Navegando por Assunto "Testes neuropsicológicos"

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Alterações oxidativas em portadores da doença de Alzheimer: correlação com os estágios da doença e o quadro cognitivo dos pacientes
(Universidade Federal do Pará, 2012-06-22) FUJIHARA, Satomi; FREITAS, Jofre Jacob da Silva; http://lattes.cnpq.br/2023282005842112; LIMA, Patrícia Danielle Lima de; http://lattes.cnpq.br/3411620003450812
The survival of the population has increased gradually and it is correlated with quality of health services and general living conditions, being particularly marked in industrialized countries. The increase in life expectancy affects the incidence of age-associated diseases. Aging is considered a risk factor for the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (AD). One theory on the pathogenesis of AD postulates that neurodegeneration is the result of oxidative stress and damage to vulnerable cerebral tissues. The fact that aging is a risk factor in AD also reinforces the hypothesis of free radicals involvement, because the effects of their actions can accumulate for years. It is an insidious, progressive disease and is characterized clinically by progressive loss of memory and other cognitive functions, as well as behavioral and social changes. The memory deficit is the main and usually the first symptom of AD, especially with deficiency of retention and recall of new information. The present study aims to evaluate if there are changes in oxidative metabolism detected in the blood of patients with AD, and if there is correlation with different stages of the disease and the patients’ cognitive framework. We evaluated 30 patients with Alzheimer’s disease and 28 subjects in the control group attended at Unit Education and Assistance Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy at the University of Pará (UEAFTO-UEPA). Oxidative metabolism was assessed by measuring the total antioxidant capacity equivalent to Trolox (TEAC) and measuring the levels of substances that react with thiobarbituric acid (TBARS). Neuropsychological tests were also performed on all participants in the study. No significant correlations were observed in the performance of neuropsychological tests to the levels of TBARS and TEAC in patients with AD. It was observed that the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was significantly decreased in AD patients compared to controls whatever stage of disease, showing a possible relationship between TAC and AD. In the evaluation of TBARS was a trend toward higher concentrations in AD patients than in control group but the difference was not statistically significant, only the moderate stage was significant when compared with the control group. Evaluation of the lipidic peroxidation through TBARS a biomarker would probably not be suitable for Alzheimer's disease.
Acesso aberto (Open Access)
Classificação de perfis de produtividade usando redes neurais artificiais a partir de registros eletroencefalográficos: uma aplicação na Mineradora Vale S.A., Complexo S11D Eliezer Batista
(Universidade Federal do Pará, 2024-01) BASTOS, Caio de Oliveira; PEREIRA JUNIOR, Antonio; http://lattes.cnpq.br/1402289786010170; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0808-1058; GOMES, Bruno Duarte; http://lattes.cnpq.br/4932238030330851
Results and methods from neuroscience can already be applied on a routine scale. Applied neuroscience is in use, for example, to measure and study brain activity under high demand using electroencephalography (EEG). In certain work environments, human productivity is a direct function of brain activity. The intense recruitment of cognitive functions such as sustained attention and working memory influence productivity directly. The labor demands experienced by workers in mining companies are an example. This work is a part of a bigger project called “Usando Treinamento Cognitivo para o Desenvolvimento de Operadores de Alto Desempenho” from the Vale S. A. mining company and, therefore, all of the workers that participated in this study worked for that company. We used EEG to measure productivity during a task without the constraints typically found in experiments conducted in the laboratory. To this aim, we created a machine learning algorithm to analyze the resting EEG recorded before and after a 4D simulation, where mining workers (37 ± 7 years old) specialized to operate giant high-capacity shovels. The simulated task consisted of the operator using the shovel in a digging and loading routine. The task was not planned for our research. It was part of the worker’s routine training. That is, we took advantage of the workers’ training to carry out the study. Recordings were preprocessed using a band-pass filter (0.5-100 Hz) followed by filtering using ICA (Independent Component Analysis). After each operator finish the simulation, their productivity was measured by VALE S.A technical staff. The main parameter for good productivity was the amount of ore excavated. The operators were divided into groups according to ranges of productivity. The productivity was used as a label for the learning of the algorithm that consisted of an artificial neural network of the type inception. The number of neurons and layers was optimized using Bayesian optimization. The features extracted by the inception were the input to 13 classifiers. The classifier chosen for the final algorithm was the best, that is the one providing the best accuracy in the productivity classification. The training set contained 80% of the data. A hold-out validation was used to test the accuracy of the final algorithm using 20% of the data. The resulting accuracy when the operators were divided into four groups of productivity reached 91.35%. When there were only two groups of productivity the accuracy peaked at 95.05%. Our results showed that even under no laboratory constraints – during the regular training of the operators and using resting EEG – our algorithm succeed and it is ready to be used in future field operations. We have a prototype that is patentable.
