An 18-mo randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of DHA-rich fish oil to prevent age-related cognitive decline in cognitively normal older adults.

Background: Fish oil trials in cognitively healthy older adults have yielded inconsistent results. Supplementation may differentially affect the domains that underpin cognitive performance, and effects may differ across sex or genotype.

Objective: The aim of this study was to test whether docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-rich fish oil slows 18-mo cognitive decline in cognitively healthy elders.

Locus of control, optimism, and recollections of depression and self-reported cognitive functioning following treatment for colorectal cancer.

Objective: To investigate the effects of disposition (locus of control, optimism, and depression) on recollections of cognitive functioning following cancer treatment.

Methods: Participants were survivors of colorectal cancer (n = 88) and their spouses (n = 40). Survivors retrospectively rated their cognitive functioning and depression, as experienced following treatment and currently rated their dispositions for optimism and locus of control.

Auditory speed tasks as potential candidates for the study of cognitive ageing.

Speed of information processing is an important cognitive ability. It facilitates the efficient operation of higher order cognitive functions, such as reasoning, and is implicated in various models of cognitive decline. The present study considers the potential benefits of expanding the measurement of processing speed to include the auditory modality.

Dropout during a driving simulator study: A survival analysis.

Introduction: Simulator sickness is the occurrence of motion-sickness like symptoms that can occur during use of simulators and virtual reality technologies. This study investigated individual factors that contributed to simulator sickness and dropout while using a desktop driving simulator.

Method: Eighty-eight older adult drivers (mean age 72.

The influence of motor function on processing speed in preterm and term-born children.

This study investigates the relationship between motor function and processing speed in preterm children. Processing speed was compared in 145 adolescents, born 25-41 weeks gestational age, utilizing tasks including differing motor demands. The influence of motor cortex excitability and functional motor skills on task performance was assessed.

Cognitive abilities in preterm and term-born adolescents.

Objective: To investigate the influence of a range of prenatal and postnatal factors on cognitive development in preterm and term-born adolescents.

Study Design: Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities were used to assess general intellectual ability and 6 broad cognitive abilities in 145 young adolescents aged approximately 12.5 years and born 25-41 weeks gestational age (GA).

Retrospective lifetime dietary patterns predict cognitive performance in community-dwelling older Australians.

Dietary intake is a modifiable exposure that may have an impact on cognitive outcomes in older age. The long-term aetiology of cognitive decline and dementia, however, suggests that the relevance of dietary intake extends across the lifetime. In the present study, we tested whether retrospective dietary patterns from the life periods of childhood, early adulthood, adulthood and middle age predicted cognitive performance in a cognitively healthy sample of 352 older Australian adults >65 years.

Cognitive and visual predictors of UFOV performance in older adults.

Eighty two community dwelling older adults (52 females) aged 62-92 years (mean=75) completed a battery of cognitive and visual tests selected to assess functions relevant to driving performance. These were visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, general mental competence (Mini Mental State Examination, MMSE), processing speed (Inspection Time, IT), crowding across the visual field (Proficiency of Peripheral Vision Processing, ProPerVis) and change detection (DriverScan). These six tasks provided predictor variables for performance on the Useful Field of View test (UFOV), a well validated test of fitness to drive that includes subtests for (i) processing speed; (ii) divided attention; and (iii) selective attention.

Cognitive performance in older adults is inversely associated with fish consumption but not erythrocyte membrane n-3 fatty acids.

Higher n-3 (ω-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and fish intake may help maintain cognitive function in older age. However, evidence is inconsistent; few studies have examined the relation in cognitively healthy individuals across numerous cognitive domains, and none to our knowledge have considered lifetime fish intake. We examined associations between multiple domains of cognition and erythrocyte membrane n-3 PUFA proportions and historical and contemporary fish intake in 390 normal older adults, analyzing baseline data from the Older People, Omega-3, and Cognitive Health trial.

Effects of short-term disability awareness training on attitudes of adolescent schoolboys toward persons with a disability.

Background: Schoolboys (N = 156, M age = 13 years) participated in a disability awareness training program that included guest speakers (athletes from the Paralympics and the Special Olympics), a documentary about people with a disability, a disability simulation activity, and factual information about different disabilities.

Method: Participants were allocated to a training program or a control condition. Subsequently, control participants completed the training program.

The impact of iodine supplementation and bread fortification on urinary iodine concentrations in a mildly iodine deficient population of pregnant women in South Australia.

Mild iodine deficiency during pregnancy can have significant effects on fetal development and future cognitive function. The purpose of this study was to characterise the iodine status of South Australian women during pregnancy and relate it to the use of iodine-containing multivitamins. The impact of fortification of bread with iodized salt was also assessed.

A meta-analysis of the effects of chemotherapy on cognition in patients with cancer.

Objective: The aim of this meta-analysis was to assess whether chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment is consistently observed in cancer patients and to identify the areas of cognition affected.

Methods: The meta-analysis included 13 studies and examined the effects of chemotherapy on seven different cognitive domains, across five cancer types. It was the intention of this meta-analysis to stringently exclude many studies, allowing for examination of cognition in carefully selected studies of chemotherapy recipients who do not have current mood or anxiety diagnoses (or psychiatric or substance abuse histories), without brain cancer and who have not had radiotherapy or hormone treatment.

Dose-related effects of alcohol on cognitive functioning.

