Involvement of visual signals in kinaesthesia: A virtual reality study.

Body movements are invariably accompanied by various proprioceptive, visual, tactile and/or motor signals. It is therefore difficult to completely dissociate these various signals from each other in order to study their specific involvement in the perception of movement (kinaesthesia). Here, we manipulated visual motion signals in a virtual reality display by using a humanoid avatar.

A combination of total tau and neurofilaments discriminates between neurodegenerative and primary psychiatric disorders.

Background And Purpose: Neuropsychiatric symptoms are commonly observed in neurodegenerative diseases. No biomarker is currently available to diagnose psychiatric conditions. As a consequence, the distinction between psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders can be challenging in daily practice.

The Scale of instantaneous wellbeing: validity in a population with major neurocognitive disorders.

The quality of life (QoL) of people with a neurodegenerative pathology is a major issue in the absence of curative treatment. However, validated tools, suitable for patients with major neurocognitive disorders at a severe stage are rare and time-consuming in routine. The aim of this study is to analyze the validity of convergence and the reliability over time of a visual analog scale of well-being named EVIBE (Échelle d'évaluation instantanée de bien-être).

[Dementia and non-pharmacological therapy, the effectiveness of play].

A study was carried out to look into the effectiveness of play and the ways it can be used in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. An intervention founded on the principal of a recreational setting, taking into account the choice of objects, the layout of the space and the role of the professional, could present itself as a form of therapeutic mediation adapted to this pathology. This study shows that play helps to reduce the behavioural problems of residents with Alzheimer's disease, and boosted their wellbeing and quality of life.

[Views of general practitioners on the frailty in elderly: a qualitative study].

The concept of frailty in the elderly denotes patients at higher risk of fall, hospitalization, dependency and death. Its prevalence is estimated in France at 15% for people over 65 years. Frailty could be a target for preventing avoidable loss of autonomy.

Protective Effect of Long-Term CPAP Therapy on Cognitive Performance in Elderly Patients with Severe OSA: The PROOF Study.

Objective: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) leads to a deterioration in cognitive functions, with regard to memory and executive functions. However, few studies have investigated the impact of treatment on these cognitive functions in elderly subjects.

Methods: The study was conducted in a large cohort of subjects aged 65 years or older (the PROOF cohort).

Exposure to anticholinergic and sedative drugs, risk of falls, and mortality: an elderly inpatient, multicenter cohort.

This study aimed to assess whether exposure to anticholinergic and sedative medications and its evolution was associated with increased risk of in-hospital falls and all-cause mortality. Furthermore, results were compared with 2 definitions of drug burden index (DBI) against the outcomes.This observational, multicentric, and longitudinal study was conducted among patients aged 65 years or older, in 3 geriatric hospitals, in Francheville, Lyon, and Villeurbanne, France (duration of follow-up, 11.

Sleep and Alzheimer's disease.

Sleep disorders are frequent in Alzheimer's disease (AD), with a significant impact on patients and caregivers and a major risk factor for early institutionalization. Micro-architectural sleep alterations, nocturnal sleep fragmentation, decrease in nocturnal sleep duration, diurnal napping and even inversion of the sleep-wake cycle are the main disorders observed in patients with AD. Experimental and epidemiological evidence for a close reciprocal interaction between cognitive decline and sleep alterations is growing.

[The specialist-referred patients represent 42% of the activity of an academic memory clinic].

Objectives: Evaluate demographic and aetiological characteristics of patients referred by specialist doctors (neurologists, geriatricians and psychiatrists) to an Academic Memory Clinic in Lyon, for the year 2008. These specialist-referred patients (SRP) constitute a specific mission of the French Academic Memory Clinics.

Methods: The outpatients consecutively referred in 2008 to our memory clinic by any persons (patients, families, general practitioners, specialist doctors) were all evaluated using clinical, neuropsychological and imaging information.

[Diagnostic profile of young-onset dementia before 65 years. Experience of a French Memory Referral Center].

Objective: The aim of the study was to compare the profiles of patients with young (age≤65 years) and late (age>65 years) onset of dementia in a memory clinic of a Memory Referral Center in Lyons (France), for the year 2008.

Methods: A total of 746 demented patients were evaluated using clinical, neuropsychological and imaging information. For each patient, diagnoses of the dementing disorder used clinical criteria at the first visit.

[Post-surgery cognitive disorders: prevention, diagnosis and treatment strategies].

Hip fracture is an important step in the autonomy evolution in elderly. As gait is particularly jeopardised after such a traumatism, cognition may also be acutely impaired. Elderly post-surgery delirium is frequent, but chronic progression of cognitive impairment and dementia may occur.

[The 5-word test in 37 depressed patients compared with 36 normal controls and 35 patients with mild Alzheimer's disease].

Objectives: Patients with major depression (MD) express frequent memory complaints leading to consultations in memory clinics. The 5-word test (5WT) is a verbal memory test with semantic cueing, which has shown its sensitivity and its specificity in identifying patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our objective was to evaluate memory performances of aged patients with MD compared with controls and AD patients.

[Q-ACP: a questionnaire for evaluating visual and gestural complaints in patients with posterior cortical atrophy].

Introduction: Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a clinical neurodegenerative syndrome associated with atrophy in parieto-occipital cortices, and characterized by prominent disorders of higher visual processing, affecting both dorsal and ventral streams.

Methods: We used a questionnaire (Q-ACP) specifically designed to assess visual and praxis dysfunctions in PCA. The Q-ACP contains 32 items (combined in 12 domains) aimed at describing everyday deficiencies that patients or caregivers notice about visual and gestural domains.

[The five-word test in three age-groups of mild Alzheimer's disease (60, 70 and 80 year-old patients): Utility of the Total Score, Total Weighted Score, Learning Score and Memory Score].

Introduction: The five-word test (5WT) is a serial verbal memory test with semantic cuing. It is proposed to rapidly evaluate memory of aging people and has previously shown its sensitivity and its specificity in identifying patients with AD. It measures the efficacy of free and cued recalls during a procedure of immediate and delayed recalls.

[Validation of the Rapid BAttery of Denomination (BARD) in 382 controls and 1004 patients of a memory clinic].

Introduction: The Rapid BAttery of Denomination (BARD) is a short 10-item naming test derived from the 60-item Boston Naming Test. It is easily performed in less than 15 seconds by normal controls independently of age, gender and education (Croisile, 2005,2007,2008). Our aim was to evaluate the BARD in various conditions seen in a memory clinic.

[What use of biological markers for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and associated disorders?].

Etiological diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia requires combined clinical, neuropsychological, biological and neuro-imaging clues. The diagnostic value of biological and neuro-imaging biomarkers has recently increased according to neuropathological studies. Biomarkers help for making the in vivo diagnosis of underlying histological lesions, sometimes of combined lesions.

[The 5-word test in 85 patients with generalized anxiety disorder].

Objectives: Patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) expressed frequent memory complaints leading to consultations in memory clinics. The 5-word test (5WT) is a serial verbal memory test with semantic cuing. It is proposed to rapidly evaluate memory of people with memory complaints.

[Standardization of the 5-word test in a group of 191 normal subjects aged 50 to 90 years].

Introduction: The 5-word test (5WT) is a serial verbal memory test with semantic cuing. It allows to estimate cued learning, free recall, and cued recall of 5 words during immediate and delayed recalls (5 min later). The 5WT is proposed to rapidly evaluate memory of aging people.