Acesso aberto (Open Access)
Condicionamento físico e desempenho em testes neuropsicológicos em adultos jovens
(Universidade Federal do Pará, 2015-12-21) TOMÁS, Alessandra Mendonça; DINIZ, Cristovam Wanderley Picanço; http://lattes.cnpq.br/2014918752636286; SÓSTHENES, Márcia Consentino Kronka; http://lattes.cnpq.br/7881527576747420
Brazil is a country in demographic transition period and significantly increased population over 65 years, which requires changes in public policies for health. The early onset of specific care to young adult population with a view to successful aging may represent future reduction of public and lower incidence of diseases associated with aging expenses such as dementias. To provide grants to health policies based on evidence, this study investigated the effects of physical fitness on performance in automated neuropsychological tests selected for measurement of learning functions, visuospatial memory and language. We evaluated 109 healthy young adults of both sexes, submitted to an interview; global cognitive assessment using the Mini Mental State Examination, language tests (including verbal fluency and word list of CERAD drums) and automated neuropsychological tests (Cantab Battery); assessment of physical fitness (indirect assessment of cardiorespiratory fitness, strength of lower limbs, agility assessment, measurement surround and anthropometric indices). Based on multivariate statistics by cluster analysis (Ward method, Euclidean distance) three groups divided volunteers, matched for age and education, to make up the ANOVA criterion or the Kruskal-Wallis, in the event of samples with unequal variances. In addition, the correlation analysis was performed, principal components and discriminant analysis, which showed that the cardiorespiratory fitness was the variable that most contributed to the formation of clusters. The level of significance was set at p ≤ 0.05 values. Significant differences were found in the semantic verbal fluency tests; in physical fitness tests including resting heart rate, cardiorespiratory fitness, lower limb strength and agility assessment and neuropsychological tests of Cantab Battery (paired learning - PAL and reaction time - RTI). The correlation analysis showed only weak correlations. The results obtained in this study indicate that fitness young adult practitioners or no regular exercise cannot predict performance on neuropsychological tests. However, the fitness shown to be associated with better performance on attention tasks, visuospatial memory and learning, measured through the PAL and RTI.
Acesso aberto (Open Access)
Efeitos da estimulação multissensorial e cognitiva sobre o declínio cognitivo senil agravado pelo ambiente empobrecido das instituições de longa permanência
(Universidade Federal do Pará, 2012-08-27) OLIVEIRA, Thaís Cristina Galdino de; DINIZ, Cristovam Wanderley Picanço; http://lattes.cnpq.br/2014918752636286; DINIZ, Domingos Luiz Wanderley Picanço; http://lattes.cnpq.br/9601463988942971
The aim of the present report is to investigate possible impacts of cognitive and multisensory stimulation on the performances of institutionalized and community people in the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and in language tests. Subjects were divided in two groups paired by years of school and age: 1) institutionalized (n = 25, 76.0 ± 6.9 years old) which inhabit in long-stay institutions and 2) non-institutionalized (n = 17, 74.2 ± 4.0 years old) which inhabit in the community with their families. MMSE was applied to select cognitively healthy volunteers which were subsequently submitted to the stimulation and neuropsychological and language assessments. MMSE and specific language tests, including Boston naming, semantic (VSF) and phonological (PSF) verbal fluencies, Montreal Communication Evaluation Battery (MAC) and the Boston cookie theft picture description task were done. The multisensory and cognitive intervention was applied in groups of 10 volunteers submitted to a series of stimulation sessions twice a week, over six months in a total of 48 sessions. Sessions were based on language and memory exercises, visual, olfactory and auditory stimulus, as well as ludic activities including music, sing and dance. Both groups were assessed at the beginning (before interventions), in the middle (after 24 sessions) and at the end (after 48 sessions) of intervention. As compared to the non-institutionalized (community) group, the institutionalized one showed lower performances in all tasks in all time windows. Each patient was compared with himself using a contrast index (C) that was designed to be able to express performances of all tests in a single (0 -1) scale of cognitive performances. The contrast index was estimated as follow: (C = (D – A) / (D + A), where D corresponds to the scores before stimulation and A after stimulation). All patients improve their performances after intervention and the impact was significantly higher in the institutionalized group. We suggest that the impoverished environment where institutionalized people live is contributing to the lower cognitive scores observed at the first assessment and by the higher impact of the stimulation program in this group. As compared to the classic MMSE neuropsychological test, language tests seem to be much significantly more sensitive to detect early changes in the cognitive status. Taken together the results may have implications for public health policies dedicated to the aged population.
