Auditory Processing but Not Peripheral Hearing Differs Between Older Adults With and Without Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Purpose: Impairments of hearing and auditory processing (AP) have been indicated as risk factors for dementia, but it remains unclear if persons with clinically diagnosed mild cognitive impairment (MCI) show such impairments. The objective of these analyses was to compare AP between those with and without a clinical diagnosis of MCI using a battery of AP measures.

Method: Data from 274 older adults from the Keys to Staying Sharp randomized clinical trial (NCT03528486) were analyzed.

The Preventing Alzheimer's with Cognitive Training (PACT) randomized clinical trial.

Background: To address the rising prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, effective interventions that can be widely disseminated are warranted. The Preventing Alzheimer's with Cognitive Training study (PACT) investigates a commercially available computerized cognitive training program targeting improved Useful Field of View Training (UFOVT) performance. The primary goal is to test the effectiveness of UFOVT to reduce incidence of clinically defined mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia with a secondary objective to examine if effects are moderated by plasma β-amyloid level or apolipoprotein E e4 (APOE e4) allele status.

Applying the Health Belief Model to Quantify and Investigate Expectations for Computerized Cognitive Training.

Despite the demonstrated benefits of computerized cognitive training for older adults, little is known about the determinants of training behavior. We developed and tested scales to quantify expectations about such training, examine whether expectations predicted training adherence, and explore if training expectations changed from pre- to post-training. Participants (=219) were healthy older adults aged 55-96 years (=75.

Are auditory processing and cognitive performance assessments overlapping or distinct? Parsing the auditory behaviour of older adults.

Objective: Auditory processing predicts cognitive decline, including dementia, in older adults. Auditory processing involves the understanding, interpretation, and communication of auditory information. Cognition is linked to auditory processing; however, it is disputed whether auditory processing is a separate construct distinct from cognition.

Cortical auditory evoked potentials in mild cognitive impairment: Evidence from a temporal-spatial principal component analysis.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is considered an intermediate transitional stage for the development of dementia, especially Alzheimer's disease. The identification of neurophysiological biomarkers for MCI will allow improvement in detecting and tracking the progression of cognitive impairment. The primary objective of this study was to compare cortical auditory evoked potentials between older adults with and without probable MCI to identify potential neurophysiological indicators of cognitive impairment.

Preliminary evidence of biased attentional mechanisms and reward processing in adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive-disorder (OCD) may have difficulties in using feedback from rewarding and punishing experiences to optimally guide future decisions. The current aim was to examine how adults with OCD use associative learning feedback to direct attention toward learned stimuli when the action-outcome contingency for those stimuli has changed. Participants first learned to select high-probability (over low-probability) rewarding stimuli and low-probability (over high-probability) loss stimuli.

Factors Affecting HIV Testing among Youth in Kenya.

With the high prevalence of HIV among youth in sub-Saharan Africa, it is vital to better understand factors affecting HIV testing among this population; this is the first step in the HIV treatment cascade. The purpose of this study was to examine factors related to behavioral intentions regarding HIV testing using existing pre-test data from the HIV SEERs (Stigma-reduction via Education, Empowerment, and Research) Project, a community-based participatory research program targeting 13-24-year-olds in Kenya. It was hypothesized that HIV knowledge, social support, subjective well-being, and mental health (depression, anxiety, and stress) would serve as facilitators to HIV testing while projected stigma and substance use would serve as barriers to HIV testing.

Cognitive Training Enhances Auditory Attention Efficiency in Older Adults.

Auditory cognitive training (ACT) improves attention in older adults; however, the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms are still unknown. The present study examined the effects of ACT on the P3b event-related potential reflecting attention allocation (amplitude) and speed of processing (latency) during stimulus categorization and the P1-N1-P2 complex reflecting perceptual processing (amplitude and latency). Participants completed an auditory oddball task before and after 10 weeks of ACT ( = 9) or a no contact control period ( = 15).

Interaction of Musicianship and Aging: A Comparison of Cortical Auditory Evoked Potentials.

Objective: The goal of this study was to begin to explore whether the beneficial auditory neural effects of early music training persist throughout life and influence age-related changes in neurophysiological processing of sound.

Design: Cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) elicited by harmonic tone complexes were examined, including P1-N1-P2, mismatch negativity (MMN), and P3a.

Study Sample: Data from older adult musicians (n = 8) and nonmusicians (n = 8) (ages 55-70 years) were compared to previous data from young adult musicians (n = 40) and nonmusicians (n = 20) (ages 18-33 years).

Perceptual and cognitive neural correlates of the useful field of view test in older adults.

The Useful Field of View Test (UFOV) is often used as a behavioral assessment of age-related decline in visual perception and cognition. Poor performance may reflect slowed processing speed, difficulty dividing attention, and difficulty ignoring irrelevant information. However, the underlying neural correlates of UFOV performance have not been identified.

Cognitive training and selective attention in the aging brain: an electrophysiological study.

Objective: Age-related deficits in selective attention are hypothesized to result from decrements in inhibition of task-irrelevant information. Speed of processing (SOP) training is an adaptive cognitive intervention designed to enhance processing speed for attention tasks. The effectiveness of SOP training to improve cognitive and everyday functional performance is well documented.

An examination of mediators of the transfer of cognitive speed of processing training to everyday functional performance.

The purpose of these analyses was to examine mediators of the transfer of cognitive speed of processing training to improved everyday functional performance (J. D. Edwards, V.

Learned predictiveness speeds visual processing.

When humans learn that the presence of a cue predicts the likelihood of an outcome, they can exploit this learned predictiveness, such that formation of subsequent associations between that cue and new outcomes is facilitated. Could such enhanced selection for association arise early enough to facilitate low-level visual processing? In a test of this possibility, adult volunteers first engaged in a value-learning task involving faces that were differentially predictive of monetary wins or losses. Later, in a simple recognition task, these faces were briefly presented for a variable duration and then masked.

Value associations of irrelevant stimuli modify rapid visual orienting.

In familiar environments, goal-directed visual behavior is often performed in the presence of objects with strong, but task-irrelevant, reward or punishment associations that are acquired through prior, unrelated experience. In a two-phase experiment, we asked whether such stimuli could affect speeded visual orienting in a classic visual orienting paradigm. First, participants learned to associate faces with monetary gains, losses, or no outcomes.

Selective visual attention and motivation: the consequences of value learning in an attentional blink task.

Learning to associate the probability and value of behavioral outcomes with specific stimuli (value learning) is essential for rational decision making. However, in demanding cognitive conditions, access to learned values might be constrained by limited attentional capacity. We measured recognition of briefly presented faces seen previously in a value-learning task involving monetary wins and losses; the recognition task was performed both with and without constraints on available attention.

Centrifugal versus roller head pumps for cardiopulmonary bypass: effect on early neuropsychologic outcomes after coronary artery surgery.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that routine use of a centrifugal pump in the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit would result in a lower incidence of early neuropsychologic deficit when compared with conventional roller pumps.

Design: Prospective, randomized, double-blind.

Setting: University teaching hospital.

Management of anxiety after acute myocardial infarction.

Background: Anxiety is common after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and may induce complications and poorer outcome because of activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. Little is known about critical care nurses' management of anxiety in the initial days after AMI.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe pharmacological and nonpharmacological anxiety management practices in a sample of patients with AMI and to determine the association between patient self-reported anxiety level, clinician anxiety assessment, and subsequent anxiety management by clinicians.