The tower of London (tol) in Italy. standardization of the tol test in an Italian population

Deficit in planning and problem-solving, affecting a wide range of neuropsychological patients, has been widely investigated using the Tower of London (ToL) test, as developed by Shallice (Philos Trans R Soc Lond Ser B Biol Sci 298:199-209, 1). The ToL taps on several executive functions (EF), such as planning, time for planning or rule breaks, which may be usefully indexed by different ToL measurements. However, in its original version, the different aspects involved in ToL are not evaluated in a specific way.Here, we report the standardization of the ToL, on 896 individuals aged 15-86 years, taking in account individual factors (i.e. gender, age, years of education) which may affect performances on ToL. We computed several indexes on the ToL including score, planning and execution times, perseverations, rule breaks and self-monitoring. We found that these indexes were affected by individual factors such as gender, age and education. Present results not only provide extensive normative data according to gender, as well as different age and education ranges, but also represent a very useful instrument for a more fine-grained diagnosis of EF deficits in a wide range of neuropsychological patients, including traumatic brain injury and brain-damaged patients, as well as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease patients

Women outperform men in remembering to remember

The study of gender differences in prospective memory (i.e., remembering to remember) has received modest attention in the literature. The few reported studies investigating either subjective or objective evaluations of prospective memory have shown inconsistent data. In this study, we aimed to verify the presence of gender differences during the performance of an objective prospective memory test by considering the weight of specific variables such as length of delay, type of response, and type of cue. We submitted a sample of 100 healthy Italian participants (50 men and 50 women) to a test expressly developed to assess prospective memory: The Memory for Intentions Screening Test. Women performed better than men in remembering to do an event-based task (i.e., prompted by an external event) and when the task required a physical response modality. We discuss the behavioural differences that emerged by considering the possible role of sociological, biological, neuroanatomical, and methodological variables

Studio psicofisico e di attivazione cerebrale (PET) di movimenti oculari volontari e riflessi

Dottorato di ricerca in neuropsicologia. 7. ciclo. A.a. 1994-95. Tutore L. PizzamiglioConsiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7, Rome; Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale - P.za Cavalleggeri, 1, Florence / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal

The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown Measures and COVID-19 Infection on Cognitive Functions: A Review in Healthy and Neurological Populations

: The COVID-19 pandemic severely affected people's mental health all over the world. This review aims to present a comprehensive overview of the literature related to the effects of COVID-19 lockdown measures and COVID-19 infection on cognitive functioning in both healthy people and people with neurological conditions by considering only standardized tests. We performed a narrative review of the literature via two databases, PUBMED and SCOPUS, from December 2019 to December 2022. In total, 62 out of 1356 articles were selected and organized into three time periods: short-term (1-4 months), medium-term (5-8 months), and long-term (9-12 months), according to the time in which the tests were performed. Regardless of the time period, most studies showed a general worsening in cognitive performance in people with neurological conditions due to COVID-19 lockdown measures and in healthy individuals recovered from COVID-19 infection. Our review is the first to highlight the importance of considering standardized tests as reliable measures to quantify the presence of cognitive deficits due to COVID-19. Indeed, we believe that they provide an objective measure of the cognitive difficulties encountered in the different populations, while allowing clinicians to plan rehabilitation treatments that can be of great help to many patients who still, nowadays, experience post-COVID-19 symptoms

AMPLITUDE AND SPEED CHANGE OF THE OPTOKINETIC RESPONSE IN PATIENTS WITH AND WITHOUT NEGLECT

THE present study quantitatively investigated the slow and quick phases of optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) in four groups of patients: right unilateral brain-damaged patients with neglect, left and right patients without neglect or hemianopia and patients with left or right retrogeniculate lesions and lateral homonymous hemianopia. Our results indicate that only neglect patients show a perturbation of both components of OKN. A comparison among MRI images of different patients shows that a region involving area 37 and adjacent areas 39 and 19, was impaired in all patients with neglect, but not in any other patient with either right or left lesions

Landmark sequencing and route knowledge: An fMRI study

Introduction: The ability to navigate in a familiar environment mainly relies on route knowledge, that is, a mental representation of relevant locations along a way, sequenced according to a navigational goal. Despite the clear ecological validity of this issue, route navigation and route knowledge have been scarcely investigated and little is known about the neural and cognitive bases of this navigational strategy. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we tested the validity of the predictions based on the main cognitive models of spatial knowledge acquisition about route-based navigation. Methods: An order judgment task was used with two conditions (route and activity). Subjects were required to detect potential mismatches between a current sensory input and expectations deriving from route and activity knowledge. Results: A medial occipto-temporal (e.g., lingual gyms, calcarine cortex, fusiform gyms, parahippocampal cortex) network was found activated during the route task, whereas a temporo-parietal (temporo-parietal junction) and frontal (e.g., Broca's area) network was related to the activity task. Conclusions: Functional data are congruent with cognitive models of route-based navigation. The route task activated areas related to both landmark identity and landmark order. Data are discussed in view of route-based navigation models. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Lack of orientation due to a congenital brain malformation: A case study

Topographical disorientation is usually described in patients who have lost the ability to orient themselves as a consequence of acquired focal brain damage. Here, we describe the case of a 20-year-old woman with a congenital brain malformation who has never been able to orient herself within the environment. We addressed in detail her ability to orient and navigate within the environment by administering a number of tasks in both ecological and experimental surroundings. The results indicate a complete inability to use any kind of strategy useful for orientation. Copyright © Taylor & Francis LLC

Topographical disorientation in a patient who never developed navigational skills: The (re)habilitation treatment

Although many cases of topographical disorientation are described in the literature, very few attempts have been made to rehabilitate this deficit, most likely because it is a multi-faceted syndrome in which different patients are affected by different topographical deficits. Therefore, it is not easy to develop a single rehabilitation programme to improve all types of topographical disorders. We describe the rehabilitation of a young woman with selective and pervasive topographical disorientation who never developed navigational skills due to a cerebral malformation bilaterally involving the retrorolandic regions. During treatment, the patient was trained to explore her surroundings carefully, to orient herself and then to move in the environment using a language-based strategy. At the end of the treatment, the patient was able to navigate in the environment by adopting several cognitive strategies useful for orientation. This result was maintained at the one-year follow-up, at which time the patient was also able to reach locations she had never been to alone. These results suggest that even patients who have never developed the ability to orient themselves in the environment can still achieve very good functional recovery if they are accurately assessed and submitted to a specific rehabilitation intervention. © 2008 Psychology Press