Acesso aberto (Open Access)
Envelhecimento, linguagem e memória visuo-espacial: um estudo comparativo exploratório do desempenho humano em testes neuropsicológicos selecionados
(Universidade Federal do Pará, 2012-12-06) SOARES, Fernanda Cabral; DINIZ, Cristovam Wanderley Picanço; http://lattes.cnpq.br/2014918752636286; DINIZ, Domingos Luiz Wanderley Picanço; http://lattes.cnpq.br/9601463988942971
The recognition of the limits between normal and pathological ageing is essential for the adoption of evidence based health policies for people with 65 or more years old. This study is part of a systematic effort that the research group of the Laboratory of Investigations in Chronic Neurodegeneration and Infection at the Federal University of Pará has been doing to provide translational information on the normal and altered neurobiology of aging. The long term main goal is to enable evidence based public policies for health ageing in the Amazon Region. This report aims to investigate the effects of aging on the performances in selected neuropsychological tests to assess learning, memory and language impairments. 29 young adult (29.9 ± 1.06 years) and 31 older adults (74.1 ± 1.15 years) were selected and the results of their performances were compared using both parametric tests and multivariate statistical analysis. A general assessment and a variety of cognitive tests including Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), selected visuo-spatial learning and memory tasks from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) and language tests (Phonological and Semantic Verbal Fluencies, Reduced Boston Naming, Narrative Performance on the Boston “cookies theft picture” description and in some of the Battery Montreal Evaluation of Communication - MAC tests. BioEstat version 5.0 and SPSS packages of ware were used for statistical analysis. Parametric Student's t test or nonparametric Mann-Whitney test were applied to detect significant differences (set at p values <0.05). Groups were matched for education and included both males and females. The analysis of subcategories that comprise the MMSE showed significant difference only in the word list memory recall, in which the elderly group showed worse performance compared to the young group. There were statistically significant differences between aged and young adults performances in the following language tests: 1) Reduced Boston Naming, 2) Narrative Performance on the Boston “cookies theft picture” description, 3) Metaphors; 4) Emotional and Linguistic Prosody. As compared to the young adults, aged subjects showed worse performances on ten different measurements of visuo-spatial CANTAB memory and learning tests. Euclidean distances and discriminant analysis from cluster analysis applied to CANTAB and language results demonstrated that CANTAB tests distinguished the groups with higher resolution. The effects of aging o neuropsychological tests results revealed that the visual memory selected tests from CANTAB battery, are more sensitive and better discriminates subgroups in both young adults and aged voluntaries. We concluded that the large-scale application of CANTAB selected tests, both in longitudinal and in cross-sectional studies, will increase our ability to distinguish the limits between normal and pathological aging.
Acesso aberto (Open Access)
Estudo exploratório comparativo do declínio cognitivo senil após estimulação multissensorial e cognitiva em idosos institucionalizados e não institucionalizados
(Universidade Federal do Pará, 2014-01-21) MACEDO, Liliane Dias e Dias de; DINIZ, Cristovam Wanderley Picanço; http://lattes.cnpq.br/2014918752636286
The objective of this study was to investigate, using selected neuropsychological tests, the duration of the beneficial effects of multisensory and cognitive stimulation program in two groups of elderly living in community or in long term care institutions. The participants were institutionalized (n = 20, 75.1 ± 6.8 years old) and non-institutionalized (n =15, 74.1 ± 3.9 years old; mean ± standard deviation), with 65 years or more with no history of traumatic brain injury, cerebrovascular accident or major depression, minimal visual acuity 20/30 as measured by the Snellen test and regular participation in the program of somato-motor and cognitive stimulation. Revaluations were conducted after completion of multisensory and cognitive intervention, in five consecutive time windows (2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 months). Both elderly groups were submitted to the following tests: Boston naming; semantic and phonological verbal fluencies, Mini Mental State Examination, Narrative Tests based on the picture “The Theft of Biscuits” and selected tests of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Communication, and of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Battery (CANTAB). CANTAB tests included Motor Screening Test; Rapid Visual Information Processing; Reaction Time; Paired Associated Learning - PAL; Spatial Working Memory - SWM, and delayed matching to sample. As compared with non-institutionalized a higher rate of cognitive decline was observed in the institutionalized elderly. These results are in line with previous report that associated the poor environmental stimuli of long-term care institutions with faster aging cognitive decline. Furthermore, the ROC analysis indicated a higher specificity, selectivity and efficiency for PAL and SWM tests of the CANTAB battery. as well as memory space for work efficiency allowing the distinction between I and NI groups at all-time windows. The results demonstrated gradual cognitive decline after ended the stimulation program in both groups, with earlier and more severe losses in institutionalized elderly than in those living in the community with their families. The duration of the beneficial effects were closely related to the nature of the workshops and therefore the scores of language tests declined more slowly. The results are of interest to the planner of public policies to recommend regular programs of somato-motor and cognitive stimulation for elderly to reduce the progression of aging cognitive decline.
