[Endogenous and Exogenous Attention in Alzheimer Type of Dementia: Effect of Target Position]. / Alzheimer Tipi Demansta Iç ve Dis Kaynakli Dikkat: Konum Etkisi.

OBJECTIVE: Endogenous attention (EnA) is an ability in goal-driven processes, controlled by top-down mechanisms and exogenous attention (ExA) is an ability in stimulus-driven processes, controlled by bottomup mechanisms. In the present research, it was aimed to investigate in Alzheimer's disease (AD) the EnA and ExA processes in relation to target position (right/left) by using the Spatial Cueing Paradigm (SCP). METHOD: The study was conducted with the participants of 65-90 year age range, consisting of 14 female and 14 male (n=28) participants diagnosed with AD and 12 female and 12 male (n=24) healthy volunteers as controls. The group variable (AD, Control) was tested on the intergroup basis; and the attention type (EnA, ExA), trial type (valid /VT+ and invalid/ VT-) and the target position (left/right) variables were tested on the intra-subject basis (within subject design). Two separate factorial ANOVAs were conducted for mean reaction time and accuracy measures obtained from SCP. RESULTS: In comparison to the control group, the AD group participants gave slow and wrong reactions to stimuli for EnA and ExA. The AD group responses were faster in the VT+s and more accurate in the VT-s to stimuli on the left as compared to those on the right; and the responses of AD patients to the stimuli on the left as compared to those on the right was more accurate in VT-s under ExA condition. CONCLUSION: AD causes impairment of EnA and ExA. Faster reactions by AD participants to the target on the left in VT+s and more accurate reactions to the target on the left in VT-s are in agreement with reports in the literature on the lateralization of visual-spatial attention (VSA) in the right hemisphere. In this study, also in agreement with previous reports, lateralization in AD was noted in favour of the stimuli on the left in ExA.

A Study of Creating Face Photographs Set Including Different Levels of Attractiveness.

INTRODUCTION: This study was aimed to create a set of photographs including human faces with neutral expression and different levels of attractiveness that can be utilized scientifically by different disciplines and for different scopes. METHODS: In total, 186 students (120 females, 66 males) volunteered to be photographed in passport style with a neutral expression. In these pictures there was no make-up, earring, or piercing. These photographs were evaluated by the participants for the neutrality and attractiveness. The secondary sex characteristics of the faces were also assessed. RESULTS: Symmetrical faces were created by taking the mirror image of the right and left sides of the faces because sufficient number of photographs could not be obtained at the first stage. According to the evaluations of these photographs by the participants, 26 attractive (13 females, 13 males) and 26 average (13 females, 13 male) faces were selected for the final set. CONCLUSION: Finally, a set of 52 photographs representing human faces with neutral expression with different levels of attractiveness is developed. According to the measurement of the secondary sexual characteristics, attractive and average faces differ in terms of the width of the eyes, the nasal area, and the length of the chin. Thus, a scientific-based FaceSet including different levels of the attractiveness has been available for the use by those concerned.

Comparing Two Cut-off Based Criteria While Investigating the Discriminatory Characteristics of a Tablet-Based Dyscalculia Screening Battery for 5-9 Age Group.

INTRODUCTION: Math skills are essential in academic, occupational, and scientific areas as well as in daily life activities. There are two existing models in screening dyscalculia: IQ-Achievement Discrepancy Model (DM), and Response to Instruction (RTI) model. In these models, two different cut-off based criteria (being 1 or 2 standard deviation below within their age groups, and being in the lower 5-10% group) are mainly used. The main purpose of this study is to compare these two different cut-off criteria, based on three sub-tests of Tablet-PC Based Dyscalculia Screening Battery (TAB-DSB) (Canonic Dot Counting-CDC, Symbolic Number Comparison-SNC and Mental Number Line-MNL). It is expected to show which criteria would yield the best discrimination in differentiating students who have dyscalculia tendency from the rest of the students in three sub-tests. METHODS: The participants of the study included 316 volunteer 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year elementary school students. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The results indicated that CDC, SNC, and MNL (MNL1, MNL2) tasks failed to discriminate the groups when the standard deviation rule (below, above, and within 1 standard deviation) was taken into consideration. On the other hand, these tasks were found to be effective in discriminating the groups when the lower 10% and the upper groups were compared.

