Intervention and Prevention of Dementia in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) of China.

Reserve and resilience are recognized as essential for effective intervention and prevention of dementia. However, it is not known if these factors also protect against risk for dementia in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) of Mainland China. Studies of risk factors across regions of China provide an evidence base for future research in the GBA. However, population-based studies are rare and do not account for the cultural differences in levels of education, income, literacy and modifiable lifestyle factors. Critically, extant studies do not allow for differences in languages spoken across the region, which will bias results and potentially minimize true prevalence. Based on the conclusions reported in this Special Collection, research in the GBA should focus on resilience and reserve using preserved native language communication skills.

Clustering and Switching on verbal fluency tests in elementary school children with and without learning difficulties. / Clustering e Switching nos testes de fluência verbal em crianças do ensino fundamental I com e sem dificuldade de aprendizagem.

PURPOSE: Evaluate the performance in the Semantic and Phonemic Verbal Fluency tests in relation to the cognitive components of clustering and switching and explore the changes in development in elementary school. METHODS: Participants were 68 children from the 2nd to 5th grade of elementary school of a public school in the municipality of Santo André, divided into two groups, Learning Difficulty (LD) and Typical Development (TD). RESULTS: The Verbal Fluency tests were compared for the number of clusters, mean size of the clusters, and number of switches. All variables compared showed a statistically significant higher score for Semantic Verbal Fluency. Means and standard deviations of the same variables for year and group effect were realized in both Verbal Fluency tests. A statistically significant difference was observed only for the total number of clusters in the Semantic Verbal Fluency test for group effect, with the best performance of the TD group. A high correlation was observed between the total number of correct answers with the total number of clusters and number of switches in both Verbal Fluency tests. In addition, a correlation was observed between the total number of correct answers and the mean size of the clusters only in the Phonemic Verbal Fluency. Linear regression analysis showed greater variance for the total number of clusters, making it more predictable for performance in both verbal fluency tests. CONCLUSION: Verbal Fluency tests may be sensitive and predictive for the identification of possible differences in school performance associated with reading.

OBJETIVO: Avaliar o desempenho nos testes de Fluência Verbal Semântica e Fonêmica em relação aos componentes cognitivos de clustering e switching e explorar as mudanças no desenvolvimento no ensino fundamental. MÉTODO: Participaram 68 crianças do 2º ao 5º ano do ensino fundamental I de uma escola pública do município de Santo André, divididas em dois grupos, Dificuldade de Aprendizagem (DA) e Desenvolvimento Típico (DT). RESULTADOS: Os testes de Fluência Verbal foram comparados para o número de clusters, tamanho médio dos clusters e número de switches. Todas as variáveis comparadas mostraram uma pontuação estatisticamente significante maior para o teste de Fluência Verbal Semântica. Foram realizadas as médias e desvios-padrão das mesmas variáveis para efeito de ano e grupo em ambos os testes. Foi observada diferença estatisticamente significante apenas para o número total de clusters no teste de Fluência Verbal Semântica para efeito de grupo, com o melhor desempenho do grupo DT. Observou-se correlação alta no total de acertos em ambos os testes de Fluência Verbal com o número total de clusters e número de switches. Além disso, foi observada correlação entre o total de acertos com a média de tamanho dos clusters apenas no teste de Fluência Verbal Fonêmica. A análise de regressão linear apresentou maior variância para o número total de clusters, o tornando mais preditivo para o desempenho em ambos testes de Fluência Verbal. CONCLUSÃO: Os testes de Fluência Verbal podem ser sensíveis e preditivos para a identificação de possíveis diferenças no desempenho escolar associados à leitura.

Does Language Distance Modulate the Contribution of Bilingualism to Cognitive Reserve in Seniors? A Systematic Review.

