Unilateral spatial neglect entails a failure to detect or respond to stimuli in the space opposite to a brain lesion. However, the contralesional hemispace can be determined by different frames of spatial coordinates, such as eyes-, head-, body-, or environment-centered coordinates. We observed 2 patients with a right hemisphere stroke whose left spatial neglect was modulated by distinct coordinates systems depending on the task. Four tasks were given in different conditions of central gaze and either the eyes or the head rotated 30° to the right or 30° to the left. While the 2 patients had a retinotopic defect in 1 visual field quadrant that remained the same irrespective of gaze direction (upper or lower quadrant in 1 case each), the other quadranopic field defect improved with eyes rotation to the right but not with head rotation, suggesting a head-centered spatiotopic deficit. Performance on line bisection was influenced both by eyes and head rotation, as well as by the position of the lines with respect to the trunk midline, suggesting the involvement of both head-centered and body-centered coordinates. Visual imagery and auditory extinction were not modified by changing the eyes or head position. These findings suggest that distinct spatial coordinates are brought into play depending on the tasks demands. (JINS, 1999, 5, 75–82.)

A major use of neuropsychological assessment is to measure changes in functioning over time; that is, to determine whether a difference in test performance indicates a real change in the individual or just chance variation. Using 7 illustrative test measures and retest data from 384 neurologically stable adults, this paper compares different methods of predicting retest scores, and of determining whether observed changes in performance are unusual. The methods include the Reliable Change Index, with and without correction for practice effect, and models based upon simple and multiple regression. For all test variables, the most powerful predictor of follow-up performance was initial performance. Adding demographic variables and overall neuropsychological competence at baseline significantly but slightly improved prediction of all follow-up scores. The simple Reliable Change Index without correction for practice performed least well, with high error rates and large prediction intervals (confidence intervals). Overall prediction accuracy was similar for the other three methods; however, different models produce large differences in predicted scores for some individuals, especially those with extremes of initial test performance, overall competency, or demographics. All 5 measures from the Halstead–Reitan Battery had residual (observed − predicted score) variability that increased with poorer initial performance. Two variables showed significant nonnormality in the distribution of residuals. For accurate prediction with smallest prediction–confidence intervals, we recommend multiple regression models with attention to differential variability and nonnormality of residuals. (JINS, 1999, 5, 357–369.)

On the surface, reviewing a dictionary seems like a relatively straightforward task. The book is an extensive compilation of terms used in psychology and psychiatry. The dictionary provides a comprehensive listing of the English–Spanish translation equivalents that can be useful to psychologists and psychiatrists working in increasingly bilingual environments. This book could facilitate professional communications across the English–Spanish divide.

We used a novel apparatus called the flags board to elicit similarity judgments from 32 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and 32 elderly normal (EN) controls for two 12-member conceptual domains, ANIMALS and (musical) INSTRUMENTS. Based on Pathfinder and multidimensional scaling (MDS) analyses, performance by AD patients was nearly identical to that of EN controls for ANIMALS. Performance differed for INSTRUMENTS, but the AD group's Pathfinder network was found to agree with the intuitions of a panel of 18 raters as well as the EN group's. MDS analysis showed no deficit on abstract dimensions for the AD group, for either domain. The results are discussed in the context of degradation versus preservation of semantic memory in AD. (JINS, 1999, 5, 676–684.)

Of the many factors affecting test validity, ethnicity has received comparatively little attention. This has changed recently with a call for alternative norms or assessment measures that are appropriate for different cultural contexts and for examination of the impact of the variables of culture, ecological demands, primary language, and educational background (Ardila, 1995; Robinson, 1988; Sachdev, 1989; Segall, 1986).

“The asymmetry of the mammalian brain,” goes the first sentence in this book, “took hundreds of years to discover.” This is not a promising beginning. Hundreds of years from when? And do the authors really mean the mammalian brain? We are indeed beginning to discover all kinds of asymmetries in the brains of mammals, from mice to chimpanzees, but the only mammal that features in the book is Homo sapiens. Cerebral asymmetry in humans is scarcely news, having been discovered by Dax as early as 1836, and a great many volumes have been produced on the subject.

Within the first pages, the authors focus their scholarly energies on verbal, spatial, and mathematical abilities because, we are told, researchers typically have searched for individual differences within such test domains. All four authors provide highly readable 30-page chapters, each taking a variation on the same perspective, i.e., that whatever cognitive differences you thought had been demonstrated between males and females should not be considered biological because (1) cognitive abilities cannot be defined; (2) narrative and meta-analytical reviews have serious limitations as did the research designs of the original studies, and (3) experience, training, expectations, attitudes, preferences, power, status, and domination can influence scores on tests. Knowing the premise in advance sets the reader looking for tight logic and empirical support in favor of the sociopolitical model. Over the past 20 years we all have been subjected to media hype surrounding any claim of biological explanations for sex differences in cognition.

