Differential Cognitive Effects of Unilateral Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson's Disease.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the cognitive effects of unilateral directional versus ring subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN DBS) in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease.

Methods: We examined 31 participants who underwent unilateral STN DBS (left n = 17; right n = 14) as part of an National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored randomized, double-blind, crossover study contrasting directional versus ring stimulation. All participants received unilateral DBS implants in the hemisphere more severely affected by motor parkinsonism.

Neuromorphometric associations with mood, cognition, and self-reported exercise levels in epilepsy and healthy individuals.

Regular physical activity may promote beneficial neuroplasticity, e.g., increased hippocampus volume.

Delirium Due to Potentially Avoidable Hospitalizations Among Older Adults.

Background: Delirium is a common complication during acute care hospitalizations in older adults. A substantial percentage of admissions are for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions (ACSCs) or potentially avoidable hospitalizations-conditions that might be treated early in the outpatient setting to prevent hospitalization and hospital complications.

Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study examined rates of delirium among older adults hospitalized for ACSCs.

Specialist Availability and Drug Adherence in Older Adults with Dementia Across Regions of the United States.

Background: Access to specialists facilitates appropriate Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD) medication use and adherence. However, there is little information on the impact of specialists' availability on ADRD medication adherence, especially in regions of the United States (US) where specialists are scarce, e.g.

National Norms for Hospitalizations Due to Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions among Adults in the US.

Background: Ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) are acute or chronic health issues that lead to potentially preventable hospitalizations when not treated in the outpatient primary care setting.

Objective: To describe national hospitalization rates due to ACSCs among adult inpatients in the US.

Design: A retrospective cross-sectional analysis of the 2018 US National Inpatient Sample (NIS) dataset from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project at the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality was completed in the year 2022.

Delirium Mediates Incidence of Hospital-Associated Disability Among Older Adults.

Objective: To examine whether delirium predicts occurrence of hospital-associated disability (HAD), or functional decline after admission, among hospitalized older adults.

Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study.

Setting And Participants: General inpatient (non-ICU) units of a large regional Southeastern US academic medical center, involving 33,111 older adults ≥65 years of age admitted from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2019.

Differential cognitive effects of unilateral left and right subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation for Parkinson disease.

Objective: To investigate hemispheric effects of directional versus ring subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery on cognitive function in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD).

Methods: We examined 31 PD patients (Left STN n = 17; Right STN n = 14) who underwent unilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) DBS as part of a NIH-sponsored randomized, cross-over, double-blind (ring vs directional) clinical trial. Outcome measures were tests of verbal fluency, auditory-verbal memory, and response inhibition.

Item Response Analysis of the Financial Capacity Instrument-Short Form.

Objective: The Financial Capacity Instrument-Short Form (FCI-SF) is a performance-based measure of everyday financial skills that takes 15 min to administer. Although the FCI-SF has demonstrated excellent psychometric properties, advanced psychometric methods such as item response theory (IRT) can provide important information on the performance of individual test items in measuring financial capacity and in distinguishing between healthy and cognitively impaired individuals.

Method: Participants were 272 older adults diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 1,344 cognitively healthy controls recruited from the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and also from the Cognitive Observations in Seniors study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Association of Performance on the Financial Capacity Instrument-Short Form With Brain Amyloid Load and Cortical Thickness in Older Adults.

Background And Objectives: To investigate the association of the Financial Capacity Instrument-Short Form (FCI-SF) performance and timing total scores with brain β-amyloid and cortical thickness in cognitively unimpaired (CU) (at baseline) older adults.

Methods: A total of 309 participants (aged 70 years or older) of the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging underwent C-Pittsburgh compound B PET amyloid imaging and MRI, and completed the FCI-SF. Abnormal amyloid PET was defined as standardized uptake value ratio ≥1.

Cognitive Correlates of Impaired Testamentary Capacity in Alzheimer's Dementia.

Background: Testamentary capacity (TC) is a legal construct about the ability to make or change a will. Although studies of financial and medical capacities have noted a strong association between capacity and cognition, no study has examined the cognitive correlates of TC in Alzheimer's disease (ad).

Methods: Study participants were 22 cognitively healthy controls and 20 persons with mild to moderate ad who were administered a neuropsychological battery and the Testamentary Capacity Instrument (TCI), a new performance-based measure of TC.

Assessment of Testamentary Capacity in Older Adults: Description and Initial Validation of a Standardized Interview Instrument.

Objective: Testamentary capacity (TC) is a legal construct, which concerns a person's mental capacity to make or amend a will. Although expert clinicians are frequently asked to assess TC in forensic settings, there are few instruments and little empirical research to inform and guide their assessments. The present study describes the development and psychometric properties of a standardized assessment measure of TC (Testamentary Capacity Instrument-TCI), and investigates its reliability and validity.

