A Neuropsychological Perspective on Defining Cognitive Impairment in the Clinical Study of Alzheimer's Disease: Towards a More Continuous Approach.

The global fight against Alzheimer's disease (AD) poses unique challenges for the field of neuropsychology. Along with the increased focus on early detection of AD pathophysiology, characterizing the earliest clinical stage of the disease has become a priority. We believe this is an important time for neuropsychology to consider how our approach to the characterization of cognitive impairment can be improved to detect subtle cognitive changes during early-stage AD.

Adding cognition to AT(N) models improves prediction of cognitive and functional decline.

Introduction: This study sought to determine whether adding cognition to a model with Alzheimer's disease biomarkers based on the amyloid, tau, and neurodegeneration/neuronal injury-AT(N)-biomarker framework predicts rates of cognitive and functional decline in older adults without dementia.

Methods: The study included 465 participants who completed amyloid positron emission tomography, cerebrospinal fluid phosphorylated tau, structural magnetic resonance imaging, and serial neuropsychological testing. Using the AT(N) framework and a newly validated cognitive metric as the independent variables, we used linear mixed effects models to examine a 4-year rate of change in cognitive and functional measures.

Longitudinal Accumulation of Cerebral Microhemorrhages in Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Disease.

Objective: To investigate the inherent clinical risks associated with the presence of cerebral microhemorrhages (CMHs) or cerebral microbleeds and characterize individuals at high risk for developing hemorrhagic amyloid-related imaging abnormality (ARIA-H), we longitudinally evaluated families with dominantly inherited Alzheimer disease (DIAD).

Methods: Mutation carriers (n = 310) and noncarriers (n = 201) underwent neuroimaging, including gradient echo MRI sequences to detect CMHs, and neuropsychological and clinical assessments. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses evaluated relationships between CMHs and neuroimaging and clinical markers of disease.

Serum neurofilament light chain levels are associated with white matter integrity in autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease.

Neurofilament light chain (NfL) is a protein that is selectively expressed in neurons. Increased levels of NfL measured in either cerebrospinal fluid or blood is thought to be a biomarker of neuronal damage in neurodegenerative diseases. However, there have been limited investigations relating NfL to the concurrent measures of white matter (WM) decline that it should reflect.

Relationship of mindful awareness to neural processing of angry faces and impact of mindfulness training: A pilot investigation.

Mindfulness is paying attention, non-judgmentally, to experience in the moment. Mindfulness training reduces depression and anxiety and influences neural processes in midline self-referential and lateralized somatosensory and executive networks. Although mindfulness benefits emotion regulation, less is known about its relationship to anger and the corresponding neural correlates.

The driving competence of 90-year-old drivers: from a hospital-based driving clinic.

Objectives: To compare the performance on a standardized driving evaluation of a group of oldest old adults (age 90-97) against younger old adults (age 80-87) and examine whether the same cognitive variables and brake reaction time performance were associated with pass-fail status on a road test in both groups. Secondary objectives focused on an examination of the specific driving errors of both groups.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted in the setting of a clinical driving evaluation program at an academic medical center in the United States.

Neural correlates of impulsivity factors in psychiatric patients and healthy volunteers: a voxel-based morphometry study.

According to bottom-up/top-down models, impulsivity facets are represented across the cerebral cortex and subcortex. Hypothesized gray matter correlates of motor, attentional and non-planning impulsivity were examined in groups of 35 psychiatric patients characterized by self-control problems and 18 healthy volunteers. Among patients, a positive correlation was found between motor impulsivity and the right cerebellum, and a negative correlation emerged between attentional impulsivity and the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC).

Prefrontal regional correlates of self-control in male psychiatric patients: Impulsivity facets and aggression.

Investigating the organization of trait aggression and impulsivity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) advances our understanding of the neuropsychobiology of self-control. While the orbital aspect of the PFC (OFC) has received attention, there is reason to believe the lateral aspect is also relevant. In the current study using magnetic resonance imaging, gray matter volumes in lateral PFC (LPFC) were derived in a heterogeneous male psychiatric sample (N=36) in which OFC volumes had previously been reported.