Visuospatial Research Articles

45 Can Surgical Ablation Modify a Developmental Visuospatial Impairment in Periventricular Nodular Heterotopia? A Case Study

Objective:Periventricular nodular heterotopia (PVNH) is a malformation of cortical development (MCD) characterized by aggregates of gray matter adjacent to the lateral ventricular walls. Clinical presentation is heterogeneous with higher rates of seizures and reading impairments typically in the setting of average IQ (Felker et al. 2011). The majority of neuropsychological inquiry has focused on reading fluency, though a single case study showed a neurocognitive profile consistent with nonverbal learning deficits in a 7-year old boy with suspected autosomal dominant bilateral heterotopia (McCann et al., 2008). Given the periventricular focus and potential for unilateral presentations, non-linguistic neurocognitive sequelae may be expected in cases affecting the non-dominant hemisphere, yet this remains largely unexplored. Surgical ablation by laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) is increasingly used for epilepsy management in PVNH (Thompson et al., 2016, Whiting et al. 2020). However, there are no reported studies exploring cognitive outcomes following LITT of focal PVNH.Participants and Methods:A 46-year-old, right handed, Black female with 16 years of education presented for management of medically refractory epilepsy. Epilepsy monitoring captured intermittent slow waves in the right temporal lobe, interictal polyspikes in the right temporal lobe, and three epileptic events all emanating from the right temporal lobe. MRI showed extensive migrational anomalies involving the right hemisphere posteriorly consistent with PVNH with no associated mesial temporal sclerosis. Pre-surgical neuropsychological evaluation showed a significant split in IQ, with verbal IQ = 99 and performance IQ = 76. Testing indicated circumscribed deficits in visuoperceptual judgement, visuoconstruction, visuospatial reasoning, non-verbal recall, and several executive weaknesses in the context of otherwise average neurocognitive functioning. Fine motor speed was impaired bilaterally. Her profile was suggestive of non-dominant fronto-parieto-temporal dysfunction, concordant with the remainder of her work-up. By history she reported longstanding academic weaknesses in math and organization with strong verbal and reading abilities.Results:The patient underwent partial LITT of right PVNH sparing areas involved in visual function. At 6-month follow-up she was seizure free (Engel outcome 1A). Post-surgical neuropsychological evaluation showed reliable improvements in perceptual reasoning, aspects of learning/memory, and verbal naming. Visuoconstruction remained impaired but qualitatively improved. She also reported subjective experience of improved mental clarity and was applying for jobs after regaining driving privileges.Conclusions:This case demonstrates symptoms and history concerning for a nonverbal learning disorder in an adult woman with epilepsy secondary to right hemisphere PVNH and underscores the importance of exploring the range of neurocognitive profiles in MCD. Her notable neurocognitive and functional improvements following surgical ablation and seizure freedom suggest a possible release of function in the absence of inhibitory neurophysiological influences. This raises interesting questions about the endurance of her developmental profile. This case report contributes to our understanding of neuroanatomical correlates of neurocognitive and neurodevelopmental presentations. Future investigations should explore neuropsychological changes following LITT for PVNH.

52 Stable Cognitive Impairment and Increased Psychiatric Symptoms in a Patient with Neuropathologically Progressive Fahr’s Disease After 2-Year Repeated Neuropsychological Assessment

