State orientation and memory load impair prospective memory performance in older compared to younger persons.

A modified event-based paradigm of prospective memory was applied to investigate intention initiation in older and younger participants under high versus low memory load (subsequent episodic word recall vs. recognition). State versus action orientation, a personality dimension related to intention enactment, was also measured.

Dual task performance in Parkinson's disease.

Several studies have found dual tasking to be impaired in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but unaffected by healthy ageing. It is not known if this deficit is specific to AD, or also present in other neurodegenerative disorders that can occur in later life, such as Parkinson's disease (PD). Therefore, this study investigated dual tasking in 13 people with PD, 26 AD and 42 healthy age-matched controls.

Dual-task performance in Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, and normal ageing.

Although several studies have shown that dual-tasking ability is impaired in Alzheimer's disease (AD), the stage at which this deficit manifests remains unclear. This study investigated if a new paper-and-pencil assessment of dual-tasking ability could distinguish between AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and normal ageing in a sample of 50 people with AD, 49 people with MCI, and 50 healthy age-matched controls. The AD group demonstrated a significant impairment in dual-task ability.

Ginkgo biloba: specificity of neuropsychological improvement--a selective review in search of differential effects.

Extracts of Ginkgo biloba are widely used for the treatment of cognitive impairment. Whereas reviews have focused on the question whether ginkgo is effective to enhance cognition in general, little is known about specificity of improvement. This might be crucial for future trials, thus enabling hypotheses about sensitive outcome measures.

Alzheimer's disease, but not ageing or depression, affects dual-tasking.

Two experiments are reported that assess dual task performance in Alzheimer's disease (AD), in chronic depression and in healthy old age. Results suggest that dual task impairments are present in AD but are not shown in depression. This is true even when episodic memory performance is equated between the groups.

Activation-flow coupling differentiates between vascular and Alzheimer type of dementia.

The activation-flow coupling describes a mechanism, which adapts local cerebral blood flow in accordance with the underlying neuronal activity. It was suggested that the mechanism helps in differentiation between Alzheimer and vascular type of dementia. We combined EEG and Doppler techniques and assessed integrity of the activation-flow coupling in the occipital cortex utilizing a visual stimulation task.

Striving for unwanted goals: stress-dependent discrepancies between explicit and implicit achievement motives reduce subjective well-being and increase psychosomatic symptoms.

Three studies investigated the relevance of affect regulation, stressful life events, and congruence between explicit achievement orientation and implicit achievement motive for subjective well-being and symptom formation. According to personality systems interactions (PSI) theory, stressful life events were expected to reduce motive congruence when the ability to self-regulate affect was impaired (i.e.

Acetylcholine esterase inhibitor donepezil improves dynamic cerebrovascular regulation in Alzheimer patients.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) leads to a degeneration of the nucleus basalis of Meynert and thus to decreased cholinergic tonus in the brain. The transcription of endothelial nitric oxide synthase depends on an adequate cholinergic innervation of microvessels and vasoregulative abnormalities have been reported in AD. We investigated activation-flow coupling to study the role of acetylcholine esterase inhibition (AChEI) on vasoregulative function.