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Background: The analysis of the procedural memory is particularly relevant in neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s disease, due to the central role of the basal ganglia in procedural memory. It has been shown that anterograde procedural memory, the ability to learn a new skill, is impaired in Parkinson’s disease. However, retrograde procedural memory, the long-term retention and execution of skills learned in earlier life stages, has not yet been systematically investigated in Parkinson’s disease. Objective: This study aims to investigate retrograde procedural memory in people with Parkinson’s disease.We hypothesized that retrograde procedural memory is impaired in people with Parkinson’s disease compared to an age- and gender-matched control group. Methods: First, we developed the CUPRO evaluation system, an extended evaluation system based on the Cube Copying Test, to distinguish the cube copying procedure, representing functioning of retrograde procedural memory, and the final result, representing the visuo-constructive abilities. Development of the evaluation system included tests of discriminant validity. Results: Comparing people with typical Parkinson’s disease (n = 201) with age- and gender-matched control subjects (n = 201), we identified cube copying performance to be significantly impaired in people with Parkinson’s disease (p = 0.008) No significant correlation was observed between retrograde procedural memory and disease duration. Conclusion: We demonstrated lower cube copying performance in people with Parkinson’s disease compared to control subjects, which suggests an impaired functioning of retrograde procedural memory in Parkinson’s disease.

Interplanetary human missions to Mars and beyond will suppose a very demanding physical and psychological environment for future astronauts. Isolation, confinement, hypoxia or hypercapnia in a less pressurized atmosphere, darkness and other factors are expected to endanger a mission's success, directly influencing human performance. In order to study the effects of such environmental conditions on human beings, the SIMSKILL Experiment aims to investigate how spacecraft piloting performance decays over time by deploying a Soyuz flight simulator on the Antarctic research stations Halley VI and Concordia, which feature similar living conditions as those of a space mission, leading eventually to muscular atrophy, loss of cognitive capacities, and reduction of psycho-motor skills. This paper offers an analysis on the recorded data from the scientific campaigns in Antarctica, compared to those of the subjects in a control group in Stuttgart, Germany. An overall total of 69 subjects and more than one thousand approach and docking flights to the ISS performed in a Soyuz-TMA simulator have been analysed using a performance assessment methodology. The post-processed simulation dataset allows to recognize collective trends and find which are the essential parameters that affect the pilot's skill evolution. The results obtained from this analysis show how the influence of isolation, confinement and hypoxia in Antarctica is crucial to understand how differences in performance appear between subjects. The significance of the obtained results has been proven by means of statistical models, which show that a one-month training refreshing delivers satisfactory performance for a docking simulation, whereas a frequency of 3 months follows to a loss of piloting reliability. Moreover, the effect of isolation and hypoxia aggravates the loss of flight performance.

Objective: To investigate the retrograde procedural memory in people with typical Parkinson’s disease (PwP) with or without freezing of gait (FOG). We hypothesized that the retrograde procedural memory is more strongly impaired in patients with FOG (FOG+) than in patients without FOG (FOG-). Background: Given that cognitive functions, like executive control and automaticity, are crucial for mobility, it is of great importance to get a deeper knowledge of the cognitive impairment that may interfere with walking and causing gait disturbances in PwP, i.e. FOG. The integrity of retrograde procedural memory, the ability to execute skills that have been learned in earlier life stages, is essential for a person’s ability to complete routine, procedural activities like walking. As FOG is characterized as a de-automatization disorder, we hypothesized an impairment of the retrograde procedural memory in patients with FOG. Methods: A total of 194 patients from the Luxembourg Parkinson’s study were included into the cross-sectional study. All patients were assigned to the FOG+ / FOG- groups based on a semi-structured interview conducted by a study physician. The extended evaluation system of the cube copying test was applied to evaluate both the cube-drawing procedure, representing the retrograde procedural memory, and the final result, representing the visuo-constructive abilities (Pauly et al., 2020, MDS abstract). We compared the cube copying performance of n=97 FOG+ with n=97 age-, gender- and education-matched FOG-. Results: FOG+ scored lower on the cube copying procedure compared to the FOG- (p=0.027), which is suggestive of an impaired retrograde procedural memory in FOG+. No significant differences in the visuo-constructional abilities were detected (p=0.945). Conclusion: In line with FOG being considered a de-automatization of walking, a skill acquired in earlier life stages, the present results suggest that PwP with FOG have an impaired retrograde procedural memory in

Personality traits describe dispositions influencing individuals' behavior and performance at work. However, in the context of personnel selection, the use of personality measures has continuously been questioned. To date, research in selection settings has focused uniquely on predicting task performance, missing the opportunity to exploit the potential of personality traits to predict non-task performance. Further, personality is often measured with self-report inventories, which are susceptible to self-distortion. Addressing these gaps, the planned study seeks to design new personality measures to be used in the selection context to predict a wide range of performance criteria. Specifically, we will develop a situational judgment test and a behavior description interview, both assessing Big Five personality traits and Honesty-Humility to systematically compare these new measures with traditional self-report inventories regarding their criterion-related validity to predict four performance criteria: task performance, adaptive performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and counterproductive work behavior. Data will be collected in a simulated selection procedure. Based on power analyses, we aim for 200 employed study participants, who will allow us to contact their supervisors to gather criterion data. The results of this study will shed light on the suitability of different personality measures (i.e., situational judgment tests and behavior description interviews) to predict an expanded range of performance criteria.

