Linguistic profiles of variants of primary progressive aphasia.

BACKGROUND: Several subtypes of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) have been proposed. Most reports use small samples, and few have included Spanish-speaking participants. AIM: To analyze the language profile and nonlinguistic deficits in a large sample of PPA Spanish monolingual participants. METHOD: 177 individuals were diagnosed with PPA in a sample consisting of 69 men and 108 women (Mage = 66.40 years, SD = 9.30). The participants were assessed using the Spanish versions of the Western Aphasia Battery Revised (SWAB-R) and the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (SBDAE). Non-verbal reasoning was evaluated with the Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices. RESULTS: 41.8% of the sample met the criteria for the logopenic variant (lvPPA), while 28.2% met the criteria for semantic (svPPA), 15.3% for lexical (lxvPPA), and 14.7% for nonfluent/agrammatic (nfvPPA) variants. Language difficulties were similar in all variants except for lxvPPA. Scores on Spontaneous Language, Auditory Comprehension, Repetition, and Naming were significantly higher for the lxvPPA group. Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices scores were significantly lower in lvPPA. Years of education correlated with all test scores, while age was negatively associated with naming. When the PPA variants were classified according to the traditional aphasia classification, discrepancies were evident. Furthermore, the most frequent type of aphasia was Amnesic, while the least frequent was Wernicke's aphasia. CONCLUSION: The SWAB-R is useful in describing the clinical characteristics of aphasia for each variant of PPA, but quantitative scores from this battery are not capable of distinguishing between variants of PPA, with the exception of lxvPPA.

Normative data stratified by age and education for a Spanish neuropsychological test battery: Results from the Colombian Alzheimer's prevention initiative registry.

Neuropsychologists continue to face challenges when assessing Spanish-speaking individuals due to limited availability of normative data. We developed comprehensive normative data stratified by age and education for a Spanish neuropsychological test battery used by the Grupo de Neurociencias de Antioquia (Colombia) and the Colombian Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative Registry, which have followed large families at risk for autosomal-dominant Alzheimer's disease (ADAD) since the 1990s. Approximately 75% of these individuals are cognitively-unimpaired and are not genetically predisposed to develop ADAD. We conducted a retrospective study on neuropsychological evaluations from 2,673 cognitively unimpaired individuals (56% female), with ages ranging from 18 to 86 years and education from 1 to 25 years. Neuropsychological measures included the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease-Colombia, and other multidomain Spanish tests. We examined associations between age, education, and sex with cognitive performance. Norms stratified by age and education are presented. Cognitive performance showed small associations with age and education and was unrelated to sex. We provided population-based norms for Spanish tests targeting multiple cognitive domains using a large Colombian sample. These normative data may be helpful for the neuropsychological characterization of Spanish speakers from Latin America in clinical and research settings.

Acalculia in Aphasia.

BACKGROUND: Patients with aphasia can present a type of acalculia referred to as aphasic acalculia. AIMS: To investigate the correlation and to test regression models for one- and two-digit calculation skills using verbal and nonverbal predictors. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: We selected an aphasia sample of 119 men and 81 women with a mean age of 57.37 years (SD = 15.56) and an average level of education of 13.52 years (SD = 4.08). Spanish versions of the Western Aphasia Battery and Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination, plus a Written Calculation test, were individually administered. The calculation section of the Western Aphasia Battery and the Written Calculation tests were used to pinpoint calculation difficulties. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Calculation difficulties were more severe in Global and Mixed non-fluent aphasia; they were very similar in Broca, Conduction, and Amnesic Aphasia. All correlations between the two calculation subtests and the other subtests of the Western Aphasia Battery were statistically significant. Calculation subtests correlated negatively with age and positively with schooling. Sex and time post-onset did not show any correlation with the calculation scores. Education, Reading, Block Design, and Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices were significant predictors of Western Aphasia Battery Calculation. Writing was the only significant predictor of the Written Calculation scores. CONCLUSIONS: Nonverbal abilities were predictors of calculation tests, whereas agraphia defects were predictors of the Written Calculation test. Therefore, calculation abilities can be regarded both as written language-dependent and verbal language-independent.

