BrainBlog

Validation of the language component of the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination - Revised (ACE-R) as a screening tool for aphasia in stroke patients. Australas J Ageing . 2011 Sep;30(3):156-8 Authors: Gaber TA, Parsons F, Gautam V Abstract Aim:  Several tests are available for aphasia screening following stroke. However, some of them have shortcomings such as need of specialist knowledge, low sensitivity and/or specificity and lengthy administration time. Our study aims to evaluate the language component of the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination - Revised (ACE-R) as a screening tool for aphasia in stroke patients. Methods:  The language component of ACE-R was administered to consecutive patients admitted to a post-acute stroke unit. Patients who were medically unstable or had a significant history of sensory impairment or mental health issues were excluded. The test was administered by two junior doctors with basic training in ACE-R administration. Patients recruited were also...

Summer School in Applied Psychometrics From the website: Date: Monday, 12 September to Friday, 16 September Location: Peterhouse College, Cambridge Time: All Day Event "Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a popular and rapidly evolving area of psychometric research that builds on a long-standing methodology of self-report questionnaires. Today the assessment, analysis and interpretation of these questionnaires and of Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs) rely upon a variety of modern psychometric methods that might be beyond the typical methodological/statistical training that researcher of related disciplines receive. This Summer School will cover the fundamentals of psychometric test theory as applied to HRQoL and PROs, with particular emphasis on latent trait/ Item Response Theory (IRT) models and methods, and will include practical sessions and data from real-world applications trials and cohort studies. The Summer School is supported by the ESRC RDI (Researcher D...

A United BioSource Corporation press release from 10th September, 2009: United BioSource Corporation (UBC) today announced the acquisition of Cognitive Drug Research, Ltd. (CDR) , the leader in computerized cognitive testing for clinical trials. The CDR System is the most widely used computerized cognitive testing system in the world: it is used in more than 1000 trials encompassing approximately 50 different disease areas, validated in over 60 languages, and cited in more than 700 publications and abstracts. Additionally, CDR maintains the industry’s largest healthy subject, patient, and drug databases of cognitive effects, providing the standard for establishing the clinical relevance of compounds. Read the full press release

Settling in in my coffeehouse for a reading of an interesting new publication by Dr. Brian Brooks and his colleagues on the topic of "Minimizing Misdiagnosis: Psychometric Criteria for Possible or Probable Memory Impairment." The authors seek to develop new psychometric criteria for identification of memory problems in older individuals. This has both clinical and research implications; my primary interest at this time is the accuracy of such identification for including or excluding individuals in clinical trials that test potential drug treatments for Alzheimer's and related dementias.

Bits: If You’re Happy and You Know It, Tell Your Phone By Jenna Wortham Published: July 29, 2009 A Harvard graduate student is surveying iPhone users to help answer an age-old question: What makes people happy? click here to read

Usui N, Haji T, Maruyama M, Katsuyama N, Uchida S, Hozawa A, Omori K, Tsuji I, Kawashima R, & Taira M. (2009). Cortical areas related to performance of WAIS Digit Symbol Test: a functional imaging study. Neurosci Lett. Jul 21. Many neuropsychological studies have shown that the Digit Symbol Test (DST) of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is useful for screening for dysfunctions of the brain. However, it remains unclear which brain areas are actually involved in the performance of DST and what brain functions are used for executing this test. In this study, we examined the cortical areas related to cognitive aspects of DST using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and determined executive brain functions involved in this test on the basis of fMRI results. Eleven healthy young adults (mean=21.6 years) performed a modified DST (mDST) task and its control task, which required a simple graphomotor response during fMRI data acquisition. The direct comparison of bra...

Jensen MP, Mardekian J, Lakshminarayanan M, & Boye ME. Validity of 24-h recall ratings of pain severity: Biasing effects of "Peak" and "End" pain. Pain. 2008 Jul 15; 137(2): 422-427. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Box 356490, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98195-6490, USA. Despite the frequent use of pain recall ratings in clinical research, there remains doubt about the ability of individuals to accurately recall their pain. In particular, previous research indicates the possibility that the most pain experienced during a recall period and the most recent pain experienced (known as peak and end effects, respectively) might bias recall ratings. The current study used data from a published clinical trial to determine the relative validity of a 24-h recall rating of average post-operative pain and the nature and extent of any biasing influence of peak and end effects on nine separate 24-h recall ratings. The results supported a...

Okay, sitting in a coffeehouse right now, how could I not choose this abstract! West O, & Roderique-Davies G. Development and initial validation of a caffeine craving questionnaire. Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2008 Jan; 22(1):80-91. Department of Psychology, HaSS, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, CF37 1DL, UK. Craving for caffeine has received little empirical attention, despite considerable research into the potential for caffeine dependence. The main aim of this study was to develop, and initially validate, a multi-item, multidimensional instrument to measure cravings for caffeine. Participants were 189 caffeine consumers who completed the Questionnaire of Caffeine Cravings, which was based on the Questionnaire of Smoking Urges (QSU), in one of five naturally occurring periods of abstinence; 1-15 min; 16-120 mins; 3-7 h; 12-48 h and +48 h. Exploratory factor analysis suggested a three-factor solution best described the data; Factor 1 reflected strong desires, intention...