A data-driven, multi-domain brain gray matter signature as a powerful biomarker associated with several clinical outcomes.

Introduction: Characterizing pathological changes in the brain that underlie cognitive impairment, including Alzheimer's disease and related disorders, is central to clinical concerns of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

Methods: We describe the properties of a brain gray matter region ("Union Signature") that is derived from four behavior-specific, data-driven signatures in a discovery cohort.

Results: In a separate validation set, the Union Signature demonstrates clinically relevant properties.

Development of a machine learning algorithm to predict the residual cognitive reserve index.

Elucidating the mechanisms by which late-life neurodegeneration causes cognitive decline requires understanding why some individuals are more resilient than others to the effects of brain change on cognition (cognitive reserve). Currently, there is no way of measuring cognitive reserve that is valid (e.g.

Thinking About Sum Scores Yet Again, Maybe the Last Time, We Don't Know, Oh No . . .: A Comment on.

The relative advantages and disadvantages of sum scores and estimated factor scores are issues of concern for substantive research in psychology. Recently, while championing estimated factor scores over sum scores, McNeish offered a trenchant rejoinder to an article by Widaman and Revelle, which had critiqued an earlier paper by McNeish and Wolf. In the recent contribution, McNeish misrepresented a number of claims by Widaman and Revelle, rendering moot his criticisms of Widaman and Revelle.

Depression, loneliness, and lower social activity as partial mediators of the association between visual impairment and cognitive decline.

Objectives: Sensory impairment is a hypothesized risk factor for cognitive decline; however, the psychosocial pathways are not well understood. We evaluated whether the association between visual impairment (VI) and cognitive decline was partially mediated via depressive symptoms, loneliness, or social activity.

Methods: We used data from 2601 older adults enrolled in the Memory and Aging Project in 1997 and the Minority Aging Research Study in 2004 with neuropsychological tests across five domains measured annually for up to 16 years.

20-year depressive symptoms, dementia, and structural neuropathology in older women.

Introduction: The course of depressive symptoms and dementia risk is unclear, as are potential structural neuropathological common causes.

Methods: Utilizing joint latent class mixture models, we identified longitudinal trajectories of annually assessed depressive symptoms and dementia risk over 21 years in 957 older women (baseline age 72.7 years old) from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study.

A Note on Statistical Hypothesis Testing: Probabilifying Invalidates Its Force? Not True!

The import or force of the result of a statistical test has long been portrayed as consistent with deductive reasoning. The simplest form of deductive argument has a first premise with conditional form, such as →, which means that "if is true, then must be true." Given the first premise, one can either affirm or deny the antecedent clause () or affirm or deny the consequent claim ().

Self-reported mid- to late-life physical and recreational activities: Associations with late-life cognition.

Objective: Physical and recreational activities are behaviors that may modify risk of late-life cognitive decline. We sought to examine the role of retrospectively self-reported midlife (age 40) physical and recreational activity engagement - and self-reported change in these activities from age 40 to initial study visit - in predicting late-life cognition.

Method: Data were obtained from 898 participants in a longitudinal study of cognitive aging in demographically and cognitively diverse older adults (Age: range = 49-93 years, = 75, SD = 7.

Computerized adaptive test strategies for the matrix reasoning subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 4th Edition (WAIS-IV).

Objective: Most neuropsychological tests were developed without the benefit of modern psychometric theory. We used item response theory (IRT) methods to determine whether a widely used test - the 26-item Matrix Reasoning subtest of the WAIS-IV - might be used more efficiently if it were administered using computerized adaptive testing (CAT).

Method: Data on the Matrix Reasoning subtest from 2197 participants enrolled in the National Neuropsychology Network (NNN) were analyzed using a two-parameter logistic (2PL) IRT model.

Toward a statistical validation of brain signatures as robust measures of behavioral substrates.

The "brain signature of cognition" concept has garnered interest as a data-driven, exploratory approach to better understand key brain regions involved in specific cognitive functions, with the potential to maximally characterize brain substrates of behavioral outcomes. Previously we presented a method for computing signatures of episodic memory. However, to be a robust brain measure, the signature approach requires a rigorous validation of model performance across a variety of cohorts.

Effects of early-life environment and adulthood SES on cognitive change in a multiethnic cohort.

Objectives: Early-life socioeconomic status (SES) and adversity are associated with late-life cognition and risk of dementia. We examined the association between early-life SES and adversity and late-life cross-sectional cognitive outcomes as well as global cognitive decline, hypothesizing that adulthood SES would mediate these associations.

Methods: Our sample ( = 837) was a racially and ethnically diverse cohort of non-Hispanic/Latino White (48%), Black (27%), and Hispanic/Latino (19%) participants from Northern California.

Sensitivity of the NIH Toolbox to Detect Cognitive Change in Individuals With Intellectual and Developmental Disability.

Background And Objective: Individuals with intellectual disability (ID) experience protracted cognitive development compared with typical youth. Sensitive measurement of cognitive change in this population is a critical need for clinical trials and other intervention studies, but well-validated outcome measures are scarce. This study's aim was to evaluate the sensitivity of the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB) to detect developmental changes in groups with ID-fragile X syndrome (FXS), Down syndrome (DS), and other ID (OID)-and to provide further support for its use as an outcome measure for treatment trials.

Construct identification in the neuropsychological battery: What are we measuring?

