Twenty normal controls without previous knowledge of French were asked to learn 12 French words that could not be written by Italian correspondence rules. After acquisition of the phonological representations, participants were presented the pictures and asked to write the corresponding words (baseline). They were then presented 3 times with the pictures and the corresponding written words. After a filled delay of 10 min, they were re-presented the pictures and asked to write the corresponding words (testing). A week later, participants were again requested to write the words (follow-up). Number of words correctly written at testing and at follow-up significantly differs from baseline, as well as number of words correctly written at testing and at follow-up. These results are discussed and it is suggested that acquisition of irregular output orthographic representations can be supported by knowledge of orthographic representations for reading and that rehabilitation of patients with damage to output orthographic representations can utilize input orthographic representations. (JINS, 1999, 5, 405–412.)

The aim of this study was to investigate numerical difficulties in 50 patients with left hemispheric lesions. Aphasic patients were grouped according to their type of aphasia diagnosed by the Aachener Aphasia Test. The overall error rate in various transcoding and calculation tasks was clearly correlated with the severity of the language deficit, global aphasics being the most impaired patients. Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics scored similarly at the quantitative level, and amnesic aphasics were less impaired. Interestingly, qualitative analysis of the errors indicated that each group presented with specific difficulties, partially reflecting the nature of the language problems. In simple calculation, multiplication was found to be the most impaired operation, in particular in Broca's aphasics. This result supports the hypothesis that the retrieval of multiplication facts is preferentially mediated by verbal processing. Calculation procedures were mainly impaired in Wernicke's and global aphasics. (JINS, 1999, 5, 213–221.)

The purpose of this research was to develop, standardize, and test the reliability of a short neuropsychological test battery in the Spanish language. This neuropsychological battery was named “NEUROPSI,” and was developed to assess briefly a wide spectrum of cognitive functions, including orientation, attention, memory, language, visuoperceptual abilities, and executive functions. The NEUROPSI includes items that are relevant for Spanish-speaking communities. It can be applied to illiterates and low educational groups. Administration time is 25 to 30 min. Normative data were collected from 800 monolingual Spanish-speaking individuals, ages 16 to 85 years. Four age groups were used: (1) 16 to 30 years, (2) 31 to 50 years, (3) 51 to 65 years, and (4) 66 to 85 years. Data also are analyzed and presented within 4 different educational levels that were represented in this sample: (1) illiterates (zero years of school); (2) 1 to 4 years of school; (2) 5 to 9 years of school; and (3) 10 or more years of formal education. The effects of age and education, as well as the factor structure of the NEUROPSI are analyzed. The NEUROPSI may fulfill the need for brief, reliable, and objective evaluation of a broad range of cognitive functions in Spanish-speaking populations. (JINS, 1999, 5, 413–433.)

The standardization data for the California Verbal Learning Test–Children's Version (CVLT–C) were used to evaluate statistically significant discrepancies between key quantitative variables of this instrument, as well as the base rate of specific discrepancies. The results indicated that apparently large discrepancies between the respective standard scores were actually fairly common. However, for 3 of the 4 contrasts, discrepancies that equaled or exceeded 1.5 z-score points in the hypothesized direction were sufficiently unusual to be considered clinically significant. For a 4th contrast, discrepancies that equaled or exceeded 1 z-score point in the hypothesized direction appeared to meet this criterion. It is suggested that the interpretation of clinically obtained CVLT–C profiles should focus primarily on specific quantitative variables, with inclusion of consideration of the presented base rates of discrepancies between the respective z scores. (JINS, 1999, 5, 26–31.)

The Clock Drawing Test (CDT) is widely used in the assessment of dementia and is known to be sensitive to the detection of deficits in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). CDT performance is dependent not only on visuospatial and constructional abilities, but also on conceptual and executive functioning; therefore, it is likely to be mediated by multiple brain regions. The purpose of the present study was to identify component cognitive processes and regional cortical volumes that contribute to CDT performance in AD. In 29 patients with probable AD, CDT performance was significantly related to right-, but not left-hemisphere, regional gray matter volume. Specifically, CDT score correlated significantly with the right anterior and posterior superior temporal lobe volumes. CDT scores showed significant relationships with tests of semantic knowledge, executive function, and visuoconstruction, and receptive language. These results suggest that in AD patients, CDT performance is attributable to impairment in multiple cognitive domains but is related specifically to regional volume loss of right temporal cortex. (JINS, 1999, 5, 502–509.)

Patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) often present with an asymmetric left or right-sided anterior cerebral perfusion abnormality that is associated with differential behavioral symptoms. However, whether patients with primarily right versus left FTD also have unique neuropsychological characteristics has not been previously investigated. Comparisons of 11 patients with right-sided FTD and 11 with left FTD indicated that the 2 patient groups showed relatively distinct cognitive profiles. Patients with right FTD exhibited relatively worse performance on PIQ than VIQ, and on select nonverbal executive tasks relative to their verbal analogs (e.g., design fluency < word generation; Picture Arrangement < word sequencing). In contrast, patients with left FTD showed the opposite pattern. In addition, the 2 patient groups differed on several absolute test scores; patients with right FTD demonstrated more errors and perseverative responses, and worse percent conceptual level responses, on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, while the left FTD patients obtained significantly worse scores on the Boston Naming Test, and Stroop word reading and color naming. Verbal and nonverbal memory, mental speed, visual perceptual–constructional skill, and IQ subtest scaled scores did not significantly differ between groups. These data indicate that FTD should not be viewed as a unitary disorder, and that neuropsychological testing holds promise for the differential diagnosis of right versus left FTD. (JINS, 1999, 5, 616–622.)

The ability to process emotional information was assessed in 42 individuals: 23 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 19 healthy elderly controls. Four tasks assessed the ability to recognize emotion in audiotaped voices, in drawings of emotional situations, and in videotaped vignettes displaying emotions in facial expression, gestures, and body movements. Hemispheric dominance for processing facial expressions of emotions was also examined. There were no consistent group differences in the ability to process emotion presented via the auditory domain (i.e., nonverbal sounds, such as crying or shrieking, and speech prosody). Controls were, however, significantly better than the AD patients in identifying emotions depicted in drawings of emotional situations and in videotaped scenes displaying faces, gestures, and body movements. These differences were maintained after statistically adjusting for the visuospatial abilities of the participants. After a statistical adjustment for abstraction ability, some of the tasks continued to differentiate the groups (e.g., the emotional drawings task, the videotaped displays of faces), but others did not. These results confirm and extend previous results indicating that AD patients do not have a primary deficit in the processing of emotion. They suggest that the difficulties of the AD patients in perceiving emotion are secondary to the cognitive impairments associated with AD. (JINS, 1999, 5, 32–40.)

This is the fifth symposium to appear in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (JINS). This symposium was developed in tandem with a Memory Disorders Research Society conference symposium on semantic memory in probable Alzheimer's disease (AD); the conference was held in Boston in October, 1998. Three of the conference presenters agreed to submit papers based on their talks to this JINS symposium. A concerted effort was made to solicit additional papers from researchers who have consistently weighed in on either the storage-loss or retrieval-difficulty side of the debate regarding semantic memory in AD, and from researchers who have obtained some evidence consistent with one view as well as some evidence consistent with the other view. In the end, not only was the theoretical continuum fairly well represented, but the methodological continuum, with regard to the types of tasks used and the degree to which the tasks required implicit versus explicit utilization of semantic knowledge, was also well covered.

ADHD adults (N = 26) were compared to normal controls (N = 26) on 6 neuropsychological measures believed sensitive to frontal lobe–executive functioning. MANOVA analyses and subsequent univariate tests indicated that most of the neuropsychological measures discriminated between the two groups. To address clinical significance, diagnostic classification rates were also generated for each measure individually, and for the battery as a whole. Levels of positive predictive power (PPP) for each of the 6 measures (83–100%) indicated that abnormal scores on these tests were good predictors of ADHD. However, estimates of negative predictive power (NPP) suggested that normal scores poorly predicted the absence of ADHD. When classification rates were calculated for the overall battery classification accuracy improved substantially. Thus, neuropsychological tests can differentiate adults suffering from ADHD from adults without ADHD, while also providing good classification accuracy. Finally, the pattern of neurobehavioral impairments exemplified through the Summary Index scores was interpreted as consistent with conceptualizations of ADHD depicting mild neurologic dysfunction in networks associated with the frontal lobes. (JINS, 1999, 5, 222–233.)

