Kate Dupuis

Effects of hearing and vision impairments on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.

Many standardized measures of cognition include items that must be seen or heard. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon to overlook the possible effects of sensory impairment(s) on test scores. In the current study, we investigated whether sensory impairments could affect performance on a widely used screening tool, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Three hundred and one older adults (mean age = 71 years) completed the MoCA and also hearing and vision tests. Half of the participants had normal hearing and vision, 38% impaired hearing, 5% impaired vision, and 7% had dual-sensory impairment. More participants with normal sensory acuity passed the MoCA compared to those with sensory loss, even after modifying scores to adjust for sensory factors. The results suggest that cognitive abilities may be underestimated if sensory problems are not considered and that people with sensory loss are at greater risk of cognitive decline.

Noise Affects Performance on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment

L’objectif était d’investiguer l’impact de la présence d’un bruit de fond sur la performance au Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Deux versions du MoCA ont été administrées, utilisant écouteurs, avec des niveaux bas et élevés de bruit de fond à deux groupes de personnes âgées (un groupe présentant une audition cliniquement normale, le second présentant une perte d’audition) ainsi qu’à un groupe de jeunes adultes. Les niveaux d’intensité utilisés pour présenter la parole et le bruit étaient personnalisés en fonction des habiletés des participants présentant une perte de l’ouïe, et ce en vue de créer un niveau de difficulté uniforme à travers les participants dans la condition de bruit plus élevé. Les deux groupes de personnes âgées ont obtenu des scores plus faibles au MoCA en comparaison aux jeunes adultes. Il est également important de souligner que tous les participants ont obtenu des scores plus faibles au MoCA lorsque le test était administré dans un contexte de bruit élevé (M = 22,7/30), en comparaison à un contexte de bruit faible (M = 25,7/30, p < .001). Ces résultats suggèrent que le bruit de fond présent dans un contexte d’évaluation devrait être pris en considération au moment de l’administration de tests cognitifs ainsi que dans l’interprétation des résultats, en particulier lors de l’essai des adultes plus âgés. We investigated the effect of background noise on performance on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Two groups of older adults (one with clinically normal hearing, one with hearing loss) and a younger adult group with clinically normal hearing were administered two versions of the MoCA under headphones in low and high levels of background noise. Intensity levels used to present the test were customized based on the hearing abilities of participants with hearing loss to yield a uniform level of difficulty across listeners in the high-level noise condition. Both older groups had poorer MoCA scores in noise than the younger group. Importantly, all participants had poorer MoCA scores in the high-noise (M = 22.7/30) compared to the low-noise condition (M = 25.7/30, p <.001). Results suggest that background noise in the test environment should be considered when cognitive tests are conducted and results interpreted, especially when testing older adults.

Importance of F0 for predicting vocal emotion categorization

Affective prosody is used to produce and express specific emotions to conversation partners. While pitch has been identified as a crucial cue for differentiating between emotions, there has been significant variation in the stimuli used by different groups of researchers to examine the acoustic cues necessary for the perception of vocal emotions. The Toronto Emotional Speech Set consists of 2800 items: 200 sentences (carrier phrase “say the word” followed by a target word) spoken by two adult female actors (one younger and one older) to portray seven emotions (anger, disgust, fear, sadness, happiness, pleasant surprise, neutral). In the current study, these stimuli were analyzed to determine which acoustical cues accounted for the most variance in categorizing stimuli into one of the seven pre-determined emotional conditions. The acoustical characteristics of mean duration, mean intensity, mean F0, mean range of intensity, and mean range of F0 were analyzed using a customized Praat script for each of the ...

SENSORY SCREENING IN DEMENTIA AND ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: A SCOPING REVIEW

views. Per protocol, open-ended questions explored symptoms, medical and caregiving information, expectations and preferences for information sources. Interview notes were reviewed to detect common themes. Results: 27 CG (19F/8M; mean 59 years; 8 spouses, 17 adult children, 2 relatives, 2 friends) cared for 29 care-recipients. Emergent themes: 1)Behavioral symptoms often troubling but not recognized as CI symptoms , or CG lacked vocabulary to describe; 2)CG did not distinguish medical from caregiving information, though initially wanted medical information; 3)Symptoms accumulated gradually; rare that a threshold moment led to information-seeking; 4)The primary care provider (PCP) was the first information source; CG requested information rather than the PCP offering, and even when asked the PCP provided little; 5)Barriers: denial or stigma of dementia, unaware of available caregiving information, CG overwhelmed, PCP busy, Internet frustration; 6)CG trust and value the PCP, and expect PCP to provide information or recommend other sources; 7)CG are open to many sources, but desire PCP to specifically endorse. Conclusions:Public education could reduce stigma, and enable CG to recognize and describe early symptoms. Case-finding by screening for cognitive and behavioral symptoms could identify CI earlier, so information is received sooner. The PCP is the crucial port of entry to health information, providing it directly or guiding the CG to recommended sources; therefore, our aim is to develop mechanisms that facilitate busy PCP’s ability to address information needs.

Aging Research Across Disciplines: A Student-Mentor Partnership Using the United Nations Principles for Older Persons

A grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for training on communication and social interaction in healthy aging was used to support the collaboration of three students and one program mentor from various age-related backgrounds (e.g., vision, hearing, cognition, and social work) to develop a transdisciplinary and interinstitutional research program. The first project focused on integrating the United Nations Principles for Older Persons into a research agenda to gauge awareness of the principles in 100 seniors-related organizations in Ontario, Canada. The questionnaire elicited both quantitative and qualitative data related to the principles, and these data are discussed herein.