BrainBlog

Subjective Cognitive Complaints of Older Adults at the Population Level: An Item Response Theory Analysis Alzheimers Disease and Associated Disorders. 2011 Dec 20; Snitz BE, Yu L, Crane PK, Chang CC, Hughes TF, Ganguli M Abstract Subjective cognitive complaints (SCCs) are increasingly a focus in studies on prodromal Alzheimer disease (AD) and risk for dementia. Little is known about the optimal approach to measure SCCs. We used item response theory (IRT) to examine the characteristics of 24 SCC items in a sample of 3495 older adults pooled from 4 community-based studies. We investigated the potential advantages of IRT scoring over conventional scoring on the basis of participants' item response patterns. Items most likely endorsed by individuals low in SCC severity relate to word retrieval and general subjective memory decline. Items likely endorsed only by individuals high in SCC severity relate to nonepisodic memory changes, such as decline in comprehension, judgment and executi...

The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2011 Meet Your Brain Homepage Guardian article about the lectures: Read full article here

The BBC's "Newspod" podcast from the 22nd of December includes an item looking at contemporary issues in performing pharma clinical trials in England. Comparison is made to what is considered to be the more-successful Scotland model. Approx 7 minutes into the podcast; lasting several minutes.

UI College of Law to hold colloquium on aging population 5:23 PM, Dec. 21, 2011 press-citizen.com [snip] "The 13 weekly sessions start Jan. 12 and will be available online to the public through live-streaming and podcasts, law professor and organizer Josephine Gittler said. Nationally-recognized experts in the field of public policy and aging, including Charles Sabatino, director of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Law and Aging; Robert Egge, vice president of public policy and advocacy for the Alzheimer’s Association, and Daniel Marson, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, will attend some of the sessions." [snip] Read the full article

Executive deficits are related to the inferior frontal junction in early dementia Brain. 2011 Dec 19; Schroeter ML, Vogt B, Frisch S, Becker G, Barthel H, Mueller K, Villringer A, Sabri O Access article here

Measuring Alzheimer disease progression with transition probabilities: Estimates from NACC-UDS Curr Alzheimer Res. 2011 Nov 28; Spackman DE, Kadiyala S, Neumann PJ, Veenstra DL, Sullivan SD Abstract Objectives: Estimate the probabilities, for Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, of transitioning between stages of disease severity (mild, moderate, severe, dead) and care settings (community, institutional). Methods: Data were compiled by the National Alzheimer Coordinating Center. The main analyses were limited to 3,852 patients who were >50 years old, diagnosed with possible/probable AD and had at least two center visits. A multinomial logistic model accounting for patient and center level correlation was used to calculate transition probabilities between stages of the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR). Separately we calculated the probabilities of being institutionalized based on CDR stage. Both analyses controlled for baseline age, time between visits, sex, marital status, whether ...

The cognitive impact of antiepileptic drugs Ther Adv Neurol Disord. 2011 Nov; 4(6): 385-407 Eddy CM, Rickards HE, Cavanna AE Abstract Effective treatment of epilepsy depends on medication compliance across a lifetime, and studies indicate that drug tolerability is a significant limiting factor in medication maintenance. Available antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) have the potential to exert detrimental effects on cognitive function and therefore compromise patient wellbeing. On the other hand, some agents may serve to enhance cognitive function. In this review paper, we highlight the range of effects on cognition linked to a variety of newer and older AEDs, encompassing key alterations in both specific executive abilities and broader neuropsychological functions. Importantly, the data reviewed suggest that the effects exerted by an AED could vary depending on both patient characteristics and drug-related variables. However, there are considerable difficulties in evaluating the available evid...

Role of Neuropsychologists in the Evaluation and Management of Sport-related Concussion: An Inter-Organization Position Statement Clin Neuropsychol. 2011 Nov; 25(8): 1289-1294 Echemendia RJ, Iverson GL, McCrea M, Broshek DK, Gioia GA, Sautter SW, Macciocchi SN, Barr WB Abstract Over the past 20 years, clinical neuropsychologists have been at the forefront of both scientific and clinical initiatives aimed at developing evidence-based approaches to the evaluation and management of sport-related concussion. These efforts have directly impacted current policy on strategies for injury assessment and return-to-play by athletes after concussion. Many states are considering legislation requiring (a) education of athletes, parents, coaches, and school/organization officials on the recognition, evaluation, and management of sport-related concussions; (b) removal from play of any youth athlete that is suspected of having sustained a concussion; and (c) not allowing the student to return to parti...

From the MindHacks blog, with a link to the piece in The Economist : The crowd dynamics of the city safari 18 December 2011 Read the blog post

An interesting read. I always aimed for 6th-grade reading level myself, so it surprised me to read of this finding: Informed Consent Forms Target 11th Grade Readers By Ed Silverman Pharmalot December 12th, 2011 // 9:29 am Read the full blog post

From last Sunday's New York Times Sunday Magazine : A Drug That Wakes the Near Dead By JENEEN INTERLANDI 04 December 2011 "A surprising drug has brought a kind of consciousness to patients once considered vegetative — and changed the debate over pulling the plug." Read the article

Balkanizing the primate orbitofrontal cortex: distinct subregions for comparing and contrasting values Annals of the New York Academy of Science. 2011 Dec; 1239(1): 1-13 Rudebeck PH, Murray EA Abstract The primate orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is often treated as a single entity, but architectonic and connectional neuroanatomy indicate that it has distinguishable parts. Nevertheless, few studies have attempted to dissociate the functions of its subregions. Here we review findings from recent neuropsychological and neurophysiological studies that do so. The lateral OFC seems to be important for learning, representing, and updating specific object-reward associations. The medial OFC seems to be important for value comparisons and choosing among objects on that basis. Rather than viewing this dissociation of function in terms of learning versus choosing, however, we suggest that it reflects the distinction between contrasts and comparisons: differences versus similarities. Making use of high...

