Financial Decision-Making in Neurological Patients

Financial abilities (FA) are a multi-dimensional domain comprising a wide range of conceptual, pragmatical, and judgmental skills ranging from basic abilities, such as bill payment, to high level abilities, such as financial decision-making (FDM). Preserved FDM abilities include the capacity to recognize fraud attempts, and they are fundamental for a person’s independence. Previous studies have reported decreased FDM in older adults and in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), who consequently become more susceptible to fraud attempts. However, FDM has scarcely been investigated in other neurological populations, and it is unclear whether FDM may be predicted by more basic FA. The aim of the present study was to investigate FDM across patients with MCI, Parkinson’s disease (PD), or stroke, as well as healthy controls (HC), and to explore to what extent FDM could be inferred by other FA. We collected FDM and FA performances using the NADL-F short battery. Performances in the NADL-F short subtests were compared among groups. Additionally, the relationship between the scores at the FDM subtest and the performance obtained in other financial subtests of the NADL-F short were investigated for each group of participants. MCI patients performed worse than HC in FDM and in several FA domains. Conversely, FDM was relatively preserved in our sample of PD and stroke patients. In HC, FDM was associated with numeracy and financial knowledge applied to everyday situations, whereas this was true with some basic FA in both MCI and PD patients. No significant association was observed in stroke patients. Our results suggest that FDM is a complex ability, only partially inferable from other FA

Dataset related to article "Financial Decision-Making in Neurological Patients"

Il dataset contiene i seguenti dati: colonna B: gruppo di appartenenza di ciascun soggetto (controllo vs diagnosi di malattie neurologiche specifiche); colonne C, D, E: i dati sociodemografici dei partecipanti, riportati nell’articolo in Tabella 1; colonna F: punteggi al test MMSE corretti secondo i dati normativi, riportati in tabella 1; colonne dalla G alla M: punteggi ottenuti nei vari domini del test NADL-F short, utilizzati per le analisi riportate nelle tabella 2, 3 e 4

Functional changes in brain oscillations in dementia: A review

A growing body of evidence indicates that several characteristics of electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) play a functional role in cognition and could be linked to the progression of cognitive decline in some neurological diseases such as dementia. The present paper reviews previous studies investigating changes in brain oscillations associated to the most common types of dementia, namely Alzheimer's disease (AD), frontotemporal degeneration (FTD), and vascular dementia (VaD), with the aim of identifying pathology-specific patterns of alterations and supporting differential diagnosis in clinical practice. The included studies analysed changes in frequency power, functional connectivity, and event-related potentials, as well as the relationship between electrophysiological changes and cognitive deficits. Current evidence suggests that an increase in slow wave activity (i.e., theta and delta) as well as a general reduction in the power of faster frequency bands (i.e., alpha and beta) characterizes AD, VaD, and FTD. Additionally, compared to healthy controls, AD exhibits alteration in latencies and amplitudes of the most common event related potentials. In the reviewed studies, these changes generally correlate with performances in many cognitive tests. In conclusion, particularly in AD, neurophysiological changes can be reliable early markers of dementia

Dyscalculia in Early Adulthood: Implications for Numerical Activities of Daily Living

Numerical abilities are fundamental in our society. As a consequence, poor numerical skills might have a great impact on daily living. This study analyzes the extent to which the numerical deficit observed in young adults with Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) impacts their activities of everyday life. For this purpose, 26 adults with DD and 26 healthy controls completed the NADL, a standardized battery that assesses numerical skills in both formal and informal contexts. The results showed that adults with DD had poorer arithmetical skills in both formal and informal settings. In particular, adults with DD presented difficulties in time and measure estimation as well as money usage in real-world numerical tasks. In contrast, everyday tasks regarding distance estimation were preserved. In addition, the assessment revealed that adults with DD were aware of their numerical difficulties, which were often related to emotional problems and negatively impacted their academic and occupational decisions. Our study highlights the need to design innovative interventions and age-appropriate training for adults with DD to support their numerical skills as well as their social and emotional well-being

Dataset related to article "Numerical activities of daily living: a short version"

