Posterior Cortical Atrophy is a group of neurodegenerative disorders characterized by early, prominent and progressive impairment of visuospatial and visuoperceptual functions in the context of relatively preserved memory and insight in the early phases. Initial visual symptoms are vague, compelling patients to seek ophthalmologic consult. They present with simultagnosia and spatial disorientation, which are often missed by routine ophthalmologic and neurologic exams, causing delay in diagnosis. As the disease progresses, Posterior Cortical Atrophy ultimately leads to a more diffuse pattern of cognitive dysfunction. The underlying pathology is believed to be Alzheimer’s Disease and a greater level of amyloid plaques is correlated with earlier clinical symptoms of Posterior Cortical Atrophy. The clinical features of reported cases are heterogenous, leading to a classification of different variants and underlying pathologies. We report the serial clinical, cognitive and imaging data of a variant of Posterior Cortical Atrophy primarily affecting the dorsal stream.
Neuropsychological Tests

No abstract available.
Frontal Lobe* ; Neuropsychological Tests*

The purpose of this paper is to present a form of aphasia test, Modified Western Aphasia Battery (MWAB), which can be a practical method of examing and classifying Korean aphasic patients. This scorable test has five subtests: information, fluency, comprehension, repetition and naming. The authors have examined 11 aphasics and 34 normal control with this test, and report its methods and results.
Aphasia* ; Comprehension ; Humans ; Neuropsychological Tests

OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to evaluate the cognitive function in schizophrenic pathents. We also examined the correlation of cognitive imparirment with other clinical variables. METHODS: A total of 25 partients and 19 normal controls completed Vienna Test System, a computerized neuropsychological test. These included Cognitrons test, continuous attention test, standard progressive matrices. We separately assessed the patient group on the positive and Negative Syndrome Scale(PANSS) and Extrapyramidal Symptom Rating Scale(EPS scale). The other clinical variables included in this study were age, sex, education level, disease duration, clinical subtype, medication state and genetic factor. RESULTS: Schizophrenic patients had poorer performance than normal controls on the tests of cognitrone, continous attention, and stand progressive matirces, independent of sex, genetic factors, EPS scale scores, PANSS scores, disease duration. The cognitive impairment in schizophrenics was mainly associated with their education levels and clinical subtypes. CONCLUSION: Inlight of our results, it seemd that some schizophrenics perform poorly on cognitive tsasks, and this poor performance may be associated with education levels and clinical subtypes. The more careful evaluation of cognitive function in schizophrenic patients would be needed for their proper management.
Education ; Humans ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Schizophrenia

Although numerous studies have shown that each neuropsychological test is effective for diagnosing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer’s disease (AD), studies comparing diagnostic accuracies of various neuropsychological tests are relatively rare and practical cutoff values are not available. The present study aimed to investigate the validity of neuropsychological tests and develop cutoff values for each in differentiating healthy control (HC), MCI and AD groups. A total of 84 HC, 187 with MCI and 195 with AD were evaluated by the selected seven neuropsychological tests using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Logical Memory (LM) delayed recall (cutoff, 7) and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) delayed recall (cutoff, 6) were effective for differentiating HC from MCI. To distinguish MCI and AD, Rey Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCFT) 3 mindelayed recall (cutoff, 6) and LM immediate recall (cutoff, 4) were excellent. Delayed recall of verbal materials, as indexed by LM and RAVLT was sensitive for discriminating MCI from HC. Handling visual memory traces, as indexed by ROCFT and immediate verbal information by LM were sensitive for differentiating MCI and AD.
Alzheimer Disease ; Dementia ; Neuropsychological Tests

To evaluate P300 cognitive evoked-potential, the pattern of learning impairment and their possible relationship in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease, we performed P300 cognitive potential test and neuropsychologic tests evaluating learning ability-Gollin's incomplete drawing test (GIDT) , the tower of Hanoi Puzzle (TOHP), and recall the name of pictures in Gollin's incomplete drawing test (GIDT recall), on 37 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (19 never-medicated and 18 with levodopa therapy for more than 6 months) and age- and sex-matched normal healthy controls. Compared with controls, patients showed significant delay in P300 latency and significant impairment in TOHP and GIDT recall, but not in GIDT. The revodopa-treated patients showed significantly shorter P300 latency and better performance in TOHP than never-medicated patients, although they still showed impairments in both tests compared with controls. Although all neuropsychologic tests used in present study significantly correlated to the P300 latency in patients, the most significant correlation was found in TOHP. These results suggest, first, the P300 latency significantly delayed in parkinsonian patients which is partially improved by levodopa therapy ; second, visuomotor procedural learning but not visuoperceptual procedural learning is impaired in parkinsonian patients which is also partially responsive to levodopa therapy third, although visuoperceptual procedural learning is not impaired, the transformation process of procedural learning into declarative learning is probably impaired in Parkinson's disease ; fourth, the dopaminergic lesion in Parkinson's desease may have a role in producing both P300 abnormality and impairments in visuomotor procedural learning.
Humans ; Learning* ; Levodopa ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Parkinson Disease*

Visual perception is a complex process engaging many different aspects of brain functioning. Like other cognitive functions, the extensive cortical distribution and complexity of visual perceptional activities make them highly vulnerable to brain injury. Dectection and characterization of perceptual require careful assessment as well as the application of selected neuropsychological tests. In the article we reviewed neuropsychological assessment of visual perception and constructional abilities. And the principal visuospatial disorders are discussed, the associated neuropsychiatric disorders are presented.
Brain ; Brain Injuries ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Visual Perception*

Disturbances in memory are the most common problem in patients with an organic mental syndrome. Other patients with significant psychiatric disorder also often have memory. So it is very important in the clinical practice of psychiatry to understand the biological and neurocognitive mechanisms of memory proessing, and to develop the assessment tools with which memory function can be evaluated reliably and validly. Moreover, memory researches provide an important viewpoint from which we can understand the pathophysiological mechanisms of major neuropsychiatric illnesses. This article focuses on our understanding of memory function in clinical and neurobiological aspects. The relevant material will be presented in four pats : 1) terminologies needed in defining major stages of various types of memory processing : 2) neurochemical and neuroanatomical basis of memory processing : 3) brief bedside screening and more comprehensive neuropsychological tests for the evaluation of memory function : 4) the characteristics of memory dysfunction in several major psychiatric illnesses.
Humans ; Mass Screening ; Memory* ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Neuropsychology

OBJECTIVE: Virtual reality (VR) has been thought to have great usability to enhance cognitive functions. This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of a VR program which was developed to improve cognition of the elderly. METHOD: After developing a VR program, we set special input units and a large projection type monitor for the elderly. The VR program simulated 17 different house-hold tasks. Thirty elderly persons including 9 mild-dementia and 21 none-dementia were involved and were randomly divided into two groups. Fifteen were belonged to the training group and the other 15 belonged to the control group. The training group subjects underwent this VR program for 4 weeks by 3 times a week. Cognitive function change was assess by neuropsychological test scores before and after training period. RESULTS: In the training group, scores in attention and immediate and delayed auditory memory tests were improved after training. However the control group didn't show any changes. And most subjects of the training group enjoyed this program. CONCLUSION: VR based cognitive training is a useful method to enhance cognitive functions for the elderly.
Aged* ; Cognition ; Dementia ; Humans ; Memory ; Neuropsychological Tests

No abstract available.
Encephalitis, Japanese* ; Neuroimaging* ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Thalamus