Association between Benton Visual Retention Test scores and PET imaging in elderly adults

Background: The Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT) is a well-validated and reliable test for assessing visual memory and visuospatial function. However, the association between the BVRT score and imaging biomarker of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains unclear. Objective: This study examined whether the BVRT score is associated with brain amyloid burden and cortical glucose metabolism in elderly adults without dementia. Methods: A total of 69 elderly adults without dementia, including 45 subjects with amnestic mild cognitive impairment and 24 cognitively healthy adults, underwent the BVRT and 11C-Pittsburgh compound B (PiB) and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography. The correct scores in the BVRT were used for analyses. A multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between BVRT scores and PiB or FDG uptake. Moreover, a voxel-wise linear regression analysis of the association between BVRT scores and PiB or FDG uptake was conducted using Statistical Parametric Mapping. Results: After adjusting for age, sex, education, and ApoE4 status, the BVRT scores were inversely correlated with the mean PiB uptake (β = −0.35, P = 0.003), whereas they were positively correlated with FDG uptake (β = 0.266, P = 0.038). Moreover, the BVRT scores were inversely correlated with amyloid burden in the right superior temporal and superior frontal gyri and the left parietal lobe, whereas they were positively correlated with cortical glucose metabolism in the right posterior cingulate and milled temporal gyri, left temporoparietal lobe, and right superior frontal gyrus. Conclusion: BVRT scores are correlated with brain amyloid burden and cortical glucose metabolism, mainly in regions commonly affected in AD.

A-196 BVRT Copy and Memory Trial Omission Errors Are Associated With Working Memory and Auditory Comprehension Deficits

Objective The goal of this study is to examine the cognitive factors that account for omission errors on the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT) copy and memory trials using factorial indices based on raw subtest scores of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III) and the Multilingual Aphasia Examination (MAE). Method Participants were referred for assessment at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. One hundred and forty-three participants were sampled. BVRT omission error scores for the copy and memory trials were factor analyzed with age, education level, WAIS-III Digit Span Forward (DSpF), and Letter-Number Sequencing (LNS). These variables were refactored with the spoken language components of the MAE (naming, repetition, verbal fluency, and auditory comprehension). Results BVRT copy and memory omission scores were factorially grouped with age and inversely correlated with LNS. A second factor was composed of positive loadings on DSpF, LNS, and education. The BVRT Copy-and-Memory-Omissions-Age-LNS component was inversely and specifically related to the MAE measure of auditory comprehension. The Digit Span Forward-LNS-Education variable loaded strongly on the MAE Repetition component and secondarily on the MAE Verbal Fluency and Naming components. Conclusions BVRT copy and memory trial omission errors are strongly and specifically related to failure of auditory comprehension. Errors of this type are not related to the other three components of spoken language.

A-198 Major Errors on BVRT Determine Specific Cognitive Deficit in a Veteran Sample

Objective The goal of the study is to examine the underlying conceptual factors that account for major performance errors of the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT) using indices of the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale, 3rd Edition (WAIS-III) as gold-standard comparison variables. Method One hundred thirty participants with mixed cognitive and psychiatric diagnoses who were referred to the neuropsychological assessment clinic at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System and completed the BVRT and WAIS-III measures were included in the analysis of the data. Factor Analysis of BVRT major memory and copy errors (rotations, distortions, and perseverations) and WAIS-III indices were conducted using SPSS 25. Results BVRT major memory and copy errors factored onto WAIS-III index variables using Principal Components Analysis with Equamax rotation yielded a four-factor model explaining 79% of total variance. Major errors on the immediate recall trial of the BVRT were found to be specifically and inversely related to performance on the WAIS-III Perceptual Organization and Processing Speed Indices. Major errors on the copy trial of the BVRT showed an inverse relationship with performance on the WAIS-III Verbal Comprehension and Working Memory Indices. Conclusions BVRT recall errors are related to failures in visual perceptual processing. Conversely, copy errors on the BVRT are potentially attributable to deficits in auditory-verbal-attentional information processing. The results of the study provide evidence for the BVRT as a viable measurement tool to determine domain-specific cognitive impairment when considering error types on recall and copy trials.

Age, Education and Intellectual Quotient Influences: Structural Equation Modeling on the study of Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT)

This study searched for sociodemographic influences on visual memory and visuoconstructive ability in healthy and clinical samples evaluated with Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT) in two studies. In Study 1, we searched for changes related to age in children, adolescents, adults and elderly on the performance of the BVRT. In Study 2, we investigated the relations among age, years of education and intellectual quotient (IQ) on the performance of the BVRT using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Participants were 624 individuals aged between six and 89 years old (M = 25.40; SD = 22.34) from the normatization and evidence validity studies at Brazil. We used a sociodemographic questionnaire, BVRT and IQ measure was estimated. Study 1 has shown a performance similar to the developmental graphics with a U-inverted pattern in relation to age: An increase of the visual memory ability in the children and adolescent groups as age increases, a tendency of a decrease in the performance in the adult group that intensifies in the elderly group. Study 2 found that the model for the BVRT performance tested by SEM denoted satisfactory goodness-of-fit indexes, χ2/gl = 2.67, p < .001; CFI = .92; TLI = .93; RMSEA = .004, 90% CI = [.03, .05];WLSMV = 1.79, and corroborated the theoretical assumption. The SEM model confirmed in this study highlight the strong role of years of education in the prediction of BVRT scores.