Read the In The Pipeline blog entry (06 December 2011).

From Bloomberg : Eli Lilly Shares Rise on Alzheimer’s Drug Hopes By Drew Armstrong and Robert Langreth Dec 6, 2011 [snip] "Solanezumab is an antibody designed to clear protein fragments called beta amyloid that clutter the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Pfizer Inc. (PFE), Johnson & Johnson and Elan are testing bapineuzumab, a similar drug." [snip] Read the article

From Drug Discovery & Development : Positive Study Results for Schizophrenia Drug Drug Discovery & Development December 05, 2011 "EnVivo Pharmaceuticals announced the analysis of a completed Phase 2b clinical trial of EVP-6124, a novel, orally bioavailable nicotinic alpha-7 agonist, in schizophrenia." Read the full report

Narrative accounts like this are not common, but still excellent reading for students of neuropsychology: A Mind "Surrounded by a Moat": A First-person Account of Cognitive Impairment in Multiple Sclerosis Cogn Behav Neurol . 2011 Nov 29; Anonymous , Stern EB Abstract This is a first-person account of the cognitive impairments-in speaking, writing, and thinking-caused by multiple sclerosis in a professional writer. The patient explains how she has worked around her deficits in rebuilding her life over the 18 years since her diagnosis. Her personal account is woven together with her clinical history, including her neuropsychological testing and magnetic resonance imaging results. A companion article giving perspectives on the case was written by a cognitive neuroscientist who has been studying some of the types of deficits reported by the patient. PMID: 22134193 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

The 20th Jean-Louis Signoret Neuropsychology Prize of the Fondation Ipsen is Awarded to Prof. Patricia K. Kuhl (University of Washington, Seattle, USA) PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 2, 2011 - The international jury under the presidency of Prof. Albert Galaburda (Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA) awarded on November 29th, 2011 the 20th Jean-Louis Signoret Neuropsychology Prize of the Fondation Ipsen (Paris:IPN) (20.000€) to Prof. Prof. Patricia K. Kuhl (University of Washington, Seattle, USA) for her work that played a major role in the understanding of language acquisition and the neural bases of language. Infants are born with innate abilities to easily identify every sound of every language, however, by the end of the first year of life, infants show a perceptual narrowing of their language skills. Their ability to discern differences in the sounds that make up words in the world’s languages shrinks. Nonnative sounds are no longer differentiated. This developmental transition is cau...

Hippocampal hyperactivation associated with cortical thinning in Alzheimer's disease signature regions in non-demented elderly adults Journal of Neuroscience. 2011 Nov 30; 31(48): 17680-17688 Putcha D, Brickhouse M, O'Keefe K, Sullivan C, Rentz D, Marshall G, Dickerson B, Sperling R Abstract Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with functional and structural alterations in a distributed network of brain regions supporting memory and other cognitive domains. Functional abnormalities are present in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) with evidence of early hyperactivity in medial temporal lobe regions, followed by failure of hippocampal activation as dementia develops. Atrophy in a consistent set of cortical regions, the "cortical signature of AD," has been reported at the stage of dementia, MCI, and even in clinically normal (CN) older individuals predicted to develop AD. Despite multiple lines of evidence for each of these findings, the relationship between this st...

Just noticeable difference in olfaction: A discriminative tool between healthy elderly and patients with cognitive disorders associated with dementia Rhinology. 2011 15 1; 49(5): 513-518. Chopard G, Galmiche J, Jacquot L, Brand G Abstract Olfactory dysfunction appears to be one of the earliest signs of several age-related neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer`s disease (AD) or Parkinson`s disease (PD). To rate performance and olfactory deficits in patients with cognitive disorders, various olfactory tasks have been used such as odor detection, discrimination, recognition memory, identification and naming but no study has been focused on just noticeable difference (JND), a sensitive tool of detection. The aim of this study was to investigate and compare variations in JNDs in healthy elderly and in patients with cognitive disorders associated with dementia. The results showed significantly higher olfactory JNDs in a population with cognitive disorders associated with dementia...

Today on WYNC's Leonard Lopate show, Dr. Michael Gazzaniga. Listen and/or download here

Intellectual ability and executive function in pediatric moyamoya vasculopathy Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology. 2011 Nov 24; Williams TS, Westmacott R, Dlamini N, Granite L, Dirks P, Askalan R, Macgregor D, Moharir M, Deveber G Abstract Aim  Moyamoya vasculopathy is characterized by progressive stenosis of the major arteries of the Circle of Willis, resulting in compromised cerebral blood flow and increased risk of stroke. The objectives of the current study were to examine intellectual and executive functioning of children with moyamoya and to evaluate the impact of moyamoya type, stroke (clinical or silent), vasculopathy laterality, and disease duration on neurocognitive abilities. Method  Thirty pediatric participants (mean age 10y 10mo, SD 4y; 18 females, 12 males) completed age-appropriate Wechsler Intelligence Scales before any therapeutic revascularization procedures. Reports of executive function were obtained from parents and teachers using the Behavior Rating Inde...