I Thought I Saw "Zorro": An Inattentional Blindness Study.

OBJECTIVE: Inattentional blindness (IB) refers to an observer's failure to notice unexpected stimulus. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the priming type (perceptual, conceptual, and no priming) and emotional context (positive, negative, neutral) on IB with behavioral (IB, non-IB) and eye tracking measurements (latency of first fixation, total fixation time, and total fixation count in response to unexpected stimuli). METHODS: A total of 193 volunteered male university students were invited in the study. Three thematic videos (positive, negative, and neutral) were created to capture the IB. In the first stage, five pictures (a model dressed in different costumes Zorro as an unexpected stimulus, Vendetta, a judge, a doctor, and a worker) were shown to the participants for priming. In the second stage, a distractor task which involved 30 simple arithmetic operations were given. In the third stage, one of the thematic IB videos were shown to the participants, and then they answered the questions about those videos. Participants were assigned randomly to 9 different experimental conditions according to a 3 (Priming Type: Perceptual, Conceptual, No Priming) x 3 (Emotional Context: Positive, Negative, Neutral) factorial design. Finally, behavioral and eye tracking measurements were collected. RESULTS: Main and interaction effects of priming type and emotional contexts were not significant in terms of the behavioral measures. In addition, there were no significant differences between types of priming for eye tracking measures. However, there were significant differences between types of emotional contexts in all eye tracking measurements. In the negative context, participants made less total fixation, and looked shorter to unexpected stimulus than positive and neutral contexts. In addition, non-notifiers made less total fixation, and looked at unexpected stimulus for a shorter time compared to notifiers. CONCLUSION: The fact of "looking without seeing" was again demonstrated experimentally. Priming and emotional context did not affect behavioral data, but eye movements were affected from the emotional context. Current findings showed a relation between emotion and attention.

Adaptation and Norm Determination Study of the Boston Naming Test for Healthy Turkish Elderly.

INTRODUCTION: The main purpose of this research is develop the Turkish version of the BNT long form (consist of 60 items) [BNT-60 (TR)] and to determine the normative data for Turkish healthy geriatric population. BNT is a neuropsychological test which was widely used to measure naming disorders associated with a variety of neuropathological events. This research consists of two stages. In the stage of pilot study, adaptation of test was completed and BNT-60 (TR) version was developed; and in the stage of normative study, normative data was collected and norm determination was completed. METHODS: Ninety healthy and volunteer elderly were participated in pilot study and 317 were in normative study. Three screening tests called Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA), Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) were administered for participant selection. BNT-60 (TR) was applied to participants who meet the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: According to 5 (age) x 2 (gender) x 3 (education) factorial ANOVA results, main effects of age and education level on BNT-60 (TR) total score were found statistically significant. Then according to MANOVA results, main effects of age and education level on BNT-60 (TR) sub-scores were found statistically significant. On the other hand, main effect of gender was not significant on BNT-60 (TR) scores. The age and BNT-60 (TR) total score were negatively correlated. This results consistent with other normative studies of BNT in the literature. CONCLUSION: Finally, BNT-60 (TR) is adopted for Turkish culture, determined normative data and a test which is evaluating naming ability of the older adults was put into use.

Frontal activity during a verbal emotional working memory task in patients with Alzheimer's disease: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.