We report a systematic review and exploratory meta-regression investigating the hypothesis that the effects of bilingualism on cognitive reserve are modulated by the distance between the pair of languages a bilingual uses. An inclusive multiple database search was performed in order to identify all relevant published research conducted in bilingual seniors. A combination of qualitative and quantitative synthesis methods were used in order to investigate our research questions. Results suggest that healthy bilingual seniors speaking more distant language pairs show improved monitoring performance on cognitive tasks. Evidence regarding a modulatory influence of language distance (LD) on the age of dementia diagnosis was inconclusive due to the small number of published studies meeting our inclusion criteria. We recommend more detailed reporting of individual differences in bilingual experience to assess the impact of LD and other variables on typical cognitive aging and the development of dementia. Linguistic differences in samples should also be considered as a constraint on bilingual advantages in future studies. Preregistration: PROSPERO CRD42021238705; OSF DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/VPRBU.

Clustering e Switching nos testes de fluência verbal em crianças do ensino fundamental I com e sem dificuldade de aprendizagem / Clustering and Switching on verbal fluency tests in elementary school children with and without learning difficulties

RESUMO Objetivo Avaliar o desempenho nos testes de Fluência Verbal Semântica e Fonêmica em relação aos componentes cognitivos de clustering e switching e explorar as mudanças no desenvolvimento no ensino fundamental. Método Participaram 68 crianças do 2º ao 5º ano do ensino fundamental I de uma escola pública do município de Santo André, divididas em dois grupos, Dificuldade de Aprendizagem (DA) e Desenvolvimento Típico (DT). Resultados Os testes de Fluência Verbal foram comparados para o número de clusters, tamanho médio dos clusters e número de switches. Todas as variáveis comparadas mostraram uma pontuação estatisticamente significante maior para o teste de Fluência Verbal Semântica. Foram realizadas as médias e desvios-padrão das mesmas variáveis para efeito de ano e grupo em ambos os testes. Foi observada diferença estatisticamente significante apenas para o número total de clusters no teste de Fluência Verbal Semântica para efeito de grupo, com o melhor desempenho do grupo DT. Observou-se correlação alta no total de acertos em ambos os testes de Fluência Verbal com o número total de clusters e número de switches. Além disso, foi observada correlação entre o total de acertos com a média de tamanho dos clusters apenas no teste de Fluência Verbal Fonêmica. A análise de regressão linear apresentou maior variância para o número total de clusters, o tornando mais preditivo para o desempenho em ambos testes de Fluência Verbal. Conclusão Os testes de Fluência Verbal podem ser sensíveis e preditivos para a identificação de possíveis diferenças no desempenho escolar associados à leitura.

ABSTRACT Purpose Evaluate the performance in the Semantic and Phonemic Verbal Fluency tests in relation to the cognitive components of clustering and switching and explore the changes in development in elementary school. Methods Participants were 68 children from the 2nd to 5th grade of elementary school of a public school in the municipality of Santo André, divided into two groups, Learning Difficulty (LD) and Typical Development (TD). Results The Verbal Fluency tests were compared for the number of clusters, mean size of the clusters, and number of switches. All variables compared showed a statistically significant higher score for Semantic Verbal Fluency. Means and standard deviations of the same variables for year and group effect were realized in both Verbal Fluency tests. A statistically significant difference was observed only for the total number of clusters in the Semantic Verbal Fluency test for group effect, with the best performance of the TD group. A high correlation was observed between the total number of correct answers with the total number of clusters and number of switches in both Verbal Fluency tests. In addition, a correlation was observed between the total number of correct answers and the mean size of the clusters only in the Phonemic Verbal Fluency. Linear regression analysis showed greater variance for the total number of clusters, making it more predictable for performance in both verbal fluency tests. Conclusion Verbal Fluency tests may be sensitive and predictive for the identification of possible differences in school performance associated with reading.

The Discourse Profile in Corticobasal Syndrome: A Comprehensive Clinical and Biomarker Approach.