In the problem of large-scale multiple testing the p-plot is a graphically based competitor to the notoriously weak Bonferroni method. The p-plot is less stringent and more revealing in that it gives a gauge of how many hypotheses are decidedly false. The method is elucidated and extended here: the bootstrap reveals bias and sampling error in the usual point estimates, a bootstrap-based confidence interval for the gauge is given, as well as two acceptably powerful blanket tests of significance. Guidelines for use are given, and interpretational pitfalls pointed out, in the discussion of a case study linking premortem neuropsychological and postmortem neuropathologic data in an HIV cohort study. (JINS, 1999, 5, 510–517)

There is evidence that the facilitating effects of stimulus repetition (repetition or identity priming) are mediated by visuoperceptual functions local to extrastriate cortex. Semantic or verbal–associative priming, on the other hand, is believed to be a function of more anterior brain systems. The present study finds evidence for disrupted semantic priming with intact repetition priming in a cognitively impaired HIV+ sample. These results are consistent with recent brain-imaging evidence for a subcortical and white-matter locus for HIV associated neuropathology resulting in effects on subcortical–frontal systems. (JINS, 1999, 5, 434–441.)

Little information exists regarding the performance of Spanish-speaking versus English-speaking patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) on the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale. In an attempt to identify culturally biased MMSE items or DRS subscales, we matched Spanish-speaking Hispanic and English-speaking non-Hispanic White community-dwelling AD patients by their MMSE scores and examined specific items within each scale. Our findings indicate that Hispanic AD patients perform significantly worse than non-Hispanics in terms of total DRS score, scores on the DRS subscales for Conceptualization and Memory, and on serial subtraction (or backward spelling item) of the MMSE. While mildly to moderately demented Hispanic and non-Hispanic patients obtained comparable scores on the DRS, severely impaired Spanish-speaking participants obtained considerably lower DRS scores than their English-speaking counterparts. The discrepancy in the DRS scores of the severely impaired Hispanic and non-Hispanic examinees might reflect a cultural bias in the test or educational differences between the groups. Alternatively, the DRS may be more sensitive than the MMSE for detecting severe cognitive impairment in Hispanic patients. (JINS, 1999, 5, 301–307.)

This study describes two experiments undertaken to explore the clinical significance and cognitive substrates of Block Design broken configurations in children. Broken configurations were defined as instances in which the child placed a block outside the 2 × 2 or 3 × 3 square matrix. In Experiment 1, 336 normal children between the ages of 6 and 14 were administered WISC–III Block Design. Broken configurations were fairly common, but almost always self-corrected. The tendency to break configurations was inversely related to overall Block Design performance and mother's level of education, and directly related to the perceptual cohesiveness of the design. In Experiment 2, children were administered WISC–III Block Design and a global–local similarity judgment task. The frequency of broken configurations was inversely related to global perceptual bias. Taken together, the results of these experiments indicate that while broken configurations are common, particularly on designs with high perceptual cohesiveness, a high number of broken configurations or final answers containing broken configuration are associated with weaker visuospatial skills. Broken configurations are also made more frequently by children whose perception is less influenced by the global properties of spatial stimuli. (JINS, 1999, 5, 518–524.)

To explore how age and length of abstinence affects neuropsychological (NP) recovery in chronic male alcoholics, we examined 97 recently detoxified alcoholics (RDA) who were abstinent a mean of 29.7 (SD = 9.4) days at their first evaluation, and again 2 years later, at which time 62 had resumed drinking (RES) and 35 had maintained interim abstinence (ITA). To separate practice effects from NP recovery, the NP performance of the RES and ITA groups were compared to age- and education-matched 29 long-term abstinent (LTA) alcoholics, abstinent a mean of 4.3 (SD = 3.5) years at initial testing, and 49 nonalcoholic controls (NAC). Sample mean age and education was 48.7 (SD = 8.8) and 13.9 (SD = 2.7) years, respectively. The RDA and LTA groups were also matched on years of alcoholic drinking [i.e., 17.2 (SD = 9.3) and 15.6 (SD = 8.7) years, respectively]. Results of 14 NP tests were reduced to 6 NP abilities (i.e., attention, learning, memory (recall), abstraction–cognitive flexibility, complex perceptual–motor integration and simple motor skills) that formed dependent variables in 4 groups × 2 ages (median split at 51.4 years classified participants as young and old) repeated measures MANOVA. Results: (1) the ITA group improved on abstracting ability more than other groups (p = .009); (2) the RES group deteriorated on motor tests (p = .03); (3) all younger alcoholics exceeded practice effects on abstracting ability, while older RES participants deteriorated relative to ITA group (3-way interaction, p = .03); and (4) the LTA group was comparable in NP performance to the NAC group. In conclusion, the extent and features of NP recovery among alcoholics are related to age, length of abstinence, and interim drinking. (JINS, 1999, 5, 234–246.)

