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Aim: Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is one of the most used tests for the screening of global cognition in patients with neurological and medical disorders. Norms for the Italian version of the test were published in the 90 s; more recent norms were published in 2020 for Southern Italy only. In the present study, we computed novel adjustment coefficients, equivalent scores and cut-off value for Northern Italy (Lombardia and Veneto) and Italian speaking Switzerland. Methods: We recruited 361 healthy young and old (range: 20–95 years) individuals of both sexes (men: 156, women: 205) and from different educational levels (range: 4–22 years). Neuropsychiatric disorders and severe medical conditions were excluded with a questionnaire and cognitive deficits and were ruled out with standardized neuropsychological tests assessing the main cognitive domains. We used a slightly modified version of MMSE: the word ‘fiore’ was replaced with ‘pane’ in verbal recalls to reduce the common interference error ‘casa, cane, gatto’. The effect of socio-demographic features on performance at MMSE was assessed via multiple linear regression, with test raw score as dependent variable and sex, logarithm of 101—age and square root of schooling as predictors. Results: Mean raw MMSE score was 28.8 ± 1.7 (range: 23–30). Multiple linear regression showed a significant effect of all socio-demographic variables and reported a value of R2 = 0.26. The new cut off was ≥ 26 /30. Conclusion: We provide here updated norms for a putatively more accurate version of Italian MMSE, produced in a Northern population but potentially valid all over Italy.

Background: Patients suffering from stroke in the acute/post-acute phases often present with depressive mood — which negatively impacts on patients’ prognosis. However, psychometric evaluation of mood in acute stroke patients may be challenging due to cognitive deficits. Tools investigating emotional states via a vertical analogue line may overcome language/visuo-spatial disorders. This study thus aimed at (a) investigating the clinical usability of a Visual Analogue Mood Scale (VAMS) in acute stroke patients and (b) investigating the interplay between mood and cognition in this population. Methods: Forty-one acute stroke patients were compared to 41 age-, education- and sex-matched healthy participants (HPs) on the VAMS and on cognitive measures (mental performance in acute stroke, MEPS). A control line bisection (LB) task was administered to control for potential visuo-spatial deficits in patients. Results: Patients reported higher depression levels than HPs (lower VAMS scores); this between-group difference stayed significant when covarying for LB scores. MEPS scores discriminated patients from HPs; among cognitive measures, only the Clock drawing test (CDT) was positively associated with VAMS scores. Lesion side did not affect patients’ mood state; however, disease duration was inversely related to VAMS scores. Discussion: The VAMS proved to be a suitable tool for assessing mood in acute stroke patients, as being independent from post-stroke cognitive sequelae. The CDT might represent an adequate measure of depression-induced, post-stroke cognitive efficiency decrease. Mood disorders might occur and thus should be adequately addressed also in post-acute phases — likely due to longer hospitalization times and regression of anosognosic features.

Background: Working memory (WM) abilities are frequently impaired in neurological disorders affecting fronto-parietal cortical/sub-cortical structures. WM deficits negatively influence interventional outcomes and everyday functioning. This study thus aimed at the following: (a) developing and standardizing an ecologically valid task for WM assessment (Ice Cream Test, ICT); (b) validating and norming a novel WM test (Digit Ordering Test, DOT), as well as providing updated norms for digit span (DS) tasks, in an Italian population sample; (c) introducing a novel scoring procedure for measuring WM. Methods: One-hundred and sixty-eight Italian healthy participants—73 male, 95 females; age: 48.4 ± 19.1 (18–86); education: 12.1 ± 4.8 (4–21)—underwent a thorough WM assessment—DOT, ICT, and both forward and backward DS tasks (FDS, BDS). The ICT requires participants to act as waiters who have to keep track of customers’ orders. For each task, WM and total (T) outcomes were computed, i.e., the number of elements in the longest sequence and that of recalled sequences, respectively. Norms were derived via the equivalent score (ES) method. Results: DS ratios (DSRs) were computed for both WM/S and T outcomes on raw DS measures (BDS divided by FDS). Age and education significantly predicted all WM tasks; sex affected FDS and DSR-T scores (males > females). WM measures were highly internally related. Discussion: The present work provides Italian practitioners with a normatively updated, multi-component, adaptive battery for WM assessment (WoMAB) as well as with novel outcomes which capture different WM facets—WM capacity and attentive monitoring abilities.

