Gami-Chunghyuldan ameliorates memory impairment and neurodegeneration induced by intrahippocampal Aβ 1-42 oligomer injection

Soluble oligomeric forms of amyloid beta (AβO) are regarded as a main cause of synaptic and cognitive dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and have been a primary target in the development of drug treatments for AD. The present study utilized a mouse model of AD induced by intrahippocampal injection of AβO (10 μM) to investigate the effects of Gami-Chunghyuldan (GCD), a standardized multi-herbal medicinal formula, on the presentation of memory deficits and neurohistological pathogenesis. GCD (10 and 50 mg/kg/day, 5 days, p.o.) improved AβO-induced memory impairment as well as reduced neuronal cell death, astrogliosis, and microgliosis in the hippocampus. In addition, GCD prevented AβO-triggered synaptic disruption and cholinergic fiber loss. These results suggest that GCD may be useful in the prevention and treatment of AD.     

Decision-makers are resilient in the face of social exclusion

A growing body of evidence suggests that social exclusion impairs people's capacity for active deliberation and logical reasoning. Building on this finding and on the postulate from the dual-process theory that analytical thinking is essential in order to make good judgements and decisions, we hypothesized that social exclusion will alter judgement and choice behaviour. We tested this hypothesis in three experiments in which social exclusion was manipulated using the Cyberball paradigm, an online ball-tossing game in which participants either received the ball a fair number of times or were excluded by the other two players. We focused on a range of tasks designed to be sensitive to participants’ ability to engage in analytical thinking and careful deliberation, including the cognitive reflection test (Experiment 1) and a set of anchoring, intertemporal preference, disjunction, and confidence tasks (experiments 2 and 3). Our results unanimously failed to support the hypothesis that social exclusion influences people's judgements and decision-making. We discuss the implications of our findings for social exclusion theory.     

Identifying when children with visual impairment share attention: A novel protocol and the impact of visual acuity

BackgroundIn Coordinated Joint Engagement (CJE), children acknowledge that they and their social partners are paying attention to the same object. The achievement of CJE, critical for healthy development, is at risk in infants with visual impairment (VI). Research on CJE in these children is limited because investigators use a child’s gaze switch between social partner and object to index CJE. Research is needed that identifies CJE in children with VI using behaviors that do not require normal vision and that explores the relationship between CJE and visual function. This study aimed to (a) develop a protocol for identifying CJE in children with VI, and (b) explore the relationship between CJE and infants’ visual acuity (VA) and contrast sensitivity (CS), measured with Preferential Looking (PL) techniques and Visual Evoked Potential (VEP).MethodsA protocol that included 9 indices of CJE that did not require normal vision was developed to code videos of 20 infants with VI (mean age =1 year, 6 months, 27 days) and their caregivers. The percentage of CJE episodes in which each index was observed was calculated. Inter-coder reliability was measured using Cohen’s Kappa. Linear regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between the infants’ visual function and CJE.ResultsInter-rater reliability between a first coder and each of two second coders were 0.98 and 0.90 for determining whether the child participated in CJE. The following indices were observed the most (in 43–62 % of CJE): child’s body orientation to caregiver, gaze switch between caregiver and object, and vocalization to caregiver. The only significant model included VA (measured with PL) as a single predictor and explained 26.8 % of the variance in CJE.ConclusionsThe novel protocol can be used to identify CJE in children with VI with good inter-coder reliability. The data suggest that children with lower VA exhibited less CJE.     

Performance of an Adapted Version of the Timed Up-and-Go Test in People with Cognitive Impairments

In clinical practice, older people with cognitive impairment may have difficulties to understand the instructions of the Timed Up-and-Go (TUGT) test and present a bad performance. The purpose of this study was to identify differences in the TUGT performance, in an adapted version, between older adults with preserved cognition (PC), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), and to identify the association between the adapted TUGT performance and cognition among groups. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 118 community-dwelling older adults divided in three groups: PC (n?=?40), MCI (n?=?40) and AD (n?=?38). The evaluation was composed by the adapted TUGT and cognitive assessment (Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination and Frontal Assessment Battery). Only the cadence of TUGT presented significant difference between groups, specifically between AD versus MCI and PC groups. The main correlations were found between time of TUGT with fluency domain and global cognitive function, especially in the AD Group. The findings contribute to the understanding of how cognition interferes on functional mobility in older people with MCI and AD. The adapted TUGT is easy to perform in clinical practice and can be useful when assessing mobility in people with cognitive impairment.     