Objective:Fahr’s disease is a rare genetic neurological disorder characterized by abnormal idiopathic calcification of the basal ganglia, typically with extrapyramidal symptoms, speech difficulty, behavioral disturbances, and progressive neurologic dysfunction. A small number of case reports have explored the neuropsychological profile of Fahr’s disease patients, and even fewer have followed the course of neuropsychological functioning over time.Participants and Methods:A 53-year-old Asian woman presented for a neuropsychological reevaluation (2021) after experiencing a recurrence of memory difficulties and mood changes. Relevant medical history was significant for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and Fahr’s disease. Following an episode of acute confusion, the patient underwent a head CT (2019) which revealed extensive calcification throughout the cerebellum, central pons, and periventricular and subcortical white matter, suggestive of Fahr’s disease. Two months later, she underwent an initial neuropsychological evaluation (2019), which demonstrated prominent attention and processing speed deficits contributing to variably impaired new learning and memory along with spatial planning and problem-solving difficulties. The etiology of her cognitive deficits was determined to likely reflect metabolic and immune instability, consistent with her history of SLE and Fahr’s disease. An updated CT (2021) revealed increased calcification throughout the bilateral corona radiata, basal ganglia, cerebellar hemispheres, and midbrain, which was determined to be compatible with progressive Fahr’s disease.Results:The patient’s neurocognitive profile from current neuropsychological testing (2021) was marked by notable deficits in attention and processing speed, delayed memory, problem solving, visuospatial reasoning, and motor dexterity. Compared to her initial evaluation, her cognitive profile remained stable save for a slight decline in processing speed. The largest change was seen within the psychiatric domain. Self-reported depressive symptoms involving anhedonia, concentration difficulties, and anxiety symptoms involving nervousness and tension were more pronounced in her current evaluation. In addition, she endorsed an increase in apathy compared to her initial evaluation.Conclusions:The cognitive profile seen in this patient is consistent with the current literature relating to the clinical sequelae of Fahr’s disease in patients that eventually went on to develop dementia. Despite an increase in brain calcification seen on CT imaging over an 18-month interval, the patient’s neurocognitive profile remained relatively stable. An increase in psychiatric symptoms appeared to be the most prominent change over repeated neuropsychological assessment, which elucidates the heterogenous course of Fahr’s disease from a neuropsychological perspective. Further exploration of this disorder is warranted to better understand the clinical progression of symptoms over time.

51 Trajectories and Predictors of Cognitive Change Following COVID-19

Objective:Acute cognitive complications following COVID-19 infection have been appreciated in a subset of patients since the early months of the global pandemic. Emerging data reveal that some patients go on to experience cognitive improvement, whereas others may experience further cognitive decline. We aimed to assess trajectories and predictors of cognitive change in a sample of post-COVID-19 patients.Participants and Methods:This prospective cohort study assessed longitudinal cognitive change in adults receiving care for COVID-19 in the Johns Hopkins Post-Acute COVID-19 Team (JH PACT) clinic. Participants self-administered the Digital Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment (DANA) battery of seven cognitive tests and a performance-based measure of cognitive fatigue on up to six occasions over six weeks. Improvement or decline between the first and last assessment was defined as change of >1 standard deviation of the baseline mean of each outcome. Potential predictors of change included demographic features (age, sex, race/ethnicity, education), COVID-19 illness characteristics (hospitalization or ICU stay, months since symptom onset), and comorbid disease burden. Analyses included measures of central tendency, independent samples t-tests, and chi-square tests of independence.Results:Of the 36 enrolled participants, 29 (81%) completed at least one DANA assessment (M = 4.7 assessments, SD = 1.8). Those completing at least three assessments (n = 24, 66.7%) were included in the present analyses (71% female; 58% white; M age = 54 years, SD = 10.9; M education = 14.6 years, SD = 2.4; M months since COVID-19 symptom onset at recruitment = 9.8, SD = 4.7; M comorbidities = 2.8, SD = 2.0). Fatigue was the most frequently improved outcome measure, with 41.7% of participants scoring >1 standard deviation above the baseline mean fatigue score at their final assessment. Among cognitive outcomes, the greatest frequency of improvement was observed on tests assessing rapid spatial processing (37.5%), processing speed (33.3%), and memory (33.3%). There were no consistent predictors of improvement, but several subtest-specific findings emerged. Specifically, (a) more comorbidities were positively associated with rate of fatigue reduction (p = .04), (b) longer duration since COVID-19 illness was positively associated with rates of memory improvement (p = .02), (c) older age, male sex, and more comorbidities were positively associated with rate of improvement in reaction time (ps < .05), and (d) more assessments completed was positively associated with rates of improvements in working memory (ps < .05). Response inhibition (12.5%), simple reaction times (16.7%), and working memory (16.7%) showed the lowest rates of improvement over time. Declines in cognition were infrequent, with 4.2 - 8.3% (n = 1 to 2) declining on measures of procedural reaction time, spatial processing, inhibitory control, or working memory.Conclusions:At an average of >9 months following acute COVID-19 illness, we observed longitudinal improvements in cognitive fatigue as well as processing speed, memory, and spatial reasoning. Consistent predictors of recovery were not identified, although age, sex, comorbid conditions, and time since illness predicted rates of improvement in select domains. Further analyses with a larger sample size and more stringent analyses are needed to confirm and extend these findings.

