Abstract:Executive dysfunction may result from prefrontal circuitry involvement occurring
in both neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders. Moreover, multiple
neuropsychiatric conditions, may present with overlapping behavioral and
cognitive symptoms, making differential diagnosis challenging, especially during
earlier stages. In this sense, cognitive assessment may contribute to the
differential diagnosis by providing an objective and quantifiable set of
measures that has the potential to distinguish clini… Show more
“…We used the Institute of Cognitive Neurology (INECO) Frontal Screening test (IFS; Torralva et al, 2009b ), which assesses frontal lobe function as indexed by the following subtasks: motor programming, conflicting instructions, Verbal Inhibitory Control, Abstraction Ability (proverbs interpretation), Backward Digit Span, Spatial Working Memory, and Go/NoGo. This task has been used with different neuropsychiatric populations ( Torralva et al, 2009b , 2012 ; Fiorentino et al, 2013 ; Baez et al, 2014b ) A mean total score is calculated from the sum of the subtask scores (30 points). A 25-point cutoff score has shown a sensitivity of 96.2% and a specificity of 91.5% in detecting patients with dysexecutive syndrome ( Torralva et al, 2009b ).…”
Emotion recognition and empathy abilities require the integration of contextual information in real-life scenarios. Previous reports have explored these domains in adolescent offenders (AOs) but have not used tasks that replicate everyday situations. In this study we included ecological measures with different levels of contextual dependence to evaluate emotion recognition and empathy in AOs relative to non-offenders, controlling for the effect of demographic variables. We also explored the influence of fluid intelligence (FI) and executive functions (EFs) in the prediction of relevant deficits in these domains. Our results showed that AOs exhibit deficits in context-sensitive measures of emotion recognition and cognitive empathy. Difficulties in these tasks were neither explained by demographic variables nor predicted by FI or EFs. However, performance on measures that included simpler stimuli or could be solved by explicit knowledge was either only partially affected by demographic variables or preserved in AOs. These findings indicate that AOs show contextual social-cognition impairments which are relatively independent of basic cognitive functioning and demographic variables.
“…We used the Institute of Cognitive Neurology (INECO) Frontal Screening test (IFS; Torralva et al, 2009b ), which assesses frontal lobe function as indexed by the following subtasks: motor programming, conflicting instructions, Verbal Inhibitory Control, Abstraction Ability (proverbs interpretation), Backward Digit Span, Spatial Working Memory, and Go/NoGo. This task has been used with different neuropsychiatric populations ( Torralva et al, 2009b , 2012 ; Fiorentino et al, 2013 ; Baez et al, 2014b ) A mean total score is calculated from the sum of the subtask scores (30 points). A 25-point cutoff score has shown a sensitivity of 96.2% and a specificity of 91.5% in detecting patients with dysexecutive syndrome ( Torralva et al, 2009b ).…”
Emotion recognition and empathy abilities require the integration of contextual information in real-life scenarios. Previous reports have explored these domains in adolescent offenders (AOs) but have not used tasks that replicate everyday situations. In this study we included ecological measures with different levels of contextual dependence to evaluate emotion recognition and empathy in AOs relative to non-offenders, controlling for the effect of demographic variables. We also explored the influence of fluid intelligence (FI) and executive functions (EFs) in the prediction of relevant deficits in these domains. Our results showed that AOs exhibit deficits in context-sensitive measures of emotion recognition and cognitive empathy. Difficulties in these tasks were neither explained by demographic variables nor predicted by FI or EFs. However, performance on measures that included simpler stimuli or could be solved by explicit knowledge was either only partially affected by demographic variables or preserved in AOs. These findings indicate that AOs show contextual social-cognition impairments which are relatively independent of basic cognitive functioning and demographic variables.