We assessed the suitability of six applied tests of cognitive functioning to provide a single marker for dose-related alcohol intoxication. Numerous studies have demonstrated that alcohol has a deleterious effect on specific areas of cognitive processing but few have compared the effects of alcohol across a wide range of different cognitive processes. Adult participants (N = 56, 32 males, 24 females aged 18-45 years) were randomized to control or alcohol treatments within a mixed design experiment involving multiple-dosages at approximately one hour intervals (attained mean blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) of 0.

Reduced corticomotor excitability and motor skills development in children born preterm.

The mechanisms underlying the altered neurodevelopment commonly experienced by children born preterm, but without brain lesions, remain unknown. While individuals born the earliest are at most risk, late preterm children also experience significant motor, cognitive and behavioural dysfunction from school age, and reduced income and educational attainment in adulthood. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation and functional assessments to examine corticomotor development in 151 children without cerebral palsy, aged 10-13 years and born after gestations of 25-41 completed weeks.

Postnatal depression mediates the relationship between infant and maternal sleep disruption and family dysfunction.

Background: Previous research has linked family sleep disruption and dysfunction in children; however, the mechanism is unknown.

Aims: This study examined whether maternal sleep and postnatal depression (PND) mediate the relationship between infant sleep disruption and family dysfunction.

Study Design And Participants: Mothers of infants aged 12 months old (N=111; 48% male) completed infant and parent sleep surveys, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and the Family Assessment Device.

Snoring and cognitive development in infancy.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the influence of snoring and sleep duration on developmental outcomes in 6 month old infants.

Methods: As part of a longitudinal study of snoring in infancy, we identified 16 children (13 males) who commenced snoring shortly after birth and continued to snore frequently (≥ 3 nights/week) at 6 months of age and 88 healthy infant controls who were reported never to snore in the absence of a cold (36 males). Infants were assessed at 6 months of age with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development Edition III, and parents completed demographic, sleep, and developmental surveys.

The older people, omega-3, and cognitive health (EPOCH) trial design and methodology: a randomised, double-blind, controlled trial investigating the effect of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids on cognitive ageing and wellbeing in cognitively healthy older adults.

Background: Some studies have suggested an association between omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC PUFAs) and better cognitive outcomes in older adults. To date, only two randomised, controlled trials have assessed the effect of n-3 LC PUFA supplementation on cognitive function in older cognitively healthy populations. Of these trials only one found a benefit, in the subgroup carrying the ApoE-ε4 allele.

Parental-reported snoring from the first month of life and cognitive development at 12 months of age.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of persistent snoring in the first year of life on developmental outcomes.

Methods: As part of a longitudinal study of snoring and sleep in infancy, we identified 13 children (10 males) who commenced snoring shortly after birth and continued to snore frequently (≥ 3 nights/week) at 6 and 12 months of age and 78 controls (31 males) who were reported by parents to never snore in the absence of a cold. Infants were assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development Edition III and parents completed demographic and sleep questionnaires.

Family quality of life of Australian families with a member with an intellectual/developmental disability.

Background: Family quality of life (FQOL) is a recent concept in intellectual/developmental disability research. Outcomes for the family are important to the provision of services because families, rather than institutions, are increasingly considered the primary support unit. This article presents Australian findings using the international Family Quality of Life Survey: Main Caregivers of People with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities (FQOLS-2006).

Prevalence of snoring and associated factors in infancy.

Introduction: In children aged 3-12 years snoring is associated with significant neurocognitive and behavioural deficits; however, there are few studies that have considered both the prevalence of snoring in infants and associated factors that may influence the development of snoring. The goal of the present study was to examine sleep, snoring and associated factors in a community sample of 0-3 month olds.

Methods: Previously validated infant sleep and parent sleep questionnaires were completed by parents of 457 term infants aged 1-13.

Assessing lifetime diet: reproducibility of a self-administered, non-quantitative FFQ.

Objective: To demonstrate test-retest reliability (reproducibility) of a new self-administered lifetime diet questionnaire, with a focus on foods relevant to cognitive health in older age.

Design: The reproducibility of dietary recall over four or five life periods was assessed by administering the questionnaire at two time points to an older cohort. The period between questionnaire administrations was 7 weeks.

A measure of inspection time in 4-year-old children: the Benny Bee IT task.

Inspection time (IT) measures speed of information processing without the confounding influence of motor speed. While IT has been found to relate to cognitive abilities in adults and older children, no measure of IT has been validated for use with children younger than 6 years. This study examined the validity of a new measure of IT for preschool children.

Impact of additional disabilities on adaptive behavior and support profiles for people with intellectual disabilities.

Numerous researchers have reported a high incidence of additional disabilities coexisting with intellectual disabilities. Although an intuitive link can be made between the existence of multiple disabilities and greater need for support, little has been reported about this relationship. Using measures of adaptive functioning and support needs, we examined the extent to which adaptive and challenging behaviors and consequent support needs (including medical) were impacted by the presence and severity of additional disabilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Inspection time predicts individual differences in everyday functioning among elderly adults: testing discriminant validity.

Aim: Inspection time (IT) is a processing speed measure, recently investigated as a biomarker of ageing. This study examined whether earlier IT predicts subsequent problems in everyday functioning in community-dwelling elderly people.

Methods: Participants completed IT at baseline, 6 months and 18 months.