25 Update to: The Predictive Utility of Various Subjective Cognitive Complaints Using Item Level Data from the Everyday Cognition (ECog) Scales

Objective:Early identification of individuals at risk for dementia provides an opportunity for risk reduction strategies. Many older adults (30-60%) report specific subjective cognitive complaints, which has also been shown to increase risk for dementia. The purpose of this study is to identify whether there are particular types of complaints that are associated with future: 1) progression from a clinical diagnosis of normal to impairment (either Mild Cognitive impairment or dementia) and 2) longitudinal cognitive decline.Participants and Methods:415 cognitively normal older adults were monitored annually for an average of 5 years. Subjective cognitive complaints were measured using the Everyday Cognition Scales (ECog) across multiple cognitive domains (memory, language, visuospatial abilities, planning, organization and divided attention). Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess associations between self-reported ECog items at baseline and progression to impairment. A total of 114 individuals progressed to impairment over an average of 4.9 years (SD=3.4 years, range=0.8-13.8). A subset of individuals (n=352) underwent repeat cognitive assessments for an average of 5.3 years. Mixed effects models with random intercepts and slopes were used to assess associations between baseline ECog items and change in episodic memory or executive function on the Spanish and English Neuropsychological Assessment Scales. Time in years since baseline, the ECog items, and the interaction were key terms of interest in the models. Separate models for both the progression analyses and mixed effects models were fit for each ECog item that included age at the baseline visit, gender, and years of education as covariates.Results:More complaints on five of the eight memory items, three of the nine language items, one of the seven visuospatial items, two of the five planning items, and one of the six organization items were associated with progression to impairment (HR=1.25 to 1.59, ps=0.003 to 0.03). No items from the divided attention domain were significantly associated with progression to impairment. In individuals reporting no difficulty on ECog items at the baseline visit there was no significant change over time in episodic memory(p>0.4). More complaints on seven of the eight memory items, two of the nine language items, and three of the seven visuospatial items were associated with more decline in episodic memory (ps=0.003 to 0.04). No items from the planning, organization, or divided attention domains were significantly associated with episodic memory decline. Among those reporting no difficulty on ECog items at the baseline visit there was slight decline in executive function (ps=<0.001 to 0.06). More complaints on three of the eight memory items and three of the nine language items were associated with decline in executive function (ps=0.002 to 0.047). No items from the visuospatial, planning, organization, or divided attention domains were significantly associated with decline in executive function.Conclusions:These findings suggest that, among cognitively normal older adults at baseline, specific complaints across several cognitive domains are associated with progression to impairment. Complaints in the domains of memory and language are associated with decline in both episodic memory and executive function.