An interesting posting on the Pharmalot blog today: Russian Trial Rules Are A ‘Serious Blow’ To Pharma By Ed Silverman November 29th, 2011 // 9:56 am Read the blog post

Today, NPR's All Things Considered will be airing a report it prepared with ProPublica about problems with the US military's approach to testing the cognitive function of individuals. Here is a link to a ProPublica article about the issue: Testing Program Fails Soldiers An audio link and a transcript of the report will likely be made available by NPR on the All Things Considered website after it airs. The ProPublica report includes links to a number of documents about the issue, for those interested in looking deeper into the controversy. ADDENDUM: The NPR story can be listened to and/or downloaded at this link: Listen here .

Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Leadership Council Holds Inaugural Meeting Council convenes at the New York Academy of Sciences to discuss strategies for tackling barriers to translation in dementia. Posted 11/28/2011 "NEW YORK, November 23, 2011- The newly created Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia Leadership Council gathered for its inaugural meeting at the New York Academy of Sciences on Tuesday, November 15. The leadership council, consisting of key opinion leaders in industry, academia, and government, is charged with creating strategic objectives for the Academy's Translational Science Initiative, which aims to accelerate the transfer of basic scientific discoveries into new methods for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, initially focused on Alzheimer's disease and dementia." Read the full NYAS press release From the One Mind for Research organization: Read the press release

Elan to create research centre with Cambridge University DUBLIN Sun Nov 27, 2011 4:14am EST "(Reuters) - Elan Corp Plc has signed an agreement with Britain's Cambridge University to create a research center focused on therapies for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, the Dublin-headquartered biotech group said on Sunday." Read the full article Addendum (28 November 2011): From Cambirdge Business Media : 28 November 2011 12:32 $10m neuroscience drug discovery centre for Cambridge Lautaro Vargas Read the full article

CBC Radio's "Spark" show's Nora Young discusses this topic on its 30 October 2011 show. Dr. Kalina Christoff, an assistant professor in the Psychology department and the Brain Research Centre at the University of British Columbia, is interviewed. Available as a podcast from the show's webpage .

A new post at the New York Times blog, "The New Old Age": November 23, 2011, 12:18 PM It’s Mild Cognitive Impairment. Now What? By PAULA SPAN "How would you react to a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment — memory problems that allow you to continue normal daily activities, but presage an increased likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease within a few years?" Read the full post

From the FDA: For Immediate Release: Nov. 23, 2011 FDA approves first insomnia drug for middle-of-the-night waking followed by difficulty returning to sleep [snippet] The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Intermezzo (zolpidem tartrate sublingual tablets) for use as needed to treat insomnia characterized by middle-of-the-night waking followed by difficulty returning to sleep. This is the first time the FDA has approved a drug for this condition. Intermezzo should only be used when a person has at least four hours of bedtime remaining. It should not be taken if alcohol has been consumed or with any other sleep aid. Insomnia is a common condition in which a person has trouble falling or staying asleep. It can range from mild to severe, depending on how often it occurs and for how long. Insomnia can cause excessive daytime sleepiness and lack of energy. It also can make a person feel anxious, depressed, or irritable. People with insomnia may have trouble focusing on tasks, p...

This week's Science Weekly podcast from The Guardian includes a report about the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) annual conference ("the brainiest science conference on the planet") and a report about dementia. Listen to the podcast here

Hippocampal Subregions are Differentially Affected in the Progression to Alzheimer's Disease Anat Rec (Hoboken). 2011 Nov 18; Greene SJ, Killiany RJ, Abstract Atrophy within the hippocampus (HP) as measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a promising biomarker for the progression to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Subregions of the HP along the longitudinal axis have been found to demonstrate unique function, as well as undergo differential changes in the progression to AD. Little is known of relationships between such HP subregions and other potential biomarkers, such as neuropsychological (NP), genetic, and cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) beta amyloid and tau measures. The purpose of this study was to subdivide the hippocampus to determine how the head, body, and tail were affected in normal control, mild cognitively impaired, and AD subjects, and investigate relationships with HP subregions and other potential biomarkers. MRI scans of 120 participants of the Alzheimer's Di...

An interesting post on the Wellcome Trust Blog: What I Learned at the BBC By Johanna Hoog 18 November 2011 A look at how science gets on television. Read the post

Increasing the diagnostic accuracy of medial temporal lobe atrophy in Alzheimer's disease Journal of Alzheimer's Disease . 2011;25(3):477-90 Jacobs HI, Van Boxtel MP, van der Elst W, Burgmans S, Smeets F, Gronenschild EH, Verhey FR, Uylings HB, Jolles J Abstract Medial temporal lobe (MTL) atrophy is considered to be one of the most important predictors of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study investigates whether atrophy in parietal and prefrontal areas increases the predictive value of MTL atrophy in three groups of different cognitive status. Seventy-five older adults were classified as cognitively stable (n = 38) or cognitively declining (n = 37) after three years follow-up. At follow-up, the grey matter of the MTL, inferior prefrontal cortex (IPC), and inferior parietal lobule (IPL) was delineated on MRI scans. Six years later, a dementia assessment resulted in distinguishing and separating a third group (n = 9) who can be considered as preclinical AD cases at scan time....