The hypothesis of atypical functional hemispheric asymmetry in schizophrenia is tested using the directed global–local paradigm, a lateralizing measure of visual perception. Results indicate low error rates (< 2%) for schizophrenia and normal control groups, but longer response times for the schizophrenia group. In the normal group, detection speed of global and local forms did not differ. In contrast, the schizophrenia group responded significantly faster to local relative to global forms, which supports the asymmetry hypotheses of left hemisphere overactivity–right hemisphere underactivity in schizophrenia. The normal group exhibited a global interference effect (slowed response latency to the local target in the presence of a dissimilar global distractor). When the schizophrenia group was examined according to symptom type and severity, high positive symptom severity was associated with local interference (slowed response latency to the global target in the presence of dissimilar local distractors). Negative symptoms were not associated with interference from the competing local or global forms. Patients with a combination of high positive and low negative symptoms showed significantly greater local interference than patients with high negative and low positive symptoms. Interconnected temporal and frontal systems are postulated to contribute to this pattern of perceptual processing efficiency and distractibility in schizophrenia. (JINS, 1999, 5, 442–451.)

Two experiments are reported that explore the influence of strength of the prime–target relationship on the observed priming effects in young, healthy old, and individuals diagnosed with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT). In Experiment 1, participants were auditorily presented primes (FURNITURE) and after varying delays presented visual targets that were (1) high-strength related (e.g., SOFA), (2) low-strength related (e.g., RUG), or (3) unrelated control words (e.g., COW or DEER). The results indicated that the DAT individuals produced relatively larger priming effects than both the young and the healthy old, but these data could be accommodated by increases in effect size due to general slowing of response latencies. In Experiment 2, the same cross-modal priming paradigm was used with ambiguous words presented as primes (e.g., BANK) and either high-dominant (e.g., MONEY) or low-dominant (e.g., RIVER) words as targets. The results of Experiment 2 produced a qualitatively distinct pattern of priming that indicated DAT individuals only produced priming for high-dominant targets and not for low-dominant targets, whereas, the healthy control groups produced equivalent priming for both high- and low-dominant targets. The discussion focuses on the implication that these results have for the interpretation of semantic priming effects, in general, along with implications for the apparent semantic memory loss in DAT individuals. (JINS, 1999, 5, 626–640.)

Individuals infected with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) are at risk for developing cognitive impairment. The extent to which the impairment represents the results of a single factor accounting for a wide degree of cognitive dysfunction, or is the result of the combined effects of multiple factors, has not been determined. In the present study, we analyzed data from 134 patients with AIDS and 105 HIV− controls using a recently developed analytical procedure. The results revealed that, by and large, the test variables shared a significant amount of variance related to disease status. Hence the AIDS-related influences on cognition are shared and thus cannot be considered independent. Two tests, Digit Symbol Substitution, and the primacy measure of verbal free recall, had a direct relationship with the group variable (AIDS vs. controls). These results suggest that a single factor is sufficient to account for a large proportion of the AIDS-related variance on a wide variety of neuropsychological tests. (JINS, 1999, 5, 41–47.)

Patterns of brain activation associated with covert performance of the Stroop Color–Word task were studied in young, healthy, adult volunteers using blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Comparisons of the incongruous Stroop condition were made with both color naming and word reading baselines. Areas of the left and right anterior cingulate, the right precuneus, and the left pars opercularis displayed larger BOLD signal responses during the incongruous Stroop condition than during baseline conditions. Activation of BOLD signals in these areas was highly repeatable. In a second experiment, pupil diameter was used to assess cognitive load in 7 individuals studied during overt and covert performance of both Stroop and color naming conditions. Cognitive load was similar in overt and covert response conditions. Results from the BOLD study indicate that brain regions participating in selective visual attention and in the selection of motor programs involved in speech were activated more by the Stroop task than by the baseline tasks. The neural substrate involved in the resolution of the perceptual and motor conflicts elicited by the Stroop Color–Word task does not appear to be a single brain region. Rather, a network of brain regions is implicated, with separate regions within this system supporting distinct functions. (JINS, 1999, 5, 308–319.)