The aim of this study was to characterize the oral discourse of CBS patients and to verify whether measures obtained during a semi-spontaneous speech production could differentiate CBS patients from controls. A second goal was to compare the performance of patients with CBS probably due to Alzheimer's disease (CBS-AD) pathology and CBS not related to AD (CBS-non-AD) in the same measures, based on the brain metabolic status (FDG-PET) and in the presence of amyloid deposition (amyloid-PET). Results showed that CBS patients were significantly different from controls in speech rate, lexical level, informativeness, and syntactic complexity. Discursive measures did not differentiate CBS-AD from CBS-non-AD. However, CBS-AD displayed more lexical-semantic impairments than controls, a profile that is frequently reported in patients with clinical AD and the logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA). CBS-non-AD presented mainly with impairments related to motor speech disorders and syntactic complexity, as seen in the non-fluent variant of PPA.

Diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia: recommendations of the Scientific Department of Cognitive Neurology and Aging of the Brazilian Academy of Neurology.

"Frontotemporal dementia" (FTD) is a clinical syndrome characterized by the focal involvement of the frontal and/or temporal lobes. FTD has three clinical phenotypes: the behavioral variant and two linguistic subtypes, namely, non-fluent/agrammatic primary progressive aphasia (PPA-NF/A) and semantic PPA (PPA-S). FTD is the second most common cause of dementia in individuals under the age of 65 years. This article presents recommendations for the diagnosis of FTD in the Brazilian scenario, considering the three levels of complexity of the health system: primary health care, secondary and tertiary levels. Diagnostic guidelines are proposed, including cognitive testing, behavioral and language assessments, laboratory tests, and neuroimaging.

A "demência frontotemporal" (DFT) é uma síndrome clínica, cujo denominador comum é o acometimento focal dos lobos frontais e/ou temporais. A DFT tem três fenótipos clínicos distintos: a variante comportamental e dois subtipos linguísticos, a saber, a afasia progressiva primária não-fluente/agramática (APP-NF/A) e a afasia progressiva primária semântica (APP-S). A DFT é a segunda causa mais comum de demência em indivíduos com idade inferior a 65 anos, após a doença de Alzheimer. O presente artigo apresenta recomendações para diagnóstico da DFT no cenário brasileiro, considerando os três níveis de complexidade do sistema de saúde: atenção primária à saúde e níveis secundários. São propostos protocolos de investigação diagnóstica abrangendo testagem cognitiva, avaliação comportamental, avaliação fonoaudiológica, exames laboratoriais e de neuroimagem.

Correction: Machado et al. Cognitive Intervention Strategies Directed to Speech and Language Deficits in Primary Progressive Aphasia: Practice-Based Evidence from 18 Cases. Brain Sci. 2021, 11, 1268.

We would like to have these issues corrected to our recent publication [...].

Diagnóstico da demência frontotemporal: recomendações do Departamento Científico de Neurologia Cognitiva e do Envelhecimento da Academia Brasileira de Neurologia / Diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia: recommendations of the Scientific Department of Cognitive Neurology and Aging of the Brazilian Academy of Neurology

RESUMO A "demência frontotemporal" (DFT) é uma síndrome clínica, cujo denominador comum é o acometimento focal dos lobos frontais e/ou temporais. A DFT tem três fenótipos clínicos distintos: a variante comportamental e dois subtipos linguísticos, a saber, a afasia progressiva primária não-fluente/agramática (APP-NF/A) e a afasia progressiva primária semântica (APP-S). A DFT é a segunda causa mais comum de demência em indivíduos com idade inferior a 65 anos, após a doença de Alzheimer. O presente artigo apresenta recomendações para diagnóstico da DFT no cenário brasileiro, considerando os três níveis de complexidade do sistema de saúde: atenção primária à saúde e níveis secundários. São propostos protocolos de investigação diagnóstica abrangendo testagem cognitiva, avaliação comportamental, avaliação fonoaudiológica, exames laboratoriais e de neuroimagem.

