Audette Rackley

Gist reasoning training in cognitively normal seniors

Cognitive impairment is a key factor that threatens functionality and quality of life in seniors. Given the projection that the population of individuals 65 years of age and older will double within the next 25 years, a critical need exists to identify and test effectiveness of protocols that target higher‐order cognitive skills such as gist reasoning to maximize cognitive capacity in later life.

When nouns and verbs degrade: Facilitating communication in semantic dementia

Background: Little is known about how to maintain communicative effectiveness in semantic dementia as the disease progresses from impairment in word retrieval to a loss of conceptual knowledge. Aim: The purpose of this study is twofold. The first objective is to characterise communicative effectiveness using a modified framework derived from Chapman and Ulatowska (1997) that integrates two components: codification of ideas (falling on a continuum from verbal to nonverbal and generative to automatic forms) and functions of communication (imaginative, heuristic, informative, personal, interactional, regulatory, and instrumental). The second objective is to outline principles of a discourse intervention that focuses on communicative effectiveness. Method & Procedures: The participant was Mr Bobby V, a man with semantic dementia. His communication abilities were characterised at diagnosis and 24 months later using the framework of communicative effectiveness, based on discourse samples, clinical observation, and caregiver report. From the time of diagnosis, Bobby V received discourse intervention, which focused on maintaining his communication abilities using all available communication resources. We outline principles of discourse intervention in semantic dementia based on our experience of delivering individual and group intervention to Bobby V. Outcomes and Results: The communicative effectiveness framework described here could be used to characterise communication skills, set therapy goals, and monitor progress in semantic dementia. Discourse intervention likely facilitated Bobby Vs continued success in maintaining communication despite progressive loss of nouns and verbs. Conclusions: Targeting conversational effectiveness in terms of communicative functions offers a promising and ecologically valuable intervention for people with semantic dementia, as it allows individuals with this form of dementia to connect meaningfully with people in their immediate surroundings well into the later stages of the disease. We deeply appreciate support from the Frank Garrott Fund, Temple Stark Fund, and other private donors to the Center for BrainHealth, as well as professional support from Anne M. Lipton, Katy Milton, and Garen Sparks. We are profoundly grateful for Bobby V and his wife, who have taught us much about optimism and adaptation in the face of difficulty.

Brain Health Fitness: Beyond Retirement.

The greatest accomplishment of the 20th century—the doubling of the human lifespan—has brought issues related to brain health to the forefront of public health policy. Given that our bodies are outlasting our minds, maximizing brain health is the scientific cause of this millennium. In this paper, we address three major issues related to maintaining and, perhaps, enhancing brain health in seniors. First, we define the construct of brain health fitness. Second, we discuss gist reasoning as a metric of brain health fitness and as a construct of brain health training. Lastly, we propose that healthy brain habits can be practiced by incorporating gist reasoning during complex everyday life and leisure activities to elevate chances for maintaining brain health fitness beyond retirement for a sustainable future.

Enhancing latent cognitive capacity in mild cognitive impairment with gist reasoning training: a pilot study

Cognitive training offers a promising way to mitigate cognitive deterioration in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This randomized control pilot trial examined the effects of Gist Reasoning Training on cognition as compared with a training involving New Learning in a well‐characterized MCI group.

An early fMRI marker of semantic memory deficits in people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment

P3-081 AN EARLY fMRI MARKER OF SEMANTIC MEMORYDEFICITS INPEOPLEWITHAMNESTIC MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT Hsueh-Sheng Chiang, Raksha Mudar, Audette Rackley, Erin Venza, Athula Pudhiyidath, Julie J. Van, Kristin Martin-Cook, Kyle Womack, Michael Kraut, John Hart, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, Texas, United States; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, United States; Center for BrainHealth, Dallas, Texas, United States; Alzheimer’s Disease Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Contact e-mail: hxc099020@utdallas. edu

THE INFLUENCE OF SEMANTIC CATEGORIZATION ON RESPONSE INHIBITION IN MCI

Figure 1. Proposed functional-anatomical division of the limbic system into three distinct but partially overlapping networks and corresponding clinical syndromes. The main connections of the hippocampal-diencephalic network are the ventral cingulum, the fornix and the mammillo-thalamic tract (the endstations of this network are indicated in yellow). The main nodes of the temporo-amydgala-orbitofrontal network (indicated in green) are connected by the uncinate fasciculus. The dorsal cingulum is the main connection of the medial default network, whose cortical projections are shown in blue (see Catani and Thiebaut de Schotten, 2012).