The severity of executive dysfunction among different PD-MCI subtypes.

Aim to examine the severity of executive dysfunction among different Parkinson's disease (PD)-mild cognitive impairment (MCI) subtypes in the early stages of the disease. The final sample consisted of 65 patients with mild PD progression. Based on neuropsychological measures, our sample was categorized into three PD-MCI subtypes: (1) PD-MCI executive group (n = 24), (2) PD-MCI executive plus memory group (n = 22), and (3) PD-MCI executive plus visuospatial group (n = 19). Patients' executive functions were evaluated with the Trail Making Test-Part B (TMT-B) and Stroop Neuropsychological Screening Test (SNST) for mental flexibility and inhibitory control, respectively. One-way ANOVA results indicated significant differences among the three subgroups on TMT-B and SNST performance. Post hoc Tukey honestly significant different (HSD) tests revealed that the PD-MCI executive plus visuospatial group had lower performances on both executive measures than the other two groups. Contrastingly, no significant differences were observed between the PD-MCI executive group and PD-MCI executive plus memory group. Our results indicated that the severity of executive dysfunction varies across different PD-MCI subtypes. These findings are discussed within the framework of the dual syndrome hypothesis and highlight the utility of determination of executive impairment severity for effective clinical management of patients with PD.

Neurocognitive impairment and social cognition in multiple sclerosis.

PURPOSE/AIM OF THE STUDY: The impairment of neurocognitive functions occurs in all subtypes of multiple sclerosis, even from the earliest stages of the disease. Commonly reported manifestations of cognitive impairment include deficits in attention, conceptual reasoning, processing efficiency, information processing speed, memory (episodic and working), verbal fluency (language), and executive functions. Multiple sclerosis patients also suffer from social cognition impairment, which affects their social functioning. The objective of the current paper is to assess the effect of neurocognitive impairment and its potential correlation with social cognition performance and impairment in multiple sclerosis patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An overview of the available-to-date literature on neurocognitive impairment and social cognition performance in multiple sclerosis patients by disease subtype was performed. RESULTS: It is not clear if social cognition impairment occurs independently or secondarily to neurocognitive impairment. There are associations of variable strengths between neurocognitive and social cognition deficits and their neural basis is increasingly investigated. CONCLUSIONS: The prompt detection of neurocognitive predictors of social cognition impairment that may be applicable to all multiple sclerosis subtypes and intervention are crucial to prevent further neural and social cognition decline in multiple sclerosis patients.

The Modality Effect on Delayed Free Recall in Non-demented Patients With Mild Parkinson's Disease Progression.

Background: The modality effect plays the central role in learning and memory functions. Retrieval failure constitutes a common memory impairment that occurs among patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, little knowledge exists about the relation between modality effect and delayed recall impairment in PD. The primary goal of this study was to compare delayed free recall performance between three different memory modalities (verbal, visual, and cross visual-verbal) in a sample of non-demented patients with mild PD progression. The secondary goal was to explore the frequency of deficient performance on the basis of normative comparisons on each of the three delayed free-recall measures. Method: A total of 71 non-demented patients with mild PD progression were recruited for the administration of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), the Rey Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCFT), and the Greek Version of Face-Name Associative Memory Examination (GR-FNAME12). Results: The percentages of deficient-performances for the three delayed free recall measures were 45.1% (32/71), 39.4% (28/71) and 31% (22/71) for the GR-FNAME12, ROFCT and RAVLT, respectively. The results indicated no significant difference between performances of the GR-FNAME12 and ROCFT, both of which were significantly lower than performance on the RAVLT. Conclusions: In conclusion, delayed free recall appears to be more severely affected in the cross visual-verbal and visual memory modalities than in verbal-memory modalities in the early phase of PD progression.

The performance of patients with Parkinson's disease on the Face-Name Associative Memory Examination.

In this study, we examined the performance of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) with different cognitive profiles on the Face-Name Associative Memory Examination (FNAME). We evaluated 71 patients with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. The results revealed that the group with executive and additional visuospatial deficits demonstrated significantly lower scores on FNAME. This finding indicates the possible clinical utility of FNAME for screening patients with PD with distinct cognitive profiles. Further longitudinal studies are needed to consider the prognostic adequacy of FNAME in detecting high-risk Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD).

Development of the Greek version of the Face Name Associative Memory Exam (GR-FNAME12) in cognitively normal elderly individuals.

OBJECTIVE: The Face-Name Associative Memory Examination (FNAME) is a cross-modal associative memory test with a high sensitivity for detecting Alzheimer's disease-related subtle memory problems at an early preclinical stage. The present study examined the psychometric characteristics of a Greek version of the short form of FNAME (GR-FNAME12) to evaluate the contribution of demographic characteristics, report the range of performance within our sample, and estimate regression-based norms in cognitively normal elderly individuals. METHOD: In all, 216 cognitively normal elderly individuals were recruited and were administered a version of the short form of the FNAME (GR-FNAME12) that was culture and language specific to Greek-speaking individuals and developed for this study. RESULTS: The construct validity of GR-FNAME12 was determined using principal component analysis thereby revealing two factors: face-name and face-occupation. These match the original version of the test. A significant positive correlation between GR-FNAME12 and two traditional memory measures - the RAVLT and the ROCFT - supported convergent validity. Test-retest reliability was computed for 32 participants. Multiple regression analyses showed that only age and not education or gender significantly predicted performance on the GR-FNAME12. We also estimated regression-based norms for the GR-FNAME12 scales. CONCLUSION: It was found that the Greek version of the FNAME12 had adequate psychometric properties, and could be administered to Greek-speaking individuals for clinical and research purposes.

Identification of a prospective early motor progression cluster of Parkinson's disease: Data from the PPMI study.

AIM: The aim of our study is to phenotype PD motor progression, and to detect whether serum, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), neuroimaging biomarkers and neuropsychological measures characterize PD motor progression phenotypes. METHODS: We defined motor progression as a difference of at least one point in the Hoehn & Yahr (H&Y) scale between the baseline (Visit 0, V0), 12 months (Visit 04, V04) and 36 months (Visit 08, V08) milestones of the Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) study. H&Y progression events were recorded at each milestone in order to be used as cluster analysis variables, in order to produce progression phenotypes. Subsequently, cross-cluster comparisons prior to and following (pairwise) propensity score matching were performed in order to assess phenotype - defining characteristics. RESULTS: Four progression clusters where identified: SPPD: Secondarily Progressive PD, H&Y progression between V04 and V08; EPPD: Early Progressive PD. H&Y progression between V0 and V04; NPPD: Non Progressive PD, no H&Y progression; MIPD: Minimally Improving PD, i.e. Minimal H&Y improvement H&Y progression between V04 and V08;. Independent Samples Mann Whitney U tests determined CSF aSyn (p = 0.006, adj p-value = 0.036. I) and Semantic Animal fluency T-score (SFT, p = 0.003, adjusted p-value = 0.016.) as statistically significant cross-cluster characteristics. Following Propensity Score Matching, SFT, Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (Retention/Recall), Serum IGF1, CSF aSyn, DaT-SPECT binding ratios (SBRs) and the Benton Judgement of Line Orientation Test (BJLOT) were determined as statistically significant predictors of cluster differentiation (p < 0.05). DISCUSSION: SFT, Serum IGF1, CSF aSyn and DaT-SPECT-derived, basal ganglia Striatal Binding Ratios warrant further investigation as possible motor progression biomarkers.