ABSTRACT "Frontotemporal dementia" (FTD) is a clinical syndrome characterized by the focal involvement of the frontal and/or temporal lobes. FTD has three clinical phenotypes: the behavioral variant and two linguistic subtypes, namely, non-fluent/agrammatic primary progressive aphasia (PPA-NF/A) and semantic PPA (PPA-S). FTD is the second most common cause of dementia in individuals under the age of 65 years. This article presents recommendations for the diagnosis of FTD in the Brazilian scenario, considering the three levels of complexity of the health system: primary health care, secondary and tertiary levels. Diagnostic guidelines are proposed, including cognitive testing, behavioral and language assessments, laboratory tests, and neuroimaging.

RastrOS Project: Natural Language Processing contributions to the development of an eye-tracking corpus with predictability norms for Brazilian Portuguese.

This article presents RastrOS, a new eye-tracking corpus of eye movement data from university students during silent reading of paragraphs of texts in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). The article shows the potential of the corpus for natural language processing (NLP) using it to evaluate the sentence complexity prediction task in BP and it also focuses on the description of NLP resources and methods developed to create the corpus. Specifically, we present: (i) the method used to select the corpus paragraphs from large corpora, using linguistic metrics and clustering algorithms; (ii) the platform for collecting the Cloze test, which is also responsible for creating the project datasets, and (iii) the hybrid semantic similarity method, based on word embedding models and contextualised word representations, used to generate semantic predictability norms. RastrOS can be downloaded from the open science framework repository with the computational infrastructure mentioned above. Datasets with predictability norms of 393 participants and eye-tracking data of 37 participants are available in the OSF repository for this work (https://osf.io/9jxg3/).

Sentence Comprehension in Primary Progressive Aphasia: A Study of the Application of the Brazilian Version of the Test for the Reception of Grammar (TROG2-Br).

Sentence-comprehension deficits have been described in patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA). However, most instruments to address this domain in more detail and in a clinical context have not been adapted and translated into several languages, posing limitations to clinical practice and cross-language research. Objectives: The study aimed to (1) test the applicability of the Brazilian version of the Test for Reception of Grammar (TROG2-Br) to detect morphosyntactic deficits in patients with PPA; (2) investigate the association between performance in the test and sociodemographic and clinical variables (age, years of formal education, and disease duration); (3) characterize the performance of individuals presenting with the three more common variants of PPA (non-fluent, semantic, and logopenic) and mixed PPA (PPA-Mx) and analyze whether TROG-2 may assist in the distinction of these clinical profiles. Methods: A total of 74 cognitively healthy participants and 34 individuals diagnosed with PPA were assessed with TROG2-Br. Overall scores (correct items, passed blocks), types, and categories of errors were analyzed. Results: In controls, block scores were significantly correlated with years of formal education (Spearman's r = 0.33, p = 004) but not with age. In PPA, age, education, and disease duration were not significantly associated with performance in the test. Controls presented a significantly higher performance on TROG2-Br compared to PPA individuals and their errors pattern pointed to mild general cognitive processing difficulties (attention, working memory). PPA error types pointed to processing and morphosyntactic deficits in nonfluent or agrammatic PPA, (PPA-NF/A), logopenic PPA (PPA-L), and PPA-Mx. The semantic PPA (PPA-S) subgroup was qualitatively more similar to controls (processing difficulties and lower percentage of morphosyntactic errors). TROG2-Br presented good internal consistency and concurrent validity. Discussion: Our results corroborate findings with TROG-2 in other populations. The performance of typical older adults with heterogeneous levels of education is discussed along with recommendations for clinical use of the test and future directions of research.

Word and pseudoword reading in young adults: an eye-tracking study. / Leitura de palavras e pseudopalavras em adultos jovens: um estudo de rastreamento ocular.