A meta-analysis of cognitive deficits in first-episode Major Depressive Disorder Journal of Affective Disorders. 2011 Nov 14; Lee RS, Hermens DF, Porter MA, Redoblado-Hodge MA Abstract BACKGROUND: Recurrent-episode Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is associated with a number of neuropsychological deficits. To date, less is known about whether these are present in the first-episode. The current aim was to systematically evaluate the literature on first-episode MDD to determine whether cognition may be a feasible target for early identification and intervention. METHODS: Electronic database searches were conducted to examine neuropsychological studies in adults (mean age greater than 18years old) with a first-episode of MDD. Effect sizes were pooled by cognitive domain. Using meta-regression techniques, demographic and clinical factors potentially influencing heterogeneity of neuropsychological outcome were also investigated. RESULTS: The 15 independent samples reviewed yielded data for ...

On the Discover Magazine website: Maybe You Do Need a Hole in Your Head—to Let the Medicine In Carl Zimmer November 2011 Read the article

Here is the conference homepage to the National Academy of Neuropsychology's (NAN) annual conference, taking place this week in Florida: Conference Homepage

A press release from the NIH: Ultrathin flexible brain implant offers unique look at seizures in NIH-funded research 13 November 2011 [snippet] Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed a flexible brain implant that could one day be used to treat epileptic seizures. In animal studies, the researchers used the device — a type of electrode array that conforms to the brain's surface — to take an unprecedented look at the brain activity underlying seizures. "Someday, these flexible arrays could be used to pinpoint where seizures start in the brain and perhaps to shut them down," said Brian Litt, M.D., the principal investigator and an associate professor of neurology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. The findings appear in this month's Nature Neuroscience . The team will also discuss their findings at the 2011 Society for Neuroscience meeting, Nov. 12-16 in Washington, D.C. "This group's work reflec...

This week's Science Weekly podcast from The Guardian includes a segment called The Inscrutable Brain . [snippet] "On this week's show Alok Jha meets science writer Bryan Appleyard to discuss his new book The Brain is Wider than the Sky: Why Simple Solutions Don't Work in a Complex World . It's "part memoir and part reportage" on what he sees as our tendency to oversimplify the complexity of the human experience – particularly in the field of neuroscience – and misunderstand the limits of science." [snippet] Listen to the podcast

From a New York Times blog: Preventing Hospital Delirium By SUSAN SELIGER November 11, 2011, 4:09 PM Read the full blog entry

From Fierce Biotech : Key AZ/Targacept depression drug flunks first Phase III test By John Carroll November 8, 2011 — 6:49am ET [snippet] "The high-profile depression drug TC-5214 has failed the first in a string of Phase III studies, dealing AstraZeneca's struggling R&D operation another stinging setback and walloping Targacept with a meltdown in its share value this morning." [snippet] Read the full article

Neuropsychological rehabilitation for multiple sclerosis Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2011;11:CD009131 Rosti-Otajärvi EM, Hämäläinen PI Abstract BACKGROUND: Cognitive deficits are a common manifestation in multiple sclerosis (MS) and have a wide effect on the patient's quality of life. Alleviation of the harmful effects caused by these deficits should be a major goal of MS research and practice. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this review was to evaluate the effects of neuropsychological/cognitive rehabilitation in MS by conducting a systematic review. SEARCH STRATEGY: A systematic literature search was carried out on reports drawn from Cochrane MS Group Specialised Register (To October 2010), Evidence-based medicine (EBM) reviews (To September 2010), MEDLINE (January 1950 to September 2010), EMBASE (1974 to September 2010), PsycINFO (January 1806 to September 2010), WEB OF SCIENCE (WOS) (January 1986 to September 2010), CINAHL (1982 to September 2010), and identified from the references in...

A new interview with Dr. Milner: The Daily talks to McGill researcher Brenda Milner Canadian neuroscientist honoured with Greengard Prize for achievements of women in science LAURENT BASTIEN CORBEIL The McGill Daily Published on November 10, 2011 Read the full interview

Decrease in gait variability while counting backward: a marker of "magnet effect"? Journal of Neural Transmission. 2010 Oct; 117(10): 1171-1176 Beauchet O, Allali G, Poujol L, Barthelemy JC, Roche F, Annweiler C Abstract Counting backward (CB) and walking are both rhythmic tasks. An improvement of CB performance has been reported while walking, and has been interpreted as a "magnet effect" which is the tendency of biological oscillators to attract each other. The objective of this study was to compare the coefficient of variation (CoV) of stride time (ST) and the number of enumerated figures while single- and dual-tasking between older adults who increased and decreased their CoV of ST while CB. The number of enumerated figures and the CoV of ST under single-task (i.e., CB while sitting or walking alone) and dual-task (i.e., CB while walking) were measured among 100 community-dwelling older subjects (mean, 69.8 ± 0.07 years). Subjects were separated into two groups...

The measurement of everyday cognition: Development and validation of a short form of the Everyday Cognition scales Alzheimers Dement . 2011 Nov; 7(6): 593-601. Tomaszewski Farias S, Mungas D, Harvey DJ, Simmons A, Reed BR, Decarli C Abstract BACKGROUND: This study describes the development and validation of a shortened version of the Everyday Cognition (ECog) scales [Tomaszewski Farias et al. Neuropsychology 2008;22:531-44], an informant-rated questionnaire designed to detect cognitive and functional decline. METHODS: External, convergent, and divergent validities and internal consistency were examined. Data were derived from informant ratings of 907 participants who were either cognitively normal, had mild cognitive impairment (MCI), or had dementia. RESULTS: Twelve items were included in the shortened version (ECog-12). The ECog-12 strongly correlated with established functional measures and neuropsychological scores, only weakly with age and education, and demonstrated high internal...

