The behavioural overlap observed between developmental dyslexia and other neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) such as ADHD and ASD is an ongoing topic of research. The complexity of these...Show moreThe behavioural overlap observed between developmental dyslexia and other neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) such as ADHD and ASD is an ongoing topic of research. The complexity of these conditions, coupled with the overlap in behavioural characteristics, contributes to the challenge of accurately diagnosing dyslexia. Consequently, there is a prevalent tendency for learning disabilities such as dyslexia to be underdiagnosed. This study aims to examine whether there are specific cognitive impairments attributable to dyslexia, that are not observed in NDDs in general. The answer to this question was examined by comparing the cognitive profile of children diagnosed with a NDD and dyslexia to children diagnosed with a NDD but not dyslexia. The WISC-V was administered to 57 children aged between 7 and 16 years. The findings of this study showed no differences in the frequency of a deviant IQ profile between children with a NDD, with or without (suspected) dyslexia. In addition, the results showed no stronger relative weakness on the indexes of working memory, verbal comprehension, and processing speed for children with dyslexia compared to children with a NDD but not dyslexia. To conclude, the current study found no evidence for specific cognitive impairments attributable to dyslexia. Due to the small sample size in this study, further conclusions cannot be drawn from these results. Since the obtained results contradict the results of previous studies, a follow-up study to gain more knowledge about the cognitive profile of dyslexia in co-occurrence with other NDDs is advised.Show less
This study aimed to investigate the relationship of NOTCH3 variant positions, the causal genetic variant of CADASIL, with executive dysfunction measured at baseline as well as two years later at...Show moreThis study aimed to investigate the relationship of NOTCH3 variant positions, the causal genetic variant of CADASIL, with executive dysfunction measured at baseline as well as two years later at follow-up. This was done by comparing NOTCH3 variant positions in groups (risk categories) associated with a high (N = 104) or moderate (N = 76) risk of developing worse disease outcomes. It was expected that the high risk group would perform significantly worse and decline significantly more than the moderate risk group on neuropsychological tests measuring executive functioning. Executive dysfunction was assessed using the following neuropsychological tests: Trail Making Test, Stroop Color and Word Test, WAIS-R Digit Symbol Substitution Test and WAIS-IV Block Design Test. A Linear Mixed Model (Repeated Measurements) analysis was performed to answer the objectives with a total of 180 included participants. There was no significant difference in performance between the risk categories at baseline, nor in the decline in performance over the two-year follow-up span. In an exploratory follow-up analysis, we examined whether decline was present at all, regardless of risk category. This was only the case for one of four neuropsychological tests. In conclusion, future clinical trials are needed to provide better understanding of how NOTCH3 aggregation impacts executive dysfunction and its development thereof within CADASIL. Subsequently, this could allow for more accurate individualised disease progression predictions.Show less
Anorexia nervosa (AN) has the highest mortality rate among all psychiatric disorders, with approximately 5% of the patients dying within four years of diagnosis. Since AN is influenced by various...Show moreAnorexia nervosa (AN) has the highest mortality rate among all psychiatric disorders, with approximately 5% of the patients dying within four years of diagnosis. Since AN is influenced by various factors, predicting the clinical course remains challenging. As previous studies have suggested that early intervention for AN may have the greatest potential to reduce harm, it is important to diagnose AN at a very early stage and provide a tailored treatment plan. This study aimed to examine whether readiness and motivation to change and neurocognitive functioning predict treatment outcome during the acute phase of AN. The objectives of this study were to examine whether readiness and motivation to change predicts (1) changes in BMI-SDS and fat percentage after one year of treatment, (2) changes in severity of anxiety, depression, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) symptoms after one year of follow-up, and (3) whether neurocognitive functions predict changes in BMI-SDS and fat percentage after one year of treatment. A longitudinal study was conducted in a sample of 79 first-onset AN patients aged from 12-22 years. Readiness and motivation to change was measured using the Dutch version of the Readiness and Motivation to Change Questionnaire. BMI-SDS was measured by calculating BMI-length/weight SDS. Fat percentage was measured using the BOD POD. Anxiety, depression, and OCD symptoms were assessed with the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders, the Dutch version of the Beck Depression Inventory, and the (Children's) Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, respectively. Neurocognitive functioning was measured with the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence and the Rey Complex Figure Test. Simple linear regressions showed that readiness and motivation to change and neurocognition in the acute phase of the disease did not significantly predict changes in BMI-SDS, fat percentage, or changes in symptoms of anxiety, depression, and OCD after one year of follow-up. Future research should aim to examine readiness and motivation to change for each symptom domain instead of a global state, differentiate between intelligence levels, examine treatment outcomes in a multidimensional view, and assess multiple points in time.Show less