Neuropsychological assessment of Chilean children with a history of extreme prematurity: An exploratory study.

This study was conducted to explore the neuropsychological abilities of premature Chilean children. Two groups (Premature and Control, 10 children each, age ranging from 5 to 7.11) were established based on weeks of gestation and/or weight at birth. Relevant variables such as age, gender, schooling, and socioeconomic level were matched considering Chile's particular demographic context. Children were assessed by means of the Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil (ENI-2) battery, measuring nine cognitive domains encompassing 23 subscales. In turn, subscales are grouped in two scales: Cognitive Functions and Executive Functions. Since the ENI-2 battery provides norms for Spanish-speaking children, obtained data were inspected both for possible between-group differences and either adjustment or deviance from average range. Results show that premature children perform within typical ranges in all subscales except for Visual attention and Graphic fluency. When comparing both groups, some differences emerged. These differences are most prominent in subscales related to visuoperceptual skills. Interestingly, between-group linguistic performance is very similar. The point is made that early linguistic interventions conducted on premature children seem to positively impact on oral language expression and comprehension. On the contrary, early interventions focused on visuospatial abilities did not seem to attain the same impact. This may be a consequence of visual-information processing problems derived from cortical dorsal stream's vulnerability, which literature correlates with prematurity.

Relación entre lenguaje expresivo y receptivo y habilidades prelectoras / Relationship between expressive and receptive and pre-reading skills

Resumen El objetivo de este estudio fue establecer las relaciones entre habilidades de lenguaje expresivo y receptivo y habilidades prelectoras en niños en edad preescolar. Usando un diseño metodológico empírico observacional de corte transversal se evaluaron las habilidades de lenguaje oral y habilidades fonológicas a un total de 106 preescolares. Los modelos de regresión multivariante señalan que las habilidades expresivas explican una mayor varianza de habilidades fonológicas implicadas en la detección de rimas y sonidos iniciales de las palabras, precursores importantes para el aprendizaje posterior de la lectoescritura.

Abstract The objective of this study was to establish the relationship of receptive and expressive language abilities with pre-reading skills in preschoolers. An observational and cross-sectional study was carried out by evaluating oral language abilities and phonological skills in a total sample of 106 children. Multivariate regression models pointed out that expressive abilities significantly explain the variance of the phonological skills implied in the detection of rhymes and initial phonemes, which are important precursors for the subsequent literacy learning.

Development of early numerical abilities of Spanish-speaking Mexican preschoolers: A new assessment tool.

This article presents a tool for assessing the early numerical abilities of Spanish-speaking Mexican preschoolers. The Numerical Abilities Test, from the Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil-Preescolar (ENI-P), evaluates four core abilities of number development: magnitude comparison, counting, subitizing, and basic calculation. We evaluated 307 Spanish-speaking Mexican children aged 2 years 6 months to 4 years 11 months. Appropriate internal consistency and test-retest reliability were demonstrated. We also investigated the effect of age, children's school attendance, maternal education, and sex on children's numerical scores. The results showed that the four subtests captured development across ages. Critically, maternal education had an impact on children's performance in three out of the four subtests, but there was no effect associated with children's school attendance or sex. These results suggest that the Numerical Abilities Test is a reliable instrument for Spanish-speaking preschoolers. We discuss the implications of our outcomes for numerical development.

Crossed-brain representation of verbal and nonverbal functions.

A 74-year-old, left-handed man presented with a rapidly evolving loss of strength in his right leg associated with difficulty in walking. MR images disclosed an extensive left hemisphere tumor. A neuropsychological examination revealed that language was broadly normal but that the patient presented with severe nonlinguistic abnormalities, including hemineglect (both somatic and spatial), constructional defects, and general spatial disturbances; symptoms were usually associated with right hemisphere pathologies. No ideomotor apraxia was found. The implications of crossed-brain representations of verbal and nonverbal functions are analyzed.