From the Society for Neuroscience: Wireless Internet Access

Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology POSTNote October 2011 POSTNote: Clinical Trials (pdf).

A new word (for me, at least) for a new discipline of study in neuropsychology and neuroscience. Best wishes, Prof. Jones! Investigating the brain’s white matter Cardiff University News Centre 07 November 2011 [snippet] "Pioneering brain research at Cardiff has received a major boost with the winning of the University’s first prestigious Investigator Award from the Wellcome Trust. " Professor Derek Jones, Director of Cardiff University Brain Repair Imaging Centre (CUBRIC) , has received the Award to develop the new discipline of Tractometry." [snippet] Read the full article

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This sounds like a good read: O'Halloran CJ, Kinsella GJ, & Storey E. (2011). The cerebellum and neuropsychological functioning: A critical review Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. .

Here is the website, chock full of information, for the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting, Neuroscience 2011: Neuroscience 2011

Reliability of repeated cognitive assessment of dementia using a brief computerized battery American Journal of Alzheimers Disease and Other Dementias. 2011 Jun; 26(4): 326-333. Hammers D, Spurgeon E, Ryan K, Persad C, Heidebrink J, Barbas N, Albin R, Frey K, Darby D, Giordani B Abstract OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the short-term stability and reliability of a brief computerized cognitive battery in established dementia types. METHOD: Patients were administered the computerized battery twice with administrations approximately 2 hours apart, with intervening conventional neuropsychological tests. Patients were classified clinically, via consensus conference, as healthy controls (n = 23), mild cognitive impairment (n = 20), Alzheimer's disease (n = 52), dementia with Lewy Bodies ([DLB], n = 10), or frontotemporal dementia (n = 9). RESULTS: Minimal practice effects were evident across Cog-State test administrations. Small magnitude improvements were seen across a...

A TEDtalk by University of Cambridge neuroscientist Daniel Wolpert: TEDtalk From the webpage: "Neuroscientist Daniel Wolpert starts from a surprising premise: the brain evolved, not to think or feel, but to control movement. In this entertaining, data-rich talk he gives us a glimpse into how the brain creates the grace and agility of human motion."

Pearl Meister Greengard Prize website From the Montreal Gazette : Montreal scientist wins Pearl Meister Greengard Prize Montreal Gazette November 3, 2011 "Neuropsychologist Dr. Brenda Milner was presented the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize at an award ceremony at Rockefeller University in New York on Thursday." Read the full article

Relationships Between Behavioral Syndromes and Cognitive Domains in Alzheimer Disease: The Impact of Mood and Psychosis American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry . 2011 Nov 1; Koppel J, Goldberg TE, Gordon ML, Huey E, Davies P, Keehlisen L, Huet S, Christen E, Greenwald BS Abstract OBJECTIVES:: Behavioral disturbances occur in nearly all Alzheimer disease (AD) patients together with an array of cognitive impairments. Prior investigations have failed to demonstrate specific associations between them, suggesting an independent, rather than shared, pathophysiology. The objective of this study was to reexamine this issue using an extensive cognitive battery together with a sensitive neurobehavioral and functional rating scale to correlate behavioral syndromes and cognitive domains across the spectrum of impairment in dementia. DESIGN:: Cross-sectional study of comprehensive cognitive and behavioral ratings in subjects with AD and mild cognitive impairment. SETTING:: Memory disorders researc...

The BBC Newspod podcast of the 1st of November discusses schizophrenia a hundred years on. It occurs in the final four minutes of the podcast, available from the BBC website and from iTunes as a free download.

List of official neurobloggers The conference begins on the 12th of November.

From the New York Times blog, The New Old Age : Another Hospital Hazard for the Elderly By SUSAN SELIGER November 2, 2011, 12:37 PM Read the blog entry

Science Communication Conference 2012 Wellcome Trust Blog 31 October 2011 by Mun-Keat Looi [snippet] "The British Science Association, in partnership with the Wellcome Trust, have opened a call for proposals to run sessions at the 2012 Science Communication Conference. "The conference will again be held at Kings Place, London, on Mon 14 & Tues 15 May 2012 and address key issues facing science communicators. It’s always a good opportunity to network, share ideas and good practice." [snippet] Read the full blog entry

From The University of Cambridge: The Ethics of Smart Drugs 31 October 2011 Read the full article here

From a press release from the NIH: Stanford researcher to speak at NIH on the role of neuroimaging in understanding pain NCCAM presents Opening Windows to the Brain: Lessons Learned in the Neuroimaging of Pain [snippet] What: Sean Mackey, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Pain Management Division and associate professor of anesthesia and pain management at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif., will be the featured speaker for the third annual Stephen E. Straus Distinguished Lecture in the Science of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Dr. Mackey’s lecture is entitled Opening Windows to the Brain: Lessons Learned in the Neuroimaging of Pain. Why: Millions of Americans suffer from pain that is chronic, severe, and not easily managed. People who suffer from chronic pain may take various prescription and non-prescription medications; these do not always provide adequate relief and may have unwanted side effects. As a result, people sometimes turn to non-pharmacological ...