Emotional working memory (EWM) is suggested as a working memory (WM) type, distinguished to process emotional stimuli, and may or may not be spared in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The aim was to compare patients with AD and healthy older adults (HC) on verbal EWM performance and accompanying prefrontal cortex activity. Twenty AD patients along with 20 HC individuals are required to complete an emotional one-back task in three conditions (neutral, positive and negative word lists). Prefrontal oxyhemoglobin (oxyHb) concentrations were measured simultaneously by a 24- channel functional near infrared spectroscopy device. Correct response rates were similar in two groups in all conditions. Reaction times were comparable in the EWM positive condition but longer in the AD group in EWMneutral and negative conditions. In the HC group, emotional words had no significant effect on WM. On the other hand, positive compared to neutral words led to greater activation in the left ventral prefrontal cortex (VPFC) in AD group. When compared to HCs, activity in the VPFC was significantly higher in AD patients during the positive condition. Positive words facilitated WM performance in participants with AD. Activity in VPFC may be the functional correlate of this phenomenon.

[Does Emotional Context Affect Subliminal and Supraliminal Priming?]. / Duygusal Baglam Esikalti ve Esiküstü Hazirlamayi Etkiler mi?

OBJECTIVE: Emotions are complex psychophysiological changes experienced during the interactions of internal and external processes. The stimuli that have emotional value have processing efficiency both in encoding and retrieval processes with respect to the neutral stimuli. Processing advantage is present also for implicit memory. Priming effect does not require conscious recollection and leads to changes in responding due to previous exposure to the stimulus. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the effect of presentation type and different emotional contexts on the priming. METHOD: Sixty-volunteered-university-students were (Female: n=40, X age=19.03±1.23; Male: n=20, X age=19.70±1.92) randomly assigned to the experimental conditions. Presentation type (Subliminal and Supraliminal) was between subject and Emotional Context (pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures) was within subject independent variables. Dependent variables were Word Stem Completion score and completion latencies. RESULTS: Unpleasant emotional context had more capacity to create priming effect than the other emotional contexts. Both Subliminal and Supraliminal conditions favored the priming. Controversially to the transfer appropriate processing approach, the priming effect that was produced by supraliminal condition significantly higher than the priming created by the subliminal condition. CONCLUSION: Unpleasant picture context produced more priming due to reason that evolutionarily important, i.e. thread-related, stimuli have processing priority and they capture the attention, utilize other cognitive resources easily. Even in priming, that is a phenomenon based heavily on data driven processes, concept driven processes are also effectual as indicated by levels-of-processing approach.

The impact of aging and Alzheimer's disease on emotional enhancement of memory.

Emotional enhancement of memory (EEM) has been a well-known phenomenon which corresponds to the advantage of emotional stimuli to be better recalled than neutral ones. Previous studies suggest that aging favours recollection of positive items and this pattern is disrupted in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Emotional valence of different stimulus modalities, i.e. pictures and words, may also have an effect on each other's memory performances. However, none of these were clearly studied in AD. This study aimed to evaluate how emotional valences of simultaneously presented stimuli affected recall in healthy young (YG, n = 30), healthy elderly (HE, n = 30) participants and in patients with AD (n = 30). A battery consisting of emotional words presented on emotional pictures was developed. An analysis of a 3 (Groups) × 3 (Emotional Valence of Picture) × 3 (Emotional Valence of Word) mixed ANOVA design was carried out. Patients with AD could process emotional information similarly to healthy participants; however, they had EEM only for picture recalling. Emotional valence of the co-presented stimulus had a boosting effect both in the YG and HE, but not in AD group, especially if both of the stimuli had the same emotional valence. This study highlights the impaired EEM for verbal and preserved EEM for non-verbal declarative memory in patients with AD, the neurobiological underpinnings of which should be addressed by future studies.

A comparison of paper-and-pencil and computerized forms of Line Orientation and Enhanced Cued Recall Tests.

The purpose of this study was to assess whether a computerized battery of neuropsychological tests could produce similar results as the conventional forms. Comparisons on 77 volunteer undergraduates were carried out with two neuropsychological tests: Line Orientation Test and Enhanced Cued Recall Test. Firstly, students were assigned randomly across the test medium (paper-and-pencil versus computerized). Secondly, the groups were given the same test in the other medium after a 30-day interval between tests. Results showed that the Enhanced Cued Recall Test-Computer-based did not correlate with the Enhanced Cued Recall Test-Paper-and-pencil results. Line Orientation Test-Computer-based scores, on the other hand, did correlate significantly with the Line Orientation Test-Paper-and-pencil version. In both tests, scores were higher on paper-and-pencil tests compared to computer-based tests. Total score difference between modalities was statistically significant for both Enhanced Cued Recall Tests and for the Line Orientation Test. In both computer-based tests, it took less time for participants to complete the tests.

