Life-course socio-economic disadvantage and late-life cognitive functioning in Taiwan: results from a national cohort study.

Background: Declines in late-life cognitive functioning differ greatly between socio-economic status (SES) groups, but little is known about whether these effects are related to child and adult SES versus SES effects that accumulate over the individual's life course.

Methods: An 18-year longitudinal national sample of older adults from Taiwan (n=2944) was used to estimate the effect of socio-economic disadvantage over the individual's life course on cognitive functioning during late life. Cognitive functioning was assessed using the brief Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire scale.

The relationship among performance of instrumental activities of daily living, self-report of quality of life, and self-awareness of functional status in individuals with multiple sclerosis.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between self-awareness of functional status and performance of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), and self-reports of quality of life (QOL) in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Design: A between-groups design, using a correlational approach to examine the relationship between self-awareness of functional status, IADL and QOL.

Participants: We studied 47 individuals with clinically definite MS and 26 healthy controls (HCs).

Initial electro-mechanical response to rearward perturbation.

The objective of this study was to examine the combined electromyographic (EMG) and mechanical response to a rearward perturbation and to separate the response into three categories: preset properties of the muscle, reflex changes to the muscle, and active changes to the muscle. We hypothesized that an active response is required to maintain balance on a moving platform. Eleven healthy adult subjects stood on a platform oscillating at three frequencies (0.

Redefining the manual wheelchair stroke cycle: identification and impact of nonpropulsive pushrim contact.

Objectives: To create a comprehensive definition of the manual wheelchair stroke cycle, which includes multiple periods of pushrim contact, and to show its improved clinical benefit to wheelchair propulsion analyses.

Design: Cross-sectional biomechanics study.

Setting: Three motion analysis laboratories.

Comparison of kinematics, kinetics, and EMG throughout wheelchair propulsion in able-bodied and persons with paraplegia: an integrative approach.

A systematic integrated data collection and analysis of kinematic, kinetic, and electromyography (EMG) data allow for the comparison of differences in wheelchair propulsion between able-bodied individuals and persons with paraplegia. Kinematic data from a motion analysis system, kinetic data from force-sensing push rims, and electromyography data from four upper-limb muscles were collected for ten push strokes. Results are as follows: Individuals with paraplegia use a greater percentage of their posterior deltoids, biceps, and triceps in relation to maximal voluntary contraction.

Cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressive disease of the CNS that is characterised by widespread lesions in the brain and spinal cord. MS results in motor, cognitive, and neuropsychiatric symptoms, all of which can occur independently of one another. The common cognitive symptoms include deficits in complex attention, efficiency of information processing, executive functioning, processing speed, and long-term memory.

Schizophrenia patients show task switching deficits consistent with N-methyl-d-aspartate system dysfunction but not global executive deficits: implications for pathophysiology of executive dysfunction in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is associated with cognitive processing deficits, including deficits in executive processing, that represent a core component of the disorder. In the Task Switching Test, subjects view ambiguous stimuli and must alternate between competing rules to generate correct responses. Subjects show worse performance (prolonged response time and/or increased error rates) on the first response after a switch than on subsequent responses ("switch costs"), as well as performing worse when stimuli are incongruent as opposed to congruent ("congruence costs").

The Open-Trial Selective Reminding Test (OT-SRT) as a tool for the assessment of learning and memory.

The Open Trial Selective Reminding Test (OT-SRT) is a modification of the SRT that also evaluates new learning abilities. The examinee is asked to learn a list of 10 words over a maximum of 15 trials. Using a criterion-referenced approach, the list is repeatedly administered until a criterion of complete recall on two consecutive trials is achieved.

The relationship between cognitive deficits and everyday functional activities in multiple sclerosis.

Considerable evidence indicates that cognitive dysfunction and impairments in everyday life activities are common in multiple sclerosis (MS). However, the relationship between these cognitive and functional deficits has not been thoroughly investigated. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of cognitive dysfunction in the functional status of individuals with MS.

