Do normative data specific to Greek Australian older adults improve validity of neuropsychological assessment results?

Objective: This study aimed to compare Greek Australian and English language normative data with regard to impairment rates yielded within a healthy Greek Australian older adult sample. We also examined whether optimal cut scores could be identified and capable of sensitively and specifically distinguishing between healthy Greek Australians from those with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Method: Ninety healthy Greek Australian older adults and 20 demographically matched individuals with a diagnosis of AD completed a range of neuropsychological measures, including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition, Greek Adaptation (WAIS-IV GR), verbal and visual memory, language and naming, and executive functions.

Exploring How Sociocultural Factors Affect the Experience of Completing Neuropsychological Assessments Within Older Greek-Australians.

Objective: The field of cultural neuropsychology has grown exponentially over the last three decades. With a limited culturally informed evidence base to guide neuropsychological practice, the acceptability of existing paradigms has been called into question when applied to culturally diverse and educationally disadvantaged groups. This qualitative study aimed to explore the experiences of Greek Australian older adults who underwent a cognitive assessment to better understand potential barriers and facilitators to engagement and to improve neuropsychological assessment outcomes.

Validity of Visuoconstructional Assessment Methods within Healthy Elderly Greek Australians: Quantitative and Error Analysis.

Aims: Visuospatial skills are frequently assessed with drawing tests. Research has suggested that the use of drawing tasks in low educated groups may lack the ability to discriminate healthy individuals from clinical populations. The aims of this study were to investigate the validity of visuoconstructional tests in a sample of older Greek Australian immigrants and compare their performances to a matched sample of patients with Alzheimer's disease (ad).

Computerised cognitive training for 12 or more weeks for maintaining cognitive function in cognitively healthy people in late life.

Background: Increasing age is associated with a natural decline in cognitive function and is the greatest risk factor for dementia. Cognitive decline and dementia are significant threats to independence and quality of life in older adults. Therefore, identifying interventions that help to maintain cognitive function in older adults or that reduce the risk of dementia is a research priority.

Computerised cognitive training for preventing dementia in people with mild cognitive impairment.

Background: The number of people living with dementia is increasing rapidly. Clinical dementia does not develop suddenly, but rather is preceded by a period of cognitive decline beyond normal age-related change. People at this intermediate stage between normal cognitive function and clinical dementia are often described as having mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Computerised cognitive training for maintaining cognitive function in cognitively healthy people in midlife.

Background: Normal aging is associated with changes in cognitive function that are non-pathological and are not necessarily indicative of future neurocognitive disease. Low cognitive and brain reserve and limited cognitive stimulation are associated with increased risk of dementia. Emerging evidence now suggests that subtle cognitive changes, detectable years before criteria for mild cognitive impairment are met, may be predictive of future dementia.

Computerised cognitive training for maintaining cognitive function in cognitively healthy people in late life.

Background: Increasing age is associated with a natural decline in cognitive function and is also the greatest risk factor for dementia. Cognitive decline and dementia are significant threats to independence and quality of life in older adults. Therefore, identifying interventions that help to maintain cognitive function in older adults or to reduce the risk of dementia is a research priority.

A Neuropsychologist's Guide To Undertaking a Systematic Review for Publication: Making the most of PRISMA Guidelines.

There is increasing impetus to improve the quality of research and scientific writing. Systematic reviews provide Class 1 research evidence, are based upon an established rigor and communicate results in a comprehensive manner, and are therefore particularly relevant to clinicians and researchers. Clinician requirements for quality systematic reviews are twofold: to keep up to date with research and to make informed decisions including those required for diagnoses, disease or risk assessment, and treatment.

Schizophrenia-like psychosis and aceruloplasminemia.

Schizophrenia-like illnesses occur in a variety of medical and neurological conditions but to date have not been described in association with aceruloplasminemia. Aceruloplasminemia is an autosomal recessive disorder of iron metabolism which leads to iron deposition in the basal ganglia, thalamus, cerebellum and hippocampus and which usually presents in middle age with extrapyramidal symptoms and dementia. We describe a 21-year-old woman on treatment for aceruloplasminemia who presented with schizophrenia-like psychosis and declining function in the absence of neurological signs.

Semantic verbal fluency in Alzheimer's disease: approaches beyond the traditional scoring system.

This study aimed to expand extant Alzheimer's disease (AD) research on cluster size and switching strategies in semantic verbal fluency (SVF). First, it addressed a significant shortcoming in research, that is, the use of a single semantic category (i.e.