Objective: Major obstacles to data harmonization in neuropsychology include lack of consensus about what constructs and tests are most important and invariant across healthy and clinical populations. This study addressed these challenges using data from the National Neuropsychology Network (NNN).

Method: Data were obtained from 5,000 NNN participants and Pearson standardization samples.

Thinking thrice about sum scores, and then some more about measurement and analysis.

Measurement is fundamental to all research in psychology and should be accorded greater scrutiny than typically occurs. Among other claims, McNeish and Wolf (Thinking twice about sum scores. Behavior Research Methods, 52, 2287-2305) argued that use of sum scores (a) implies that a highly constrained latent variable model underlies items comprising a scale, and (b) may misrepresent or bias relations with other criteria.

Ambient air pollution exposure and increasing depressive symptoms in older women: The mediating role of the prefrontal cortex and insula.

Exposures to fine particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO) have been associated with the emergence of depressive symptoms in older adulthood, although most studies used cross-sectional outcome measures. Elucidating the brain structures mediating the adverse effects can strengthen the causal role between air pollution and increasing depressive symptoms. We evaluated whether smaller volumes of brain structures implicated in late-life depression mediate associations between ambient air pollution exposure and changes in depressive symptoms.

Predictors of Prosecutorial Decisions in Reports of Child Sexual Abuse.

A retrospective examination of 500 child sexual abuse reports to prosecutor's offices analyzed case progress and predictors of attrition, including details about alleged perpetrator(s), victim(s), their families, and other case characteristics. Less than one in five cases proceeded to prosecution. For the full sample, we describe all outcomes and differentiate prosecutors' decisions to (a) intake/close, (b) investigate/close, or (c) prosecute; these stages comprise a 3-level dependent variable.

Interrogating the validity of cumulative indices of environmental and genetic risk for negative developmental outcomes.

Indices of cumulative risk (CR) have long been used in developmental research to encode the number of risk factors a child or adolescent experiences that may impede optimal developmental outcomes. Initial contributions concentrated on indices of cumulative environmental risk; more recently, indices of cumulative genetic risk have been employed. In this article, regression analytic methods are proposed for interrogating strongly the validity of risk indices by testing optimality of compositing weights, enabling more informative modeling of effects of CR indices.

Associations Between Air Pollution Exposure and Empirically Derived Profiles of Cognitive Performance in Older Women.

Background: Elucidating associations between exposures to ambient air pollutants and profiles of cognitive performance may provide insight into neurotoxic effects on the aging brain.

Objective: We examined associations between empirically derived profiles of cognitive performance and residential concentrations of particulate matter of aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 (PM2.

Beyond orchids and dandelions: Susceptibility to environmental influences is not bimodal.

This study focused on generality versus specificity of susceptibility of effects of eight family and child-care exposures measured between 3 and 54 months of age (e.g., sensitive parenting, child-care quality) on five child development outcomes assessed at age 4.

Parents' attachment orientation, interviewers' support, and children's memory for a mildly distressing event.

Parents' attachment orientations predict children's memory about distressing life events, such that parents who are less secure in close relationships tend to have children who are less accurate in their memory reports. This study examined whether socially supportive interviewing would reduce differences in children's memory performance associated with parents' attachment. Children (3 to 5 years,  = 63) and their primary caretakers took part in the Preschool Attachment Classification System (PACS), a moderately distressing event for children of preschool age that is based on the Strange Situation Procedure.

General health status of youth with autism with and without intellectual disabilities transitioning from special education, and its relationship to personal and family circumstances: longitudinal cohort study.

Transition from school to early adulthood incurs many changes and may be associated with deterioration in general health in youth with autism. We aimed to investigate this. The National Longitudinal Transitions Study-2 is a USA nationally representative sample of youth receiving special education services, aged 13-17 at wave 1, followed-up over 10 years in five data collection waves.

The latent factor structure underlying regional brain volume change and its relation to cognitive change in older adults.

Objective: Late-life changes in cognition and brain integrity are both highly multivariate, time-dependent processes that are essential for understanding cognitive aging and neurodegenerative disease outcomes. The present study seeks to identify a latent variable model capable of efficiently reducing a multitude of structural brain change magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements into a smaller number of dimensions. We further seek to demonstrate the validity of this model by evaluating its ability to reproduce patterns of coordinated brain volume change and to explain the rate of cognitive decline over time.

A robust brain signature region approach for episodic memory performance in older adults.

The brain signature concept aims to characterize brain regions most strongly associated with an outcome of interest. Brain signatures derive their power from data-driven searches that select features based solely on performance metrics of prediction or classification. This approach has important potential to delineate biologically relevant brain substrates for prediction or classification of future trajectories.

Rationale and Design of the National Neuropsychology Network.

Objective: The National Neuropsychology Network (NNN) is a multicenter clinical research initiative funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH; R01 MH118514) to facilitate neuropsychology's transition to contemporary psychometric assessment methods with resultant improvement in test validation and assessment efficiency.

Method: The NNN includes four clinical research sites (Emory University; Medical College of Wisconsin; University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); University of Florida) and Pearson Clinical Assessment. Pearson Q-interactive (Q-i) is used for data capture for Pearson published tests; web-based data capture tools programmed by UCLA, which serves as the Coordinating Center, are employed for remaining measures.