Dina Di Giacomo

Creativity and dementia: a review

In these last years, creativity was found to play an important role for dementia patients in terms of diagnosis and rehabilitation strategies. This led us to explore the relationships between dementia and creativity. At the aim, artistic creativity and divergent thinking are considered both in non-artists and artists affected by different types of dementia. In general, artistic creativity can be expressed in exceptional cases both in Alzheimer’s disease and Frontotemporal dementia, whereas divergent thinking decreases in dementia. The creation of paintings or music is anyway important for expressing emotions and well-being. Yet, creativity seems to emerge when the right prefrontal cortex, posterior temporal, and parietal areas are relatively intact, whereas it declines when these areas are damaged. However, enhanced creativity in dementia is not confirmed by controlled studies conducted in non-artists, and whether artists with dementia can show creativity has to be fully addressed. Future research directions are suggested.

Memory and anatomical change in severe non missile traumatic brain injury: ∼1 vs. ∼8 years follow-up

In previous studies, we investigated a group of subjects who had suffered from a severe non missile traumatic brain injury (nmTBI) without macroscopic focal lesions and we found brain atrophy involving the hippocampus, fornix, corpus callosum, optic chiasm, and optic radiations. Memory test scores correlated mainly with fornix volumes [37,38]. In the present study, we re-examined 11 of these nmTBI subjects approximately 8 yr later. High-spatial resolution T1 weighted magnetic resonance images of the brain (1mm(3)) and standardised memory tests were performed once more in order to compare brain morphology and memory performance originally assessed 3-13 months after head injury (first study) and after 8-10 yr (present study). An overall improvement of memory test performance was demonstrated in the latest assessment, indicating that cognitive recovery in severe nmTBI subjects had not been completed within 3-13 months post-injury. It is notable that the volumes of the fornix and the hippocampus were reduced significantly from normal controls, but these volumes do not differ appreciatively between nmTBI subjects at first (after ∼1 yr) and at second (after ∼8 yr) scans. On the contrary, a clear reduction in the volume of the corpus callosus can be observed after ∼1 yr and a further significant reduction is evident after ∼8 yr, indicating that the neural degeneration in severe nmTBI continues long after the head trauma and relates to specific structures and not to the overall brain.

Divergent Thinking and Age-Related Changes

Aging can affect cognition in different ways. The extent to which aging affects divergent thinking is unclear. In this study, younger and older adults were compared at the performance on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking in visual and verbal form. Results showed that older adults can think divergently as younger participants, although they produce fewer visual ideas. This finding involves implications for active aging, given that also older adults can be still capable to produce original ideas and improve living conditions surrounding them.

Evaluation Plan of TERENCE: When the User-Centred Design Meets the Evidence-Based Approach

TERENCE is an FP7 EU project that aims at developing an adaptive learning system with the twofold objective of helping children in improve deep text understanding, and supporting teachers in their daily work. The present paper focuses on the design of the evaluation of the pedagogical effectiveness and the usability of the TERENCE software. It starts from the user-centred design experience, evidence-based medicine, psychology, and from discussions about statistical methods and ethics considerations. The objective is to provide an innovative, evidence-based and efficient support, for children and teachers, that could be an efficient alternative to the traditional method of reading, so as to prevent and reduce problems of text comprehension that represent a public health and social problem. For this purpose, we developed an evaluation protocol within a reading laboratory in collaboration with teachers, to be hosted in the school structures that will join the project in Italy.

Reading Latency of Words and Nonwords in Alzheimer's Patients

Contrasting data on reading ability in Alzheimers disease patients have been reported in the literature. Recently Patterson, Graham and Hodges (1994) found that irregular words were misread by demented subjects, while regular words were read correctly. The present study hypothesizes that reading latency may be a sensitive measure of Alzheimers patients reading impairment. Fifteen Alzheimers patients were compared with 17 elderly normal subjects on three tasks that used the same set of concrete, regular words: a picture naming task, a word-picture matching task and a word-nonword reading task. The results of the study indicate that reading latency is longer in Alzheimers patients than in normal subjects, and that misnamed and mismatched words are read with the same mechanism as nonwords.