Objectives: To implement a multi-year nation-wide programme, by the means of a personalised lifestyle intervention, to prevent or to delay cognitive decline that can contribute to development of dementia in Luxembourg. Methods: Participants with mild cognitive impairment, referred to the programme by their treating physician, undergo an extensive cognitive evaluation by a neuropsychologist on relevant neuropsychological domains as well as a structured dementia risk factor assessment. Based on these assessments, individualised lifestyle interventions are offered by diverse national partners involved in the programme, thus filling a gap of not yet reimbursed services in the Luxemburgish healthcare system. After the personalised lifestyle interventions, each participant will undergo a neuropsychological follow-up in order to re-evaluate his/her health status in terms of cognition. Results: We established a participant-centred national network by presenting the programme on many outreach events and efficient stakeholder communication. The network raises the awareness of dementia prevention in the Luxembourgish population, fosters interdisciplinary communication between individual medical and non-medical healthcare professionals and allows for a successful recruitment of the target population. Moreover, we collect information about adherence to the suggested lifestyle changes, as well as the effectiveness of our interventions in reducing risk factors contributing to the onset of dementia. Conclusions: We provide evidence for the feasibility of the implementation of a nation-wide dementia prevention programme including diverse partners offering personalised lifestyle interventions, which are easily transferrable to other countries. Future results from this programme may also help to integrate prevention interventions into the regular healthcare system.

BACKGROUND: After the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of coronavirus disease to be a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020, the first SARS-CoV-2 infection was detected in Luxembourg on February 29, 2020. Representative population-based data, including asymptomatic individuals for assessing the viral spread and immune response were, however, lacking worldwide. METHODS: Using a panel-based method, we implemented a representative sample of the Luxembourgish population based on age, gender and residency for testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection and antibody status in order to define prevalence irrespective of clinical symptoms. Participants were contacted via email to fill an online questionnaire before biosampling at local laboratories. All participants provided information related to clinical symptoms, epidemiology, socioeconomic and psychological assessments and underwent biosampling, rRT-PCR testing and serology for SARS-CoV-2. RESULTS: We included a total of 1862 individuals in our representative sample of the general Luxembourgish population. Of these, 5 individuals had a current positive result for infection with SARS-CoV-2 based on rRT-PCR. Four of these individuals were oligosymptomatic and one was asymptomatic. Overall we found a positive IgG antibody status in 35 individuals (1.97%), of which 11 reported to be tested positive by rRT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 previously and showed in addition their IgG positive status also a positive status for IgA. Our data indicate a prevalence of 0.3% for active SARS-CoV-2 infection and an infection rate of 2.15% in the Luxembourgish population between 18 and 79 years of age. CONCLUSIONS: Luxembourgish residents show a low rate of acute infections after 7 weeks of confinement and present with an antibody profile indicative of a more recent immune response to SARS-CoV-2. All infected individuals were oligo- or asymptomatic. Bi-weekly follow-up visits over the next 2 months will inform about

Self-perceived unmet needs in people with typical and atypical parkinsonism (PwP) and their caregivers, support network, personalized ways to address self-perceived unmet needs during confinement, as well as the prevalence of self-reported COVID-19 related symptoms, confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, and self-reported COVID-19 related hospitalization in Luxembourg and the Greater Region were assessed. From 18th March to 10th April 2020, 679 PwP were contacted by phone. Data was collected in the form of a semi-structured interview. The thematic synthesis identified 25 themes where PwP need to be supported in order to cope with consequences of the pandemic, and to adapt their daily and health-related activities. The present work highlights that in the context of personalized medicine, depending on the individual needs of support of the patient the identified self-perceived unmet needs were addressed in various ways ranging from one-directed information over interaction up to proactive counseling and monitoring. Family and health professionals, but also other support systems were taking care of the unmet needs of PwP (e.g., shopping, picking-up medication, etc.) during the pandemic. 7/606 PwP (1.15%) reported COVID-19 related symptoms, 4/606 (0.66%) underwent a rRT-PCR-based diagnostic test and 2/606 (0.33%) were confirmed as SARS-CoV-2 positive. None of these PwP reported being hospitalized due to COVID-19. Our results will allow health professionals to expand their services in a meaningful way i.e., personalize their support in the identified themes and thus improve the healthcare of PwP in times of crisis.