This study examined whether Alzheimer patients can make elaborative inferences based on the semantic context provided by a sentence. More specifically, if presented with the name of a category in a sentence do they, like normals, infer (instantiate) the particular member of that category most appropriate to the meaning of the sentence (e.g., if a sentence mentions a container of juice, do they infer it is a bottle). Patients were presented with a sentence containing the name of a concrete category. The sense of the sentence was consistent with a low-dominant member of that category. Patients were then shown drawings of four members of that category and asked to select the one appropriate to the sentence. They were later asked to name the drawings. If semantic information is degraded in Alzheimer patients for those objects Alzheimer patients cannot name (as has been claimed), then AD patients should be unable to carry out the type of elaborative semantic inference required to instantiate. Results showed that Alzheimer patients were highly accurate at instantiating even objects they could not name. This is consistent with a relative preservation of semantic knowledge about concrete objects in Alzheimer patients. (JINS, 1999, 5, 685–691.)

There are few handbooks devoted to clinical neuropsychology or behavioral neurology written in French. Most recently, there have been two: one by Habib and the other edited by Seron and Jeannerod. This revised and improved edition of the book edited by M.I. Botez completes this short list. The Botez book is impressive in terms of both its form and its content. The first edition, published in 1987, had 413 pages, 36 collaborators, and 37 chapters. The new edition has 682 pages, 55 collaborators, and 37 chapters. Fourteen of the chapters are quasi-exact reproductions of those in the first edition, while the others have been modified or added.

Structural and physiological frontal brain system deficits in patients with schizophrenia are reviewed quantitatively. We report effect sizes from studies since 1980 that used structural (CT, MRI), and functional (PET) neuroimaging methods. We found both literatures to be distinguished by heterogeneity whereby most patients show normative frontal function and structure, a minority shows diminished values and some patients demonstrate augmented function and structure rather than deficit. The average magnitude of difference between patients and controls is generally too modest to support the idea that frontal brain dysfunction is a necessary component of schizophrenia. This modesty is most apparent in average effects obtained for frontal brain volume (M = −.36), left frontal brain volume (M = −.16), frontal resting metabolism, and blood flow (M = −.64). Effect sizes of this magnitude imply that schizophrenia and control distributions overlap by as much as 88% and no less than about 60% on frontal brain measures. It is only when behavioral measures are employed as activation tasks during frontal blood flow and metabolism studies, that average effect sizes rise in magnitude to indicate patient–control distribution overlaps that are less than 50%. Overall, the findings are hard to incorporate within single disease models that propose major involvement of the frontal system, at least at the degree of resolution obtained with current imaging technology. (JINS, 1999, 5, 556–566.)

The editors of this book state in the Preface that “this volume is not a ‘how to guidebook.’ ” While this is certainly true, the chapters explaining legal issues (e.g., rules of evidence) offer what is essentially an advanced primer on evidentiary law as it relates to psychological testimony in civil and criminal trials. It is in this regard that the work has its greatest value.

Severely impaired memory deprives amnesics of a sense of personal continuity in their daily lives, yet there are no tests that accurately measure this impairment (see Lezak, 1995). Several neuropsychological tasks have been developed to document the severity of memory loss in terms of memory span, such as the Brown–Peterson Technique (Peterson & Peterson, 1959), but the ecological validity of such tasks as measures of personal or temporal continuity is not obvious (see Heinrichs, 1990). Instead they measure memory in terms of how much information could be held in working or short-term memory, not memory span in the sense of continuity. To develop a new measure of amnesia with greater relation to everyday function, we had to examine the integrity of memory function in terms of temporal continuity in a way that would engage the patient in everyday behavior, such as informal conversation, and still allow memory function to be quantifiable. Thus, we set out to create a bedside task that could measure the span in which the patient with amnesia experiences temporal continuity. We call this measure the “span of temporal continuity,” or “personal and present span of existence.”

The ability to generate words from phonemic (i.e., words beginning with ‘F,’ ‘A,’ and ‘S’) and semantic (i.e., animals, fruits, and vegetables) categories was assessed longitudinally in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD; N = 59) and normal controls (NC; N = 59). Patients with AD performed worse than NC participants on both tasks at each of 4 annual evaluations and exhibited greater impairment relative to controls on the semantic-category task than on the phonemic-category task. In addition, the performance of the patients with AD declined over time on both tasks, but the rate of decline was faster on the semantic-category than on the phonemic-category task. Examination of individual responses across the annual evaluations revealed that patients with AD were more consistent than NC participants in failing to generate previously produced semantic-category, but not phonemic-category, items in all years following the 1st year in which the item was not produced. These results are consistent with the notion that patients with AD suffer a gradual deterioration of the organization and content of semantic memory as the disease progresses. (JINS, 1999, 5, 692–703.)