PURPOSE: To evaluate and characterize the oculomotor behavior during the reading of words and pseudowords in Brazilian Portuguese organized by frequency, length and regularity and verify its association with performance on neuropsychological tests. METHODS: 21 university students, with a mean age of 20.9 years, were submitted to a word and pseudoword reading task (TLPP) from the Anele Battery, in addition to verbal fluency and phonological working memory tests. The patterns of first fixation duration, gaze duration and rate of refixation were studied. RESULTS: The first fixation duration and the gaze duration were significantly lower for words if compared to pseudowords and the gaze duration was also lower for high-frequency and short words. Significant interactions were also found between verbal fluency performance and the first fixation duration. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate the applicability of eye tracking to study reading patterns at the word-level in Brazilian Portuguese. The eye tracker can be an additional tool in the investigation of acquired and developmental reading disorders and can assist in the detection of reading difficulties based on comparisons of the oculomotor behavior between fluent and non-fluent readers.

OBJETIVO: Avaliar e caracterizar o comportamento oculomotor durante a leitura de pseudopalavras e palavras do português brasileiro caracterizadas quanto à frequência, extensão e regularidade e verificar sua relação com o desempenho em testes neuropsicológicos. MÉTODO: 21 alunos universitários com média de idade de 20,9 anos realizaram a Tarefa de Leitura de Palavras e Pseudopalavras (TLPP) da Bateria Anele, além de testes de fluência verbal e de memória operacional fonológica. Foram estudados os padrões de duração da primeira fixação do olhar no estímulo, duração total das fixações no estímulo e a taxa de refixações (taxa de retornos ao estímulo). RESULTADOS: A duração da primeira fixação e a duração total das fixações foram significativamente menores para palavras em relação às pseudopalavras, bem como a duração total das fixações foi menor para palavras frequentes e curtas. Também foram encontradas interações significativas entre o desempenho na fluência verbal e a duração da primeira fixação. CONCLUSÃO: Nossos resultados demonstram a aplicabilidade do rastreador ocular para avaliar a leitura no nível da palavra no Português Brasileiro. O rastreador ocular pode ser um instrumento adicional na investigação de transtornos de leitura do desenvolvimento e adquiridos, podendo auxiliar na detecção de dificuldades de leitura a partir da análise de diferenças do comportamento oculomotor entre leitores fluentes e não-fluentes.

Leitura de palavras e pseudopalavras em adultos jovens: um estudo de rastreamento ocular / Word and pseudoword reading in young adults: an eye-tracking study

RESUMO Objetivo Avaliar e caracterizar o comportamento oculomotor durante a leitura de pseudopalavras e palavras do português brasileiro caracterizadas quanto à frequência, extensão e regularidade e verificar sua relação com o desempenho em testes neuropsicológicos. Método 21 alunos universitários com média de idade de 20,9 anos realizaram a Tarefa de Leitura de Palavras e Pseudopalavras (TLPP) da Bateria Anele, além de testes de fluência verbal e de memória operacional fonológica. Foram estudados os padrões de duração da primeira fixação do olhar no estímulo, duração total das fixações no estímulo e a taxa de refixações (taxa de retornos ao estímulo). Resultados A duração da primeira fixação e a duração total das fixações foram significativamente menores para palavras em relação às pseudopalavras, bem como a duração total das fixações foi menor para palavras frequentes e curtas. Também foram encontradas interações significativas entre o desempenho na fluência verbal e a duração da primeira fixação. Conclusão Nossos resultados demonstram a aplicabilidade do rastreador ocular para avaliar a leitura no nível da palavra no Português Brasileiro. O rastreador ocular pode ser um instrumento adicional na investigação de transtornos de leitura do desenvolvimento e adquiridos, podendo auxiliar na detecção de dificuldades de leitura a partir da análise de diferenças do comportamento oculomotor entre leitores fluentes e não-fluentes.