Background: The aim of this study is to investigate differences in QoL between males and females visiting a memory clinic. Knowledge about determinants of QoL is limited, especially from patients'...Show moreBackground: The aim of this study is to investigate differences in QoL between males and females visiting a memory clinic. Knowledge about determinants of QoL is limited, especially from patients' own perspective. We examined whether there was a relationship between sex and QoL in patients in different stages and with different types of dementia taken together (total sample), whether this relationship existed within patient groups of specific stages or types of dementia separately and whether this relationship in the total sample was mediated by anxiety, depression, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility and/or coping style. Methods: In total, 375 patients aged between 32 and 82 years, who visited the memory clinic and who completed an 88-item self-reported questionnaire, were included in the study. Linear regressions were performed to assess the relationship between sex and QoL and whether stage and type of dementia affect this relationship. In addition, we performed mediation analyses to assess whether anxiety, depression, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility and/or coping styles mediate the relationship between sex and QoL. In all our analyses, age and education were added as covariates. We corrected for multiple testing using False Discovery Rate (FDR). Results: Sex was not associated with QoL (p = .160) in the total sample. Sex was also not associated with QoL within the different stages (CN p = .847, MCI p = .688 and dementia p = .688), or within different types of dementia (FTD p = .895, AD p = .809 and other types of dementia p = .895). Our mediation analyses showed that only anxiety was a significant mediator in the relationship between sex and QoL (p = .010). Conclusion: In our study, there was no relationship between sex and QoL. For patients trying to maintain or improve their QoL, it is important to be aware of the factors that play an important role in QoL.Show less
Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the accessibility of mental healthcare was severely disrupted. One specific part of psychological diagnostics that proved to be challenging without an in-...Show moreBackground: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the accessibility of mental healthcare was severely disrupted. One specific part of psychological diagnostics that proved to be challenging without an in- person visit, was the conductance of a neuropsychological assessment (NPA). NPAs are often performed using paper-and-pencil tasks, which leaves room for innovation in using digital tools, increasing accuracy of test scores. Therefore, the present study was aimed to investigate a small part of the remote and digital assessment of cognitive functioning, in specific: concept shifting. Usually, the Trail Making Task (TMT) is used to assess concept shifting, however, previous studies pointed out problems regarding the structural non-equivalence of the two trials in the TMT, resulting in inequal motor skills needed to complete the subtests. The current study aims to investigate whether an alternative task, the Concept Shifting Task (CST), might be a superior alternative for the TMT to measure concept shifting. The CST claims to be able to control for motor speed, and this claim was tested. To do so, a Finger Tapping Task (FFT) was included in the study as a measure of motor speed. Methods: A cross-sectional study, using a within-subject design was performed: all participants were asked to complete the FTT, the TMT and the CST. Thirty-two healthy adult participants completed these three tasks using software that allowed for digital and remote assessment. Linear regression models and correlation analyses were used to answer the research questions. Results: Motor speed did not explain a significant amount of variance in the TMT outcome measure (p = .821). Additionally, there was no significant correlation between the TMT and CST outcome measures (p = .68). A strong correlation between a CST motor variable and motor speed as measured through the FTT was found (r = -.70; p = <.001). Conclusions: There were no issues regarding the remote and digital testing set-up. The results revealed that, contrary to expectation, motor speed was not associated with TMT performance. Also, TMT performance and CST performance were not correlated, indicating that the tests are not interchangeable. The CST has, however, proven to be able to control for speed.Show less