Il dataset contiene i seguenti dati: colonne B, C, D: i dati socio-demografici dei soggetti, riportati nell’articolo in Tabella 1; colonna E: gruppo di appartenenza di ciascun soggetto (controllo vs diagnosi di malattie neurologiche specifiche) colonne F, G, H: punteggi grezzi dei soggetti ai test MoCA, MMSE e IADL, utilizzati nelle analisi riportate in Tabella 6; colonne dalla I alla ED: punteggi ottenuti alle varie sezioni del test NADL originale e ai relativi sub-item, utilizzati per le analisi riportate nelle tabelle 2, 3, 4. colonne dalla EF alla ES: punteggi ottenuti alle varie sezioni del test NADL short e relativi sub-item, utilizzati per le analisi riportate nelle tabelle 4, 5,

Use of Telemedicine to Improve Cognitive Functions and Psychological Well-Being in Patients with Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review of the Current Literature

The diagnosis and side effects of breast cancer (BC) treatments greatly affect the everyday lives of women suffering from this disease, with relevant psychological and cognitive consequences. Several studies have reported the psychological effects of receiving a diagnosis of BC. Moreover, women undergoing anticancer therapies may exhibit cognitive impairment as a side effect of the treatments. The access to cognitive rehabilitation and psychological treatment for these patients is often limited by resources; women of childbearing age often encounter difficulties in completing rehabilitation programs requiring access to care institutions. Telemedicine, which provides health services using information and communication technologies, is a useful tool to overcome these limitations. In particular, telemedicine may represent an optimal way to guarantee cognitive rehabilitation, psychological support, and recovery to BC patients. Previous studies have reviewed the use of telemedicine to improve psychological well-being in BC patients, and a few have investigated the effect of telerehabilitation on cognitive deficits. This study systematically reviewed the evidence on the cognitive and psychological effects of telemedicine in BC patients. Current evidence suggests that telemedicine may represent a promising tool for the management of some psychological problems experienced by breast cancer patients, but more controlled studies are needed to clarify its effectiveness, especially for cognitive deficits. The results are also discussed in light of the intervening and modulating factors that may mediate both side effect occurrence and the success of the interventions

Neurocognitive correlates of numerical abilities in Parkinson’s disease

People with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience functional limitations early in the progression of the disease, showing, among other cognitive deficits, difficulties in mathematical abilities. The neural correlates of such abilities have been scarcely investigated in PD, and it is not known whether patients may exhibit difficulties only in formal numerical tasks (e.g., mental multiplications), or also in everyday activities involving numbers (i.e., informal numerical abilities such as time estimates). The present study investigated formal and informal numerical abilities in PD patients and explored their relationship with cortical and subcortical brain volume. We examined patients with PD and mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) and age-matched healthy controls (HCs) using the numerical activities of daily living (NADL) battery, assessing both scholastic numerical abilities (formal test), and the ability to use numbers in everyday life (informal test). We compared NADL performances in both groups. Within the PD group, we investigated the association between NADL and cortical and subcortical volumes using multiple linear regressions. The correlation with other cognitive tests was also explored. PD-MCI performed worse than HC in the formal NADL test. In PD-MCI patients, brain-behavior correlations showed two distinct patterns: cortical volumes correlated positively, while striatal volumes correlated negatively with NADL formal tasks. Both formal and informal tests correlated with measures of cognitive functioning. Our results suggest specific impairments in formal numerical abilities in PD-MCI, but not in everyday activities. While cortical atrophy is associated with worse performance, the negative correlations with subcortical regions suggest that their activation may reflect potential compensatory mechanisms

Dataset related to article "Neurocognitive correlates of numerical abilities in Parkinson's disease"

Il dataset contiene i seguenti dati: colonna B: gruppo di appartenenza di ciascun soggetto (controllo vs malattia di Parkinson); colonne C, D, E, F: i dati sociodemografici dei partecipanti, riportati nell’articolo in tabella 1; colonne G, H, I: punteggi alle scale specifiche per la malattia di Parkinson (PD-CFRS, UPDRS-III, Hoehn&Yarr) riportati in tabella 1; colonne J, K L: punteggi alle due scale di funzionamento nella vita quotidiana (ADL e IADL) e al test di screening MMSE, riportati in tabella 1; colonne dalla M alla AM: punteggi ottenuti nelle varie sezioni e relativi sub-test del test NADL, utilizzati nelle analisi riportate nelle tabelle 2 e 3; colonne dalla AN alla BF: punteggi ai test neuropsicologici somministrati ai pazienti con malattia di Parkinson, utilizzati nelle analisi riportate in tabella 3; colonne dalla BG alla BX: indici di volumetria cerebrale utilizzati nelle analisi riportate in tabella 2