ABSTRACT Purpose To evaluate and characterize the oculomotor behavior during the reading of words and pseudowords in Brazilian Portuguese organized by frequency, length and regularity and verify its association with performance on neuropsychological tests. Methods 21 university students, with a mean age of 20.9 years, were submitted to a word and pseudoword reading task (TLPP) from the Anele Battery, in addition to verbal fluency and phonological working memory tests. The patterns of first fixation duration, gaze duration and rate of refixation were studied. Results The first fixation duration and the gaze duration were significantly lower for words if compared to pseudowords and the gaze duration was also lower for high-frequency and short words. Significant interactions were also found between verbal fluency performance and the first fixation duration. Conclusion Our results demonstrate the applicability of eye tracking to study reading patterns at the word-level in Brazilian Portuguese. The eye tracker can be an additional tool in the investigation of acquired and developmental reading disorders and can assist in the detection of reading difficulties based on comparisons of the oculomotor behavior between fluent and non-fluent readers.

Cognitive Intervention Strategies Directed to Speech and Language Deficits in Primary Progressive Aphasia: Practice-Based Evidence from 18 Cases.

BACKGROUND: Practice-based evidence can inform and support clinical decision making. Case-report series about the implementation of programs in real-world clinical settings may contribute to verifying the effectiveness of interventions for treating PPA in specific contexts, as well as illustrating challenges that need to be overcome. OBJECTIVE: To describe and provide practice-based evidence on the effectiveness of four cognitive rehabilitation programs designed for individuals with PPA and directed to speech and language impairments, which were implemented in a specialized outpatient clinic. METHODS: Multiple single-case study. Eighteen individuals with different subtypes of PPA were each assigned to one out of four training programs based on comprehensive speech and language assessments. The treatments targeted naming deficits, sentence production, speech apraxia, and phonological deficits. Pre- and post-treatment assessments were undertaken to compare trained and untrained items. Gains were generalized to a different task in the first two types of intervention (naming and sentence production). A follow-up assessment was conducted 1-8 months after treatment among 7 participants. RESULTS: All individuals presented better performance in the trained items at the post-test for each rehabilitation program accomplished, demonstrating that learning of the trained strategies was achieved during the active phase of treatment. For 13 individuals, statistical significance was reached; while for five, the results were maintained. Results about untrained items, generalization to other tasks, and follow-up assessments are presented. CONCLUSIONS: The positive results found in our sample bring some practice-based evidence for the benefits of speech and language treatment strategies for clinical management of individuals with PPA.

Student's Perspective and Teachers' Metacognition: Applications of Eye-Tracking in Education and Scientific Research in Schools.

This Perspective article discusses the possible contributions of eye-tracking (ET) to the field of Educational Neuroscience based on an application of this tool at schools. We sought to explore the teachers' view of ET videos recorded while students solved mathematical problems. More than 90% of the teachers could predict with great accuracy whether the students had answered the questions correctly or not based solely on the information provided by the ET videos. Almost all participants tried to translate the students' thoughts to understand the strategy used by the children. Our results highlight the relevance of qualitative analysis to identify the gaze strategies used by students. We propose that ET allows teachers to gain critical feedback about students' behavior during problem-solving. Most previous studies tend to emphasize the benefits of ET applications to explore learners' cognition. Our findings point that this system can also be useful to investigate teachers' cognition by providing metacognitive experiences.

Free Recall of Bound Information Held in Short-Term Memory is Unimpaired by Age and Education.