59 Perinatal Risk Factors and Cognitive Outcomes in Children HIV-Exposed, Uninfected

Objective:Children who are HIV-exposed uninfected (CHEU) are at risk of neurodevelopmental impairments due to perinatal HIV and antiretroviral therapy exposure as well as additional health and psychosocial burdens. There is limited understanding of the impact of perinatal risk factors on long-term outcomes of CHEU. The present study investigated the association between perinatal risk factors and the intellectual and language abilities in CHEU and children who are HIV-unexposed uninfected (CHUU).Participants and Methods:CHEU and CHUU, 6 to 10 years, of age underwent neurodevelopmental assessments through the Kids Imaging and Neurocognitive Development (KIND) study at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada between January 2020 and August 2022. CHUU were recruited from the community with similar sociodemographic backgrounds based on residential area in Toronto and parental income levels. Measures of Full-Scale IQ (FSIQ), Verbal Comprehension (VCI), Visual Spatial skills (VSI), Fluid Reasoning (FRI), Working Memory (WMI), and Processing Speed (PSI) were evaluated with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fifth Edition. Core Language, Receptive Language, and Expressive Language skills were assessed with the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals - Fifth Edition. Perinatal risk factors included birthweight, birth complications (e.g., premature rupture of membranes, jaundice, etc.), maternal smoking and alcohol use during pregnancy, and NICU admission. Analyses of variance and chi-square tests were performed to investigate group differences and multiple regression analyses tested the relation between neurodevelopmental measures and birth factors. Significance was held at p <0.05.Results:36 CHEU (21 female, 8.74 ±1.56 years) and 26 CHUU (12 female, 8.53 ±1.50 years) children were included. For both groups, mean standardized scores of the cognitive abilities assessed were in the average range. CHEU had significantly lower birth weight than CHUU, but there were no differences between these groups with respect to maternal smoking and alcohol use, birth complications or NICU admission. There were no between group differences identified for the intellectual and language abilities. In the CHEU group, birthweight was significantly associated with lower VCI, WMI, and expressive language. In the CHUU group, prenatal alcohol and smoking exposure was associated with lower VCI scores. Birth complications were associated with lower WMI, PSI, and FSIQ scores.Conclusions:In this interim analysis, perinatal risk factors impacted neurodevelopmental outcomes of CHEU and CHUU differently. While the groups did not differ in frequency of birth complications and maternal smoking and alcohol use, these factors negatively impacted aspects of intellectual ability in the CHUU group. CHEU with lower birthweight are at greater risk of working memory and language difficulties, supporting the need for early interventions and close neuropsychological follow-up of this population throughout childhood.

50 The Neuropsychological Profile of S/A/3A-Related Disorder/Witteveen-Kolk Syndrome: A Case Study

Objective:The SIN3A gene mutation is a rare genetic mutation with few reported cases (< 1 in 1,000,000) associated with autosomal dominant Witteveen-Kolk Syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental syndrome only discussed in the past decade (Witteveen et al., 2016). This syndrome can be characterized by short stature, distinctive facial features, developmental delay, mild intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, hypotonia, and seizures (Balasubramanian et al., 2021), however a paucity of information regarding comprehensive neuropsychological functioning in these individuals is present in the literature, and even this recent review study noted that intellectual ability was rarely assessed through formal testing (6 of 28 cases). We present a case, “M”, to help describe a potential pattern of neurocognitive strengths and weaknesses in this population.Participants and Methods:The participant, “M”, was diagnosed with a de novo mutation in the SIN3A gene at the age of 11 years with previous diagnoses of global developmental delay, hypotonia, autism spectrum disorder, specific learning disability in mathematics, developmental coordination disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. M was seen for a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation at 11 years of age at an academic medical center, which consisted of comprehensive review of medical and school records, parent and child interview, questionnaires, and performance-based testing.Results:M’s verbal and language skills emerged as a particular strength. Her verbal memory, verbal fluency, and verbal comprehension skills were all in the average range or above, as were reading, reading comprehension, and spelling skills. M demonstrated a pattern of notable weaknesses in visuospatial skills, including impaired visuospatial reasoning, visuomotor integration, visual scanning, visual perception, and visual memory. Additionally, M demonstrated a slight weakness in Low Average mathematics skills. M also demonstrated fine motor impairment with impaired speed, coordination, and accuracy. Although immediate auditory attention was noted to be average, performance on a test of sustained attention indicated a moderate persistence of attention concerns. Likewise, M’s mother reported her to be very elevated on symptoms of both attention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. Finally, M’s mother reported elevated concerns related to M’s peer relations and atypical behaviors and below average adaptive skills.Conclusions:Due to the rarity of M’s de novo mutation in the SIN3A gene, M’s pattern of weaknesses in visuospatial skills, fine motor skills, attention/executive functioning, and social skills, as well as her strengths in verbal skills can aid in further understanding the pattern of cognitive strengths and weaknesses in children with a mutation in the SIN3A gene. Additionally, given her mild weaknesses in math skills, it is possible that M’s performance on mathematics assessments may be impacted by her visuospatial weakness and thus better conceptualized as a visuospatial issue rather than a learning disability. Overall, this case can aid in identifying specific cognitive risk factors, such as visuospatial skills, in this population and lead to more targeted assessment and intervention, and highlights the importance of more nuanced cognitive evaluation as reporting of a general cognitive ability score alone may obscure underlying patterns of cognitive strength and weakness.

