Telephone-based Frontal Assessment Battery (t-FAB): standardization for the Italian population and clinical usability in neurological diseases

A digital teleneuropsychology platform for the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment: from concept to certification as a medical device

BACKGROUND

Innovative digital solutions are shaping a new concept of dementia care, opening additional venues for prevention, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment. Hereby, we report the development of a tablet-based teleneuropsychology platform (Tenèpsia®), from concept to certification as Medical Device (MD) Class IIA, as per new MD regulation 745/2017.

METHODS

The platform was designed for the remote cognitive evaluation and created thanks to the effort of a collaborative working group including experts from three Italian scientific societies and Biogen Italia S.r.l. (hereafter "Biogen"), and developers from Xenia Reply and Inside AI. The development strategy was guided by converting traditional paper-and-pencil tests into digital versions while maintaining comparable neuropsychological features and optimizing patient accessibility and user experience. The experts focused on the choice and adaptation of traditional neuropsychology measures for a 45-min teleneuropsychology assessment.

RESULTS

The developers created a web and a mobile interface, respectively, for the professional (neuropsychologist) and non-professional (patient and caregiver) use. Recording of voice, drawing and typing information was enabled. Instant dashboards provide a quick overview of the patient's condition. Simulation activities were performed to obtain MD certification, valid across Europe.

CONCLUSION

Neuropsychology services will benefit from the implementation in clinics of harmonized digital tools with adequate scientific and technological standards. The use of digital cognitive testing for the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment is expected to enhance patient and clinician outcomes through simplified, digital objective data collection, sparing of time and resources, with a positive impact on healthcare costs and access to treatments, reducing inequalities and delays in diagnosis and cure.

The Telephone Language Screener (TLS): standardization of a novel telephone-based screening test for language impairment

BACKGROUND

This study aimed at developing and standardizing the Telephone Language Screener (TLS), a novel, disease-nonspecific, telephone-based screening test for language disorders.

METHODS

The TLS was developed in strict pursuance to the current psycholinguistic standards. It comprises nine tasks assessing phonological, lexical-semantic and morpho-syntactic components, as well as an extra Backward Digit Span task. The TLS was administered to 480 healthy participants (HPs), along with the Telephone-based Semantic Verbal Fluency (t-SVF) test and a Telephone-based Composite Language Index (TBCLI), as well as to 37 cerebrovascular/neurodegenerative patients-who also underwent the language subscale of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS-L). An HP subsample was also administered an in-person language battery. Construct validity, factorial structure, internal consistency, test-retest and inter-rater reliability were tested. Norms were derived via Equivalent Scores. The capability of the TLS to discriminate patients from HPs and to identify, among the patient cohort, those with a defective TICS-L, was also examined.

RESULTS

The TLS was underpinned by a mono-component structure and converged with the t-SVF (p < .001), the TBCLI (p < .001) and the in-person language battery (p = .002). It was internally consistent (McDonald's ω = 0.67) and reliable between raters (ICC = 0.99) and at retest (ICC = 0.83). Age and education, but not sex, were predictors of TLS scores. The TLS optimally discriminated patients from HPs (AUC = 0.80) and successfully identified patients with an impaired TICS-L (AUC = 0.92). In patients, the TLS converged with TICS-L scores (p = 0.016).

DISCUSSION

The TLS is a valid, reliable, normed and clinically feasible telephone-based screener for language impairment.

Remote testing in Abbiategrasso (RTA): results from a counterbalanced cross-over study on direct-to-home neuropsychology with older adults

BACKGROUND

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic forced to rethink teleneuropsychology, since neuropsychological assessments started to be performed by phone or videoconference, with personal devices and without direct assistance from the clinician, a practice called "Direct-To-Home NeuroPsychology" (DTH-NP).

AIMS

The present study, employing a counterbalanced cross-over design, was aimed at evaluating (1) the feasibility and (2) the acceptability of DTH-NP in Italian older adults without previously diagnosed neurocognitive disorder, (3) the comparability between remote and face-to-face administration of selected neuropsychological tests.

METHODS

Fifty-eight community-dwelling older adults (65-85 years) were randomly assigned to one of two groups performing a complete neuropsychological assessment remotely (via phone call and videoconference) and face-to-face, in a counterbalance order, 8 weeks apart. The study recruitment rate was calculated, and the number of uncompleted tests and acceptability questionnaire responses were compared between the two administration modalities. Comparability was defined as good reliability of DTH-NP (intraclass correlation coefficient) and agreement between remote and face-to-face scores (Bland-Altman plots).

RESULTS

Recruitment rate was 81%, with a preference for telephonic contact (79%). The acceptability analysis did not reveal any issues related to the DTH-NP assessment, even if most participants would rather repeat it face-to-face. Tests assessing short-term memory, language, and reasoning showed good comparability.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Our results point out to a good recruitment rate in a DTH-NP study in an Italian population of older adults (mean age = 80), satisfying acceptability of DTH-NP and remote-face-to-face comparability of certain verbally mediated tests. Further studies including larger samples in videoconference modality, and outpatients, could better clarify its strengths and limits.

The FACE test: a new neuropsychological task to assess the recognition of complex mental states from faces

BACKGROUND

Social cognition deficits are reported in several neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the availability of tasks for the clinical assessment is still limited, preventing the full characterization of socio-cognitive dysfunctions in neurological patients. This study aims to present a new task to assess the recognition of complex mental states from faces (FACE test), reporting normative data for the Italian population and an example of its clinical application to 40 PD patients.