Contains fulltext : 298970.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access), Objective: Graphic perseveration in target-cancellation tasks has been frequently described in patients with right brain damage and unilateral spatial neglect. Conversely, among patients with dementia, the spontaneous production of complex graphic perseverations, as well as their triggers and modulating factors, have been poorly understood. Here we describe the case of RM, a patient with Alzheimer's dementia, who produced a rich pattern of complex graphic perseverations at target-cancellation tasks, especially with abstract target stimuli, i.e., lines. Method: We developed an ad-hoc behavioral paradigm to investigate patient RM's performance at two versions of a target-cancellation task: fork-cancellation and line-cancellation. In both versions, RM was asked to cross the blue targets, while crossing a red target was considered a false alarm, as a proxy of incorrect response inhibition capacity. Moreover, we classified the presence and intensity of two other graphic perseverative behaviors, i.e., additional marks and scribble perseveration. Results: Complex graphic perseverations and false alarms were more frequent in the line-compared to the fork-cancellation trials. Conversely, the semantic nature of the task did not differentially modulate the occurrence of additional marks and scribble perseverations. Conclusions: We argue that the breakdown of RM's executive functioning at the semantic-representational level was a prerequisite for such complex graphic perseverations to occur. Furthermore, we provide hints on the potential modulatory effects of stimulus concreteness on the expression of such complex productive behavior., 10 p.

Background and purpose: The number of people suffering from stroke is strongly increasing, giving rise to multiple cognitive deficits which frequently prevent a full recovery. The identification of both spared and impaired cognitive domains has a key role to plan adequate interventions. However, the existing standard tests are either too expensive in terms of time and efforts for patients in acute stage or they derived from instruments addressing different pathologies such as dementia. Methods: We developed a brief neuropsychological battery (mental performance in acute stroke, MEPS) to assess different cognitive domains (language, memory, praxis, visual perception) in acute stroke patients. MEPS was validated by enrolling a sample of 204 patients suffering from stroke in acute stage, and 263 healthy controls participants. Results: The results indicated an adequate construct validity and a high ability in discriminating patients from healthy controls. Conclusions: MEPS can be considered a simple and highly valuable bedside battery, easy to administer, with values of sensitivity and specificity suitable to be proposed as a screening tool for patients with acute stroke.

Background: This study compares the performance at the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) across the healthy adult lifespan in an Italian population sample. Methods: The MMSE and MoCA were administered to 407 Italian healthy native-speakers (165 males; age range 20–93 years; education range 4–25 years). A generalized Negative Binomial mixed model was run to profile MMSE and MoCA scores across 8 different age classes (≤ 30; 31–40; 41–50; 51–60; 61–70; 71–80; 81–85; ≥ 86) net of education and sex. Results: MMSE and MoCA total scores declined with age (p < 0.001), with the MoCA proving to be “more difficult” than the MMSE (p < 0.001). The Age*Test interaction (p < 0.001) indicates that the MoCA proved to profile a sufficiently linear involutional trend in cognition with advancing age and to be able to detect poorer cognitive performances in individuals aged ≥ 71 years. By contrast, MMSE scores failed in capturing the expected age-related trajectory, reaching a plateau in the aforementioned age classes. Discussion: The MoCA seems to be more sensitive than the MMSE in detecting age-related physiological decline of cognitive functioning across the healthy adult lifespan. The MoCA might be therefore more useful than the MMSE as a test for general cognitive screening aims.