Contrastive Video Question Answering via Video Graph Transformer.

We propose to perform video question answering (VideoQA) in a Contrastive manner via a Video Graph Transformer model (CoVGT). CoVGT's uniqueness and superiority are three-fold: 1) It proposes a dynamic graph transformer module which encodes video by explicitly capturing the visual objects, their relations and dynamics, for complex spatio-temporal reasoning. 2) It designs separate video and text transformers for contrastive learning between the video and text to perform QA, instead of multi-modal transformer for answer classification. Fine-grained video-text communication is done by additional cross-modal interaction modules. 3) It is optimized by the joint fully- and self-supervised contrastive objectives between the correct and incorrect answers, as well as the relevant and irrelevant questions respectively. With superior video encoding and QA solution, we show that CoVGT can achieve much better performances than previous arts on video reasoning tasks. Its performances even surpass those models that are pretrained with millions of external data. We further show that CoVGT can also benefit from cross-modal pretraining, yet with orders of magnitude smaller data. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of CoVGT, and additionally reveal its potential for more data-efficient pretraining.

Spatial visualization as the strongest spatial reasoning autistic student

Abstract spatial reasoning is the strongest reasoning of autistic students. In this study, we want to identify the spatial reasoning of autistic students based on the categories of spatial reasoning (spatial visualization, mental rotation, and spatial orientation) and level of reasoning (abstract and concrete). A total of 46 autistic students and 46 non-autistic students participated as subjects. All subjects were given 6 types of spatial reasoning tests which included all three categories and levels of spatial reasoning. The results that autistic students have an advantage in the abstract spatial visualization category while non-autistic students have an advantage in the concrete spatial visualization category. These results indicate specifically that abstract spatial visualization is the strongest spatial reasoning possessed by autistic students. Thus, this study provides a new picture of students' spatial reasoning ability in terms of the reasoning category and the level of reasoning.

The Influence of Montessori Education on Children's Personality Development and the Way of Thinking

This paper investigates the impact of Montessori education on childrens personality development and thinking patterns. Montessori education is a child-centered approach to education that emphasizes the childs individual needs and interests, and encourages self-directed learning and exploration. The study aims to explore whether Montessori education can promote positive personality traits and enhance cognitive abilities in young children. The research is based on a literature review of previous studies on Montessori education and its effects on childrens development. The study adopts a literature review approach to explore previous research on Montessori education and its impact on childrens development, particularly on their personality and thinking patterns. The research draws on a range of scholarly sources, including academic journals, books, and online databases, to provide a comprehensive overview of the subject. The results of the study suggest that Montessori education can have a positive impact on childrens personality development, promoting traits such as independence, self-discipline, and creativity. Montessori education also appears to enhance childrens cognitive abilities, particularly in areas such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and spatial reasoning. The findings of this study support the effectiveness of Montessori education in promoting positive personality traits and enhancing cognitive abilities in young children. This research has important implications for educators and parents who are interested in providing children with an education that promotes holistic development and prepares them for success in life.

Holistic Spatial Reasoning for Chinese Spatial Language Understanding

Spatial language understanding (SLU) is an important task in the field of information extraction, and it involves complex spatial analyses and reasoning processes. Unlike English SLU, in the case of the Chinese language, there may be some language-specific challenges, such as the phenomenon of polysemia and the substitution of synonyms. In this work, we explore Chinese SLU by taking advantage of large language models. Inspired by recent chain-of-thought (CoT) strategies, in this study, we propose the Spatial-CoT template to help improve LLMs’ reasoning abilities in order to deal with the challenges of Chinese SLU. Spatial-CoT offers LLMs three steps of instructions from different perspectives, namely, entity extraction, context analysis, and common knowledge analysis. We evaluate our framework on the Chinese SLU dataset SpaCE, which contains three subtasks: abnormal spatial semantics recognition, spatial role labeling, and spatial scene matching. The experimental results show that our Spatial-CoT outperforms vanilla prompt learning on ChatGPT and achieves competitive performance in comparison with traditional supervised models. Further analysis revealed that our method could address the phenomenon of polysemia and the substitution of synonyms in Chinese spatial language understanding.

