False memory in aging: visual similarity impacts more healthy elderly adults than semantic proximity

<p>Poster presented at the ESCOP (European Society for Cognitive Psychology) in Paphos (Cyprus), the 18th of Septembre 2015.</p

When the source of false memory helps to differentiate mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)

<p><b>Background</b>. Episodic memory impairment is at the core of amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Notably, they both commit more memory errors than control participants. Nonetheless, these two groups of patients exhibit the same kinds of memory errors in recognition. The present study aims at exploring whether the source of the memory errors might help to distinguish aMCI from AD.</p> <p><b>Method</b>. Three groups of participants, 25 healthy elderly adults (HE), 20 aMCI patients and 9 AD patients, selectively learn 15 words (underlined) always presented with a distractor (not underlined). Few minutes after, they complete a yes/no recognition task in which the targets are mixed with distractors. Half of the distractors comes from the learning phase (old condition) and the other half are new words (new condition). Old and new distractors could belong to the same category (close condition: kettle-coffe maker), or to a related category (kettle-herbal tea), or to a unrelated category (kettle-spinning top) as the target.</p> <p><b>Results</b>. As expected, HE show the best memory performance followed by the aMCI patients and finally the AD patients. The same pattern of results is observed for the memory errors in the new condition. However, aMCI and AD patients exhibit similar performance in the close condition. Reversely, the biggest gap in performance between these groups is reported in the old close distractor condition, whereas similar performance is shown in the other conditions.</p> <p><b>Discussion</b>. The results suggest that both quantity and quality of memories should be taken into account in the evaluation of memory performance. AD patients present a more qualitatively impaired memory representation than aMCI patients (Vallet, Rouleau et al., 2016). This study highlights the usefulness of a selective learning procedure to distinguish between aMCI and AD as proposed in the binding memory test (Buschke, 2014).</p> <p> </p

Normative data for the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test in the older French-Quebec population

<p><b>Objective</b>: The aim of this study was to establish normative data for the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, a test assessing verbal episodic memory, in the older French-Quebec population. <b>Method</b>: A total of 432 French-speaking participants aged between 55 and 93 years old, from the Province of Quebec (Canada), were included in the study. Using multiple regression analyses, normative data were developed for five variable of interest, namely scores on trial 1, sum of trials 1 to 5, interference list B, immediate recall of list A, and delayed recall of list A. <b>Results</b>: Results showed that age, education, and sex were associated with performance on all variables. Equations to calculate the expected score for a participant based on sex, age, and education level as well as the <i>Z</i> score were developed. <b>Conclusion</b>: This study provides clinicians with normative data that take into account the participants’ sociodemographic characteristics, thus giving a more accurate interpretation of the results.</p

Proper name anomia in poststroke aphasics: evidence from a multiple-case study

<div><p>We aimed to characterize difficulties in famous face naming in three poststroke aphasic patients with a lesion limited to the left mid-posterior temporal language regions, sparing the anterior temporal lobe. The patients did not present semantic deficits specific to known people. Nonetheless, they showed difficulties naming famous buildings in addition to famous faces, but they were comparable to healthy controls in generating proper names. Our results support the critical role of the mid-posterior temporal language regions in the lexical retrieval of proper names, namely from pictorial stimuli, in absence of semantic impairments.</p></div

Dissociation des voies ventrales et dorsales en analyse de diffusion dans l’atrophie corticale postérieure (ACP) et la démence sémantique (DS)

Poster presented the 20th september 2016 in the "Journées d’Étude du Vieillissement cognitif" (JEV) in Bordeaux (France).<br

Estimates of vaccine effectiveness (VE) against influenza A(H3N2)-confirmed hospitalization in elderly participants ≥65 years-old, 2014/15 influenza season.

<p>Estimates of vaccine effectiveness (VE) against influenza A(H3N2)-confirmed hospitalization in elderly participants ≥65 years-old, 2014/15 influenza season.</p

Number of patients included in primary VE analysis by week of hospital admission date, and proportion of positive influenza tests in Quebec sentinel laboratory surveillance system, influenza season 2014/15.

<p>Number of patients included in primary VE analysis by week of hospital admission date, and proportion of positive influenza tests in Quebec sentinel laboratory surveillance system, influenza season 2014/15.</p

Specimen inclusion/exclusion criteria for primary vaccine effectiveness analysis.

<p>¹Patients whom nurses were not able to approach because of early discharge or other operational considerations (i.e. workload demands during peak weeks of respiratory admissions); ²Symptoms onset >72h after hospital admission; ³Exclusions are not mutually exclusive; ⁴15 respiratory syncytial viruses, 13 entero/rhinoviruses, 6 parainfluenza viruses, 2 coronaviruses, 1 human metapneumovirus</p

Trail Making Tests A and B: regression-based normative data for Quebec French-speaking mid and older aged adults

<p><b>Objective:</b> The Trail Making Test (TMT) is mainly used to assess visual scanning/processing speed (part A) and executive functions (part B). The test has proven sensitive at detecting cognitive impairment during aging. However, previous studies have shown differences between normative data from different countries and cultures, even when corrected for age and education. Such inconsistencies between normative data may lead to serious diagnostic errors, thus, the development of local norms is warranted. The purpose of this study was to provide regression-based normative data for TMT-A and -B, tailored for a large sample of French-speaking adults from Quebec (Canada).</p> <p><b>Method:</b> The normative sample consisted of 792 participants aged 50–91 years. Based on multiple linear regression, equations to calculate <i>Z</i>-scores were provided for TMT-A and -B, and for a contrast score which compared performance between TMT-A and -B. Percentiles, stratified by age, are presented for the number of recorded errors.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> Age was a significant predictor for TMT-A performance, while age and education were independently associated with performance on TMT-B. Gender did not have any effect on performance, in either condition. Education was the only significant predictor of the contrast score between TMT-B and TMT-A. Examiners should remain vigilant when two or more errors are recorded on the TMT-B since this was uncommon in the normative sample.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> Our TMT normative data improve the accurate detection of visual scanning/processing speed and executive function deficits in Quebec (Canada) French-speaking adults.</p

Serious adverse events (SAE) reported for the period 1–5 months after the 2009 AS03-adjuvanted monovalent pandemic vaccine.

<p>Serious adverse events (SAE) reported for the period 1–5 months after the 2009 AS03-adjuvanted monovalent pandemic vaccine.</p