La detección temprana de las demencias desde la perspectiva neuropsicológica / Early detection of dementia a neuropsychological perspective

Se presentan las estrategias de evaluación en neuropsicología para el diagnóstico diferencial entre envejecimientonormal y patológico (demencia)Se ha sugerido que la enfermedad de Alzheimer (EA) puede iniciarse como un deterioro cognoscitivo leve (DCL).Se analizan los diferentes subtipos de DCL, considerando que sólo algunos de ellos resultan en una EA. Se subrayaque existen dos estrategias de evaluación cognoscitiva: las pruebas de tamizaje y las evaluaciones extensas. Se presentanlas principales pruebas neuropsicológicas para una y otra y se señalan las adaptaciones disponibles en español.A pesar de los avances neuropsicológicos en lo conceptuales y diagnóstico sobre el envejecimiento, se estima quemás del 50 por ciento de los casos de demencia no se diagnostican en etapas iniciales.

Influencia del nivel educativo de los padres, el tipo de escuela y el sexo en el desarrollo de la atención y la memoria / Effects of parents' educational level, school type and gender on the development of attention and memory

La información sobre el efecto que ejercen las variables medioambientales en el desarrollo de la atención y la memoria es limitada. En este estudio se analizó la relación entre el nivel educativo de los padres, el tipo de escuela y el sexo en el desarrollo de la atención y la memoria. Participaron 476 niños (5 a 16 años) de escuelas públicas (EPu) y privadas (EPr) divididos en dos grupos de edad (G1 = 5 a 8 años y G2 = 9 a 16 años). Se analizaron las 15 sub-pruebas de la Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil-ENI que evalúan atención y memoria. Se encontró un efecto significativo de la edad en todas las pruebas: a mayor edad, mejor ejecución. También hubo un efecto significativo del sexo y el tipo de escuela en algunas tareas, donde las niñas superan a los varones y los estudiantes de EPr superan a los de EPu. Hubo una interacción significativa entre el tipo de escuela y el sexo: las niñas de EPr muestran mayor ejecución que el resto de los grupos en algunas tareas de atención y memoria, especialmente las que implican información verbal. Además hubo una correlación significativa entre el nivel educativo de los padres y la ejecución (9 a 16 años). Los hijos de padres con mayor escolaridad muestran mayor ejecución que aquéllos con padres de menor escolaridad. Los resultados se discuten en términos del impacto que ejercen las variables medioambientales en el desarrollo neuropsicológico.

Information about the influence of environmental factors on the development of attention and memory is scarce. This study analyzed the relationship between parents' educational level, school type and sex on the development of attention and memory. Four hundred and seventy six children (age 5 to 16 years) of public (PuS) and private schools (PrS) participated. The sample was divided in two age groups: G1, age 5 to 8 years and G2, age 9 to 16 years. Attention and memory sub-tests from the Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil-ENI (Matute, Rosselli, Ardila and Ostrosky, 2007) were analyzed. There was a significant effect of age on all sub-tests scores where older children obtained higher scores. Also, there was a significant effect of sex and type of school in some tasks, where girls had higher performance than boys and, the students of PrS scored higher than students of PuS. An interaction between type of school and sex was also evident: PrS girls show edhigher performance than other groups in some tasks of attention and memory, especially those that imply verbal information processing. There was a significant correlation between the parents’ educational level and the performance in G2. Sons of parents with high educational level show better performance than sons of parents with low educational level. The results are discussed in terms of the environmental variables effect on the development of attention and memory.

NEUROPSI ATTENTION AND MEMORY: a neuropsychological test battery in Spanish with norms by age and educational level.

Health care professionals are now faced with a growing number of patients from different ethnic groups, and from different socioeconomical backgrounds. In the field of neuropsychology there is an increasing need of reliable and culturally fair assessment measures. Spanish is the official language in more than 20 countries and the second most spoken language in the world. The purpose of this research was to develop and standardize the neuropsychological battery NEUROPSI ATTENTION AND MEMORY, designed to assess orientation, attention and concentration, executive functions, working memory and immediate and delayed verbal and visual memory. The developmental sequences of attention and memory as well as the educational effects were analyzed in a sample of 521 monolingual Spanish Speaking subjects, aged 6 to 85 years. Educational level ranged from 0 to 22 years of education. The consideration of the developmental sequence, and the effects of education, can improve the sensitivity and specificity of neuropsychological measures.

