Can Drug Treatments Enhance Learning in Subjects with Intellectual Disability?

Beyond the floor effect on the WISC-IV in individuals with Down syndrome: are there cognitive strengths and weaknesses?

BACKGROUND

Individuals with Down syndrome generally show a floor effect on Wechsler Scales that is manifested by flat profiles and with many or all of the weighted scores on the subtests equal to 1.

METHOD

The main aim of the present paper is to use the statistical Hessl method and the extended statistical method of Orsini, Pezzuti and Hulbert with a sample of individuals with Down syndrome (n = 128; 72 boys and 56 girls), to underline the variability of performance on Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition subtests and indices, highlighting any strengths and weaknesses of this population that otherwise appear to be flattened.

RESULTS

Based on results using traditional transformation of raw scores into weighted scores, a very high percentage of subtests with weighted score of 1 occurred in the Down syndrome sample, with a floor effect and without any statistically significant difference between four core Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition indices. The results, using traditional transformation, confirm a deep cognitive impairment of those with Down syndrome. Conversely, using the new statistical method, it is immediately apparent that the variability of the scores, both on subtests and indices, is wider with respect to the traditional method.

CONCLUSION

Children with Down syndrome show a greater ability in the Verbal Comprehension Index than in the Working Memory Index.

Estimation of Cholinesterase Inhibitory and Antioxidant Effects of the Leaf Extracts of Anatolian Ficus carica var. domestica and their Total Phenol and Flavonoid Contents

Ficus carica var. domestica Tsch. & Rav. (common fig) is widely grown in Turkey and exported for its edible fruits. In this study, the n-hexane, chloroform, acetone, methanol, n-butanol, and water extracts of the leaves of F. carica var. domestica were screened for their cholinesterase inhibitory and antioxidant activities. Cholinesterase inhibition against acetyl- (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) was measured by the spectrophotometric method of Ellman at concentrations of 25, 50, and 100 μg/mL., while antioxidant activity was tested using three in vitro methods; 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, metal-chelation capacity, and ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). Total phenol and flavonoid contents of the extracts were determined spectrophotometrically. Our results revealed that the n-hexane and acetone extracts exerted a notable inhibition against both AChE (62.9±0.9% and 50.8±2.1%, respectively) and BChE (76.9±2.2% and 45.6±1.3%, respectively). However, they had low activity in the antioxidant tests. The chloroform extract was found to be the richest in total flavonoid content (252.5±1.1 mg/g quercetin equivalent), while the n-butanol extract had the highest total phenol amount (85.9±3.2 mg/g extract gallic acid equivalent).