The Effective of Block Play and Pretend Play in Early Childhood Development

Cognitive, social, as well as affective development are significantly influenced by early childhood development. This study investigates how block play and pretend play independently or jointly influence the development of young children. The positive effects of block play and pretend play on early childhood development include language and communication skills, problem-solving abilities, social skills, and emotional regulation. In addition, research indicates that children who engage in block play later demonstrate superior academic achievement. It has been discovered that playing with blocks improves spatial reasoning, problem-solving, and creativity. Children gain a deeper comprehension of fundamental concepts, such as shape, size, and measurement, through block play. In this paper, the author discussed that block play and pretend play should be emphasised in the toddler years so as to promote the development of young children. This paper provides parents, educators, and policymakers with insights for fostering childrens cognition, sociability, and emotion through play-based learning environments.

Cross-Sectional Analysis of Periodontal Disease and Cognitive Impairment Conducted in a Memory Clinic: The Pearl Study.

Periodontal disease (PeD) is a risk factor of Alzheimer's disease and is associated with cognitive decline in older adults. However, the relationships between subitems of neuropsychological tests and PeD have not been fully clarified. To evaluate associations between PeD and subitems of neuropsychological tests. We performed a cross-sectional analysis of data of 183 participants (women: 50%, mean age: 79 years) from a clinical study. We enrolled patients who visited our memory clinic and assessed demographics, dementia-related risk factors, neuropsychological tests, brain magnetic resonance images, and a dental screening check. We evaluated the relationships between cognitive function and PeD using multivariable logistic regression analyses. Participants with dementia were less likely to make periodical visits to the dentist, had fewer teeth, had less frequent tooth brushing habits, and were more likely to have PeD. Impaired cognitive function was significantly associated with an increasing degree of PeD. In multivariable logistic regression analyses, impaired visuospatial function and attention were associated with twice the risk of moderate or severe PeD compared with individuals with preserved visuospatial function and attention (odds ratio: 2.11, 95% confidence interval: 1.04-4.29, p = 0.037). Impaired word recall and recognition and following commands were associated with increased risk of PeD (odds ratio: 2.80, 95% confidence interval: 1.41-5.32, p = 0.003). Cognitive decline, such as impaired visuospatial function, attention, word recall and recognition, and inability to follow commands were independently and strongly associated with PeD. These items can be assessed easily on a daily basis.

A Monadic Second-Order Version of Tarski’s Geometry of Solids

In this paper, we are concerned with the development of a general set theory using the single axiom version of Leśniewski’s mereology. The specification of mereology, and further of Tarski’s geometry of solids will rely on the Calculus of Inductive Constructions (CIC). In the first part, we provide a specification of Leśniewski’s mereology as a model for an atomless Boolean algebra using Clay’s ideas. In the second part, we interpret Leśniewski’s mereology in monadic second-order logic using names and develop a full version of mereology referred to as CIC-based Monadic Mereology (λ-MM) allowing an expressive theory while involving only two axioms. In the third part, we propose a modeling of Tarski’s solid geometry relying on λ-MM. It is intended to serve as a basis for spatial reasoning. All parts have been proved using a translation in type theory.

Visuospatial ability and attention as risk factors for suicidal ideation in middle-aged and elderly schizophrenia patients: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundSchizophrenia patients have a high risk of suicide, and their cognition function is impaired with increasing age. The association between neurocognitive and suicidality in schizophrenia patients are heterogeneous. We aimed to explore the relationship between neurocognitive function and suicidal ideation in schizophrenia patients across age groups.MethodsA total of 587 patients with schizophrenia were enrolled in this study. The schizophrenia patients were divided into young group (aged 18–44) and middle-aged and elderly group (aged 45–70). The schizophrenia patients were divided into suicidal ideation group and non-suicidal ideation group according to the evaluation results of the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation. Insomnia symptoms were measured by the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). Psychotic symptoms were measured by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and cognitive function was measured by the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS).ResultsThere was a negative correlation between the age and attention scores of RBANS (P = 0.018). The young schizophrenia patients had higher risk of suicidality than middle-aged and elderly schizophrenia patients (P = 0.001). In the logistic regression analysis, the scores of ISI and positive symptoms scores of PANSS were associated with suicidal ideation among young schizophrenia patients (All P < 0.05). Age, BMI, the scores of ISI, general symptoms scores of PANSS, visuospatial scores of RBANS and attention scores of RBANS were associated with suicidal ideation in middle-aged and elderly schizophrenia patients (All P < 0.05).ConclusionsHigh visuospatial scores of RBANS and attention scores of RBANS were risk factors for suicidal ideation in middle-aged and elderly schizophrenia patients.

