Psychology Commons^™

Mild Cognitive Impairment In Presurgical Deep Brain Stimulation For Parkinson's Disease, Elizabeth Roslyn Wallace

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Although clinically characterized by motor impairments, Parkinson's disease (PD) often affects cognition early in the disease course. Cognitive changes common in PD include visuospatial abnormalities and prominent executive function (EF) deficits, with 30% of individuals eventually developing Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD). Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has been identified as a transitional state between normal cognition and PDD. A large cohort of individuals with PD at the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute have undergone pre-surgical evaluations for deep brain stimulation, although cognitive performance in this cohort has never been probed. Baseline cognitive performance of this cohort from 2017-2020 was examined to characterize the …

Improving The Methodology For Identifying Mild Cognitive Impairment In Intellectually High-Functioning Adults Using The Nih Toolbox Cognition Battery, Grant L. Iverson, Justin E. Karr

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective: Low scores on neuropsychological tests are considered objective evidence of mild cognitive impairment. In clinical practice and research, it can be challenging to identify a cognitive deficit or mild cognitive impairment in high-functioning people because they are much less likely to obtain low test scores. This study was designed to improve the methodology for identifying mild cognitive impairment in adults who have above average or superior intellectual abilities.

Method: Participants completed the National Institutes of Health Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB). The sample included 384 adults between the ages of 20 and …

Driving Habits, Cognition, And Health-Related Quality Of Life In Middle-Aged And Older Adults With Hiv, Josiah J. Robinson, Tess Walker, Cierra Hopkins, Brittany Bradley, Peggy Mckie, Jennifer S. Frank, Caitlin N. Pope, Pariya L. Fazeli, David E. Vance

Graduate Center for Gerontology Faculty Publications

Cognitive impairment is known to increase with aging in people living with HIV (PLWH). Impairment in cognitive domains required for safe driving may put PLWH at risk for poor driving outcomes, decreased mobility, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This study described the driving behaviors of middle-aged and older PLWH and examined correlations between driving behaviors and cognitive functioning (Aim 1), and driving behaviors and HRQoL domains (Aim 2). A sample of 260 PLWH ages 40 and older completed a comprehensive assessment including a battery of cognitive tests, an HRQoL measure, and a measure of self-reported driving habits. Associations between …

Effect Of Environmental Enrichment On The Brain And On Learning And Cognition By Animals, Thomas R. Zentall

Psychology Faculty Publications

The humane treatment of animals suggests that they should be housed in an environment that is rich in stimulation and allows for varied activities. However, even if one’s main concern is an accurate assessment of their learning and cognitive abilities, housing them in an enriched environment can have an important effect on the assessment of those abilities. Research has found that the development of the brain of animals is significantly affected by the environment in which they live. Not surprisingly, their ability to learn both simple and complex tasks is affected by even modest time spent in an enriched environment. …

Cognition, Repetitive Thought, And Systemic Inflammation In The Midlife In The United States Study, Elana M. Gloger

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Segerstrom et al. (2017) found that more repetitive thought (RT) was related to lower interleukin-6 (IL-6), in older adults at average IQ. This study aimed to replicate and extend this finding in midlife adults, with a daily measure of RT, and additional inflammatory biomarkers. 153 participants were drawn from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Refresher project; ages 25-70 (M = 45.07, SD = 10.96), 50.3% female, and 83% Caucasian. Cognition was assessed via the Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone, biological data via fasted blood draw, and RT data were collected as part of the National …

Common And Distinct Mechanisms Of Cognitive Flexibility In Prefrontal Cortex, Chobok Kim, Nathan F. Johnson, Sara E. Cilles, Brian T. Gold

Neuroscience Faculty Publications

The human ability to flexibly alternate between tasks represents a central component of cognitive control. Neuroimaging studies have linked task switching with a diverse set of prefrontal cortex (PFC) regions, but the contributions of these regions to various forms of cognitive flexibility remain largely unknown. Here, subjects underwent functional brain imaging while they completed a paradigm that selectively induced stimulus, response, or cognitive set switches in the context of a single task decision performed on a common set of stimuli. Behavioral results indicated comparable reaction time costs associated with each switch type. Domain-general task-switching activation was observed in the inferior …

Readers’ Knowledge Of Functional Devices, Hung-Tao Chen

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Various writing devices are designed to serve specialized purposes or “functions” to aid readers in their processing of a text. For example, an index lists important topics in the book and allows the readers to quickly locate the pages relevant to a particular topic. The purpose of this study was to learn what mature readers know about various functional devices. Two experiments were conducted to learn what readers know about functional devices in texts. Experiment 1 investigated readers’ knowledge about functional writing devices and Experiment 2 examined readers’ beliefs about the relevance of functional writing devices in various reading situations. …