Acesso aberto (Open Access)
Estudo exploratório de alterações na linguagem em pacientes com Alzheimer em indivíduos com baixa escolaridade
(Universidade Federal do Pará, 2014-03-21) LIEBENTRITT, Edilene Maia; DINIZ, Cristovam Wanderley Picanço; http://lattes.cnpq.br/2014918752636286
The present report describes features of the language, especially some of the discursive aspects of healthy elderly or with mild cognitive decline or with mild or moderate Alzheimer's disease. A total of 44 elderly were evaluated, including 22 healthy, 4 with mild cognitive decline, 9 with mild Alzheimer disease and 9 with moderate Alzheimer's disease, classified by the CDR criteria. Mini-mental state examination, the short version of Boston naming, verbal fluency and narrative tests by visual confrontation (based on the oral description of picture cookie theft) were applied. Performances were estimated on the selected tests and the oral narratives were classified and assessed using Groves - Wright criteria. Parametric statistical tests were applied and the level of significant statistical differences was set at p<0.05. An inventory and analysis of the lexicon and grammatical categories from the oral narratives were performed using Z scores. To that end the STABLEX software was applied. As compared with mild cognitive decline it was found that semantic verbal fluency is better in the healthy elderly. The narratives showed statistically significant differences between healthy elderly and mild cognitive impairment in the analysis of frequency of use of vocabulary and grammatical categories as a whole, and statistically significant differences between healthy and all other groups in the analysis of each grammatical category. The analysis of the vocabulary and grammatical categories allowed to identify impairments of narrative function as measured by the type of vocabulary and preferred or rejected grammatical categories. The results contribute to distinguish the characteristics of the narrative of healthy elderly, elderly with mild cognitive decline or with mild or moderate Alzheimer's disease, pointing out early changes in language aspects that may possibly be used to evaluate the progression of the disease.
Acesso aberto (Open Access)
Imunoreatividade para os receptores de neurotrofinas P75NTR e TrkA na zona subventricular de ratos adultos após isquemia estriatal
(Universidade Federal do Pará, 2015-08-21) TAVARES, Patrycy Assis Noronha; LIMA, Rafael Rodrigues; http://lattes.cnpq.br/3512648574555468; LEAL, Walace Gomes; http://lattes.cnpq.br/2085871005197072
Neurotrophins are growth factors expressed by cells of the nervous system both during development and in adulthood. The Nerve Growth Factor (NGF, the English- Nerve Growth Factor), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (English- BDNF- of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor), Neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), Neurotrophin-4/5 ( NT-4/5), have many functions related to aging and response of nervous tissue to the pathology such as vascular accident (CVA). In this pathology, the increase of the neurotrophin expression can interfere with the degree of neurogenesis in the sub-ventricular zone (SVZ) and redirect the rostral migratory flow of Adult Neural Stem Cells (CTNAs) to the ischemic region. The presence of neurotrophin receptors TrkA and p75NTR in the CTNAs of SVZ indicates that they may participate in the regulation of neurogenesis in this region. Here we describe the influence of an experimental ischemia by microinjection of a vasconstritor Endothelin-1 peptide, which is restricted to the striatum adjacent SVZ; on the pattern of immunoreactivity for TrkA and p75NTR receptors in different survival times. The histopathological pattern of ischemic striatum and the cytoarchitecture of the SVZ, followed by immunohistochemical analysis to the receptors were analyzed. Numerous p75NTR + cells were found in the ipsilateral SVZ and against the injection site, with had a reduction in immunoreactivity at first and third day after ischemia. Few TrkA + cells were found in SVZ of both groups, however, many TrkA + axonal terminals were saw in the ischemic ipsilateral SVZ. Soon after the ischemic process, there was thickening of the SVZ, the concomitant reduction in immunoreactivity for p75NTR and TrkA + arisings of axonal terminals.