Neglect in the horizontal and vertical axes of space has been observed after acute right anterior choroidal artery (AChA) lesions. How spatial processing is affected in the radial axis during the acute period following infarction in this region is unknown. We report the case of a 69-year-old man with acute left hemineglect and deficits in 3-dimensional spatial processing following right AChA infarction. His line bisections in 4 spatial conditions, oriented in the 3 primary axes of space, were compared with 6 control participants. The patient's bisections were different from true center and from control performance in all axes. His bisections were to the right, below, and distal to the arithmetic midpoint. This patient's bisection errors show a 3-dimensional neglect pattern following right AChA infarction, supporting the view that processing of all 3 spatial dimensions may be simultaneously disturbed following unilateral right hemisphere lesions. (JINS, 1999, 5, 567–571.)

The following is a correction for a printing error that occurred in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, Vol. 5, No. 2. The error occurred at Poster Session 1, in the section titled “Subcortical Pathologies.” The abstract in question, by E.H.F. De Haan et al., appeared on page 95 at the top of the right column.

The psychological and neuropsychological changes of aging and dementia have been a topic of study for decades, if not centuries. It is only more recently, however, that technological changes have allowed the biological processes triggering the changes of aging to be uncovered. The overlap between these two sciences, the relationship between cognitive aging and the study of biological aging, is an emerging area of research. The study of aging, however, is confounded by the close association between aging and the development of particular diseases. Older people are far more likely than young people to suffer from multiple illnesses. Furthermore, older people are far more vulnerable to specific types of diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and dementia. The relationship between the onset of the aging process and the development of dementing disorders such as Alzheimer's disease is of particular interest.

In P.S. This Accident Has Changed Everyone and Everything, Kathleen Griffiths has provided a useful reference book for family members of head-injured persons. The title comes from a letter from one such family member; short segments from the experiences of relatives and friends dot the text, fleshing out the personal side in an otherwise “meat-and-potatoes” text. Dr. Griffiths is commended for her translation of the basics of brain injury (from neuropathology to medical assessment and rehabilitation) into plain English, so that fairly technical information is accessible to the layperson. This is perhaps the greatest strength of the book. Clinicians will find the book particularly helpful for family members of severely injured persons with a lengthy period of coma and/or posttraumatic amnesia, and for whom some degree of significant residual impairment is highly likely.

Coping With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury evoked mixed reactions, once my initial excitement to see such a book passed. Written by a psychologist who has survived a combined acquired and traumatic brain injury (cerebral bleed and associated car accident), and coauthored by a writer, the book does an admirable job of describing possible problems that occur following brain injury, along with numerous practical suggestions for coping with these. Excerpts from interviews with other BI survivors are included throughout the book to illustrate problems and solutions. Other strengths include the glossary and resource appendices at the end of the book.

Neuropsychological Assessment of Neuropsychiatric Disorders was originally published in 1986, and in 1996 was selected one of the “essential books and journals in North American Clinical Neuropsychology” in a survey of ABPP Diplomats. The Second Edition promises to maintain this position. As was the case in the original, the editors aimed to (1) present leading approaches to neuropsychological assessment in neuropsychiatric populations; and (2) evaluate current understanding of the neuropsychology of more important or problematic disorders. Organization of this edition follows that of the First Edition. The first section covers methods of neuropsychological assessment and the second section covers targeted neuropsychiatric disorders. This edition also adds a third section on psychosocial consequences and moderating factors in neuropsychological impairment, particularly as illustrated in people with head injury and chronic pulmonary disease. Two-thirds of the original authors, as well as 25 new authors, contributed. More often than not these contributors are leading authorities in their respective topic.

Aaron Smith died on June 13, 1998. He was a past president and founding member of the International Neuropsychological Society, Charter Member and Diplomate of the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology, Editor of the International Journal of Neuroscience and Professor Emeritus of the University of Michigan. He also developed the Symbol Digit Modalities Test and the Michigan Neuropsychological Battery. In both cases he employed a rationale which permitted differentiation of impairments in higher cognitive functions that the tests were designed to measure from deficits in lower sensory input and motor output modalities which were required to carry out the tests.

This is an encyclopedic report on the state of neuropsychology at the end of the 20th Century. Some individual chapters will have enduring pertinence; some are destined to become historical mileposts as new developments succeed one another in this rapidly evolving discipline. For now and well into the next century, much of what is contained in these volumes will remain pertinent for practitioners, researchers, and theoreticians alike.