Coffee with jelly or unbuttered toast: Commissions and omissions are dissociable aspects of everyday action impairment in Alzheimer's disease.

The Cognitive Neuropsychology Laboratory at Temple University applies neuropsychological models of action processes to the study of everyday action (EA) in dementia. Our ultimate goals are to develop models of EA impairment and inform interventions that promote EA in the home. Our recent paper (Giovannetti et al., 2006b) was an initial step in this overarching plan. We examined differences in EA between participants with Alzheimer's disease (AD) versus Vascular dementia (VaD), two distinct neurocognitive syndromes (see Libon et al., 2004). The groups obtained comparable overall accomplishment scores, but VaD participants made more commissions and accomplished fewer steps when distractor objects were in the workspace. Thus, VaD participants demonstrated a different pattern of EA impairment than AD participants.

Download Full-text

Detecting Everyday Action Deficits in Alzheimer’s Disease Using a Nonimmersive Virtual Reality Kitchen

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617714000344 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 20 (5) ◽

pp. 468-477 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

Philippe Allain ◽

Déborah Alexandra Foloppe ◽

Jérémy Besnard ◽

Takehiko Yamaguchi ◽

Frédérique Etcharry-Bouyx ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Virtual Reality ◽

Daily Living ◽

Real Life ◽

Neuropsychological Measures ◽

Virtual Tools ◽

Healthy Elderly ◽

Everyday Action ◽

Initial Support

AbstractAlzheimer’s disease (AD) causes impairments affecting instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Transdisciplinary research in neuropsychology and virtual reality has fostered the development of ecologically valid virtual tools for the assessment of IADL, using simulations of real life activities. Few studies have examined the benefits of this approach in AD patients. Our aim was to examine the utility of a non-immersive virtual coffee task (NI-VCT) for assessment of IADL in these patients. We focus on the assessment results obtained from a group of 24 AD patients on a task designed to assess their ability to prepare a virtual cup of coffee, using a virtual coffee machine. We compared performance on the virtual task to an identical daily living task involving the actual preparation of a cup of coffee, as well as to global cognitive, executive, and caregiver-reported IADL functioning. Relative to 32 comparable, healthy elderly (HE) controls, AD patients performed worse than HE controls on all tasks. Correlation analyses revealed that NI-VCT measures were related to all other neuropsychological measures. Moreover, regression analyses demonstrated that performance on the NI-VCT predicted actual task performance and caregiver-reported IADL functioning. Our results provide initial support for the utility of our virtual kitchen for assessment of IADL in AD patients. (JINS, 2014, 20, 1–10)

Download Full-text

Cognitive control constrains memory attributions

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x19001869 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

Author(s):

Colleen M. Kelley ◽

Larry L. Jacoby

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Older Adults ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Traumatic Brain Injury ◽

Brain Injury ◽

Cognitive Control

Abstract Cognitive control constrains retrieval processing and so restricts what comes to mind as input to the attribution system. We review evidence that older adults, patients with Alzheimer's disease, and people with traumatic brain injury exert less cognitive control during retrieval, and so are susceptible to memory misattributions in the form of dramatic levels of false remembering.

Download Full-text

Review for "Expression profiling of precuneus layer III cathepsin D‐immunopositive pyramidal neurons in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease: Evidence for neuronal signaling vulnerability"

10.1002/cne.24929/v2/review1 ◽

2020 ◽

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽

Expression Profiling ◽

Cathepsin D ◽

Pyramidal Neurons ◽

Neuronal Signaling

Download Full-text

Formation of paired helical filaments in Alzheimer's disease

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100111628 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

pp. 302-303

Author(s):

J. Metuzals ◽

D. F. Clapin ◽

V. Montpetit

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Frontal Lobe ◽

Giant Axon ◽

Paired Helical Filaments ◽

Normal Brain ◽

Protein Assemblies ◽

Electron Microscopic ◽

Helical Symmetry ◽

Structural Levels

Information on the conformation of paired helical filaments (PHF) and the neurofilamentous (NF) network is essential for an understanding of the mechanisms involved in the formation of the primary lesions of Alzheimer's disease (AD): tangles and plaques. The structural and chemical relationships between the NF and the PHF have to be clarified in order to discover the etiological factors of this disease. We are investigating by stereo electron microscopic and biochemical techniques frontal lobe biopsies from patients with AD and squid giant axon preparations. The helical nature of the lesion in AD is related to pathological alterations of basic properties of the nervous system due to the helical symmetry that exists at all hierarchic structural levels in the normal brain. Because of this helical symmetry of NF protein assemblies and PHF, the employment of structure reconstruction techniques to determine the conformation, particularly the handedness of these structures, is most promising. Figs. 1-3 are frontal lobe biopsies.

