Neurological subtle signs and cognitive development: a study in late childhood and adolescence.

Introduction And Aim: Neurological subtle signs (NSS) are often observed during the neurological examination of children and tend to disappear with age. Their persistence into late adolescence or young adulthood has been related to psychiatric and neurocognitive disorders. To provide a better understanding of their functional basis, a longitudinal correlational study with neurocognitive measurements was performed.

Neurocognitive correlates of positive and negative perfectionism.

The present study examined the neurocognitive correlates of positive and negative perfectionism. A clinical sample of 160 patients undergoing standard neuropsychological testing was administered the Positive and Negative Perfectionism Scale (PANPS), a 40-item questionnaire measure of positive and negative perfectionism. The main question addressed in the study was how individual differences in positive and negative perfectionism relate to differences in neurocognitive performance.

The serial use of child neurocognitive tests: development versus practice effects.

When serial neurocognitive assessments are performed, 2 main factors are of importance: test-retest reliability and practice effects. With children, however, there is a third, developmental factor, which occurs as a result of maturation. Child tests recognize this factor through the provision of age-corrected scaled scores.

A longitudinal study of neurological soft signs from late childhood into early adulthood.

Neurological examination of children includes the screening for soft neurological signs (NSS). There is little knowledge about their evolution during adolescence, except that their lasting presence has been associated with developmental, psychological, and cognitive disorders. We report the results of a NSS exam (assessing gross and fine motor function and the presence of hyperactivity and motor impersistence) over a 5-year period, among a group of healthy children who were followed annually as part of a dental study.

A longitudinal factor analytic study of children's neurocognitive abilities.

The neurocognitive abilities of 503 Portuguese children aged 8-11.9 years at onset of the study were assessed annually for 8 years in 3 functional domains: memory, motor and visual motor functions, and attention. A series of exploratory principal axis factor analyses, with varimax rotation, revealed seven factors: Divided Attention, Selective Attention, Verbal Learning and Recall, Visual Learning and Recall, Motor Speed, Visual-Motor Speed, and Working Memory.

Neurological outcomes in children with and without amalgam-related mercury exposure: seven years of longitudinal observations in a randomized trial.

Background: Although large-scale, randomized trials involving children have been completed and their results demonstrate an absence of neurobehavioral effects from clinical exposure to mercury amalgam, neurological findings from such studies have not been reported.

Methods: The authors conducted a randomized, prospective trial examining the safety of dental amalgam in which 507 children aged 8 through 12 years were assigned to treatment with either amalgam or resin-based composite. During seven years of follow-up, the authors performed annual clinical neurological examinations, including an evaluation of neurological hard signs (NHSs), presence of tremor and neurological soft signs (NSSs).

Repeat test scores on neurobehavioral measures over an eight-year period in a sample of Portuguese children.

Normative data were collected on a sample of 503 Portuguese children who were taking part in a dental study. At the outset, the children were aged 8-11.9 years, with an average of just over 10.

The association of dental caries with blood lead in children when adjusted for IQ and neurobehavioral performance.

Unlabelled: Associations between childhood lead exposures and dental caries in children have been reported for over 30 years, with widely varying findings and conclusions, and using measures of lead exposure which ranged from food sources and water to tooth, hair or blood lead concentrations.

Objectives: This study examined the relationship of lead exposure and dental caries in a population of normatively healthy children.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used a population of 507 children aged 8-12 who were participating in a clinical trial of dental materials to examine the relationship between lead and caries.

Neurobehavioral effects of dental amalgam in children: a randomized clinical trial.

Context: Dental (silver) amalgam is a widely used restorative material containing 50% elemental mercury that emits small amounts of mercury vapor. No randomized clinical trials have determined whether there are significant health risks associated with this low-level mercury exposure.

Objective: To assess the safety of dental amalgam restorations in children.

The consequences of idiopathic partial epilepsies in relation to neuropsychological functioning: a closer look at the associated mathematical disability.

Although the seizure prognosis is mostly favorable in idiopathic partial epilepsies, there is some empirical evidence showing that subtle neuropsychological impairments, with a consequent risk of academic underachievement, are not rare. We investigated neuropsychological functioning including attention, memory, visuomotor ability, and executive functioning with a closer look at the associated mathematical ability in patients with idiopathic partial epilepsies. A battery of age-appropriate, neuropsychological and mathematics achievement tests was administered to 30 participants with idiopathic partial epilepsy [13 children with benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS), 17 children with idiopathic childhood occipital epilepsies (ICOE)], and to 30 healthy participants matched for age, sex, handedness, and socioeconomic status.

Age and sex differences in neurobehavioral performance: a study of Portuguese elementary school children.

In this study normative data were obtained on measures of IQ, visual/motor, motor and memory functions among Portuguese elementary school children. Subjects were 228 females and 275 males, 8.0 to 11.

Issues in design and analysis of a randomized clinical trial to assess the safety of dental amalgam restorations in children.

The Casa Pia Study of the Health Effects of Dental Amalgams in Children is a randomized clinical trial designed to assess the safety of low-level mercury exposure from dental amalgam restorations in children. It is being carried out in 507 students (8 to 12 years of age at enrollment) of the Casa Pia school system in Lisbon, Portugal, by an interdisciplinary collaborative research team from the University of Washington (Seattle) and the University of Lisbon, with funding from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Since the goal of the trial is to assess the safety of a treatment currently in use, rather than the efficacy of an experimental treatment, unique design issues come into play.