Discriminant validity and reliability of the Turkish version of Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE-T).

The Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE) has been used as a measure of cognitive decline in different cultures. The purpose of the study was to establish the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of IQCODE (IQCODE-T) and the ability of the questionnaire to distinguish between older adults with DSM-IV-TR dementia (n = 100) and healthy control participants (n = 60). In addition, the power of the IQCODE-T to distinguish between patients with depression and dementia was investigated. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was performed on all participants and the IQCODE-T was administered to their informants. The IQCODE-T, which was not associated with age or education of the patients, significantly differentiated patients with dementia and controls. The IQCODE-T also correctly classified 73% of depressed patients as "non-demented". Because it is easy to administer, not associated with age/education and yields fewer false-positive results than the MMSE in depression, the IQCODE-T can be used in the detection of dementia.

Trail Making Test: normative data for Turkish elderly population by age, sex and education.

OBJECTIVE: Trail Making Test (TMT) is a neuropsychological test, which has parts A and B that can precisely measure executive functions, like complex visual-motor conceptual screening, planning, organization, abstract thinking and response inhibition. The main purpose of this study is to standardize TMT for Turkish adults and/or elderly population. This study primarily consists of two main parts; norm determination study and reliability/validity studies, respectively. METHODS: The standardization study was carried on 484 participants (238 female and 246 male). Participants at the age of 50 years and older were selected from a pool of people employed in or retired from governmental and/or private institutions. The research design of this study involves the following variables mainly; age (7 subgroups), sex (2 subgroups) and education (3 subgroups). RESULTS: Age, sex and education variables have significant influence on eight different kinds of TMT scores. Statistical analysis by ANOVA revealed a major effect of age (p<0.001) and education (p<0.001) on time spent in Part A or B, or time difference between Parts B and A, or sum of Parts A and B. Similarly, influence of sex (p<0.05) on time spent on Part A or B, or sum of Parts A and B was shown to be significant. Kruskal-Wallis Test was performed and chi-square (chi(2)) values revealed that, correction scores for Part A and B were found to be influenced by age groups (p<0.001). Test-retest reliability and inter-rater reliability coefficients for time scores of Parts A and B were estimated as 0.78, 0.99 and 0.73, 0.93, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study provides normative data for a psychometric tool that reliably measures the executive functions in Turkish elderly population at the age of 50 and over.

[A comparison of implicit memory performance in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer type dementia patients]. / Hafif Kognitif Bozuklugu Olan Hastalarla Alzheimer Tipi Demans Hastalarinin Ortük Bellek Performansi Açisindan Karsilastirilmasi.

OBJECTIVE: Implicit memory, defined as the recollection of knowledge unconsciously, automatically, and without being aware of it, is different than explicit memory, in which knowledge is recollected consciously, while being aware of it. In the present study, the implicit memory performance of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's type dementia (ATD) (different stages) were compared to healthy controls. METHOD: The study included 19 MCI patients and 23 ATD patients (11 mild-moderate and 12 severe stage ATD). Control subjects were matched to the patient groups according to age, gender, education, and hand preference. DSM-IV and NINCDS-ADRA diagnostic criteria were used for clinical assessment. RESULTS: The 4 x 3 ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of the level of processing, and group and level of processing interaction effect was also significant. Group main effect was not significant. CONCLUSION: MCI and ATD groups performed similarly on the implicit memory task. Implicit memory performance was intact in patients with MCI and ATD; however, implicit memory performance of the patient groups differed according to the level of processing manipulation. For that reason, implicit memory tasks should be used for clinical diagnosis in ATD.