New pharmacological strategies for treatment of Alzheimer's disease: focus on disease-modifying drugs British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 2011 Oct 28; Salomone S, Caraci F, Leggio GM, Fedotova J, Drago F Abstract Current approved drug treatments for Alzheimer disease (AD) include cholinesterase inhibitors (donepezil, rivastigmine, galantamine) and the NMDA receptor antagonist memantine. These drugs provide symptomatic relief but poorly affect the progression of the disease. Drug discovery has been directed, in the last ten years, to develop "disease-modifying drugs" hopefully able to counteract the progression of AD. Because in a chronic, slow progressing pathological process, such as AD, an early start of treatment enhances the chance of success, it is crucial to have biomarkers for early detection of AD-related brain dysfunction, usable before clinical onset. Reliable early biomarkers need therefore to be prospectively tested for predictive accuracy, with specifi...

Predictive value of APOE-ε4 allele for progression from MCI to AD-type dementia: A meta-analysis Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. 2011 Oct; 82(10): 1149-1156. Elias-Sonnenschein LS, Viechtbauer W, Ramakers IH, Verhey FR, Visser PJ Abstract BACKGROUND: The identification of subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at high risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is important for prognosis and early intervention. The APOE-ε4 allele is the strongest known genetic risk factor for AD. The authors performed a meta-analysis to establish the predictive accuracy of the APOE-ε4 allele for progression from MCI to AD-type dementia. METHODS: The authors included 35 prospective cohort studies of subjects with MCI, including 6095 subjects, of whom 1236 progressed to AD-type dementia after 2.9 years of follow-up. Pooled estimates of the OR, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV), and positive and negative likelihood ratios (LR+ and LR-) were ...

Nitration of tyrosine 10 critically enhances amyloid β aggregation and plaque formation Neuron . 2011 Sep 8; 71(5): 833-844. Kummer MP, Hermes M, Delekarte A, Hammerschmidt T, Kumar S, Terwel D, Walter J, Pape HC, König S, Roeber S, Jessen F, Klockgether T, Korte M, Heneka MT Abstract Part of the inflammatory response in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the upregulation of the inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS2) resulting in increased NO production. NO contributes to cell signaling by inducing posttranslational protein modifications. Under pathological conditions there is a shift from the signal transducing actions to the formation of protein tyrosine nitration by secondary products like peroxynitrite and nitrogen dioxide. We identified amyloid β (Aβ) as an NO target, which is nitrated at tyrosine 10 (3NTyr(10)-Aβ). Nitration of Aβ accelerated its aggregation and was detected in the core of Aβ plaques of APP/PS1 mice and AD brains. NOS2 deficiency or oral treatment with the NOS2 inh...

There have been a number of excellent papers published over the past month in a number of different journals on the topic of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Looking forward to reading this new paper: An exploration of subgroups of mild cognitive impairment based on cognitive, neuropsychiatric and functional features: analysis of data from the national Alzheimer's coordinating center American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry . 2011 Nov; 19(11): 940-950. Hanfelt JJ, Wuu J, Sollinger AB, Greenaway MC, Lah JJ, Levey AI, Goldstein FC Abstract OBJECTIVES: : To empirically expand the existing subtypes of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) by incorporating information on neuropsychiatric and functional features, and to assess whether cerebrovascular disease (CVD) risk factors are associated with any of these subgroups. DESIGN: : Latent class analysis using 1,655 patients with MCI. SETTING: : Participants in the Uniform Data Set (UDS) from 29 National Institutes of Health-supported Alzheimer...

Everyday verbal memory and pediatric epilepsy Epilepsy and Behavior. 2011 Jul; 21(3): 285-290. Chapieski L, Evankovich K, Hiscock M, Collins R Abstract This study addressed the reliability and validity of reports of everyday verbal memory with a sample of 132 pediatric patients with epilepsy. Each patient and one parent completed a questionnaire on everyday verbal memory comprising two scales assessing learning/retrieval and prospective memory. Each patient was also administered tests of memory, attention, and academic skills. Information about attention, mood, and academic performance was obtained from parent and teacher report, as well as self-report. Memory test scores were correlated with children's reports of learning and retrieval in everyday activities, but were not significantly associated with reports of prospective memory. Reports of everyday memory were found to be reliable and predictive of academic performance. Performance on tests of memory, conversely, was unrelated...

A paper about temporal integration and the psychological present, available as a free download: Wittmann, M. (2011). Moments in time. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. published: 18 October 2011 doi: 10.3389/fnint.2011.00066 Free download pdf

This post, and all others on BrainBlog, are written by Anthony Risser for his blog BrainBlog. The appearance of this entry, and others, on different websites, framed under different websites, or not at the BrainBlog URL do not have my permission. All rights retained. Wendy Williams Kraken: The curious, exciting, and slightly disturbing science of squid NY: Abrams Image (2011) ISBN 978-0-8109-8465-3 My guess is that, unlike biology students, many psychology students exposed to their first courses in biopsychology and neuroscience have little idea about cephalopods and their role played in our knowledge about the nervous system and behavior. (Hint: You are likely to have found squid in your textbook, in that diagram which shows the recording of electrical activity from a generic single neuron and its axon.) Wendy Williams’ new book, Kraken , is a curious book that gives credit to the cephalopods and to the scientists who respect them and learn from them. It is a brief book with a nicely ...