Background: This study aimed to provide equating norms for the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) from a sample of healthy Italian adults. Methods: Four-hundred and seven Italian healthy adults (165 males, 242 females; mean age = 60.61 ± 13.74 years, range= 20–93; mean education = 12.2 ± 4.42 years, range= 4–25) were administered the MMSE and the MoCA. ‘MMSE-to-MoCA’ and ‘MoCA-to-MMSE’ conversion tables were derived via log-linear smoothing equi-percentile equating (LSEE). Equivalence between empirical and conversion-derived scores was determined with a two one-sided test (TOST) procedure. Results: Conversion-derived scores were statistically equivalent to empirical ones for both the MMSE (p = 0.948) and the MoCA (p = 0.437). The LSEE yielded impossible/unreliable conversion estimates for floor scores on both tests, whereas conversions for uppermost scores were highly consistent. Discussion: The present data will help avoid inter-rater heterogeneity in cross-sectionally and longitudinally adopting either one of the two cognitive screening tests, and to retrospective analyze data collected via either one test or the other.

The meiobenthic community of Potter Cove (King George Island, west Antarctic Peninsula) was investigated, focusing on responses to summer/winter conditions in two study sites contrasting in terms of organic matter inputs. Meiofaunal densities were found to be higher in summer and lower in winter, although this result was not significantly related to the in situ availability of organic matter in each season. The combination of food quality and competition for food amongst higher trophic levels may have played a role in determining the standing stocks at the two sites. Meiobenthic winter abundances were sufficiently high to infer that energy sources were not limiting during winter, supporting observations from other studies for both shallow water and continental shelf Antarctic ecosystems. Recruitment within meiofaunal communities was coupled to the seasonal input of fresh detritus for harpacticoid copepods but not for nematodes, suggesting that species-specific life history or trophic features form an important element of the responses observed.

Because of the unique conditions that exist around the Antarctic continent, Southern Ocean (SO) ecosystems are very susceptible to the growing impact of global climate change and other anthropogenic influences. Consequently, there is an urgent need to understand how SO marine life will cope with expected future changes in the environment. Studies of Antarctic organisms have shown that individual species and higher taxa display different degrees of sensitivity to environmental shifts, making it difficult to predict overall community or ecosystem responses. This emphasizes the need for an improved understanding of the Antarctic benthic ecosystemresponse to global climate change using amultitaxon approach with consideration of different levels of biological organization.Here, we provide a synthesis of the ability of five important Antarctic benthic taxa (Foraminifera, Nematoda, Amphipoda, Isopoda, and Echinoidea) to cope with changes in the environment (temperature, pH, ice cover, ice scouring, food quantity, and quality) that are linked to climatic changes. Responses from individual to the taxon-specific community level to these drivers will vary with taxon but will include local species extinctions, invasions ofwarmer-water species, shifts in diversity, dominance, and trophic group composition, all with likely consequences for ecosystemfunctioning. Limitations in our current knowledge and understanding of climate change effects on the different levels are discussed. © 2012 The Authors., IF: new journal, SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

We report the results of a detailed investigation on the trophoecology of two dominant meiofaunal species at the Håkon Mosby Mud Volcano (HMMV), a deep-sea cold methane-venting seep. Analyses of fatty acids (FAs) and their stable carbon isotopes were used to determine the importance of chemosynthetic nutritional pathways for the dominant copepod species (morphologically very similar to Tisbe wilsoni) inhabiting the volcano’s centre and the abundant nematode Halomonhystera disjuncta from the surrounding microbial mats. The strong dominance of bacterial biomarkers (16:1ω7c, 18:1ω7c and 16:1ω8c) coupled with their individual light carbon isotopes signatures (δ 13C ranging from −52 to −81‰) and the lack of symbiotic relationships with prokaryotes (as revealed by molecular analyses and fluorescent in situ hybridisation) indicated that chemosynthetically derived carbon constitutes the main diet of both species. However, the copepod showed a stronger reliance on the utilisation of methanotrophic bacteria and contained polyunsaturated FAs of bacterial origin (20:5ω3 and 22:6ω3 with isotope signatures δ 13C <−80‰). Instead, the FA profiles of H. disjuncta suggested that sulphide-oxidising bacteria constituted the main diet of this nematode. Therefore, HMMV can be regarded as a persistent deep-sea cold seep, allowing a chemosynthesis-based trophic specialisation by the dominant meiofaunal species inhabiting its sediments. The present investigation, through the determination of the fatty acid profiles, provides the first evidence for trophic specialisation of meiofauna associated with sub-habitats within a cold seep.