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Four validity scales were developed for the Neuropsychology Behavior and Affect Profile using data from clinical and nonclinical samples. A second study, which involved 157 subjects, indicated that combinations of the clinical and validity scales effectively differentiated dissemblers from brain injury patients, even when dissemblers were highly trained. (SLD)

Both the validity and clinical scales of the Neuropsychology Behavior and Affect Profile (NBAP) are externally valid in detecting varying experience levels in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). The validity and clinical scales contribute differently to the detection. The dissembling study involves comparison of observer-rated NBAPs of TBI patients with NBAPs from three analog groups with varying clinical experience and knowledge.

A study of 156 healthy aged volunteers helped in elucidating that elderly subjects with good intelligence levels display an extreme degree of scatter in comparison to the other subjects. This finding has important clinical implications as it reveals the need for assessing elderly subjects with abnormal WAIS-R by comparing their age and intelligence levels.

A study of the association between three indices of intersubtest scatter and the degree of cognitive degradation in 104 patients with dementia of Alzheimer's type showed that advancement in dementia was related to decreasing magnitude of scatter. Among the three indices, the range of intersubtest scatter and Profile Variability Index showed greater relation to the degree of cognitive deterioration than the number of subtest scores that varied from the subject's mean. Although the sample had a high educational level, it showed low IQ scores on the WAIS-R, proving the relationship between cognitive deterioration and dementia.

A study of 58 elderly subjects in three groups, including those with no memory impairment, with memory deficits and with Dementia of Alzheimer's Type, showed that memory impairment varied across memory components with severity of dementia. The ability to recognize was significantly low in two clinical groups with varying dementia when compared to the normal aging group. Retrieval from remote memory varied between the two clinical groups while retrieval from recent memory deteriorated gradually with increasing dementia severity.

Study of the relation between memory deficit and aging reveals the validity of the hypothesis of subcortical neurological change. People with early stages of Alzheimer type dementia exhibit impaired encoding and retrieval. The group with early prestage AIDS dementia exhibit deficient storage and retrieval.

Our study explored the magnitude of practice effect in repeated administration of NP measures that tap different cognitive domains in normal elderly subjects (N = 122) between ages 57 and 85, who were evaluated over three annual testing probes. Results revealed that WAIS-R PIQ, serial recall of words, WMS visual memory, and memory for logical passages (immediate and delayed) are likely to improve on the retest due to practice effect in individuals below age 75, whereas test-retest changes in older people show a different pattern. Implications of age-specific changes on retest for differential diagnosis of dementia in clinical practice were considered.

Dementia is common among patients in the last stages of AIDS. Although AIDS may permit many opportunistic infections to attack the brain, many researchers believe that many of the cases of dementia may the direct results of infection of the brain with the AIDS virus itself. This suspicion has led to numerous attempts to identify cognitive impairments in subjects infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the agent that causes AIDS, prior to the onset of AIDS. Most of these studies have found little or no impairment in the intellectual function of these patients. Research has continued for signs of change; although any changes in intellectual ability would be too small to be important in a patient's everyday life, these changes could provide an important diagnostic tool, which might guide treatment. The authors suggest that current methods of neuropsychological assessment might not be precise enough to detect subtle changes among HIV-infected patients. Therefore, a series of computerized tests were devised to evaluate many aspects of a subject's mental function without the intrusion of the subjectivity of a human examiner. The computer tests measured the reaction times on choice tests, memory, and quickness of motor responses. The computerized tests were used to evaluate 507 homosexual or bisexual men who were not infected with HIV, 439 men who were infected, and 47 men who were infected and were developing symptoms of AIDS. Abnormalities in mental function were observed in 28 percent of the symptomatic patients. However, only 14 percent of the asymptomatic HIV-infected patients had signs of abnormal mental function. This was not significantly different from the 13 percent who were abnormal among the uninfected control subjects. These results indicate that intellectual abnormalities among asymptomatic HIV-infected subjects are quite uncommon. The present study also illustrates the usefulness of the computer in the neuropsychological analysis of large numbers of patients in an objective and accurate fashion. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Reliability and validity of MSSE were explored in a sample of 122 healthy, community-residing elderly volunteers between the ages of 57 and 85, who were tested with a battery of neuropsychological tests over three annual probes. Test-retest reliability ranged between .45 and .50 over a 1-year interval and was .38 over a 2-year period. Change on the MMSE of more than 5 points over a 2-year period was associated with a neurological disorder. Significant correlations were found with many neuropsychological measures, especially with a measure of verbal learning.

This study explored effect of age on encoding, retention, and retrieval components of memory functioning in a sample of 156 healthy, elderly subjects between the ages of 57 and 85, partitioned into four age groups. Memory assessment was based on subjects' performance on the RAVLT, which consisted of five free-recall trials, recall after interference, and recognition trial. Significant group differences in recall were found on all five learning trials, whereas rates of learning, forgetting, and recognition did not differ for four age groups. In addition, primacy/recency effect was equally strong for all groups. Results suggest faulty retrieval mechanisms, whereas encoding and retention processes did not prove to be affected by aging.