“…Several studies have demonstrated the usefulness of one screening tool specifically designed to probe executive functions: the IFS [22,26,27,29]. Here, we examine the properties of the IFS as an executive screening test for patients with RRMS.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Importantly, this brief screening test probes executive functions in particular, and it provides useful information about frontal functioning by tapping different executive processes, such as verbal and motor inhibitory control, verbal and visual working memory, and abstraction ability, among others. It has also been shown useful in the detection of executive dysfunction in other neurological and psychiatric conditions such as unipolar depression [26], bipolar disorder, and attentional and hyperactivity disorder [27]. Several studies have already reported on the usefulness of this instrument in different populations, reporting relatively high levels of specificity and sensitivity for a screening tool [22], along with a higher ability than other executive screening tools to discriminate between different types of dementia [28], between dementia and depression [26], and to detect executive dysfunction in patients with attention deficit disorder [21,29].…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…It has also been shown useful in the detection of executive dysfunction in other neurological and psychiatric conditions such as unipolar depression [26], bipolar disorder, and attentional and hyperactivity disorder [27]. Several studies have already reported on the usefulness of this instrument in different populations, reporting relatively high levels of specificity and sensitivity for a screening tool [22], along with a higher ability than other executive screening tools to discriminate between different types of dementia [28], between dementia and depression [26], and to detect executive dysfunction in patients with attention deficit disorder [21,29]. However, no previous study has investigated its utility in detecting executive dysfunction in patients with MS, who as stated above, tend to primarily and very frequently show this form of cognitive impairment.…”
Several studies have reported that about 65 % of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) suffer from cognitive impairment, with executive dysfunction being the most frequently described. Even if several executive screening tests have been designed to specifically detect executive deficits, few studies have investigated their ability to tackle such dysfunction particularly in multiple sclerosis (MS). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the INECO frontal screening (IFS) in the detection of executive dysfunction in patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS). 54 patients with RRMS were included in the study. 34 presented executive dysfunction while 20 did not. 32 control subjects matched for age, sex, and educational level were also included. All were evaluated with the IFS and with a battery of classical executive tests. A patient was considered to have executive dysfunction if he/she scored a one and a half standard deviation below the control mean in at least one of the classical executive tests. Sensitivity and specificity of the IFS in its ability to detect executive dysfunction in MS was analyzed. Using a cut-off of 25.5 points, sensitivity of the IFS was 73.53 %, and specificity 78.13 % in differentiating controls from MS patients with executive dysfunction. The IFS showed excellent concurrent validity with executive tasks. The IFS can be considered a brief, easy-to-administer, cost-less tool for the detection of executive dysfunction in patients with RRMS.
“…W zamyśle autorów testu IFS jest narzędziem oceny funkcji wykonawczych w chorobach neurodegeneracyjnych [24]. Znajduje ponadto zastosowanie w diagnostyce dysfunkcji wykonawczych w psychiatrycznych jednostkach chorobowych -schizofrenii, depresji, chorobie afektywnej dwubiegunowej, ADHD [25][26][27].…”
Specyfika diagnozy neuropsychologicznejLiczba pacjentów z chorobami neurologicznymi -pourazowymi, ogniskowymi, rozlanymi i rozsianymi, o etiologii naczyniowej, nowotworowej, zanikowej czy zakaźnej -stale rośnie (obserwacja z praktyki klinicznej autora). W związku z tym wzrasta zapotrzebowanie na dokładną ocenę zaburzeń kognitywnych, behawioralnych i emocjonalnych jako następstw procesu chorobowego. Co istotne, ocena ta znajduje zastosowanie nie tylko w chorobach neurologicznych, ale też somatycznych, psychicznych czy po zabiegach operacyjnych [1, 2]. p o s t Ę p y p s y c h i a t r i i i n e u r o l o g i i 2 4 ( 2 0 1 5 ) 9 9 -1 0 5 i n f o r m a c j e o a r t y k u l e Historia artykułu: Otrzymano: 05.03.2015 Zaakceptowano: 11.06.2015 Dostępne online: 16.06.2015 Słowa kluczowe: diagnoza neuropsychologiczna dysfunkcje wykonawcze połączenia czołowo-podkorowe Keywords: Neuropsychological diagnosis Executive dysfunctions Frontal-subcortical circuits a b s t r a c t Objectives: The purpose of this article is to review executive dysfunctions and their characteristics, the role of executive functioning in human behavior control process and briefly of executive functions' diagnostic methods. Overview: Knowledge in the field of executive functions is constantly growing. New theoretical models appear and emphasize executive functions importance in cognitive, behavioral and emotional processes regulation. There are attempts to determine which neuronal structures are crucial for executive functions. Clinical practice gives us a lot of diagnostic methods, both psychometric and experimental, that may be useful in executive dysfunction assessment. Conclusions: Executive functions are responsible for intention, initiation and monitoring of cognitive activity -it coordinates the course of intentional behavior. Efficiency of executive functioning depends to a large extent on prefrontal cortex activity and prefrontalsubcortical connections. There are a number of neuropsychological tests allowing to assess certain components of executive functions. The clinicians have an important task to increase the accuracy of those tools.
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