OBJECTIVES: It has been challenging to identify cognitive markers to differentiate healthy brain aging from neurodegeneration due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) that are not affected by age and education. The Short-Term Memory Binding (STMB) showed not to be affected by age or education when using the change detection paradigm. However, no previous study has tested the effect of age and education using the free recall paradigm of the STMB. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate age and education effects on the free recall version of the STMB test under different memory loads. METHODS: 126 healthy volunteers completed the free recall STMB test. The sample was divided into five age bands and into five education bands for comparisons. The STMB test assessed free recall of two (or three) common objects and two (or three) primary colors presented as individual features (unbound) or integrated into unified objects (bound). RESULTS: The binding condition and the larger set size generated lower free recall scores. Performance was lower in older and less educated participants. Critically, neither age nor education modified these effects when compared across experimental conditions (unbound v. bound features). CONCLUSIONS: Binding in short-term memory carries a cost in performance. Age and education do not affect such a binding cost within a memory recall paradigm. These findings suggest that this paradigm is a suitable cognitive marker to differentiate healthy brain aging from age-related disease such as AD.

Recalling feature bindings differentiates Alzheimer's disease from frontotemporal dementia.

It has been challenging to identify clinical cognitive markers that can differentiate patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) from those with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). The short-term memory binding (STMB) test assesses the ability to integrate colors and shapes into unified representations and to hold them temporarily during online performance. The objective of this study is to investigate whether free recall deficits during short-term memory binding (STMB) test can differentiate patients with AD from those with bvFTD and controls. Participants were 32 cognitively intact adults, 35 individuals with AD and 18 with bvFTD. All patients were in the mild dementia stage. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were used to examine the diagnostic accuracy of the STMB. The results showed that AD patients performed significantly worse than controls and bvFTD patients in the STMB test, while the latter groups showed equivalent performance. The bound condition of the STMB test showed an AUC of 0.853, with 84.4% of sensitivity and 80% of specificity to discriminate AD from controls and an AUC of 0.794, with 72.2% of sensitivity and 80% of specificity to differentiate AD from bvFTD. Binding deficits seem specific to AD. The free recall version of the STMB test can be used for clinical purposes and may aid in the differential diagnosis of AD. Findings support the view that the STMB may be a suitable cognitive marker for AD.

Lexical-retrieval and semantic memory in Parkinson's disease: The question of noun and verb dissociation.

The dissociation between the processing of verbs and nouns has been debated in light of the Embodied Cognition Theory (EC). The objective of this paper is to verify how action and verb processing deficits of PD patients are modulated by different tasks with different cognitive demands. Action and object lexical-semantic processing was evaluated in patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) and cognitively healthy controls through three different tasks (verbal fluency, naming and semantic association). Compared to controls, PD patients presented worse performance in naming actions and in the two semantic association tasks (action/object). Action verbal fluency performance was significantly associated with PD severity whereas object semantic association deficits and noun verbal fluency scores were associated to lower scores in measures of global cognitive functioning. Our data suggest that semantic deficits are related to the type of cognitive processing and this is in the line with more flexible EC accounts.

Neuropsicologia como especialidade na Fonoaudiologia: Consenso de Fonoaudiólogos Brasileiros / Neuropsychology as a specialty in Speech Language and Hearing Sciences: Consensus of Brazilian Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists / Neuropsicología como especialidad en Fonoaudiología: Consenso de Fonoaudiólogos Brasileños

Em janeiro de 2015, o Conselho Federal de Fonoaudiologia publicou a resolução que dispõe sobre as atribuições e competências relativas ao Fonoaudiólogo Especialista em Neuropsicologia. Dada a importância do reconhecimento dessa especialidade, faz-se necessário divulgar o histórico da atuação do fonoaudiólogo na área e refletir sobre seu papel na Neuropsicologia. Estima-se que o reconhecimento da atuação fonoaudiológica na área da Neuropsicologia produzirá maior investimento no desenvolvimento de práticas profissionais compatíveis com o alto desempenho em avaliação e intervenção neuropsicológicas para a saúde da comunicação em nosso país.

In January, 2015, the Federal Council of Speech Language and Hearing Sciences in Brazil published a resolution which describes the competences and roles of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists with Specialty in Neuropsychology. This article aims to present the history of professional's participation in the area and to reflect on the importance of this specialty. It is estimated that the recognition of speech pathologists in the field of neuropsychology will produce greater investment in the development of professional practices compatible with the high performance of neuropsychological assessment and intervention of cognitive communicative disorders in our country.

