verbal list-learning task, suggesting executive dysfunction impacted learning. None of the patients demonstrated rapid forgetting of information. Two patients endorsed new depressive and/or anxiety symptoms. Conclusions: The results suggest evidence for neurocognitive deficits after severe COVID-19 infection, particularly in encoding and verbal fluency. These results were interpreted with caution given the limited number of patients and the telephone-based battery. The specific mechanism that caused these cognitive deficits in these individuals remains unclear. A proposed three-stage model of cognitive dysfunction is described to help guide future research.

Neuropsychological functioning in heart transplant candidates.

OBJECTIVE: This study provides age stratified neuropsychological test data for a large sample of heart transplant candidates. Patients with and without neurological co-morbidities were compared to better isolate the effects of congestive heart failure (CHF) on brain functioning. METHOD: Between 1988 and 2011, 956 patients (717 males, 239 females) with end-stage CHF and other life threatening cardiac diseases underwent neuropsychological assessment as a requirement of the heart transplant workup. Intellectual, memory, executive, language, attentional and psychomotor abilities were assessed, and standard cardiac measures were concurrently collected. Independent t-tests were used to compare subgroups with and without neurological co-morbidities on cardiac, neuropsychological and MMPI-2 measures. Chi-square tests were used for categorical items to compare demographic data between the two groups. RESULTS: Significant cognitive impairments across all domains assessed were typical in all age groups. Neurological co-morbidities, such as CVA and cardiac arrest were common, with 28% of the sample having one or more condition. That subgroup scored lower on measures of processing speed, memory, and executive measures, but the pattern of deficits was similar for both groups and not explainable by depression. Depression prevalence per MMPI-2 findings was comparable to that of the general population. CONCLUSIONS: End stage heart disease/heart failure is associated with global, mild to moderate cognitive impairment, regardless of age or neurological co-morbidities. Contributing factors likely include cerebrovascular hypoperfusion, multiorgan failure, systemic co-morbidities, and lifestyle issues.

Disruption of brain white matter microstructure in primary Sjögren's syndrome: evidence from diffusion tensor imaging.

OBJECTIVES: The relationship between cognitive symptoms and underlying neuropathology in primary SS (PSS) is poorly understood. We used high-resolution quantitative brain MRI to identify potential structural correlates of cognitive symptoms. METHODS: Subjects completed a comprehensive neuropsychometric evaluation. Imaging was performed on a 3 T MRI scanner with T(1) and proton density-weighted, fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) sequences. We compared MRI group metrics (impaired PSS, not-impaired PSS and controls) and tested for correlations between DTI results and neuropsychological measurements (significance threshold P = 0.05). RESULTS: Nineteen PSS patients (who met American-European Consensus Group 2002 criteria) and 17 healthy controls completed the cognitive evaluation. MRI scans were performed in six impaired PSS, seven not-impaired PSS and seven controls. No differences were found in regional volumetrics, nor was there a difference in T(2) lesion load between groups. Fractional anisotropy (FA) in the inferior frontal white matter (WM) was lower (P = 0.021) and mean diffusivity higher (P = 0.003) in the impaired PSS relative to the control group. Inferior frontal FA was correlated with cognitive symptoms (P = 0.0064) and with verbal memory (P = 0.0125). CONCLUSIONS: In this exploratory study, frontal region WM microstructure alterations accompanied cognitive symptoms and were associated with mild cognitive impairment in PSS. While additional study is warranted to assess the specificity and stability of these results, DTI could provide novel insight into the pathological processes accompanying the subtle cognitive dysfunction commonly experienced by PSS patients.