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- Classon, Elisabet, et al.
(författare)
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A quick test of cognitive speed (AQT) : regression-based norms for cognitively healthy 80 to 94-year olds
- 2022
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Ingår i: Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition. - : ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD. - 1382-5585 .- 1744-4128. ; 29:5, s. 820-839
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Slowed processing speed is part of normal aging but also a symptom of many diseases, including dementia. A Quick Test of Cognitive Speed (AQT) consists of three conditions: color naming (AQT1), form naming (AQT2) and dual color-form naming (AQT3) and offers a user-friendly assessment of processing speed that is used internationally to identify cognitive impairment in elderly patients. Appropriate age-norms have however been lacking. This study provides regression-based norms derived from a Swedish sample of 158 cognitively healthy 80 to 94-year olds. The results show age effects in all three conditions, a non-linear education effect in AQT1, and age by gender interactions in AQT2 and AQT3: men performed worse with increasing age, but women remained on a par. However, irrespective of age and gender, AQT2 and AQT3 mean raw and predicted scores were slower than the hitherto recommended cutoff criteria for suspected cognitive impairment.
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| 3. |
- Classon, Elisabet, et al.
(författare)
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Early ERP signature of hearing impairment in visual rhyme judgment
- 2013
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychology. - Switzerland : Frontiers Research Foundation. - 1664-1078. ; 4:241
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Postlingually acquired hearing impairment (HI) is associated with changes in the representation of sound in semantic long-term memory. An indication of this is the lower performance on visual rhyme judgment tasks in conditions where phonological and orthographic cues mismatch, requiring high reliance on phonological representations. In this study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used for the first time to investigate the neural correlates of phonological processing in visual rhyme judgments in participants with acquired HI and normal hearing (NH). Rhyme task word pairs rhymed or not and had matching or mismatching orthography. In addition, the inter-stimulus interval (ISI) was manipulated to be either long (800 ms) or short (50 ms). Long ISIs allow for engagement of explicit, top-down processes, while short ISIs limit the involvement of such mechanisms. We hypothesized lower behavioral performance and N400 and N2 deviations in HI in the mismatching rhyme judgment conditions, particularly in short ISI. However, the results showed a different pattern. As expected, behavioral performance in the mismatch conditions was lower in HI than in NH in short ISI, but ERPs did not differ across groups. In contrast, HI performed on a par with NH in long ISI. Further, HI, but not NH, showed an amplified N2-like response in the non-rhyming, orthographically mismatching condition in long ISI. This was also the rhyme condition in which participants in both groups benefited the most from the possibility to engage top-down processes afforded with the longer ISI. Taken together, these results indicate an early ERP signature of HI in this challenging phonological task, likely reflecting use of a compensatory strategy. This strategy is suggested to involve increased reliance on explicit mechanisms such as articulatory recoding and grapheme-to-phoneme conversion.
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| 8. |
- Classon, Elisabet, et al.
(författare)
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Montreal Cognitive Assessment: Normative Data for Cognitively Healthy Swedish 80-to 94-Year-Olds
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. - : IOS PRESS. - 1387-2877 .- 1875-8908. ; 87:3, s. 1335-1344
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is sensitive to cognitive impairment; however, it is also sensitive to demographic and socio-cultural factors. This necessitates reliable sub-population norms, but these are often lacking for older adults. Objective: To present demographically adjusted regression-based MoCA norms for cognitively healthy Swedish older adults. Methods: A pseudo-random sample of community-dwelling 80- to 94-year-olds, stratified by age and gender, was invited to the study. Initial telephone interviews and medical records searches (n = 218) were conducted to screen for cognitive impairment. N= 181 eligible participants were administered a protocol including the Swedish version of the MoCA and assessments of global cognition (Mini-Mental State Examination, MMSE) and depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9, PHQ-9). Individuals scoring in the range of possible cognitive impairment on the MMSE or more than mild depression on the PHQ-9 were excluded (n = 23); three discontinued the test-session. Results: Norms were derived from the remaining n = 158. They were evenly distributed by gender, on average 85 years old, and with a mean education of 11 years. MoCA scores were independently influenced by age and education, together explaining 17.2% of the total variance. Higher age and lower education were associated with lower performance and 46% performed below the original cut-off (< 26/30). Conclusion: The negative impact of increasing age on MoCA performance continues linearly into the nineties in normal aging. Demographic factors should be considered when interpreting MoCA performance and a tool for computing demographically corrected standard scores is provided.
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| 10. |
- Classon, Elisabet, et al.
(författare)
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Reading span performance in 339 Swedish 50-89 year old individuals with hearing impairment : Effects of test version and age, and relation to speech recognition in noise
- 2013
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Swedish reading span test (Rönnberg, Lyxell, Arlinger, & Kinnefors, 1989) is often used to assess working memory capacity (WMC) in the field of cognitive hearing science. The test has proven useful as a predictor of speech recognition in noise in adverse conditions. It has been used in a wide range of experimental studies and has been translated to several languages. The purpose of this paper was to provide reference data for the Swedish reading span test (Rönnberg et al., 1989) in a large sample of adults with hearing impairment aged 50-89 years that are representative of patients seeking rehabilitation at audiological clinics. Data from finished and ongoing projects were collated and reanalyzed for this purpose. The original full version and a shortened version of the test were compared, in terms of percentage correct. In addition, performance on the full version was compared across two different age-cohorts, 50-69 year olds and 70-89 year olds. Frequency distributions and percentile scores are reported, as well as relations with demographic variables, and speech recognition in noise. Results showed that reading span performance was related to age, but not sex, with lower scores in older participants. Pure tone hearing thresholds accounted for a small but significant amount of the variance such that higher reading span scores were related to better hearing. The frequency distributions of scores did not differ across the two versions of the test, but the long version seemed to be more sensitive to age. Performance in both versions was significantly correlated with speech recognition in noise. Regression analyses however showed that reading span explained additional variance in speech in noise recognition, after the effects of age and pure tone hearing thresholds were accounted for, only in the 50-69 year olds. These findings are discussed in relation to age-related differences in the ability to recruit cognitive resources in the service of speech communication.
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