Background: Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder marked by cognitive impairment, movement abnormalities, and behavioral disturbances. The Stroop Color Word Test (SCWT) is a widely used tool to detect cognitive decline in HD. Variations in SCWT formats-horizontal (original) and vertical (Golden)-may influence performance, given HD's impact on cognitive and oculomotor abilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: Cognitive decline is an important early sign in pre-motor manifest Huntington's disease (preHD) and is characterized by deficits across multiple domains including executive function, psychomotor processing speed, and memory retrieval. Prior work suggested that the Loewenstein-Acevedo Scale for Semantic Interference and Learning (LASSI-L)-a verbal learning task that simultaneously targets these domains - could capture early cognitive changes in preHD. The current study aimed to replicate, validate and further analyze the LASSI-L in preHD using larger datasets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Diagnosis of manifest Huntington disease (HD) is based primarily on motor symptoms, but premanifest HD (preHD) is often associated with subtle cognitive decline. The Loewenstein-Acevedo Scales for Semantic Interference and Learning (LASSI-L) is a validated verbal learning test that can be used to detect early cognitive decline.
Objective: To determine the utility of the LASSI-L for detecting early cognitive decline in individuals with preHD and to compare the results of the LASSI-L with those of commonly used neuropsychological tests in HD.
Background: Semantic intrusion errors on memory tests may represent very early cognitive changes associated with elevated Alzheimer's disease pathology within the brain, including amyloid-β (Aβ). Subscales that measure proactive semantic interference (PSI) and intrusions related to PSI on the Loewenstein Acevedo Scales of Semantic Interference and Learning (LASSI-L) have been associated with high levels of brain amyloid load, structural changes on brain MRI in Hispanic and non-Hispanic groups. It is presently unknown whether intrusion errors or other measures of the LASSI-L can differentiate between African-American (AA) older adults diagnosed with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) or classified as cognitively normal (CN).
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