Cognitive Effects of Rasagiline in Mild-to-Moderate Stage Parkinson's Disease Without Dementia.

The authors studied the effects of rasagiline on cognition in a sample of 50 nondemented patients with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease (PD) using a double-blind, placebo controlled design. Cognition and motor symptoms were assessed at baseline and after 6 months of receiving either rasagiline or placebo. Participants receiving rasagiline showed improvement in their motor symptoms of PD compared to participants receiving placebo.

Utility of the cognitive difficulties scale and association with objective test performance.

Subjective memory complaints (SMCs) are commonly noted in memory disorder clinic patients. The present study sought to examine the presence of SMCs on the Cognitive Difficulties Scale (CDS) in older adults and to examine the relationship between CDS scores and current cognitive ability. Participants were 50 adults diagnosed with possible/probable Alzheimer's disease (AD), 100 with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 84 cognitively healthy controls (HCs).

The contribution of apathy and increased learning trials to risky decision-making in Parkinson's disease.

Impairments in executive functioning are commonly found in Parkinson's disease (PD); however, the research into risky decision making has been mixed. The present study sought to investigate three potential hypotheses: difficulty learning the task probabilities, levodopa equivalent dose (LED), and the presence of apathy. Twenty-four individuals with idiopathic PD and 13 healthy controls completed the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale to assess current apathy, the Iowa Gambling Task, and the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART).

Math anxiety differentially affects WAIS-IV arithmetic performance in undergraduates.

Previous research has shown that math anxiety can influence the math performance level; however, to date, it is unknown whether math anxiety influences performance on working memory tasks during neuropsychological evaluation. In the present study, 172 undergraduate students completed measures of math achievement (the Math Computation subtest from the Wide Range Achievement Test-IV), math anxiety (the Math Anxiety Rating Scale-Revised), general test anxiety (from the Adult Manifest Anxiety Scale-College version), and the three Working Memory Index tasks from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV Edition (WAIS-IV; Digit Span [DS], Arithmetic, Letter-Number Sequencing [LNS]). Results indicated that math anxiety predicted performance on Arithmetic, but not DS or LNS, above and beyond the effects of gender, general test anxiety, and math performance level.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of modafinil for the treatment of apathy in individuals with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: This study examined the effects of modafinil on apathetic symptomatology, performance of activities of daily living (ADLs), and caregiver burden in individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Method: 23 participants with a diagnosis of mild-to-moderate probable AD according to National Institute of Neurologic and Communicative Disorder and Stroke-Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders criteria were randomized into the experimental (modafinil 200 mg daily) or control (placebo) groups. All participants were also receiving stable doses of a cholinesterase inhibitor medication.