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with a heterogeneous profile. It is a highly heritable disorder with an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance. The three most...Show moreFrontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with a heterogeneous profile. It is a highly heritable disorder with an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance. The three most common mutations are found in the microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) gene, progranulin (GRN) gene and hexanucleotide repeat expansion in the chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72) gene. Sensitive outcome measures in early stage genetic FTD are necessary for upcoming disease-modifying therapeutic trials. It is known that social cognition declines in genetic mutation carriers of FTD. The Dutch version of the Social Norms Questionnaire (SNQ-NL) measures the degree to which subjects understand and identify accepted social norms and is able to differentiate FTD patients from healthy controls. The aim of this study was to identify if the SNQ-NL can already indicate social cognitive changes in the presymptomatic phase of FTD. We examined group differences between patients with FTD (n = 34), presymptomatic mutation carriers (n = 55), prodromal mutation carriers (n = 20), and control participants (n = 51) in Total score, Break errors and Overadhere errors of the SNQ-NL, associations with other cognitive functions, and longitudinal data in a subset were further explored. Results showed that the SNQ-NL Total Score and Overadhere errors differed between patients and the other participant groups, but not between presymptomatic or prodromal mutation carriers and control participants. Differences between patients and the other participant groups were also found for the SNQ-NL Direct/indirect ratio. The SNQ-NL Total score and Overadhere scores significantly correlated with cognitive flexibility, theory of mind and confrontation naming. None of the SNQ-NL variables correlated significantly with emotion recognition. No interaction effect is found between groups over time for one of the SNQ-NL variables. In conclusion, present results showed that the SNQ-NL can differentiate between FTD patients, presymptomatic and prodromal mutation carriers. No evidence is found for the SNQ-NL as an indicator of social cognitive changes in the presymptomatic phase of genetic FTD.Show less
Children who are born with perinatal asphyxia (PA) in the Netherlands, have been treated with therapeutic hypothermia (TH) since 2018. So far, little is known about the cognitive outcome of these...Show moreChildren who are born with perinatal asphyxia (PA) in the Netherlands, have been treated with therapeutic hypothermia (TH) since 2018. So far, little is known about the cognitive outcome of these children. This study explores a possible interaction effect between birthweight and TH on Total IQ and Processing Speed in children 10 years of age known with PA. Some of the children treated with TH were also cognitive assessed at the age of 5 year. For these children, we looked at the course of cognitive development between 5 and 10 years of age. Fifty children were assessed at the age of 10 years with the Wechsler intelligence scale (WISC-III-NL). Fifteen of these children were also assessed at the age of 5 years with the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of intelligence (WPPSI-III-NL). There was no interaction effect found between TH and birthweight on Total IQ and processing speed scores assessed at the age of 10 years. Furthermore, there were no significant differences found between Total IQ and processing speed scores assessed at 5 and 10 years of age. Since this was only exploratory research more research is needed to draw more reliable conclusions.Show less
Objective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common neurodegenerative disease among young adults, of which 40-70% of the patients suffer from cognitive impairment. Currently, there is no...Show moreObjective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common neurodegenerative disease among young adults, of which 40-70% of the patients suffer from cognitive impairment. Currently, there is no biomarker predicting the cognitive status of MS patients. This study performed a principal component analysis in order to find a disease pattern that can aid in the differentiation of cognitive impairment in MS. Methods: A principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to create a disease pattern based on differences in whole-brain voxel intensities of conventional MRI sequences (T1, T2, and T2- FLAIR) and magnetization transfer (MT)-based MRI of 15 cognitively preserved MS patients (MSCP), 15 impaired patients (MS-CI) and 15 controls. A leave-one-out approach was used to validate the disease patterns between different cognitive performance statuses. Results: None of the conventional MRI sequences nor MT-based MRI were able to find a significant disease pattern for separating MS patients on cognitive status. The frontal cortex, periventricular zone, longitudinal fasciculus, thalamus and brainstem were more severely affected in cognitive impaired MS patients, although significance was not reached. Conclusion: Although the brain patterns created with both conventional MRI sequences and MTbased MRI sequences for evaluating cognitive performance in MS were not significant, the PCA is still a promising technique, when a larger sample size can be included.Show less
