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Background: Cross-Cultural Dementia Screening (CCD), Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS), and European Cross-cultural Neuropsychological Test Battery (CNTB) are three novel neuropsychological instruments developed from a cross-cultural perspective to reduce the impact of culture in cognitive assessment and improve the assessment in diverse populations. Objective: We aimed to collect and present normative data on these tests in a majority population sample (Spaniards living in Spain) and in a minority population sample (Colombians living in Spain). Methods: CCD, RUDAS, and CNTB were administered to a group of 300 cognitively healthy participants (150 Spaniards and 150 Colombians). Linear regression modeling strategy was used to provide adjusted norms for demographic factors and to explore the influence of these factors on test performance. Results: Most of the CCD and CNTB scores were predicted by age and years of education, with some tests only predicted by age or showing a ceiling effect. The comparison of normative data between the two samples confirmed the favorable cross-cultural properties of these instruments, with only some differences in processing speed and executive functioning scores. Conclusions: Our study finds a comparable influence of demographic factors in both populations on the performance of CCD, RUDAS, and CNTB, confirming their adequate cross-cultural properties. We provide normative data for these tests in Spaniards and Colombians living in Spain., Instituto de Salud Carlos III, European Commission, Depto. de Psicobiología y Metodología en Ciencias del Comportamiento, Depto. de Medicina, Fac. de Psicología, Fac. de Medicina, TRUE, pub

Background: The Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) is a cognitive test with favorable diagnostic properties for detecting dementia and a low influence of education and cultural biases. Objective: We aimed to validate the RUDAS in people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: We enrolled one hundred and fifty participants (60 with AD, 30 with PD, 60 with MS, and 120 healthy controls (HC)). All clinical groups completed a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, RUDAS, and standard cognitive tests of each disorder: MMSE, SCOPA-COG, and Symbol Digit Modalities Test. Intergroup comparisons between clinical groups and HC and ROC curves were estimated. Random Forest algorithms were trained and validated to detect cognitive impairment using RUDAS and rank the most relevant scores. Results: The RUDAS scores were lower in patients with AD, and patients with PD and MS showed cognitive impairment compared to healthy controls. Effect sizes were generally large. The total score was the most discriminative, followed by the memory score. Correlations with standardized neuropsychological tests were moderate to high. Random Forest algorithms obtained accuracies over 80–90% using the RUDAS for diagnosing AD and cognitive impairment associated with PD and MS. Conclusion: Our results suggest the RUDAS is a valid test candidate for multi-disease cognitive screening tool in AD, PD, and MS., Instituto de Salud Carlos III, European Commission, Depto. de Psicobiología y Metodología en Ciencias del Comportamiento, Depto. de Medicina, Depto. de Arquitectura de Computadores y Automática, Fac. de Psicología, Fac. de Medicina, Fac. de Informática, TRUE, pub

Background: LASSI-L is a novel neuropsychological test specifically designed for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) based on semantic interference. Objective: To examine the cognitive and neural underpinnings of the failure to recover from proactive semantic and retroactive semantic interference. Methods: One hundred and fifty-five patients consulting for memory loss were included. Patients underwent neuropsychological assessment, including the LASSI-L, and FDG-PET imaging. They were categorized as subjective memory complaints (SMC) (n=32), pre-mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD (Pre-MCI) (n=39), MCI due to AD (MCI-AD) (n=71), and MCI without evidence of neurodegeneration (MCI-NN) (n=13). Voxel-based brain mapping and metabolic network connectivity analyses were conducted. Results: A significant group effect was found for all the LASSI-L scores. LASSI-L scores measuring failure to recover from proactive semantic interference and retroactive semantic interference were predicted by other neuropsychological tests with a precision of 64.1 and 44.8%. The LASSI-L scores were associated with brain metabolism in the bilateral precuneus, superior, middle and inferior temporal gyri, fusiform, angular, superior and inferior parietal lobule, superior, middle and inferior occipital gyri, lingual gyrus, and posterior cingulate. Connectivity analysis revealed a decrease of node degree and centrality in posterior cingulate in patients showing frPSI. Conclusion: Episodic memory dysfunction and the involvement of the medial temporal lobe, precuneus and posterior cingulate constitute the basis of the failure to recover from proactive semantic interference and retroactive semantic interference. These findings support the role of the LASSI-L in the detection, monitoring and outcome prediction during the early stages of AD., Instituto de Salud Carlos III, European Commission, National Institute of Aging, Depto. de Psicobiología y Metodología en Ciencias del Comportamiento, Depto. de Radiología, Rehabilitación y Fisioterapia, Depto. de Medicina, Fac. de Psicología, Fac. de Medicina, TRUE, pub