Self-generation to improve learning and memory of functional activities in persons with multiple sclerosis: meal preparation and managing finances.

Objective: To examine the utility of using a self-generation strategy to improve learning and performance of everyday functional tasks in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Design: Mixed-design with both a within- and between-subject factor.

Setting: Nonprofit rehabilitation research institution.

Is it what you see, or how you say it? Spatial bias in young and aged subjects.

Healthy subjects demonstrate leftward bias on visual-spatial tasks. However, young controls may also be left-biased when drawing communicatively, depicting the subject of a sentence leftward on a page relative to the sentence object, that is, a spatial-syntactic, implicit task. A leftward visual-spatial bias may decrease with aging, as right-hemisphere, dorsal, visual-spatial activation may be reduced in elderly subjects performing these tasks.

Distinct neurophysiological mechanisms mediate mixing costs and switch costs.

Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we investigated the neural response associated with preparing to switch from one task to another. We used a cued task-switching paradigm in which the interval between the cue and the imperative stimulus was varied. The difference between response time (RT) to trials on which the task switched and trials on which the task repeated (switch cost) decreased as the interval between cue and target (CTI) was increased, demonstrating that subjects used the CTI to prepare for the forthcoming task.

Repeated treatments with botulinum toxin type a produce sustained decreases in the limitations associated with focal upper-limb poststroke spasticity for caregivers and patients.

Objective: To assess the safety and evaluate the effects of repeated treatments with botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) on functional disability, quality of life (QOL), and muscle tone of patients with upper-limb poststroke spasticity, as well as its effect on caregivers.

Design: Multicenter, open-label, repeated-dose study.

Setting: Thirty-five clinical sites in North America.

Evidenced-based cognitive rehabilitation for persons with multiple sclerosis: a review of the literature.

Objectives: To conduct evidence-based review of cognitive rehabilitation intervention research conducted in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS), to classify level of evidence, and to generate recommendations for interventions in this area.

Data Sources: An open (no year limits set) search of Medline, PsychInfo, and CINAHL (eliminating repetitions) using combinations of the following terms: attention, awareness, cognition, cognitive, communication, executive, executive function, language, learning, memory, perception, problem solving, reasoning, rehabilitation, remediation, training, and working memory. Reference sections of articles found through the sites were also searched.

Congenital and acquired brain injury. 4. Outpatient and community reintegration.

Unlabelled: This self-directed learning module highlights the rehabilitation aspects of care for people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) after the acute phase. It focuses on issues important to community reentry, outpatient care, and return to work. It is part of the chapter on TBI medicine in the Self-Directed Physiatric Education Program for practitioners and trainees in physical medicine and rehabilitation.

Arm crank ergometry and shoulder pain in persons with spinal cord injury.

Objective: To determine whether a primary fitness program utilizing arm crank ergometry would cause increased shoulder pain in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: Cohort study.

Setting: Clinical research center.

Acupuncture for chronic shoulder pain in persons with spinal cord injury: a small-scale clinical trial.

Objective: To determine the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of chronic musculoskeletal shoulder pain in subjects with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: Randomized, double blind (participants, evaluator), placebo (invasive sham) controlled trial.

Setting: Clinical research center.

Relationship of the Multiple Sclerosis Neuropsychological Questionnaire (MSNQ) to functional, emotional, and neuropsychological outcomes.

Objective: To explore the relationship of the Multiple Sclerosis Neuropsychology Questionnaire (MSNQ; [Benedict, R. H. B.

Forgetting as an active process: an FMRI investigation of item-method-directed forgetting.

Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined the blood oxygen level-dependent response associated with intentional remembering and forgetting. In an item-method directed forgetting paradigm, participants were presented with words, one at a time, each of which was followed after a brief delay by an instruction to Remember or Forget. Behavioral data revealed a directed forgetting effect: greater recognition of to-be-remembered than to-be-forgotten words.