Download Full-text

Computer-aided methods for 3-D visualization of serial sections and thick biological specimens

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100129930 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 1060-1061

Author(s):

Mark Ellisman ◽

Maryann Martone ◽

Gabriel Soto ◽

Eleizer Masliah ◽

David Hessler ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Neuritic Plaque ◽

Dimensional Structure ◽

Data Sets ◽

Molecular Physiology ◽

Research Activities ◽

Computer Aided ◽

Dimensional Reconstruction

Structurally-oriented biologists examine cells, tissues, organelles and macromolecules in order to gain insight into cellular and molecular physiology by relating structure to function. The understanding of these structures can be greatly enhanced by the use of techniques for the visualization and quantitative analysis of three-dimensional structure. Three projects from current research activities will be presented in order to illustrate both the present capabilities of computer aided techniques as well as their limitations and future possibilities.The first project concerns the three-dimensional reconstruction of the neuritic plaques found in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. We have developed a software package “Synu” for investigation of 3D data sets which has been used in conjunction with laser confocal light microscopy to study the structure of the neuritic plaque. Tissue sections of autopsy samples from patients with Alzheimer's disease were double-labeled for tau, a cytoskeletal marker for abnormal neurites, and synaptophysin, a marker of presynaptic terminals.

Download Full-text

Liquid crystalline ordering of paired helical filaments in neurofibrillary tangles of Alzheimer's disease

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100143365 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 44 ◽

pp. 348-349

Author(s):

D.F. Clapin ◽

V.J.A. Montpetit

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Neurofibrillary Tangles ◽

Liquid Crystalline ◽

Amyloid Fibrils ◽

Geometric Analysis ◽

Paired Helical Filaments ◽

Microscopic Level ◽

Light Microscopic Level ◽

Regular Spacing

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the accumulation of abnormal filamentous proteins. The most important of these are amyloid fibrils and paired helical filaments (PHF). PHF are located intraneuronally forming bundles called neurofibrillary tangles. The designation of these structures as "tangles" is appropriate at the light microscopic level. However, localized domains within individual tangles appear to demonstrate a regular spacing which may indicate a liquid crystalline phase. The purpose of this paper is to present a statistical geometric analysis of PHF packing.

Download Full-text

Paired helical filaments (PHF) in rats: An experimental animal model for Alzheimer's disease

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100128493 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 45 ◽

pp. 842-843

Author(s):

V.J.A. Montpetit ◽

S. Dancea ◽

S.W. French ◽

D.F. Clapin

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Animal Model ◽

Paired Helical Filaments ◽

Ethanol Intoxication ◽

Drg Neurons ◽

Critical Difference ◽

Suitable Animal Model ◽

The Central Nervous System ◽

Chronic Ethanol Intoxication

A continuing problem in Alzheimer research is the lack of a suitable animal model for the disease. The absence of neurofibrillary tangles of paired helical filaments is the most critical difference in the processes by which the central nervous system ages in most species other than man. However, restricting consideration to single phenomena, one may identify animal models for specific aspects of Alzheimer's disease. Abnormal fibers resembling PHF have been observed in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons of rats in a study of chronic ethanol intoxication and spontaneously in aged rats. We present in this report evidence that PHF-like filaments occur in ethanol-treated rats of young age. In control animals lesions similar in some respects to our observations of cytoskeletal pathology in pyridoxine induced neurotoxicity were observed.Male Wistar BR rats (Charles River Labs) weighing 350 to 400 g, were implanted with a single gastrostomy cannula and infused with a liquid diet containing 30% of total calories as fat plus ethanol or isocaloric dextrose.

Download Full-text