METHODS

Two-hundred twenty-nine Italian participants with at least 5 years of education were enrolled. Data were analyzed according to the method of equivalent scores; test-retest reliability and convergent validity were assessed. Two short versions of the FACE test were defined for clinical and research purposes. The prevalence of deficits in the FACE test was computed in the PD sample, as well as correlations with cognitive performance and diagnostic accuracy.

RESULTS

Regression analyses revealed significant effects of demographic variables on FACE performance, with younger and more educated individuals showing higher scores. Twenty-eight percent of PD patients showed borderline/pathological performance, which was correlated with emotion recognition/attribution abilities, and attentive-executive functions. The FACE test was accurate (80%) in distinguishing PD patients with socio-cognitive dysfunctions from both controls and PD patients without emotion recognition/attribution difficulties.

CONCLUSION

The FACE test represents a new tool assessing the ability to recognize complex mental states from facial expressions. Overall, these results support its use in both clinical and research settings, as well as the presence of affective processing deficits in a subsample of PD patients.

Monitoring cognitive and psychological alterations in COVID-19 patients: A longitudinal neuropsychological study

BACKGROUND

SARS-COV-2 infection has been associated to long-lasting neuropsychiatric sequelae, including cognitive deficits, that persist after one year. However, longitudinal monitoring has been scarcely performed. Here, in a sample of COVID-19 patients, we monitor cognitive, psychological and quality of life-related profiles up to 22 months from resolution of respiratory disease.

METHODS

Out of 657 COVID-19 patients screened at Manzoni Hospital (Lecco, Italy), 22 underwent neuropsychological testing because of subjective cognitive disturbances at 6 months, 16 months, and 22 months. Tests of memory, attention, and executive functions were administered, along with questionnaires for depressive and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, psychological well-being and quality of life. Cross-sectional descriptives, correlational, as well as longitudinal analyses considering COVID19-severity were carried out. A preliminary comparison with a sample of obstructive sleep apneas patients was also performed.

RESULTS

Around 50% of COVID-19 patients presented with cognitive deficits at t0. The most affected domain was verbal memory. Pathological scores diminished over time, but a high rate of borderline scores was still observable. Longitudinal analyses highlighted improvements in verbal and non-verbal long term memory, as well as attention, and executive functioning. Depression and PTSD-related symptoms were present in 30% of patients. The latter decreased over time and were associated to attentional-executive performance.

CONCLUSIONS

Cognitive dysfunctions in COVID-19 patients may extend over 1 year, yet showing a significant recovery in several cases. Cognitive alterations are accompanied by a significant psychological distress. Many patients displaying borderline scores, especially those at higher risk of dementia, deserve clinical monitoring.

Teleneuropsychology: normative data for the assessment of memory in online settings

INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced significant changes in clinical practice. Psychologists and neuropsychologists had to modify their settings to assess patients' abilities, switching from an in-person modality to a remote setting by using video calling platforms. Consequently, this change brought about the need for new normative data tailored to remote settings.

AIM AND METHODS

The study aimed to develop normative data for the online assessment of neuropsychological memory tests and to compare it with the published norms obtained in standard settings. Two hundred and four healthy Italian volunteers performed three verbal memory tests through the Google Meet platform: the Digit Span (Backward and Forward), the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning, and the Verbal Paired Associated Learning Test.

RESULTS

This research provides specific norms that consider the influence of demographic characteristics. Their comparison with published norms shows a medium to high agreement between systems. The present study provides a reference for the clinical use of neuropsychological instruments to assess verbal memory in a remote setting and offers specific recommendations.

The Italian telephone-based Verbal Fluency Battery (t-VFB): standardization and preliminary clinical usability evidence

Background

This study aimed at standardizing and providing preliminary evidence on the clinical usability of the Italian telephone-based Verbal Fluency Battery (t-VFB), which includes phonemic (t-PVF), semantic (t-SVF) and alternate (t-AVF) verbal fluency tasks.

Methods

Three-hundred and thirty-five Italian healthy participants (HPs; 140 males; age range = 18-96 years; education range = 4-23 years) and 27 individuals with neurodegenerative or cerebrovascular diseases were administered the t-VFB. Switch number and cluster size were computed via latent semantic analyses. HPs underwent the telephone-based Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Backward Digit Span (BDS). Construct validity, factorial structure, internal consistency, test-retest and inter-rater reliability and equivalence with the in-person Verbal Fluency tasks were assessed. Norms were derived via Equivalent Scores. Diagnostic accuracy against clinical populations was assessed.

Results

The majority of t-VFB scores correlated among each other and with the BDS, but not with the MMSE. Switch number correlated with t-PVF, t-SVF, t-AVF scores, whilst cluster size with the t-SVF and t-AVF scores only. The t-VFB was underpinned by a mono-component structure and was internally consistent (Cronbach's α = 0.91). Test-retest (ICC = 0.69-0.95) and inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.98-1) were optimal. Each t-VFB test was statistically equivalent to its in-person version (equivalence bounds yielding a p < 0.05). Education predicted all t-VFB scores, whereas age t-SVF and t-AVF scores and sex only some t-SVF scores. Diagnostic accuracy against clinical samples was optimal (AUC = 0.81-0.86).

Discussion

The t-VFB is a valid, reliable and normed telephone-based assessment tool for language and executive functioning, equivalent to the in-person version; results show promising evidence of its diagnostic accuracy in neurological populations.