Introduction: Chronic pain is common in adolescence and is associated with both pain and prevalence of mental illness later in life. While previous functional neuroimaging work has informed knowledge of neural alterations associated with chronic pain, these findings have been primarily limited to adult samples, and it is unclear if similar patterns of altered brain activation are present in the developing adolescent brain. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to pilot a noxious pressure task during functional neuroimaging to assess brain response to pain in adolescents with and without chronic pain. Methods: Adolescents (ages 11-16) with (n = 9, 7 females) and without (n = 9, 7 females) chronic pain, matched on age, sex, IQ, and parental history of chronic pain, completed a noxious mechanical pressure task to assess subjective pain thresholds. This was followed by randomized presentation of subjective equivalent pressure applications (adolescents' pain 4/0-10), and two objectively equivalent pressures (0.25 and 1.5 kg/cm 2), during functional magnetic resonance imaging, using an event-related task design. Results: Findings revealed that adolescents with chronic pain demonstrated significantly greater activation in the posterior cingulate compared to controls. Further, all adolescents demonstrated significant pain-related brain response in brain regions implicated in pain neurocircuitry, as well as in several regions of the default mode network. Similar patterns of neural response were also noted during pain anticipation. Conclusion: These findings are important for not only understanding the neurocircuitry involved in adolescent chronic pain, but may prove beneficial to future pain treatment efforts that seek to alter pain neurocircuitry.
Objective Recent implementations of teleneuropsychological services allow cognitive assessment to take place within the individual’s home. Geographic location and financial resources may influence older adults’ decision to access these services. Additionally, the likelihood of older adults’ participation in home-based cognitive assessment (HBCA) is unknown. We aimed to examine the relationship between age, geographic location, income, and likelihood of participation in HBCA. Method A nation-wide sample of 483 adults ages 50–79 completed an online survey via the crowdsourcing website Amazon Mechanical Turk. Respondents were asked about age, income and geographic location (e.g. rural, urban, suburban). Income was categorically measured in $20,000 increments. Likelihood of participation in HBCA was measured using 4 likert-scale items. Total likelihood was calculated by summing items. Results Perceived likelihood of participating in HBCA increased with greater household income, B = .087, p = .001 (0-20 K: M = 13.08 ± 4.19; 20-40 K: M = 14.76 ± 3.39; 40-60 K: M = 14.55 ± 3.49; 60–80 K: M = 14.55 ± 3.38; 80-100 K: M = 15.11 ± 2.83 and > 100 K: M = 15.48 ± 2.55). Likelihood decreased with age, B = −.061 p = .025 (50–59: M = 15.03 ± 3.56; 60–69: M = 14.31 ± 3.52, 70–79 M = 14.29 ± 3.27). Likelihood was not related to geographic location B = −.005, p = .933 (rural: M = 14.52 ± 3.84; suburban: M = 14.48 ± 3.31; urban: M = 14.48 ± 3.56). Conclusion Adults aged 50–59 with high income were the group most likely to participate in HBCA. Geographic location does not appear to play a role in acceptance of HBCA. However, this survey was conducted with online respondents. Different results may be obtained with in-person samples.
Home-based cognitive assessment (HBCA) services are emerging as a convenient alternative to in-clinic cognitive assessment and may aid in mitigating barriers to detecting cognitive impairment (CI). It is unknown which older adults would be likely to participate in HBCA. Here we investigated the role of age and Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD). SCD has demonstrated an increased risk for progression to CI/dementia. A nation-wide community-dwelling sample of 494 adults age 50+ were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk to complete an online survey assessing perceptions around HBCA and SCD. Our sample was 91.9% White and 66.8% female. It consisted of 174 respondents aged 50-60, 265 aged 61- 70, and 55 aged 71-79. Age groups were comparable with respect to their acceptance of cognitive assessment (Range 4-20, higher score=higher acceptance, 7.9±3.3, 8.15±3.2, 8.05±3.43) and SCD-Q total (43.1±5.8, 43.2±5.7, 43.3±5.7). Correlation analysis revealed a relationship between SCD-QSCD total and perceived likelihood of participation in HBCA for those ages 61-70 (r(263) = .222 p = .000), but not for ages 50-60 or 71-79 (r(172) = .102 p = .152; r(53) = -.102 p = .458). Our findings suggest that SCD influences the likelihood of participation in HBCA for older adults’ transitioning to old age (61-70). Findings show that for adults transitioning into old age (61-70), perceived cognitive state influences their likelihood of participation in HBCA. Importantly, concerns about CI/dementia may generate more favorable perceptions of HBCA for this group.
Objective This study aimed to understand the implications that smartphones have for prospective memory (PM) performance. We examined normal adults’ performance on an event-based PM task embedded in an online survey, and its relationship with the PM strategies used prior to the PM cue. Method Participants included 349 individuals aged >18— (M = 38.31; SD = 11.15); 62% male; non-Hispanic (83.38%); with education = HS diploma or less (8.31%), some college (12.61%), and college degree (79.08%)—recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants completed the survey on their smartphones. The PM task required participants to respond “N/A” to a question presented later in the survey. Follow-up questions were asked about the use of external reminders, internal monitoring, recollections, and level of importance participants attributed to the PM task. Results One third of participants were successful on the PM task. Of those who had PM success, 11.50% used external reminders, 53.10% used internal monitoring strategies, 62.83% had recollections, and 95.56% considered the task at least somewhat important to remember. Logistic regression revealed that non-Hispanic ethnicity, ≤ high school education, and high perceived importance predicted PM success (Table 1). Interestingly, 40% of individuals with PM failure used external reminders, showing a significant negative relationship with PM success. Conclusions We found that external reminders, internal monitoring, and recollections may make PM success less likely during smartphone use—strategies which were associated with PM success in previous research. Only perceived importance predicted PM success, akin to previous findings. Implications reveal that smartphones may change the demands of PM tasks.
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