From EurekaAlert: UCSF-Pfizer partnership yields projects aimed at clinical trials 26 October 2011 Read the full article

From the Scientific American blog: The 2011 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize: Honoring Dr. Brenda Milner for her pioneering work in cognitive neuroscience By Jeanne Garbarino October 26, 2011 | Read the blog post about the award

An NIH Public Access Author Manuscript: Richard J. O’Brien and Philip C. Wong Amyloid Precursor Protein Processing and Alzheimer’s Disease Published in final edited form as: Annu Rev Neurosci. 2011 ; 34: 185–204. doi:10.1146/annurev-neuro-061010-113613. Download the free-access pdf here This looks like a fine overview of our current knowledge.

Landscape test for assessing visual memory in Alzheimer's disease Rev Neurol . 2011 Jul 1; 53(1): 1-7 Valls-Pedret C, Olives J, Bosch B, Caprile C, Castellví M, Molinuevo JL, Rami L Abstract INTRODUCTION: Visual episodic memory is affected in the early phases of Alzheimer's disease (AD). AIMS: To design a visual memory test free of any verbal content, to offer its normative values in the elderly population in Spain, to validate the test in a group of patients with mild AD and to determine its capacity to discriminate between subjects with AD and controls. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The study involved a sample of 263 subjects (137 controls and 126 patients with AD) over 50 years of age. The landscape test consists of a first part in which participants are shown 25 photographs of landscapes. Five minutes later, the previous 25 photos are shown again together with 25 new pictures, and the subject must recognise the ones that have already been seen. The statistical analysis was performe...

A good read from today, an entry at the Wellcome Trust blog: Craters, blisters and Pringles: Do small irregularities on the brain surface give us clues about its functions? 26 October 2011 Read the blog post

This week's All in the Mind podcast from BBC Radio 4: Visit the show's webpage to listen or to download the episode From the webpage: "How can a good night's sleep improve your memory? Why does the answer to a crossword clue suddenly appear first thing in the morning after a night's rest? In this week's programme Claudia Hammond talks to psychologist, Kimberly Fenn about what happens in the brain when we sleep and why it can significantly improve our memory. Hysteria or conversion disorder is surprisingly, not confined to medical history. Nearly 1 in 5 patients seen by neurologists will have symptoms like paralysis, fits or loss of vision which can't be explained neurologically. Claudia talks to neurologist, Mark Edwards and psychiatrist, Richard Kanaan about the history of conversion disorder, how common it is today, the best way to treat it and its complex causes. Also in the programme, Claudia meets the carers getting involved in mental health research...

A discussion about ADHD and medication was held today as a Private Members' Debate at Westminster. Set by Pat McFadden MP (pictured above), the debate includes response by the Minister of State, Department of Health. Available for streaming at Parliament TV Go to the 25th of October, Westminster Hall at advance to 1330 hrs. Background resource: The 2008 NICE guideline about ADHD .

The cortical neuroanatomy of neuropsychological deficits in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease: A surface-based morphometric analysis Neuropsychologia. 2011 Oct 15; Ahn HJ, Seo SW, Chin J, Suh MK, Lee BH, Kim ST, Im K, Lee JM, Lee JH, Heilman KM, Na DL Abstract Patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the amnesic form of mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) often demonstrate several types of neuropsychological deficits. These deficits are often related to cortical atrophy, induced by neuronal degradation. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether different anatomic patterns of cortical atrophy are associated with specific neuropsychological deficits. The participants were 170 patients with AD and 99 patients with aMCI. All participants underwent the Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery (SNSB), which includes tests that assess attention, language, visuospatial functions, verbal and visual memory, and frontal/executive functions. Cortical at...

This new video about Alzheimer's disease is getting some coverage in the media today: It comes from TheVisualMD.com View the video

The Alzheimer’s Association Annual Research Seminar Burke Rehabilitation Hospital White Plains, NY 04 November 2011 Read news article [snippet] "The annual seminar focuses on the latest research as well as treatment options for the disease. Barry Jordan, M.D., Director of the ADAC and Director of the Memory Evaluation and Treatment Service (METS) at Burke, will speak on “Differential Diagnosis of Dementia.” According to Dr. Jordan, “This type of program is an important forum for researchers, families and the public to share information about the latest in Alzheimer’s research,” he said. “Burke is proud to have hosted this event for the past several years,” he added." [snippet]

The current (October 2011) issue of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry has free-download access to two review articles dealing with Alzheimer's disease. One deals with drug treatment, whilst the other addresses non-pharmacolgic treatments. An editiorial by Serge Gauthier (also a free download) introduces the issue. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry

From the FDA: FDA NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release: Oct. 24, 2011 FDA approves Onfi to treat severe type of seizures On Oct. 21, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Onfi tablets (clobazam) for use as an adjunctive (add-on) treatment for seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome in adults and children 2 years of age and older. As Onfi is intended to treat a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 people in the United States, it was granted orphan drug designation by the FDA. “Lennox-Gastaut syndrome is a severe form of epilepsy that causes debilitating seizures,” said Russell Katz, M.D., director of the Division of Neurology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “This is a difficult condition to treat, and it will be helpful to have an additional treatment option.” Read the full release

Training-induced neural plasticity in golf novices Journal of Neuroscience. 2011 Aug 31; 31(35): 12444-8. Authors: Bezzola L, Mérillat S, Gaser C, Jäncke L Abstract Previous neuroimaging studies in the field of motor learning have shown that learning a new skill induces specific changes of neural gray and white matter in human brain areas necessary to control the practiced task. Former longitudinal studies investigating motor skill learning have used strict training protocols with little ecological validity rather than physical leisure activities, although there are several retrospective and cross-sectional studies suggesting neuroprotective effects of physical leisure activities. In the present longitudinal MRI study, we used voxel-based morphometry to investigate training-induced gray matter changes in golf novices between the age of 40 and 60 years, an age period when an active life style is assumed to counteract cognitive decline. As a main result, we demonstrate that 40 h of golf ...