The loss of conceptual associations in mild Alzheimer's dementia

Changes in semantic memory are a controversial topic in research on cognitive decline in aging. In this study, we analyzed whether the semantic deficits in mild Alzheimers disease (AD) reflect the information acquisition process, and whether the deficits are related to when the information was initially stored. We hypothesized that in the earlier stages of dementia, the ability to access semantic associative relations reflects the use of these associations during different developmental stages. Specifically, we asserted that Alzheimers patients might be able to access the relations that are learned earlier in life for the longest amount of time compared to those that are learned later. In this study, 254 subjects were divided into four groups (child, adult, senior, and Alzheimers patients groups) and were evaluated with an experimental semantic association task that incorporated five semantic associative relations that were used to compare performance by age group. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) 4 × 5 test showed a significant main group effect, F(3, 250) = 97.1, p < .001, and an associative relations effect, F(4, 1000) = 23.1, p < .001, as well as an interaction of Group × Associative Relations, F(12, 1000) = 8.5, p < .001. The results demonstrated that the semantic associative relations that were acquired in later developmental stages were less preserved in persons with mild AD (i.e., superordinate relation, p < .0001). On the contrary, the semantic relations acquired earlier in childhood were better preserved in persons with mild AD. Our results suggest that semantic impairment begins with difficulties in using the associative relations that link concepts together in the semantic memory of patients with mild AD dementia (and possibly in individuals with mild cognitive impairment).

Loss of Semantic Associative Categories in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease

Deterioration of semantic memory is one of the primary neuropsychological deficits caused by Alzheimers disease (AD). In this study, we hypothesize that the breakdown of semantic memory in the mild-to-moderate stage of AD is due to the disruption of the semantic network that links the concepts. Furthermore, the loss of these links is not homogeneous through the semantic association categories (i.e., Superordinate, Contiguity, Part/Whole, Attribute, Function). Twenty-two subjects (11 patients with mild-to-moderate dementia and 11 control subjects matched on demographics) participated in the study. Both controls and patients with AD underwent extensive neuropsychological evaluation and three experimental tasks: (1) Naming Task, (2) Semantic Association Task, and (3) Semantic Knowledge Task. Results showed that: (1) The AD group was significantly different from the normal controls group in all the experimental tasks; (2) the Semantic Association Task was significantly worse than the other tasks; (3) for the AD group, the scores of the Function and Part/Whole association categories were higher than in the other categories; and (4) living stimuli were more impaired than nonliving. These data confirm prior research showing the semantic association is differently impaired in AD patients.

Technology and Elaboration of Information in Aging: Preliminary Data of Verbal vs. Visual Performance

Recently, the researchers’ interests were focused on the interaction between old age and e-learning, with the aim of investigating the critical factors that might determine the successful aging. In order to verify the modifications of information elaboration competence in aging though Information Technology. We submitted 125 subjects, divided in 5 groups on the basis of subjects’ age, to experimental verbal and visuoperceptual tests, both computerized. The results showed that on visuoperceptual test the Young group was faster than Junior group, whereas On verbal test the young group was slower than adult group. These results highlighted that the successful in the use of e-learning may be influenced by cognitive and emotional factors in aging.

Deterioration of semantic associative relationships in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer Disease

ABSTRACT The aim of this research was to study semantic abilities and their loss in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and in dementia, while analyzing efficiency in the use of associative relations, within verbal and visuoperceptual modalities. Participants were split into 4 groups: 19 participants with amnestic MCI, 16 patients with mild Alzheimer disease (AD), 20 patients with moderate AD, and 20 healthy controls (HCs). All participants performed standardized neuropsychological tests and experimental (naming and semantic associations) tasks to evaluate verbal and visuoperceptual semantic abilities. We analyzed 4 associative relations (part/whole, function, superordinate, and contiguity) in both verbal and visuoperceptual code. Our results suggest a progressive impairment in semantic categorization knowledge, with worse performance in the AD groups relative to the MCI and HC groups. Our data show a different pattern in the 4 associative relations and the involvement of associative semantic relations already in the early stage of disease, as well as a different pattern of deterioration between verbal and visuoperceptual modalities. Our data indicate that the visuoperceptual semantic network appears to be less deteriorated than the verbal network in AD. The verbal semantic network may be more sensitive in detecting patients at an early stage of the disease.

Influence of Gaming Activities on Cognitive Performances

Playing games is an important voluntary activity that promotes cognitive, social and emotional development. In addition to traditional games, the advent of new technologies has favored an explosion of computer games, very popular among children. Against this background, the authors report their investigation regarding the effect of gaming activities on the cognitive performances of 7-11 years old children. The aim of the research was to analyze if both computer and traditional games had a positive influence on cognitive performance in childhood. 67 students participated in the study. The BVN 5-11 neuro-psychological test battery and an experimental questionnaire to detect the using habits of boards and technological games were used. Our findings highlighted that both the traditional and technological stimulation resulted effective in improving the cognitive performances of children.