Depressive and anxiety symptoms are related to decreased lateral prefrontal cortex functioning during cognitive control in older people

A scoping review of functional near-infrared spectroscopy biomarkers in late-life depression: Depressive symptoms, cognitive functioning, and social functioning

Late-life depression is one of the most damaging mental illnesses, disrupting the normal lives of older people by causing chronic illness and cognitive impairment. Patients with late-life depression, accompanied by changes in appetite, insomnia, fatigue and guilt, are more likely to experience irritability, anxiety and somatic symptoms. It increases the risk of suicide and dementia and is a major challenge for the public health systems. The current clinical assessment, identification and effectiveness assessment of late-life depression are primarily based on history taking, mental status examination and scale scoring, which lack subjectivity and precision. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy is a rapidly developing optical imaging technology that objectively reflects the oxygenation of hemoglobin in different cerebral regions during different tasks and assesses the functional status of the cerebral cortex. This article presents a comprehensive review of the assessment of functional near-infrared spectroscopy technology in assessing depressive symptoms, social functioning, and cognitive functioning in patients with late-life depression. The use of functional near-infrared spectroscopy provides greater insight into the neurobiological mechanisms underlying depression and helps to assess these three aspects of functionality in depressed patients. In addition, the study discusses the limitations of previous research and explores potential advances in the field.

EEG Network Analysis of Depressive Emotion Interference Spatial Cognition Based on a Simulated Robotic Arm Docking Task

Depressive emotion (DE) refers to clinically relevant depressive symptoms without meeting the diagnostic criteria for depression. Studies have demonstrated that DE can cause spatial cognition impairment. However, the brain network mechanisms underlying DE interference spatial cognition remain unclear. This study aimed to reveal the differences in brain network connections between DE and healthy control (HC) groups during resting state and a spatial cognition task. The longer operation time of the DE group during spatial cognition task indicated DE interference spatial cognition. In the resting state stage, the DE group had weaker network connections in theta and alpha bands than the HC group had. Specifically, the electrodes in parietal regions were hubs of the differential networks, which are related to spatial attention. Moreover, in docking task stages, the left frontoparietal network connections in delta, beta, and gamma bands were stronger in the DE group than those of the HC group. The enhanced left frontoparietal connections in the DE group may be related to brain resource reorganization to compensate for spatial cognition decline and ensure the completion of spatial cognition tasks. Thus, these findings might provide new insights into the neural mechanisms of depressive emotion interference spatial cognition.

Cerebral Cortex Activation and Gait Performance between Healthy and Prefrail Older Adults during Cognitive and Walking Tasks

Pre-frailty is a transitional stage between health and frailty. Previous studies have demonstrated that individuals with pre-frailty experience declines in cognitive and gait performances compared with healthy individuals. However, the basic neural mechanism underlying this needs to be clarified. In this cross-sectional study, twenty-one healthy older adults and fifteen with pre-frailty underwent three conditions, including a single cognitive task (SC), single walking task (SW), and dual-task (DT), while cortical hemodynamic reactions were measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The prefrail group (PG) showed a significantly lower activation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (L-DLPFC) than the healthy group (HG) when performing SC (p < 0.05). The PG showed a significantly lower Timed Up and Go test and step speed than the HG during SW (p < 0.05). The coefficient of variation (CV) of the step length of the PG was significantly higher than that of the HG when performing DT (p < 0.05). No significant correlation in cerebral cortex activation and gait parameters in the HG when performing SW and DT was noted (p > 0.05). Participants of the PG with a higher oxygenated area in the left anterior prefrontal cortex (L-APFC) had a lower step frequency during SW (r = -0.533, p = 0.041), and so did the following indicators of the PG during DT: L-APFC and step speed (r = -0.557, p = 0.031); right anterior prefrontal cortex and step speed (r = -0.610, p = 0.016); left motor cortex and step speed (r = -0.674, p = 0.006); step frequency (r = -0.656, p = 0.008); and step length (r = -0.535, p = 0.040). The negative correlations between the cerebral cortex and gait parameters of the PG indicated a neural compensatory effect of pre-frailty. Therefore, older adults with pre-frailty promote prefrontal activation to compensate for the impaired sensorimotor systems.

Psychometric properties of the Cognitive Functioning Self-Assessment Scale in community-dwelling adults: A cross-sectional online survey

Background

The Cognitive Functioning Self-Assessment Scale (CFSS) was developed to allow the self-assessment of perceived cognitive functioning. It has been tested with satisfactory reliability and validity but was not available for the Chinese population. This study aimed to adapt and validate the Chinese version of the CFSS for community-dwelling adults.

Methods

A cross-sectional study of a sample of 1,002 Chinese adults from the general population was conducted online (July-August 2022). The Chinese version of the CFSS with 18 items was created through translation, cognitive debriefing, and psychometric evaluation. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed on the first half of the randomly split sample. A model derived from EFA was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the second half of the sample. The model fits were further evaluated with and without subgrouping by age, gender, and education level. Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha (α) and McDonald's omega hierarchical coefficients (ωH).

Results

EFA (n = 460) revealed a three-factor solution, including spatio-temporal orientation, attention, and memory, which explained 51% of the total variance. The second-order CFA (n = 510) demonstrated a good fit: CFI = 0.951, TLI = 0.944, RMSEA = 0.054, SRMR = 0.040. A second-order multiple-group analysis showed that the structure was invariant by age, gender, and education level. The total CFSS score was significantly associated with the Chinese version of the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (r = 0.56, p< 0.001) and the Chinese version of the seven-item General Anxiety Disorder (r = 0.53, p<0.001). The internal consistency reliability was satisfactory, with α = 0.94 and ωH = 0.84. The item-total correlation coefficients ranged from 0.58 to 0.72.

Conclusion

The Chinese version of the CFSS possesses good item characteristics, satisfactory validity, and reliability for assessing self-reported cognitive functioning among community-dwelling adults. It is a feasible and appropriate self-assessment instrument to examine cognitive functioning in the Hong Kong Chinese population, which contributes to monitoring and developing strategies to prevent and manage cognitive impairment and disorders for the public's cognitive health and well-being.