J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci
July 2024
Objectives: Contextually driven decision making is multidimensional, as individuals need to contend with prioritizing both competing and complementary demands. However, data is limited as to whether temporal discounting rates vary as a function of framing (gains vs loss) and domain (monetary vs social) in middle-to-older aged adults. It is also unclear whether socioaffective characteristics like social isolation and loneliness are associated with temporal discounting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Evaluate insomnia symptoms and environmental disruptors at admission and discharge in a subacute rehabilitation care setting.
Methods: Veterans (age ≥50) admitted to a Veterans Health Administration (VA) Hospital subacute rehabilitation between March and August 2022 completed baseline ( = 46) and follow up ( = 33) assessments with the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Sleep Need Questionnaire (SNQ), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and an assessment of environmental sleep disruptors. Veterans were offered sleep resources after admission evaluations and outpatient referrals after discharge evaluations.
J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci
October 2022
Objectives: Sleep health and executive function are multifaceted constructs that decline with age. Some evidence suggests that poor sleep health may underlie declines in executive function, but this relationship is not consistently found in cognitively normal older adults. The authors systematically investigated distinct sleep health domain associations with specific aspects of executive function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are associated with an increased risk for dementia, but this relationship and modifying factors are poorly understood. This study is the first to our knowledge to comprehensively examine the effect of ACE on specific cognitive functions and measures associated with greater risk and resiliency to cognitive decline in independent community-dwelling older adults.
Methods: Verbal/nonverbal intelligence, verbal memory, visual memory, and executive attention were assessed.
Objectives: The current study investigated trait mindfulness associations with distinct aspects of executive function. We also aimed to characterize relationships between trait mindfulness with measures of psychological risk and resilience within adults aged 55-87 years.
Method: In this cross-sectional study, 121 adults completed neuropsychological measures of working memory, mental set-shifting, and inhibition, as well as a battery of well-validated psychological self-report measures.
Objective: The National Institutes of Health Toolbox-Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB) is an efficient computerized neuropsychological battery. This study investigated its psychometric properties in terms of sociodemographic characteristics and technology use in adults aged 57-87 (with an average age of 70).
Methods: Community-based participatory research procedures were used to enhance enrollment of adults with lower education and income backgrounds.
Slowed gait is one of the strongest predictors of fall risk in older adults. The present study investigated whether gait speed mediated the relationship between depression and fall history in 147 older adults presenting to a memory clinic for cognitive complaints. Depression, cognitive status, gait speed, and number of falls within the last year were the primary measures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Mild cognitive impairment and dementia are clinically heterogeneous disorders influenced by diverse risk factors. Improved characterization of the effect of multiple risk factors influence on specific cognitive functions may improve understanding of mechanisms in early cognitive change and lead to more effective interventions.
Methods: Structural equation modeling (SEM) simultaneously examined the effects of modifiable (education, depression, and metabolic/vascular risk) and nonmodifiable risk factors (age, sex, and apolipoprotein E-ɛ4 allele [APOE-e4] status) on specific cognitive domains in 461 cognitively normal older adults.
Idiopathic REM sleep behaviour disorder (iRBD) is a powerful early sign of Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and multiple system atrophy. This provides an unprecedented opportunity to directly observe prodromal neurodegenerative states, and potentially intervene with neuroprotective therapy. For future neuroprotective trials, it is essential to accurately estimate phenoconversion rate and identify potential predictors of phenoconversion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere has been no comparison of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in patients with Alzheimer's disease dementia (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). We identified patients with mild dementia who met criteria for these disorders who also had the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) completed. The sample included 17 bvFTD, 111 AD, and 31 DLB.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Whether emotions affect eating, and in whom, has remained unclear. This meta-analysis assessed the effect of emotions on eating in both healthy and eating disordered individuals. Fifty-six experimental studies investigating the causal effect of emotions on eating behavior were selected including 3670 participants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder is characterized by dream enactment and complex motor behaviors during rapid eye movement sleep and rapid eye movement sleep atonia loss (rapid eye movement sleep without atonia) during polysomnography. Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder may be idiopathic or symptomatic and in both settings is highly associated with synucleinopathy neurodegeneration, especially Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, multiple system atrophy, and pure autonomic failure. Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder frequently manifests years to decades prior to overt motor, cognitive, or autonomic impairments as the presenting manifestation of synucleinopathy, along with other subtler prodromal "soft" signs of hyposmia, constipation, and orthostatic hypotension.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAssessment in higher education is challenging because teachers face more students, with less contact time as compared to primary and secondary education. Therefore, teachers and management are often interested in efficient ways of giving students diagnostic feedback and providing information on the basis of subscores is one method that is often used in large-scale standardized testing. In this article we discuss some recent psychometric literature that warns against the use of subscores in addition to the use of total scores.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe introduction of computer-based testing in high-stakes examining in higher education is developing rather slowly due to institutional barriers (the need of extra facilities, ensuring test security) and teacher and student acceptance. From the existing literature it is unclear whether computer-based exams will result in similar results as paper-based exams and whether student acceptance can change as a result of administering computer-based exams. In this study, we compared results from a computer-based and paper-based exam in a sample of psychology students and found no differences in total scores across the two modes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Neurogenic bladder dysfunction is a major issue in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). High intravesical pressure should be treated early. Available therapies are insufficient and there is need for drug development and investigation of pathogenesis.
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