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Neurological Soft Signs in Aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer’s Disease – The Impact of Cognitive Decline and Cognitive Reserve

Objectives: Neurological soft signs (NSS), i.e., minor motor and sensory changes, are a common feature in severe psychiatric disorders. We sought to establish the frequency of NSS in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) on basis of a large population-based sampl...

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Autores principales: Urbanowitsch, Nadja, Degen, Christina, Toro, Pablo, Schröder, Johannes
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4324002/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25717306
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00012
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author Urbanowitsch, Nadja
Degen, Christina
Toro, Pablo
Schröder, Johannes
author_facet Urbanowitsch, Nadja
Degen, Christina
Toro, Pablo
Schröder, Johannes
author_sort Urbanowitsch, Nadja
collection PubMed
description Objectives: Neurological soft signs (NSS), i.e., minor motor and sensory changes, are a common feature in severe psychiatric disorders. We sought to establish the frequency of NSS in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) on basis of a large population-based sample and to identify their neuropsychological correlates including cognitive reserve. Methods: Neurological soft signs were examined using an abbreviated version of the Heidelberg NSS Scale in 221 “old” participants born between 1930 and 1932 (63 with MCI, 15 with AD, 143 healthy old controls) and 256 healthy “young” participants (born between 1950 and 1952) of the population-based interdisciplinary longitudinal study of aging. Subjects received thorough neuropsychological testing; years of school education were used as a proxy for cognitive reserve. Results: Neurological soft signs scores were significantly (p < 0.001) higher in the AD patients (5.6 ± 3.11) than in the healthy old controls (2.8 ± 1.90) and in the MCI patients (3.0 ± 1.96). This result was confirmed after years of school education, which were inversely correlated (r = −0.25; p < 0.001) with NSS were entered as a covariate. In the patients, but not in the controls, NSS were significantly correlated with deficits in executive functioning and visuospatial functioning. Comparison of NSS scores between “old” (2.84 ± 1.9) and “young” (2.46 ± 1.97) controls yielded only minor, non-significant differences after education (13.86 ± 3.0 vs. 14.61 ± 2.48 years, respectively) was controlled for. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that NSS are frequently found in mild AD, but not in MCI. NSS refer to frontal-executive deficits and visuospatial dysfunction rather than age per se and can be partly compensated for by cognitive reserve.
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spelling pubmed-43240022015-02-25 Neurological Soft Signs in Aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer’s Disease – The Impact of Cognitive Decline and Cognitive Reserve Urbanowitsch, Nadja Degen, Christina Toro, Pablo Schröder, Johannes Front Psychiatry Psychiatry Objectives: Neurological soft signs (NSS), i.e., minor motor and sensory changes, are a common feature in severe psychiatric disorders. We sought to establish the frequency of NSS in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) on basis of a large population-based sample and to identify their neuropsychological correlates including cognitive reserve. Methods: Neurological soft signs were examined using an abbreviated version of the Heidelberg NSS Scale in 221 “old” participants born between 1930 and 1932 (63 with MCI, 15 with AD, 143 healthy old controls) and 256 healthy “young” participants (born between 1950 and 1952) of the population-based interdisciplinary longitudinal study of aging. Subjects received thorough neuropsychological testing; years of school education were used as a proxy for cognitive reserve. Results: Neurological soft signs scores were significantly (p < 0.001) higher in the AD patients (5.6 ± 3.11) than in the healthy old controls (2.8 ± 1.90) and in the MCI patients (3.0 ± 1.96). This result was confirmed after years of school education, which were inversely correlated (r = −0.25; p < 0.001) with NSS were entered as a covariate. In the patients, but not in the controls, NSS were significantly correlated with deficits in executive functioning and visuospatial functioning. Comparison of NSS scores between “old” (2.84 ± 1.9) and “young” (2.46 ± 1.97) controls yielded only minor, non-significant differences after education (13.86 ± 3.0 vs. 14.61 ± 2.48 years, respectively) was controlled for. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that NSS are frequently found in mild AD, but not in MCI. NSS refer to frontal-executive deficits and visuospatial dysfunction rather than age per se and can be partly compensated for by cognitive reserve. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-02-11 /pmc/articles/PMC4324002/ /pubmed/25717306 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00012 Text en Copyright © 2015 Urbanowitsch, Degen, Toro and Schröder. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Urbanowitsch, Nadja
Degen, Christina
Toro, Pablo
Schröder, Johannes
Neurological Soft Signs in Aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer’s Disease – The Impact of Cognitive Decline and Cognitive Reserve
title Neurological Soft Signs in Aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer’s Disease – The Impact of Cognitive Decline and Cognitive Reserve
title_full Neurological Soft Signs in Aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer’s Disease – The Impact of Cognitive Decline and Cognitive Reserve
title_fullStr Neurological Soft Signs in Aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer’s Disease – The Impact of Cognitive Decline and Cognitive Reserve
title_full_unstemmed Neurological Soft Signs in Aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer’s Disease – The Impact of Cognitive Decline and Cognitive Reserve
title_short Neurological Soft Signs in Aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer’s Disease – The Impact of Cognitive Decline and Cognitive Reserve
title_sort neurological soft signs in aging, mild cognitive impairment, and alzheimer’s disease – the impact of cognitive decline and cognitive reserve
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4324002/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25717306
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00012
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