Background: Depression symptoms are common in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients. This could be caused by the limited activities of daily life experienced by RA patients as well as by the...Show moreBackground: Depression symptoms are common in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients. This could be caused by the limited activities of daily life experienced by RA patients as well as by the inflammation pathways altered by RA which are known to influence depression. Bright light therapy (BLT) has previously shown to be effective to tackle depression caused by an altered circadian rhythm. As a disrupted circadian rhythm is also common in RA patients, BLT might be effective as therapy to treat depression in RA. Objective: The goal of the present study is to examine the effects of BLT on depression and mental health, as well as to explorative examine whether this effect is mediated by changes in circadian rhythmicity in RA patients. Method: This study is a randomized, double-blind, parallel-arm, placebo controlled single center pilot trial study. It consists of 48 RA patients, divided into intervention group with active BLT, and control group with sham BLT. Measurements were taken at three periods: baseline (T0), at the end of the 4-week with BLT (T1), and at follow-up four weeks after BLT (T2). Measurement tools used consisted of a depression scale (HADS) and a mental health scale (RAND 36), as well as the time point of melatonin onset measured by the Dim Light Melatonin Onset test (DLMO). BLT was administered with Luminette glasses which emitted a different color for the intervention group (blue light, to induce circadian phase shift) compared to control group. Results: The results suggest that there is no significant difference with regards to depression, mental health and DLMO between the two groups in the changes between the measurement points from T0 to T1 and from T0 to T2. No significant results were found with regards to the mediating role of DLMO in the relationship between group and depression and mental health. Conclusion: No significant effects of group were found in the present study, with regards to changes in depression, mental health and DLMO, and no mediation effect of the DLMO in the relation between group, depression, and mental health was found. A possible explanation is the low levels of depression reported by the participants at baseline. Further studies are required before disregarding BLT as a potential therapeutic tool to treat depression in RA patients.Show less
In the search for a more affordable, less invasive biomarker to accurately diagnose and prognose Alzheimer’s disease (AD), measuring cortical thickness via magnetic resonance imaging is a promising...Show moreIn the search for a more affordable, less invasive biomarker to accurately diagnose and prognose Alzheimer’s disease (AD), measuring cortical thickness via magnetic resonance imaging is a promising method. Specific regions on the cortex are found to be related to AD, referred to as AD signature regions, but evidence for the persistence of the relationship between cortical thickness and cognitive decline in the preclinical phase of the disease is lacking. The aim of this study is to investigate whether a lower cortical thickness is related to worse cognitive performance and can predict cognitive decline over time. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that this trend is influenced by the presence of other AD biomarkers, e.g. amyloid status. In a cross-sectional and longitudinal study, we investigated 189 cognitively normal older adults (91 twin pairs and 7 single twins) and measured cortical thickness via magnetic resonance imaging, cognitive performance during neuropsychological assessment and amyloid pathology in positron emission tomography and cerebrospinal fluid. Neuropsychological assessment was repeated after approximately two years. Cognitive performance was divided into four domains: memory, attention, executive functions and language. Participants were on average 70.23 (SD = 7.46) years and 107 (57%) were female. Cross-sectionally, we found that lower cortical thickness was related to worse memory performance (b = 0.133 [SE = 0.046], p = 0.004). When cortical thickness on separate AD signature regions was examined, we found that certain regions were related to performance on memory and executive functioning. Longitudinally, we found that cortical thickness at baseline could not predict cognitive performance over time. When examining the role of amyloid status in these relationships cross-sectionally, we found that both lower cortical thickness and positive amyloid status were related to worse memory performance (respectively, b = 0.237 [SE = 0.053], p = <.001 and b = -0.240 [SE = 0.108], p = 0.026), yet the interaction effect was not significant. These results provide evidence for the cross-sectional relationship between lower cortical thickness and worse cognitive performance, more specifically worse memory and executive functions performance. Future research must determine whether cortical thinning in contrast to cortical thickness, can predict cognitive performance over time. In that case, individuals at risk of AD can be easier identified in a more affordable and less invasive way.Show less
