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.

Clinical Utility of WAIS-IV Matrix Reasoning Among Adult Low Educated Recent Immigrants; A Note of Caution.

Objective: To examine the clinical utility of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV) Matrix Reasoning in limited educated recently arrived immigrants in Denmark.

Method: Participants were 64 limited educated (0-9 years' education) independently living adult immigrants primarily from Middle Eastern and Sub-Saharan African countries who completed WAIS-IV Matrix Reasoning as well as demographic, and medical questionnaires.

Results: Thirty-eight participants (59%) scored more than two standard deviations below the Scandinavian mean (scaled score < 4).

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).

Multimodal emotion processing deficits are present in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Objective: Emotion processing abilities might be reduced in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Previous studies of emotion processing in ALS have inconsistent results, and are limited by variations in task difficulty, modalities examined, and participants' cognitive status. The current study used a battery of emotion processing tasks at differing levels of difficulty and across different modalities (facial affect and voice prosody) to assess the extent of emotion processing deficits in nondemented ALS.

Emotion Evaluation and Social Inference Impairments in Huntington's Disease.

Background: Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder characterised by motor, cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Recent research has established that individuals with HD display reduced discrimination of emotional facial expressions and impaired higher-order social cognitive skills, including 'theory of mind'.

Objective: This study aimed to further characterise the emotion evaluation and theory of mind deficits in HD in an ecologically-valid context, and determine their impact on socially-relevant functional abilities.

Which behaviours? Identifying the most common and burdensome behaviour changes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Behaviour change is increasingly recognised as a common feature of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and may be similar to that seen in frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The behaviours most disturbed in ALS, and those that relate most significantly to caregiver burden, however, have not been well established. Forty ALS participants and their caregivers, and 27 age- and gender-matched healthy controls and their relatives, participated in this study.

Exploring sarcasm detection in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using ecologically valid measures.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rapidly progressive condition involving degeneration of both upper and lower motor neurons. Recent research suggests that a proportion of persons with ALS show a profile similar to that of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), with this group of ALS patients exhibiting social cognitive deficits. Although social cognitive deficits have been partially explored in ALS, research has yet to investigate such changes using ecologically valid measures.