Verbal and nonverbal fluency in Spanish-speaking children.

Fluency measures are commonly used in clinical developmental neuropsychology to assess executive functions. Little is known about the effect of age on performance in these tests. This article analyzes the effect of age on measures of verbal (semantic and phonologic) and nonverbal (semantic and nonsemantic) fluency in 171 children (81 boys, 90 girls) between ages 6 and 15. Participants were selected from public and private schools in Guadalajara and Tijuana, Mexico. A significant age effect was found on all tests but no interaction between age and type of test was found. Significant correlations among the 4 fluency tasks ranged from.36 to.46. Results are consistent with the findings of normative studies carried out in other countries and support the cross-language validity of verbal fluency tests.

Maduración Cerebral Y Desarrollo Cognoscitivo / Brain maturation and cognoscitive development

La maduración cerebral se correlaciona con muchos de los cambios cognoscitivos y de comportamiento observados durante la infancia y la adolescencia. En este artículo se revisa el concepto de maduración cerebral y su asociación con el desarrollo de la preferencia manual, del lenguaje verbal y de la función ejecutiva en el niño. Se describe el incremento de las arborizaciones dendríticas como el cambio cortical más importante asociado a la adquisición de funciones cognoscitivas complejas. Se asocia la maduración del hemisferio derecho con la conducta emocional y la maduración del hemisferio izquierdo con el lenguaje. La maduración de las áreas prefrontales se correlaciona con el desarrollo de las funciones ejecutivas. Se presentan ejemplos específicos sobre la existencia de asimetría cerebral motriz desde el nacimiento y sobre la lateralización posterior de funciones visuales, auditivas y táctiles. Se analiza la participación cualitativamente diferente de los hemisferios cerebrales en los procesos cognoscitivos durante las distintas etapas del desarrollo del niño. Finalmente, se presentan algunos ejemplos de las secuelas cognoscitivas secundarias a lesiones cerebrales tempranas como un método más para entender la ontogenia de la asimetría cerebral

Heterogeneidad en la prueba de Boston para las afasias (BDAE) determinada por las variables demográficas en un grupo de personas laboralmente activas / Cultural and demographic variables effect on the norming data of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE) in normal and occupational active subjects

El objetivo de la investigación fue analizar la influencia de algunas variables culturales y demográficas que afectan los datos estandarizados de la prueba de Boston para el diagnóstico de las afasias. Un análisis múltiple de varianza (Manova) demostró que el sexo determinó diferencias estadísticamente significativas (p<0,05) sólo en variables de lectura y escritura. El grupo de nivel socioeconómico bajo, obtuvo puntajes significativamente más bajos en identificación y denominación de las partes del cuerpo. La mayoría de las diferencias estadísticamente significativas estuvieron determinadas por las diferencias de escolaridad. La edad determinó diferencias significativas en denominación por confrontación visual y en el item de lectura en voz alta entre los grupos jóvenes y de adultos de edad media. La escritura seriada y al dictado fueron significamente diferentes entre los grupos de jóvenes y adultos mayores. La ocupación sólo determinó diferencias en el deletreo oral, con puntajes significativamente más bajos en los trabajadores manuales. La escolaridad es una variable demográfica y cultural que determina diferencias significativas en la mayoría de los item del BDAE que deben ser analizadas cuidadosamente por el clínico al hacer los perfiles diagnósticos de los pacientes afásicos

Developmental norms for the wisconsin card sorting test in 5-to 12-year-old children.

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) (Berg, 1948; Heaton, 1981) was given to 233 five-to 12-year-old normal children. Participants' characteristics were balanced according to: (a) age, (b) socioeconomic status, and (c) gender. An academic achivement questionnaire was also administered. No significant differences between socioeconomic and gender groups were observed. Nonperseverative Errors, Errors, and Categories Achieved scores correlated with academic achievement in different areas. Developmental norms for the WCST are presented.