An analysis of the contents of the young-onset dementia helpline: profiles of clients who consulted the helpline themselves.

BACKGROUND: Young-onset dementia (YOD) community care requires personalised approaches. Yet, the specific details of YOD consultations are unclear. This study explored how initial consultations correlate with client profiles. METHODS: Data from regional YOD helplines were used to analyze the main characteristics of people living with YOD or who had concerns about the possibility of YOD (n = 132). Among several categorical variables, the following were used for analysis: age group, sex, type of living arrangement, employment status, presence of dementia, and content of the consultation. To identify groups of items that frequently occur together, strongly connected rules were identified using association rule analysis with the a priori algorithm. To focus on the characteristics of clients, rules related to client characteristics were extracted based on the type of consultation. RESULTS: A total of 51 rules were identified for the consultations. These rules fell into two categories: (1) consultations for medical matters, which mainly involved employed individuals with undiagnosed dementia, and (2) other consultations on daily life or work, which mainly involved individuals diagnosed with dementia and were characterised by the influence of sex. These rules indicate the importance of medical involvement in confirming the diagnosis and specific individualised care following diagnosis for people living with YOD. CONCLUSION: Clients with or without a dementia diagnosis were consulted differently in the YOD helplines. Before receiving a diagnosis, medical matters were the main theme of consultations, whereas after receiving a diagnosis, adjustments to daily life or work were the main themes. The results of this study suggest that the needs of people living with YOD and the services they require may vary depending on their backgrounds.

Lateralization of Color Discrimination Performance and Lexical Effects in Patients With Chronic Schizophrenia.

Introduction: Patients with schizophrenia experience various visual disturbances. However, information regarding color perception in these patients is rare. In this study, we used a lateralized color search task to investigate whether difference in color name affects color recognition in patients with schizophrenia. Methods: In a color search task, we controlled the position of the target that emerged from the left visual field (LVF) or right visual field (RVF) as well as the color category. In this task, both the target and the distractors had the same or different color name (e.g., blue or green). Results: Patients with schizophrenia showed faster performance in the color search task with different color names for target-distractors when the target emerged from the LVF than when it emerged from the RVF. However, the same laterality was not observed in healthy controls. This finding indicates that semantic processing for color name differences influenced visual discrimination performance in patients with schizophrenia more profoundly in the LVF than in the RVF. Conclusion: This lateralized performance could imply the failure of the left hemisphere language processing dominance in schizophrenia. A search paradigm combining target position and category may indicate that automatic language processing depends on imbalanced hemispheric function in schizophrenia.

Thalamocortical Hyperconnectivity and Amygdala-Cortical Hypoconnectivity in Male Patients With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Background: Analyses of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) have been performed to investigate pathophysiological changes in the brains of patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) relative to typically developing controls (CTLs). However, the results of these previous studies, which have reported mixed patterns of hypo- and hyperconnectivity, are controversial, likely due to the small sample sizes and limited age range of included participants. Methods: To overcome this issue, we analyzed multisite neuroimaging data from a large sample (n = 626) of male participants aged between 5 and 29 years (mean age = 13 years). The rs-fMRI data were preprocessed using SPM12 and DPARSF software, and signal changes in 90 brain regions were extracted. Multiple linear regression was used to exclude the effect of site differences in connectivity data. Subcortical-cortical connectivity was computed using connectivities in the hippocampus, amygdala, caudate nucleus, putamen, pallidum, and thalamus. Eighty-eight connectivities in each structure were compared between patients with ASD and CTLs using multiple linear regression with group, age, and age × group interactions, head movement parameters, and overall connectivity as variables. Results: After correcting for multiple comparisons, patients in the ASD group exhibited significant increases in connectivity between the thalamus and 19 cortical regions distributed throughout the fronto-parietal lobes, including the temporo-parietal junction and posterior cingulate cortices. In addition, there were significant decreases in connectivity between the amygdala and six cortical regions. The mean effect size of hyperconnectivity (0.25) was greater than that for hypoconnectivity (0.08). No other subcortical structures showed significant group differences. A group-by-age interaction was observed for connectivity between the thalamus and motor-somatosensory areas. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that pathophysiological changes associated with ASD are more likely related to thalamocortical hyperconnectivity than to amygdala-cortical hypoconnectivity. Future studies should examine full sets of clinical and behavioral symptoms in combination with functional connectivity to explore possible biomarkers for ASD.

A review of impaired visual processing and the daily visual world in patients with schizophrenia.

Several studies have investigated perceptual processes in patients with schizophrenia. Research confirms that visual impairments are one of the most important features of schizophrenia. Many studies, using behavioral and psychological experiments, confirm that visual impairments can be used to determine illness severity, state, and best treatments. Herein, we review recent research pertaining to visual function in patients with schizophrenia and highlight the relationship between laboratory findings and subjective, real-life reports from patients themselves. The purpose of this review is to 1) describe visual impairments that manifest in patients with schizophrenia, 2) examine the relationship between visual dysfunction, assessed by laboratory tests, and the experiences of patients themselves, and 3) describe real-life experiences related to visual function in this population. In this review, the impairments of motion and color perception, perceptual organization, and scan paths are summarized, along with the relationship between laboratory findings and patients' real-world subjective experiences related to visual function.