The usefulness of the story recall test in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease

ABSTRACT

Background: The story recall test (SRT) is one of the most reliable neuropsychological assessments for evaluating verbal memory function in order to distinguish between individuals with normal aging, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The SRT is analogous to the logical memory test in Wechsler Memory Scale-III, which has recently been developed and standardized to apply to older adults in Korea. The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of the SRT and its ability to discriminate between normal cognitive aging and patients with MCI or AD. Methods: One hundred and twelve patients with MCI, 97 patients with AD, and 53 healthy elderly adults participated in this study. The SRT was compared with the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), Global Deterioration Scale (GDS), Korean version of the Mini Mental State Examination (K-MMSE), and the Korean version of the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (K-HVLT). Results: The SRT was well-correlated with the dementia rating scales and the K-HVLT. However, the sensitivity and specificity of the SRT was greatly influenced by the level of education of the subjects. Conclusions: The SRT is a sensitive measurement of verbal memory function that can be used in clinical settings to discriminate between normal memory functioning and the very early and moderate stages of AD in a Korean population. Moreover, it is important to recognize that the SRT is more appropriate for subjects with a high level of education rather than a low level of education to differentiate normal cognitive aging from MCI or AD.     

The Relationship Between the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) and Indicators of Functioning

We investigated the relationship between scores on the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) and several indicators of functioning assessed in the national evaluation of the demonstration grants funded by the Center for Mental Health Services System of Care Initiative. The sample included 3187 youths, ranging in age from 4 to 23, with serious emotional disturbance (SED) who were evaluated at intake. At 6 month post-intake, 873 of these youths were re-evaluated. As predicted, higher CAFAS scores were associated with previous psychiatric hospitalization, more serious psychiatric diagnoses, and more restrictive living arrangements. Youths in residential inpatient settings were significantly more impaired than youths living in their own home or in regular foster care. Below average school performance, poor attendance, and contact with law enforcement personnel were also associated with greater impairment. Youth's total CAFAS scores decreased significantly from intake to 6 months. These results indicate that the CAFAS is a measure of functioning which has both statistical and clinical significance.     

Barking up the wrong tree? Lexical ambiguity resolution in children with language impairments and autistic spectrum disorders

Lexical ambiguity resolution was investigated in 9- to 17-year-olds with language impairment (LI, n=20), autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) plus language impairment (ALI, n=28), ASD and verbal abilities within the normal range (ASO, n=20), and typically developing children (TD, n=28). Experiment 1 investigated knowledge of dominant and subordinate meanings of ambiguous words. The LI and ALI groups knew fewer subordinate meanings than did the ASO and TD groups. Experiment 2 used a modified version of the paradigm to investigate contextual facilitation and suppression of irrelevant meanings. All groups demonstrated contextual facilitation, responding quickly and more accurately to words following a biased context. However, children with ALI and LI did not use context as efficiently as did their peers without language deficit. Furthermore, for the LI and ALI groups, errors in the suppression condition reflected poor contextual processing. These findings challenge the assumptions of weak central coherence theory and demonstrate the need for stringent language controls in the study of autistic cognition.     

Pseudodementia: A slow death

The clinical term pseudodementia has remained a permanent nosological entity in the literature for over 100 years. Indeed, recognition of the fact that clinical symptoms associated with reversible neuropsychiatric conditions can mimic irreversible disorders was known as early as the middle of the 19th century. The importance of the term lies in the inherent assumption that the presenting dementia is not real, or is at least reversible, and therefore treatable. Nonetheless, there continues to be controversy regarding the validity and appropriate clinical use of the term. This article reviews the evolution and clinical utility of the term pseudodementia and attempts to redirect investigative efforts toward an understanding of the neuroanatomical substrates that underlie depression and cognitive impairment in the elderly. Based on a critical analysis of the relevant literatures, a subcortical-frontal neuroanatomical substrate of late-life depression is supported. Further, the presence of leukoaraiosis, as measured by magnetic resonance imaging, is proposed as a potential neurobiological marker that contributes to the depressed mood, cognitive impairment, and later cognitive deterioration of some elderly depressed.     

The role of the perioral reflex in lip motor control for speech.

The analysis of spinal and brainstem reflexes has been shown to be a useful method of quantifying the various inputs to motoneuron pools involved in voluntary motor control. This work is selectively reviewed as a background to a discussion of the role of the perioral reflex in lip motor control for speech. Data on the sensorimotor innervation of the lips and the static and dynamic properties of the perioral reflex are presented in support of the notions that (1) perioral reflex analysis provides a viable technique for analyzing brainstem excitability changes underlying lip muscle contraction for speech, and (2) the perioral reflex loop is an important functional element in lip motor control for speech.     

Exploring mechanisms that affect retrograde memory for public events in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: A longitudinal update

Here, we examined mechanisms that affect retrograde memory in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI) as a function of longitudinal clinical outcome. 8 a-MCI who converted to Alzheimer's dementia (AD) during the subsequent 3-year follow-up (converter a-MCI) and 10 a-MCI who remained clinically stable during the same period (stable a-MCI) were compared at the baseline evaluation (i.e., when they were diagnosed as a-MCI) using a remote memory questionnaire for public events that allows disentangling the differential contribution of storage and retrieval mechanisms to performance accuracy. Results suggest that deficits in remote memory are primarily explained by impaired retrieval abilities in stable a-MCI and by impaired storage in converter-to-AD a-MCI. This distinction between retrograde amnesia due to defective trace utilisation in stable a-MCI and trace storage in converter a-MCI is consistent with the temporal unfolding of declining anterograde memory over the course of disease progression to AD.