Analysis of reverse fault current regarding the impact of transformer core types on the two most common winding connections of distributed energy resources in distribution systems

As many DERs with solid grounding are connected to the distribution system, unwanted reverse fault current is generated during a single-line-to-ground fault. Therefore, it often causes protection problems such as protection blinding and sympathetic tripping. To ensure reliable protection coordination between protective devices, fault current should be calculated accurately. Although three-limb core transformers are utilized for DERs for economic and spatial reasons, the conventional method that assumes five-limb core transformers for DERs is still used to calculate fault current. The zero-sequence impedance of a three-limb core transformer is often unknown. For this, a methodology for evaluating the zero-sequence impedance according to the core-type of transformer is presented with IEC 60076-8 standard. Then, a methodology for evaluating fault current is proposed considering the impact of DERs, loads, and transformer core types. The proposed methodologies are used for a comprehensive analysis of fault current discrepancies according to the core-type of transformers. The results indicate that significant discrepancies exist in fault current evaluated with five- and three-limb core transformers. Therefore, to accurately calculate the fault current, utility engineers should use the proper zero-sequence impedance of three-limb core transformers instead of five-limb core transformers.

Convergence of visual and motor awareness in human parietal cortex.

Brain lesions sometimes induce a failure of recognition of one's own deficits (anosognosia). Lack of deficit awareness may underlie damage of modality-specific systems, e.g., visual cortex for visual anosognosia or motor/premotor cortex for motor anosognosia. However, focal lesions induce widespread remote structural and functional disconnection, and anosognosia, independent of modality, may also involve common neural mechanisms. Here, we study the neural correlates of Anton syndrome (AS), anosognosia of blindness, and compare them with anosognosia for hemiplegia to test if they share different or common mechanisms. We measured both local damage and patterns of structural-functional disconnection as predicted from healthy normative atlases. AS depends on bilateral striate and extra-striate occipital damage, and disconnection of ventral and dorsal frontoparietal regions involved in attention control. Visual and motor anosognosia each share damage of modality-specific regions, but also involve the disruption of white matter tracts leading to functional disconnection within dorsal frontal-parietal regions that play critical roles in motor control, visuospatial attention, and multi-sensory integration. These results reveal the unique shared combination of content-specific and supra-modal mechanisms in anosognosia. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

The visuo-sensorimotor substrate of co-speech gesture processing

Co-speech gestures are integral to human communication and exhibit diverse forms, each serving a distinct communication function. However, existing literature has focused on individual gesture types, leaving a gap in understanding the comparative neural processing of these diverse forms. To address this, our study investigated the neural processing of two types of iconic gestures: those representing attributes or event knowledge of entity concepts, beat gestures enacting rhythmic manual movements without semantic information, and self-adaptors. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, systematic randomization and attentive observation of video stimuli revealed a general neural substrate for co-speech gesture processing primarily in the bilateral middle temporal and inferior parietal cortices, characterizing visuospatial attention, semantic integration of cross-modal information, and multisensory processing of manual and audiovisual inputs. Specific types of gestures and grooming movements elicited distinct neural responses. Greater activity in the right supramarginal and inferior frontal regions was specific to self-adaptors, and is relevant to the spatiomotor and integrative processing of speech and gestures. The semantic and sensorimotor regions were least active for beat gestures. The processing of attribute gestures was most pronounced in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus upon access to knowledge of entity concepts. This fMRI study illuminated the neural underpinnings of gesture-speech integration and highlighted the differential processing pathways for various co-speech gestures.

A - 171 Neuropsychological Performance Relates to Observed Risky Driving in Healthy Adults.

