Using a virtual environment to assess cognition in the elderly

YesEarly diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is essential if treatments are to be administered at an earlier point in time before neurons degenerate to a stage beyond repair. In order for early detection to occur tools used to detect the disorder must be sensitive to the earliest of cognitive impairments. Virtual reality (VR) technology offers opportunities to provide products which attempt to mimic daily life situations, as much as is possible, within the computational environment. This may be useful for the detection of cognitive difficulties. We develop a virtual simulation designed to assess visuospatial memory in order to investigate cognitive function in a group of healthy elderly participants and those with a mild cognitive impairment. Participants were required to guide themselves along a virtual path to reach a virtual destination which they were required to remember. The preliminary results indicate that this virtual simulation has the potential to be used for detection of early AD since significant correlations of scores on the virtual environment with existing neuropsychological tests were found. Furthermore, the test discriminated between healthy elderly participants and those with a mild cognitive impairment (MCI)

Consensus Paper: Radiological Biomarkers of Cerebellar Diseases

Hereditary and sporadic cerebellar ataxias represent a vast and still growing group of diseases whose diagnosis and differentiation cannot only rely on clinical evaluation. Brain imaging including magnetic resonance (MR) and nuclear medicine techniques allows for characterization of structural and functional abnormalities underlying symptomatic ataxias. These methods thus constitute a potential source of radiological biomarkers, which could be used to identify these diseases and differentiate subgroups of them, and to assess their severity and their evolution. Such biomarkers mainly comprise qualitative and quantitative data obtained from MR including proton spectroscopy, diffusion imaging, tractography, voxel-based morphometry, functional imaging during task execution or in a resting state, and from SPETC and PET with several radiotracers. In the current article, we aim to illustrate briefly some applications of these neuroimaging tools to evaluation of cerebellar disorders such as inherited cerebellar ataxia, fetal developmental malformations, and immune-mediated cerebellar diseases and of neurodegenerative or early-developing diseases, such as dementia and autism in which cerebellar involvement is an emerging feature. Although these radiological biomarkers appear promising and helpful to better understand ataxia-related anatomical and physiological impairments, to date, very few of them have turned out to be specific for a given ataxia with atrophy of the cerebellar system being the main and the most usual alteration being observed. Consequently, much remains to be done to establish sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility of available MR and nuclear medicine features as diagnostic, progression and surrogate biomarkers in clinical routine

Pathological association and dissociation of functional systems in multiple sclerosis and Huntington's disease

Contains fulltext : 24622___.PDF (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Exploring Strategies to Enhance Self-Efficacy about Starting a Yoga Practice

Research to support yoga’s growing popularity marks an exciting time in the integration of this ancient mind-body practice into Western culture. Yoga demonstrates promising effects in the treatment of a range of mental and physical health symptoms and is cost-effective. However, its rise in popularity is met by a very specific demographic: practitioners tend to be female, white, and well-educated. The current study explored the impact of commercial versus educational representations of yoga in the context of a lecture about how to build a personal yoga practice. The study employed measures of self-compassion, self-efficacy, and social physique anxiety to assess changes from baseline to post-stimulus and then again post-lecture. Participants were recruited from a small northwest-based university and randomly assigned to a control (exposure to a handout of the eight limbs of yoga) or experimental condition (exposure to a copy of Yoga Journal). Exposure to differing media sources was followed by an informational presentation on how to begin a yoga practice. ANOVAs were calculated (using gender as a covariate) to analyze findings. No significant changes emerged from baseline to post-lecture for women or men with regard to self-ratings of self-compassion and social physique anxiety. However, significant improvements emerged related to self-efficacy for both genders. For men, increase in self-efficacy was greater with exposure to an educational handout. Additionally, ANOVAs were calculated to examine the overall impact of the brief lecture on self-efficacy and self-compassion. Although there were no significant findings for self-compassion, significant changes emerged over time for self-efficacy. Implications for referrals and clinical practice are discussed

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Supplementary Material for: The Prevalence of Depressive Symptoms in Frontotemporal Dementia: A Meta-Analysis

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Depression is common in Alzheimer's and vascular dementia and is associated with poorer outcomes; however, less is known about the impact of depression on frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Here, we conducted a meta-analysis of diagnostic methods and the prevalence of depressive symptoms in FTD. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> PubMed, EMBASE and PsychINFO were queried for ‘depression' and/or ‘depressive mood' in behavioral- and language-variant FTD. The prevalence and diagnosis of depressive symptoms were extracted from relevant studies and the results pooled using a random-effects model. <b><i>Results:</i></b> We included 29 studies in this meta-analysis, with sample sizes ranging from 3 to 73 (n = 870). The omnibus estimated event rate of depressed mood was 0.334 (33%; 95% CI: 0.268-0.407). Symptoms were most commonly assessed via standardized neuropsychiatric rating scales, with other methods including subjective caregiver reports and chart reviews. The study results were heterogeneous due to the variability in diagnostic methods. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Depressive symptoms similar to those in other dementias are commonly detected in FTD. However, the diagnostic methods are heterogeneous, and symptoms of depression often overlap with manifestations of FTD. Having a standardized diagnostic approach to depression in FTD will greatly facilitate future research in this area

Distributions of Individual Domains of the EQ-5D-3L and the ICECAP-O.

<p>Distributions of Individual Domains of the EQ-5D-3L and the ICECAP-O.</p