En enero de 2015 el Consejo Federal de Fonoaudiología en Brasil publicó la resolución que prevé las competencias y misiones del Fonoaudiólogo Especialista en Neuropsicología. Dada la importancia del reconocimiento de esta especialidad, se hace necesario revelar el historial de la actuación del fonoaudiólogo en el área y reflexionar sobre sus roles en la Neuropsicología. Se estima que el reconocimiento de los fonoaudiólogos en el campo de la Neuropsicología producirá mayor investimento en el desarrollo de prácticas profesionales compatibles con la alta performance de la evaluación y intervención neuropsicológicas para la salud en comunicación en nuestro país.

Defining multivariate normative rules for healthy aging using neuroimaging and machine learning: an application to Alzheimer's disease.

BACKGROUND: Neuroimaging techniques combined with computational neuroanatomy have been playing a role in the investigation of healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The definition of normative rules for brain features is a crucial step to establish typical and atypical aging trajectories. OBJECTIVE: To introduce an unsupervised pattern recognition method; to define multivariate normative rules of neuroanatomical measures; and to propose a brain abnormality index. METHODS: This study was based on a machine learning approach (one class classification or novelty detection) to neuroanatomical measures (brain regions, volume, and cortical thickness) extracted from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI)'s database. We applied a ν-One-Class Support Vector Machine (ν-OC-SVM) trained with data from healthy subjects to build an abnormality index, which was compared with subjects diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and AD. RESULTS: The method was able to classify AD subjects as outliers with an accuracy of 84.3% at a false alarm rate of 32.5%. The proposed brain abnormality index was found to be significantly associated with group diagnosis, clinical data, biomarkers, and future conversion to AD. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that one-class classification may be a promising approach to help in the detection of disease conditions. Our findings support a framework considering the continuum of brain abnormalities from healthy aging to AD, which is correlated with cognitive impairment and biomarkers measurements.

Evolution of language assessment in patients with acquired neurological disorders in Brazil / Evolução no Brasil das avaliações de linguagem nos pacientes com distúrbios neurológicos adquiridos

The objective of this paper was to describe the evolution of language assessments in patients with acquired neurological diseases over a period of around 45 years from 1970, when interdisciplinarity in Neuropsychology first began in Brazil, to the present day. The first twenty years of data was based on memories of Speech Pathology University Professors who were in charge of teaching aphasia. We then show the contributions of Linguistics, Cognitive Psychology, as well as Psycholinguistic and Psychometric criteria, to language evaluation. Finally, the current panorama of adaptations and creations of validated and standardized instruments is given, based on a search of the databases Pubmed, Scopus and Lilacs. Our closing remarks highlight the diversity in evaluation approaches and the recent tendency of language evaluations linked to new technologies such as brain imaging and computational analysis.

O objetivo deste artigo é descrever a evolução das avaliações de linguagem em pacientes com distúrbios neurológicos adquiridos durante um período de aproximadamente 45 anos, dos anos 1970 até os dias atuais, quando a interdisciplinaridade iniciou-se no Brasil na Neuropsicologia. Os relatos dos primeiros 20 anos foram baseados em memórias de professores de universidades que possuíam o curso de Fonoaudiologia e ministravam disciplinas de afasia. Após, procuramos mostrar as contribuições da Linguística, da Psicologia Cognitiva para a avaliação da linguagem, assim como dos critérios psicolinguísticos e psicométricos. Por fim, apresentamos o panorama atual das adaptações e criações de instrumentos validados e estandardizados a partir de busca nas bases Pubmed, Scopus e Lilacs. Nossos comentários finais salientam a diversidade dos métodos de avaliação e a tendência recente da avaliação da linguagem estar relacionada às novas tecnologias de imagem cerebral e a análises computacionais.