Gail Rosenbaum

Effects of a Significant-Other Observer on Neuropsychological Test Performance

The present study examined the effects of a third-party observer on neuropsychological test performance in a sample of 30 university students seeking evaluation for learning disability. A significant-other (defined as a parent, sibling, close friend, spouse, or partner) observed portions of a neuropsychological testing session. Subjects were administered a battery of tests, including seven repeatable measures, chosen to assess diverse neuropsychological functions. In the presence of an observer, performance deficits were found on tests of attention, speed of information processing, and verbal fluency. An observer had no effect on tests of cognitive flexibility or motor speed. Our results suggest that the validity of test results may be compromised by the presence of an observer.

A longitudinal study of neurological soft signs from late childhood into early adulthood.

Neurological examination of children includes the screening for soft neurological signs (NSS). There is little knowledge about their evolution during adolescence, except that their lasting presence has been associated with developmental, psychological, and cognitive disorders.

A comparison of methamphetamine-dependent inpatients with and without childhood attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptomatology

Abstract Methamphetamine-dependent inpatients (N = 51) were screened for childhood attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using the Wender Utah Rating Scale upon admission to 30-day inpatient treatment. Baseline assessments included neuropsychological tests of executive function, memory, information processing, verbal fluency, attention, motor skills, and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), a measure of psychiatric symptomatology. The thirty-six participants (70.6%) screening positive for ADHD reported significantly more frequent methamphetamine use prior to baseline. Baseline cognitive functioning was similar between groups, but the presumptive ADHD participants exhibited significantly worse psychiatric symptomatology. At three-week follow-up, 41 participants (80.4%) repeated the neuropsychological battery and BSI. All 10 non-completers screened positive for ADHD. The entire sample improved with abstinence in most neuropsychological domains except memory. The presumptive ADHD group failed to improve on tests of attention. All participants demonstrated significant reductions in psychiatric symptoms with abstinence. Methamphetamine-dependent individuals with ADHD symptoms are common and pose a significant treatment challenge.

REPEAT TEST SCORES ON NEUROBEHAVIORAL MEASURES OVER AN EIGHT-YEAR PERIOD IN A SAMPLE OF PORTUGUESE CHILDREN

Normative data were collected on a sample of 503 Portuguese children who were taking part in a dental study. At the outset, the children were aged 8–11.9 years, with an average of just over 10. A standard battery of neurobehavioral tests covering learning and memory, visual-motor function, and attention was administered at baseline and during seven subsequent years. Normative test data are presented separately by gender and by age at study inception (younger versus older). Results provide normative data for use in clinical settings, where dissociations in performance between cognitive domains need to be identified for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

The Serial Use of Child Neurocognitive Tests: Development Versus Practice Effects

When serial neurocognitive assessments are performed, 2 main factors are of importance: test-retest reliability and practice effects. With children, however, there is a third, developmental factor, which occurs as a result of maturation. Child tests recognize this factor through the provision of age-corrected scaled scores. Thus, a ready-made method for estimating the relative contribution of developmental versus practice effects is the comparison of raw (developmental and practice) and scaled (practice only) scores. Data from a pool of 507 Portuguese children enrolled in a study of dental amalgams (T. A. DeRouen, B. G. Leroux, et al., 2002; T. A. DeRouen, M. D. Martin, et al., 2006) showed that practice effects over a 5-year period varied on 8 neurocognitive tests. Simple regression equations are provided for calculating individual retest scores from initial test scores.

A LONGITUDINAL FACTOR ANALYTIC STUDY OF CHILDREN'S NEUROCOGNITIVE ABILITIES

The neurocognitive abilities of 503 Portuguese children aged 8–11.9 years at onset of the study were assessed annually for 8 years in 3 functional domains: memory, motor and visual motor functions, and attention. A series of exploratory principal axis factor analyses, with varimax rotation, revealed seven factors: Divided Attention, Selective Attention, Verbal Learning and Recall, Visual Learning and Recall, Motor Speed, Visual-Motor Speed, and Working Memory. The same factors emerged across the 8-year period, suggesting that childrens neurocognitive structures are articulated and stable throughout this period of development. From these exploratory analyses a small set of cost-effective neuropsychological tests were found to characterize childrens functioning consistently throughout the 8-year period.

Neurological subtle signs and cognitive development: A study in late childhood and adolescence

Introduction and Aim: Neurological subtle signs (NSS) are often observed during the neurological examination of children and tend to disappear with age. Their persistence into late adolescence or young adulthood has been related to psychiatric and neurocognitive disorders. To provide a better understanding of their functional basis, a longitudinal correlational study with neurocognitive measurements was performed. Method: We conducted multiple regression and correlation analyses of NSS with demographic and cognitive measures on a subset of 341 healthy children (56% males), taking part in a longitudinal dental study. Participants, whose ages ranged between 11–15 years, at first evaluation, undertook yearly, during 5 years, a 6-item NSS exam (producing a total score ranging between 0–18) and a comprehensive battery of neurocognitive tests. Effects of age, gender, IQ, and 7 neurocognitive factors on NSS were analyzed. Results: Over the years, NSS scores correlated consistently with selective attention (Stroop test), motor speed (finger tapping), and visuomotor speed (pegboard speed). Discussion: These results suggest that the disappearance of NSS in late childhood and adolescence occurs primarily in parallel with the development of motor and visuomotor functions and secondarily in relation to higher order functions such as selective attention (Stroop) and executive control (B-A Trails difference).