This study uses video telematics to examine relationships between neuropsychological performance and directly observed naturalistic driving-as-usual in healthy adult drivers. We hypothesized that visual attention and executive function measures would have the strongest associations with unsafe driving behaviors. Twenty-five healthy drivers (ages 23-61, 62% women) were recruited from the general community into this cross-sectional study. They completed neuropsychological testing and 28days of naturalistic driving with an in-vehicle video telematics platform that detected unsafe driving behaviors. The neuropsychological battery measured driving-relevant domains, namely visual attention, processing speed, executive function, and visuospatial memory. We examined correlations between neuropsychological measures and unsafe behaviors. Unsafe following distance correlated with better performance on Useful Field of View Selective Attention (r = 0.55, p = 0.004, 95% CI = 0.19-0.77), Symbol Digit Modalities Test Written (r = 0.51, p = 0.009, CI = 0.13-0.76) and Oral (r = 0.51, p = 0.010, CI = 0.13-0.75), Trails B (r = 0.42, p = 0.035, CI = 0.02-0.70), and Stroop Color (r = 0.46, p = 0.022, CI = 0.06-0.72). Speeding correlated with better Spatial Recall Test Immediate (r = 0.48, p = 0.015, CI = 0.10-0.73) and Delay performance (r = 0.42, p = 0.038, CI = 0.02-0.69). In healthy adult drivers, better performance in the domains of visuospatial memory, processing speed, and attention is associated with greater engagement in unsafe driving behaviors. In the absence of concern about cognitive compromise, individuals may feel more comfortable making risky behaviors. We plan to expand this work to broader samples and clinical populations to increase generalizability and applicability to clinical driving evaluations.

H - 69 Making Diagnostic Decisions Using Linguistically Congruent Neuropsychological Assessment in a Monolingual Low Education Latino: a Single Case.

As life expectancy and Latino populations increase in the United States, it is important to provide linguistically congruent neuropsychological assessments to assist in the treatment and diagnosis of neurodegenerative processes. This case used a linguistically congruent evaluation and appropriate norms in a 72-year-old Latin male with low education, to inform treatment recommendations. A 72-year-old Latin male with five years of education was referred by his neurologist in the context of cognitive, behavioral, and functional decline over the past several years. He was educated outside of the United States, in a Spanish-speaking country, and speaks limited English. Therefore, testing was administered in Spanish. All test data were compared to other Spanish-speaking clinical patients with low education levels from his country of origin when available (11 articles). Overall given the evidence, he was diagnosed with Mild Neurocognitive Disorder due to Multiple Etiologies, with behavioral disturbance. His profile revealed weaknesses in verbal learning and memory, attention, and psychomotor processing speed. However, when compared to non-corrected norms, he performed significantly different (at least 1 SD) across several measures. Using a linguistically congruent evaluation, in addition to a compilation of age and education-corrected norms, we came to a diagnostic conclusion of a Mild Neurocognitive Disorder. If the normative data not been corrected for age and education, his impairments in visuospatial abilities and attention would have been inflated. As the Latino population continues to age, it becomes increasingly important to develop ways to assess this population appropriately.

From common land to farmhouses: agricultural penal colonies and the project of modern rurality in Sardinia, Italy

Between the 1860s and 1960s, sixteen colonie penali agricole were built in Italy, half of them on the island of Sardinia. As the tangible instances of a geopolitical project that intertwined penal and land reforms during a century of striking shifts in political regimes, they can be read as sites of intersecting colonialisms where domestic colonialism — in line with Barbara Arneil’s reading — mixed over time with elements of internal self-colonisation and settler colonialism. This essay provides a spatial analysis of the Sardinian agricultural penal colonies, framing them within similar experiences of domestic labour colonies in Europe: the 1840 penal colony at Mettray and the 1820s Dutch ‘Colonies of Benevolence’. It will elaborate on the role that large-scale spatial reasoning played at crucial moments of political transition in Italy. Borrowing from Gary Field’s insights, it will show how they were designed as germinal ‘institutions of dispossession’ set to accelerate what local historian Gian Giacomo Ortu calls the ‘ideological and moral offensive against feudalism, commonality and pastoralism’ in Sardinia. It will further discuss their impact in reshaping this rural domain in relation with the wider civilian agrarian plans of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Internal Colonisation, Fascist Plans of Reclamation and Repopulation, and post-war Agrarian Reform.