Predictors of Caregiver Burden in Huntington's Disease.

Objective: Huntington's disease (HD) is a genetic neurodegenerative condition that is characterized by cognitive, motor, and psychiatric dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to explore which disease characteristics influence caregiver burden in HD.

Methods: Fifty participants with HD and 50 of their caregivers participated in the study at the University of South Florida.

Awareness of Chorea in Huntington's Disease.

Background: Anosognosia, or unawareness of illness of deficits, has been observed in Huntington's disease (HD) in relation to motor and cognitive signs and symptoms. Most studies of awareness in HD have used self-report questionnaire methodology rather than asking patients to report on their symptoms in real-time. The two studies in which patients were asked about their chorea in real-time had small sample sizes and only examined patients early in disease progression.

Evaluation of a performance-rating method to assess awareness of cognitive functioning in Huntington's disease.

: Anosognosia, or lack of awareness of symptoms, is commonly observed in Huntington's disease (HD) using patient/informant-report discrepancy methods. The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of a performance-rating method for assessing awareness of cognitive performance in HD. Persons with manifest HD ( = 54) rated their performance on the daily living tests from the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB) using a bell curve.

Taxonomy for Education and Training in Clinical Neuropsychology: past, present, and future.

Objective: Historically, the clinical neuropsychology training community has not clearly or consistently defined education or training opportunities. The lack of consistency has limited students' and trainees' ability to accurately assess and compare the intensity of neuropsychology-specific training provided by programs. To address these issues and produce greater 'truth in advertising' across programs, CNS, with SCN's Education Advisory Committee (EAC), ADECN, AITCN, and APPCN constructed a specialty-specific taxonomy, namely, the Taxonomy for Education and Training in Clinical Neuropsychology.

The Parkinson's Active Living (PAL) Program.

Background: Apathy, one of the most common neuropsychiatric symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD), has been associated with reduced daily functioning, cognition, treatment compliance, quality of life, and increased caregiver burden and distress, among other outcomes.

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to develop and gather pilot data on the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of the Parkinson's Active Living (PAL) program, to our knowledge, the first behavioral treatment specifically designed to target apathy in patients with PD. The Parkinson's Active Living is a primarily telephone-based, 6-week activity scheduling and monitoring intervention that incorporates external cueing to target disease-related self-generational deficits to reduce levels of apathy in nondemented, highly apathetic patients with PD.

Self-reported impulsivity in Huntington's disease patients and relationship to executive dysfunction and reward responsiveness.

Introduction: Few studies have directly investigated impulsivity in Huntington's disease (HD) despite known changes in dopaminergic and frontal functioning, changes that have been associated with impulsivity in other disorders and in the normal population. This study sought to further categorize impulsivity in HD through examining differences in self-reported impulsivity between community controls and HD patients, the relationship between executive dysfunction and impulsivity, and the relationship of a reward/punishment behavioral inhibition task in relation to these self-report measures. It was expected that HD patients would report higher impulsivity and executive dysfunction and that these measures would relate to a reward/punishment behavioral inhibition task.

Examining Huntington's disease patient and informant concordance on frontally mediated behaviors.

Introduction: Huntington's disease (HD) is a genetic, neurodegenerative disease that affects cognitive, psychiatric and motor functioning. Frontal subcortical circuits are impacted by disease pathology, resulting in frontally mediated behavioral dysfunction. The purpose of this study was (a) to examine the relationship between both patient and informant reports of frontally mediated behaviors and disease progression and (b) to determine rate of agreement between patient and informant reports of these behaviors in relation to disease progression.

Postdoctoral recruitment in neuropsychology: a review and call for inter-organizational action.

The history of centralized matches for postgraduate selection is briefly discussed with a focus on the match instituted by the Association of Postdoctoral Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology (APPCN) in 2001] Survey data, conducted both by APPCN and independently, are summarized. In general, despite incomplete participation and an estimated 30% rate of "exploding offers", applicants are somewhat satisfied with the match according to recent surveys (although satisfaction varies depending on whether an applicant matched). Given the high rate of withdrawal, the history of other specialties with suboptimal participation, and the concerns most commonly expressed by participants about this issue in survey data, there is cause for concern.

Dynamic associations of change in physical activity and change in cognitive function: coordinated analyses of four longitudinal studies.

The present study used a coordinated analyses approach to examine the association of physical activity and cognitive change in four longitudinal studies. A series of multilevel growth models with physical activity included both as a fixed (between-person) and time-varying (within-person) predictor of four domains of cognitive function (reasoning, memory, fluency, and semantic knowledge) was used. Baseline physical activity predicted fluency, reasoning and memory in two studies.

Cognitively Stimulating Activities: Effects on Cognition across Four Studies with up to 21 Years of Longitudinal Data.

Engagement in cognitively stimulating activities has been considered to maintain or strengthen cognitive skills, thereby minimizing age-related cognitive decline. While the idea that there may be a modifiable behavior that could lower risk for cognitive decline is appealing and potentially empowering for older adults, research findings have not consistently supported the beneficial effects of engaging in cognitively stimulating tasks. Using observational studies of naturalistic cognitive activities, we report a series of mixed effects models that include baseline and change in cognitive activity predicting cognitive outcomes over up to 21 years in four longitudinal studies of aging.

Social activity and cognitive functioning over time: a coordinated analysis of four longitudinal studies.

Social activity is typically viewed as part of an engaged lifestyle that may help mitigate the deleterious effects of advanced age on cognitive function. As such, social activity has been examined in relation to cognitive abilities later in life. However, longitudinal evidence for this hypothesis thus far remains inconclusive.

Depressive symptoms in Parkinson disease: degree of association and rate of agreement of clinician-based and self-report measures.

Depression in Parkinson disease (PD) is associated with faster disease progression, lower activities of daily living, and more severe cognitive impairment. Even mild symptoms of depression may impact outcomes in patients with PD. Nevertheless, a low rate of agreement has been reported between patient and clinician ratings of depression, suggesting that clinicians may underestimate depression in patients with PD.

The independent influence of apathy and depression on cognitive functioning in Parkinson's disease.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to examine the independent influence of symptoms of depression and apathy, two of the most common neuropsychiatric symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD), on executive functioning and memory in PD patients using measures designed to discriminate between these symptoms.

Method: Participants included 68 nondemented, idiopathic PD patients, ages 56-82 years. The Apathy Evaluation Scale-Self-Rating and select items of the Beck Depression Inventory II were used to assess symptoms of apathy and depression, respectively.

Alteration of expected hemispheric asymmetries: valence and arousal effects in neuropsychological models of emotion.

The relative advantage of the left (LH) over the right hemisphere (RH) in processing of verbal material for most individuals is well established. Nevertheless, several studies have reported the ability of positively and negatively valenced stimuli to enhance and reverse, respectively, the usual LH>RH asymmetry. These studies, however, have used baseline stimuli that differed from emotional stimuli on two dimensions (i.

The lateralized stroop: a meta-analysis and its implications for models of semantic processing.

The prevailing theory in the literature concerning the lateralization of Stroop effects involves a speed of processing account (see ). Because the left hemisphere (LH) demonstrates an overall advantage relative to the right hemisphere (RH) on most verbal tasks, interference effects are hypothesized to be greater in the LH than in the RH. Inspection of the data, however, reveals that many studies find no difference in magnitude of Stroop interference between the hemispheres.