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

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

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

A novel digital approach for post-stroke cognitive deficits: a pilot study

Background: Cognitive dysfunctions after a brain stroke have a huge impact on patients' disability and activities of daily living. Prism adaptation (PA) is currently used in patients with right brain damage to improve lateralized spatial attentional deficits. Recent findings suggest that PA could also be useful for rehabilitation of other cognitive functions. Objective: In the present study, we tested for the efficacy on cognitive rehabilitation of a novel device in which the procedure of prism adaptation is digitized and followed by cognitive training of attention and executive functions using serious games. Methods: Thirty stroke patients were randomly assigned to two groups: an experimental group of 15 patients, which performed the experimental rehabilitation training using the novel device in 10 consecutive daily sessions; a control group of 15 patients, which performed the routine cognitive training in 10 consecutive daily sessions. Both groups were tested before and after the rehabilitation program on neuropsychological tests (digit and spatial span forward and backward, attentional matrices, Stroop task) and on functional scales (Barthel index and Beck Anxiety Index). Results: The main results showed that only patients who received the experimental rehabilitation training improved their scores on tests of digit span forward, spatial span backward, attentional matrices and Stroop. Moreover, patients of the experimental but not of the control group showed a significant correlation between improvement on some tasks (mainly spatial span backward) and improvement on activities of daily living as well as with reduction of anxiety levels. Conclusions: These results suggest that combining digital PA with cognitive training using serious games may be added in clinical settings for cognitive rehabilitation of stroke patients, with beneficial effects extending in promoting independency in activities of daily living and reduction of psychiatric symptoms

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

Low-Frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Enhances Recognition Memory in Alzheimer’s Disease

Background: The lack of effective pharmacological or behavioral interventions for memory impairments associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) emphasizes the need for the investigation of approaches based on neuromodulation. Objective: This study examined the effects of inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of prefrontal cortex on recognition memory in AD patients. Methods: In a first experiment, 24 mild AD patients received sham and real 1Hz rTMS over the left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), in different sessions, between encoding and retrieval phases of a non-verbal recognition memory task. In a second experiment, another group of 14 AD patients underwent sham controlled repeated sessions of 1Hz rTMS of the right DLPFC across a two week treatment. Non-verbal recognition memory task was performed at baseline, at the end of the two weeks period and at a follow up of 1 month. Results: Right real rTMS significantly improved memory performance compared to right sham rTMS (p  = 0.001). Left real rTMS left the memory performance unchanged as compared with left sham rTMS (p  = 0.46). The two sham conditions did not differ between each other (p  = 0.24). In the second experiment, AD patients treated with real rTMS showed an improvement of memory performance at the end of the two weeks treatment (p  = 0.0009), that persisted at 1-month follow-up (p  = 0.002). Conclusion: These findings provide evidence that inhibitory rTMS over the right DLPFC can improve recognition memory function in AD patients. They also suggest the importance of a new approach of non-invasive brain stimulation as a promising treatment in AD