Neuropsychological Functioning in Primary Dystonia: Updated and Expanded Multidomain Meta-Analysis.

Background: Primary dystonia is conventionally considered as a motor disorder, though an emerging literature reports associated cognitive dysfunction.

Objectives: Here, we conducted meta-analyses on studies comparing clinical measures of cognition in persons with primary dystonia and healthy controls (HCs).

Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and PsycINFO (January 2000-October 2020).

Cannabidiol (CBD) and cognition in epilepsy.

Anecdotal reports of the benefits of cannabis and its components in the treatment of epilepsy have been reported for millennia. However, only recently randomized controlled trial data in support of cannabidiol (CBD) became available resulting in its FDA approval for the treatment of seizures and epilepsy. One of the most common and debilitating comorbidities of epilepsy is cognitive impairment.

Dementia Care in Diverse Older Adults in the U.S. Deep South and the Rest of the United States.

Background: Use of specialists and recommended drugs has beneficial effects for older adults living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD). Gaps in care may exist for minorities, e.g.

Correlates of deep brain stimulation consensus conference decision to treat primary dystonia.

Background: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective treatment for motor disturbance in people with primary dystonia (PWD). Numerous factors are considered by an interdisciplinary consensus conference before deciding candidacy for DBS surgery (e.g.

Relationships between cognitive function, seizure control, and self-reported leisure-time exercise in epilepsy.

Exercise may be a strategy for improvement of cognitive deficits commonly present in people with idiopathic generalized epilepsies (IGE). We investigated the relationship between cognition and level of physical exercise in leisure (PEL) in people with IGE who have been seizurefree for at least 6 months (IGE-) as compared to those who have not been seizurefree (IGE+) and healthy controls (HCs). We hypothesized that higher level of physical exercise is associated with better cognitive functioning in patients with IGE and HCs, and that seizure control affects both PEL levels and cognitive functioning in patients with IGE.

Effects of highly purified cannabidiol (CBD) on fMRI of working memory in treatment-resistant epilepsy.

Objective: We aimed to determine changes in working memory and functional connectivity via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-modified Sternberg task after treatment with highly purified cannabidiol (CBD, Epidiolex®; 100 mg/mL) in patients with treatment-resistant epilepsy (TRE).

Methods: Twenty patients with TRE (mean age: 35.8 years; 7 male) performed fMRI Sternberg task before receiving CBD ("PRE") and after reaching stable dosage of CBD (15-25 mg/kg/day; "ON").

Cognitive function and adaptive skills after a one-year trial of cannabidiol (CBD) in a pediatric sample with treatment-resistant epilepsy.

Objective: Cannabidiol (CBD) is a nonpsychoactive derivative of cannabis. Studies indicate that it is safe and effective in treating certain types of epilepsy. The present study examined the presence of adverse or beneficial cognitive or functional adaptive effects associated with CBD in the treatment of children, adolescents, and teenagers with treatment-resistant epilepsy (TRE) as part of an ongoing prospective, open-label safety study.

An examination of the neurocognitive profile and base rate of performance impairment in primary dystonia.

Background: Primary dystonia has been traditionally viewed as a motor disorder. However, non-motor symptoms are frequently present and significantly quality of life. Neuropsychiatric and cognitive symptoms have been identified, but prior studies have been limited in sample size and lack of control groups.

FMRI response to acute psychological stress differentiates patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures from healthy controls - A biochemical and neuroimaging biomarker study.

We investigated psychological stress response in the brain regions involved in emotion-motor-executive control in psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES). 12 PNES patients and 12 healthy controls (HCs) underwent stress task and resting state functional MRI (fMRI), mood and quality of life (QOL) assessments, and measurements of salivary cortisol, alpha-amylase, and heart rate. Group differences were assessed, and we correlated beta values from a priori selected brain regions showing stress task fMRI group differences with other stress response measures.

Memory response and neuroimaging correlates of a novel cognitive rehabilitation program for memory problems in epilepsy: A pilot study.

Background: Memory deficits are very common in epilepsy, but no standard of care exists to effectively manage them.

Objective: We assessed effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation (CR) on memory and neural plasticity in people with epilepsy (PWE) reporting memory impairments.

Methods: Nine PWE completed 6 weekly sessions adapted from 2 generic CR programs enriched with information regarding epilepsy.

Cognitive functioning following long-term cannabidiol use in adults with treatment-resistant epilepsy.

Cognitive dysfunction is a common comorbidity in adults with treatment-resistant epilepsy (TRE). Recently, cannabidiol (CBD) has demonstrated efficacy in epilepsy treatment. However, our understanding of CBD's cognitive effects in epilepsy is limited.