Background Neurological soft signs (NSS) represent minor neurological signs, which indicate non-specific cerebral dysfunction. In schizophrenia, their presence has been documented extensively across all stages of the disease. Until recently, NSS were considered an endophenotype or a trait phenomenon. During the past years, however, researchers report fluctuations of the NSS scores. Aims To fu...

BACKGROUND Patients with parkinsonism exhibit motor symptoms, cognitive impairment, and neuropsychiatric changes, and these symptoms increase caregiver burden. Family dynamics can be influenced by the presence of comorbidities, which is especially important in diseases causing caregiver burden. We investigated the effects of spousal parkinsonism on family functioning and communication. METHOD...

OBJECTIVE To determine connections between competence, usability, environment and risk of falls in elderly adults. METHOD Correlational descriptive study, 123 elderly adults, both male and female, aged 70 years and older were included. Data was collected via the Tinetti Scale, CESD-7 Scale, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Usability Questionnaire on Housing and Housing Enabler; and sociodemogra...

Risperidone is an atypical antipsychotic agent with efficacy for both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. However, what makes an antipsychotic 'atypical' remains unclear. We recently found that the T102C polymorphism in the 5-HT2A receptor gene could affect risperidone's efficacy for negative symptoms. The present study investigated the effect of the Ser311Cys polymorphism in the d...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with dementia (ALS-D) is known to exhibit characteristics of frontotemporal dementia. However, in clinical situations, it is often difficult to evaluate their cognitive functions because of impaired voluntary speech and physical disabilities. In order to identify characteristic and diagnostic cognitive symptoms of relatively advanced ALS-D patients, we retros...

BACKGROUND Many studies address diagnosing concussions, but few look at predicting prognosis. A previous discriminant function analysis showed that symptom clusters derived from the Post-Concussion Symptom Scale and Immediate Postconcussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing composite scores used together improved predictions of protracted recovery after a sports-related concussion. OBJECTIVE T...

Aging is accompanied by stereotyped changes in functional brain activations, for example a cortical shift in activity patterns from posterior to anterior regions is one hallmark revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of aging cognition. Whether these neuronal effects of aging could potentially contribute to an amelioration of or resistance to the cognitive symptoms associated ...

Previous studies have focused on the ability of cognitive symptom validity tests to identify simulated malingering or distinguish between clinical samples of individuals at low or high risk of cognitive symptom exaggeration. However, no published studies have examined the latent structure of negative response bias on cognitive tests: measures of cognitive symptom exaggeration may evaluate a con...

Exposure to neurobehavioral toxicants is a problem of international scope. Although many different procedures are available for the assessment of human behavioral function, performance tests are displacing traditional diagnostic tests for ascertaining the consequences of exposure to neurotoxic chemicals. Performance testing includes variables such as attention and concentration, sensory functio...

Disturbances in the sleep-wake cycle and circadian rhythms are common symptoms of Alzheimer Disease (AD), and they have generally been considered as late consequences of the neurodegenerative processes. Recent evidence demonstrates that sleep-wake and circadian disruption often occur early in the course of the disease and may even precede the development of cognitive symptoms. Furthermore, the ...