Administration and interpretation of the Trail Making Test

Bowie, Christopher R.; Harvey, Philip D.

doi:10.1038/nprot.2006.390

Cited by 1,032 publications

(855 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The neuropsychological battery included the Stroop task to assess cognitive control (Golden, 1978), the LNS task to measure working memory (WAIS-III; Wechsler, 1997), and the Trail-Making Test (TMT) to assess processing speed and visual attention (Bowie and Harvey, 2006). The administration and scoring of these tasks are included in Supplementary Methods.…”

Section: Cognitive Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for Thalamocortical Circuit Abnormalities and Associated Cognitive Dysfunctions in Underweight Individuals with Anorexia Nervosa

Biezonski

Cha

Steinglass

et al. 2015

Neuropsychopharmacol

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Anorexia nervosa (AN) is characterized by extremely low body weight resulting from pathological food restriction, and carries a mortality rate among the highest of any psychiatric illness. AN, particularly during the acute, underweight state of the illness, has been associated with abnormalities across a range of brain regions, including the frontal cortex and basal ganglia. Few studies of AN have investigated the thalamus, a key mediator of information flow through frontal-basal ganglia circuit loops. We examined both thalamic surface morphology using anatomical MRI and thalamo-frontal functional connectivity using resting-state functional MRI. Individuals with AN (n = 28) showed localized inward deformations of the thalamus relative to healthy controls (HC, n = 22), and abnormal functional connectivity between the thalamus and the dorsolateral and anterior prefrontal cortices. Alterations in thalamo-frontal connectivity were associated with deficits in performance on tasks probing cognitive control (Stroop task) and working memory (Letter-Number Sequencing (LNS) task). Our findings suggest that abnormalities in thalamo-frontal circuits may have a role in mediating aspects of cognitive dysfunction in underweight individuals with AN.

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Section: Cognitive Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for Thalamocortical Circuit Abnormalities and Associated Cognitive Dysfunctions in Underweight Individuals with Anorexia Nervosa

Biezonski

Cha

Steinglass

et al. 2015

Neuropsychopharmacol

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“…Cognitive flexibility was measured using the trail making test (TMT), a two-part measure, frequently used with and acceptable to people with dementia, with excellent inter-rater reliability (Bowie and Harvey 2006). Participants are asked to 'join the dots' on a series of targets.…”

Section: Trail Making Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Dementia on Mindful Attention: a Cross-Sectional Comparison of People with Dementia and Those Without

Bousfield

Stott

2018

Mindfulness

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Mindfulness-based interventions have been suggested as ways of improving mood and cognition in people with dementia. Existing findings suggest possible benefit from a mindfulness-based group intervention. However, it is unclear whether any structured group activity (rather than mindfulness practice per se) would produce the same benefits, particularly since dementia may impact mindful attention ability. Consequently, we investigated the potential impact of having dementia on mindful attention. We compared the performance of 34 people with dementia recruited from memory services with 55 communityrecruited older people on measures of mindful attention, cognitive flexibility, and cognition, as well as putative nuisance variates of depression, anxiety and premorbid intellectual ability. The groups differed significantly on a range of demographic characteristics and some neuropsychological and mood measures. However, neither the primary prediction (that there would be a large effect size difference between groups, with people with dementia performing significantly more poorly on a measure of mindful attention to the breath), nor the secondary prediction (that performance on this measure would positively correlate with measures of executive function and overall cognition) was supported. We concluded that a diagnosis of dementia may not have a large effect on mindful attention, with consequent implications for future research.

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“…An estimate of pre-morbid optimal level of functioning was obtained using the National Adult Reading Test (NART) and the Incomplete Letters of the Visual Object and Space Perception (VOSP) test was used to assess visual-perceptual functioning. TMT-B was administered as a part of the assessment, following the standard protocol (Bowie & Harvey, 2006). Part A of the TMT was not administered.…”

Section: Neuropsychological Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, assessing the number of errors made has also been suggested to be a useful measure (Mahurin et al, 2006;Stuss et al, 2001). Since its original conception, many different versions of the task have been developed to accommodate and account for verbal/visual difficulties, physical limitations, and/or age differences (see Bowie &Harvey, 2006 andSpreen &Strauss, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limitations of the Trail Making Test Part-B in Assessing Frontal Executive Dysfunction

Chan

MacPherson

Robinson

et al. 2015

J Int Neuropsychol Soc

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Part B of the Trail Making Test (TMT-B) is one of the most widely used neuropsychological tests of "executive" function. A commonly held assumption is that the TMT-B can be used to detect frontal executive dysfunction. However, so far, research evidence has been limited and somewhat inconclusive. In this retrospective study, performance on the TMT-B of 55 patients with known focal frontal lesions, 27 patients with focal non-frontal lesions and 70 healthy controls was compared. Completion time and the number of errors made were examined. Patients with frontal and non-frontal lesions performed significantly worse than healthy controls for both completion time and the number of errors. However, there was no significant difference for both completion time and the number of errors when patients with frontal and non-frontal lesions were compared. Performance was also not significantly different between patients with focal lesions within different regions of the frontal lobe (orbital, left lateral, right lateral, medial). Our findings suggest that the TMT-B is a robust test for detection of brain dysfunction. However, its capacity for detecting frontal executive dysfunction appears rather limited. Clinicians should be cautious when drawing conclusions from performance on the TMT-B alone. (JINS, 2015, 21, 169-174)

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Administration and interpretation of the Trail Making Test

Cited by 1,032 publications

References 55 publications

Evidence for Thalamocortical Circuit Abnormalities and Associated Cognitive Dysfunctions in Underweight Individuals with Anorexia Nervosa

Evidence for Thalamocortical Circuit Abnormalities and Associated Cognitive Dysfunctions in Underweight Individuals with Anorexia Nervosa

Impact of Dementia on Mindful Attention: a Cross-Sectional Comparison of People with Dementia and Those Without

Limitations of the Trail Making Test Part-B in Assessing Frontal Executive Dysfunction

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