Returning to a fav topic of mine, here is a new research study: The right hemisphere in esthetic perception Front Hum Neurosci. 2011;5:109 Bromberger B, Sternschein R, Widick P, Smith W, Chatterjee A Abstract Little about the neuropsychology of art perception and evaluation is known. Most neuropsychological approaches to art have focused on art production and have been anecdotal and qualitative. The field is in desperate need of quantitative methods if it is to advance. Here, we combine a quantitative approach to the assessment of art with modern voxel-lesion-symptom-mapping methods to determine brain-behavior relationships in art perception. We hypothesized that perception of different attributes of art are likely to be disrupted by damage to different regions of the brain. Twenty participants with right hemisphere damage were given the Assessment of Art Attributes, which is designed to quantify judgments of descriptive attributes of visual art. Each participant rated 24 paintings on...

American cowboy singer, Glen Campbell, is touring the UK in a farewell tour. He has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Here is a commentary from The Independent from the 21st of October: " Letter from Simon Kelner: A poignant farewell to the Wichita Lineman " UPDATE: A review of his performance, from The Telegraph : Read the article here .

The Cambridge Car Memory Test: A task matched in format to the Cambridge Face Memory Test, with norms, reliability, sex differences, dissociations from face memory, and expertise effects Behav Res Methods . 2011 Oct 20; Dennett HW, McKone E, Tavashmi R, Hall A, Pidcock M, Edwards M, Duchaine B Abstract Many research questions require a within-class object recognition task matched for general cognitive requirements with a face recognition task. If the object task also has high internal reliability, it can improve accuracy and power in group analyses (e.g., mean inversion effects for faces vs. objects), individual-difference studies (e.g., correlations between certain perceptual abilities and face/object recognition), and case studies in neuropsychology (e.g., whether a prosopagnosic shows a face-specific or object-general deficit). Here, we present such a task. Our Cambridge Car Memory Test (CCMT) was matched in format to the established Cambridge Face Memory Test, requiring recognition...

WBUR Boston has, this week, run a series of presentations about Alzheimer's disease. Here is the WBUR webpage that described their programming: WBUR Boston "Fade to Darkness" webpage

Estimating Decision-Relevant Comparative Effects Using Instrumental Variables Stat Biosci. 2011 Sep;3(1):6-27 Basu A Abstract Instrumental variables methods (IV) are widely used in the health economics literature to adjust for hidden selection biases in observational studies when estimating treatment effects. Less attention has been paid in the applied literature to the proper use of IVs if treatment effects are heterogeneous across subjects. Such a heterogeneity in effects becomes an issue for IV estimators when individuals' self-selected choices of treatments are correlated with expected idiosyncratic gains or losses from treatments. We present an overview of the challenges that arise with IV estimators in the presence of effect heterogeneity and self-selection and compare conventional IV analysis with alternative approaches that use IVs to directly address these challenges. Using a Medicare sample of clinically localized breast cancer patients, we study the impact of breast-con...

There is a growing research literature in neuropsychology examining the SenseCam, a relatively long-time Microsoft project. Microsoft's research project: SenseCam Here is another example: The neural correlates of everyday recognition memory Brain and Cognition. 2011 Aug;76(3):369-81 Milton F, Muhlert N, Butler CR, Benattayallah A, Zeman AZ Abstract We used a novel automatic camera, SenseCam, to create a recognition memory test for real-life events. Adapting a 'Remember/Know' paradigm, we asked healthy undergraduates, who wore SenseCam for 2 days, in their everyday environments, to classify images as strongly or weakly remembered, strongly or weakly familiar or novel, while brain activation was recorded with functional MRI. Overlapping, widely distributed sets of brain regions were activated by recollected and familiar stimuli. Within the medial temporal lobes, 'Remember' responses specifically elicited greater activity in the right anterior and posterior parahippoc...

This is an open-access, free-download article from the PLoS journal: Caselli L, Chelazzi L (2011) Does the Macaque Monkey Provide a Good Model for Studying Human Executive Control? A Comparative Behavioral Study of Task Switching. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21489. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021489 Article pdf

A report from Fierce BioTech : Third Rock Ventures Launches SAGE Therapeutics to Address CNS Disorders with Critical Unmet Needs Posted October 18, 2011 [snippet] "Third Rock Ventures, LLC today announced the formation of SAGE Therapeutics. The company was launched with a $35 million Series A financing. SAGE's efforts focus on advancing a broad pipeline of new, critically needed treatments for some of the most disabling central nervous system (CNS) disorders such as schizophrenia, depression, pain and traumatic brain injury (TBI). SAGE Therapeutics is founded on a proprietary Positive and Negative Allosteric Modulator (PANAM) chemistry platform that will enable the rapid development of a novel class of allosteric receptor modulators. Steven Paul, M.D., the former executive vice president for science and technology and president of Lilly Research Laboratories and a former scientific director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and Douglas Covey, Ph.D., professor o...