Clock Test Deficits Related to the Global Cognitive State in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Background/Aims: Clock drawing (CD) seems to be impaired quite early in the process of cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Methods: We assessed performance on the CD test (CDT), clock setting test (CST) and clock reading test (CRT) in 32 elderly healthy controls, 41 patients with PD, 23 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and 40 patients with Alzheimer’s dementia (AD). Our focus was on comparing the performance of PD and aMCI/AD patients in relation to their global cognitive states (operationalized by the Mini Mental Status Examination). We also analyzed qualitative differences in errors of drawing, setting and reading clocks. Results: We found that performance in CDT, but not in the CST or CRT, was impaired earlier in PD than in aMCI/AD. Incorrect placement of the minute hand was the most prominent error in both patient groups. We found no specific influence of visuospatial dysfunction in PD on clock drawing. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that executive function related to retrieval of semantic memory about the minute hand is compromised early in PD.

Network and Pathway-Based Analyses of Genes Associated with Parkinson’s Disease

“…For instance, terms such as response to ethanol, positive regulation of interleukin-6 production, xenobiotic metabolic process, and neurotransmitter biosynthetic process were significantly enriched in PD-related genes, indicating the importance of these activities in the pathologic processes of PD. Of significance, we found that the GO biological process terms of visual learning, sleep, and memory were also in the enriched list, in line with previous findings of various [59][60][61], involved in PD. Pathway analysis revealed that immunologic systemrelated pathways were enriched in PDgset, which further consolidates ties between the pathology of PD and immune-specific activities.…”

Screening for Executive Dysfunction with the Frontal Assessment Battery: Psychometric Properties Analysis and Representative Normative Data for Brazilian Older Adults

“…The executive functions impairment in AD patients is usually less intense than the one found in patients with more pronounced frontal lobe damage, such as frontotemporal dementia, focal brain lesions and subcortical dementias (Liscic, Storandt, Cairns & Morris, 2007;Boban, Malojcic, Mimica, Vukovic & Zrilic, 2012;Yoon et al, 2013;Saur et al, 2012). Since the FAB is a screening test, its accuracy for detecting executive impairment in AD patients may be limited, and that evaluation should be complemented with neuropsychological tests designed for the assessment of more specific components of executive functioning, such as inhibitory control (Balota et al, 2010;de Paula et al, 2012b), planning (de Paula et al, 2012a, cognitive shifting (Hamdan, & Hamdan, 2009), decision making (Malloy-Diniz et al, 2008), working memory (Wood, Carvalho, Neves & Haase, 2001) and ecological executive performance (Pereira, Oliveira, Diniz, Forlenza & Yassuda, 2012).…”

Visual dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease

“…This highlights the relatively low sensitivity of this test in assessing visuospatial performance. In clock drawing tests, patients with Parkinson’s disease (and no dementia) make more errors than healthy controls (Dal et al , 1989; Stella et al , 2007; Saur et al , 2012) and errors in drawing houses are also reported in Parkinson’s disease (Kulkarni et al , 2013). However, all these tests lack specificity for visuospatial function as they involve several cognitive domains in addition to visuospatial processing, including praxis, memory and executive function.…”