Neurocognitive deficits in clinical polymorphism of schizophrenia: typology, expression and syndromal overlaps

Objective. The authors tried to identify the typology, severity and overlap of neurocognitive deficits with positive/negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. Materials and methods. Fifty patients aged 22–55 years (25 women (50%) and 25 men (50%)) with schizophrenia diagnosed according to ICD-10 were examined. The average age was 38.0 ± 4.8 years, the average age of onset was 23 ± 3.2 years, the average disease duration was 15 ± 3.7 years. The patients were examined using battery tests to quantify their cognitive functions: Trail Making Test A&B; Stroop Color Word Interference Test; Verbal Fluency; Benton Visual Retention Test; 10 words learning; WAIS Digit Symbol Test; and WAIS Trail Making Test. The evaluation of cognitive deficits was carried out using z-scales. Association of neurocognitive deficits with other schizophrenia symptoms was also estimated using PANSS. The control group that was formed on the basis of the cognitive sphere parameters included 50 healthy volunteers. Statistical processing was carried out using the Mann–Whitney U test, k-means clustering, and the Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance. Results. The patients with schizophrenia and healthy individuals had significant differences in the second part of the Stroop Color Word Interference Test, both parts of the Verbal Fluency, average score of Benton Visual Retention Test, 10 words learning basedon 5 reiterations, WAIS Digit Symbol Test and WAIS Trail Making Test with p < 0.05; in the Trail Making Test B with p < 0.01. The cognitive sampling profile was determined and compared with the PANSS scores. The significant predominance (p < 0.05) of the symptoms across all scales was found with impaired attention, visual memory, performance function, and/or orientation/coordination, as opposed to the other manifestations of cognitive deficits. Conclusion. Neurocognitive deficits form syndromal overlaps with positive and negative schizophrenia syndromes, and the presence of attention, visual memory, performance and orientation / coordination disturbances is associated with the severity of schizophrenia in general.

A-43 Factorial Relationships Among Copy and Memory Trials of the Benton Visual Retention Test

Objective We investigated the factorial relationships among categorical error groups on the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT) copy and memory trials. Methods A sample of 523 ambulatory American Veteran patients who presented for clinical evaluation with a wide variety of mixed neuropsychiatric diagnoses and general medical diagnoses were studied. There were no demographic or diagnostic exclusion criteria. Results Frequency summary scores for the six types of BVRT errors (omission, misplacement, size, distortion, perseveration, and rotation errors) were factored jointly by means of principal component analysis. Omission, misplacement, and size errors grouped factorially across copy and memory domains by error type. Results showed the factorial relationships are primarily defined by the type of error. Omission, size, and misplacement errors were grouped together regardless of whether they occurred on copy or memory trials. Rotation, distortion, and perseveration errors were factorially grouped on both the copy and memory trials, but the groupings of these similar error groups formed independent factors for the copy and memory trials. The copy error factor explained the most variance and the memory error factor o explained the least variance. Conclusions Omission, size, and misplacement errors on the BVRT copy and memory trials appear to be due to similar encoding process errors. Distortion, rotation, and perseveration errors on the BVRT copy and memory trials are related to each other within each trial type but different cognitive processes account for errors of this kind on the copy and memory trials.

A-44 Categorical Errors on the Benton Visual Retention Test are Systemically Related to Specific Factorial Components of Intelligence

Objective We investigated the factorial relationship of the six categories of memory errors of the BVRT to the four factorial variables of the WAIS to determine the relationship between cognitive and nonverbal memory variables. Methods A sample of 134 diagnostically mixed ambulatory American Veteran patients with a wide variety of mixed neuropsychiatric diagnoses and with or without general medical problems who had completed the WAIS-3, and the BVRT were examined. There were no demographic or diagnostic exclusion criteria. Results The 6 types of BVRT memory errors (omissions, distortions, perseverations, rotations, misplacements, and size errors) were factored using principal component analysis. The four WAIS 3 and six BVRT components were jointly factored to examine for systematic relationships between memory and cognitive domains. The analysis identified specific factorial relationships of BVRT error type to each of the four factorial components of the WAIS. POI was related to rotation errors, VCI was related to size errors, PSI specifically related to omissions and WMI to distortions. Misplacement and perseveration errors were related to each other but not to factorial constructs of the WAIS. Conclusions There are specific and robust relationships among BVRT errors and dimensional cognitive variables.

A-45 Systematic Relationships of the Benton Visual Retention Test to Intelligence, Language and Demographics

Objective We investigated the factorial relationships of WAIS 3, BVRT, Visual Naming and demographic variables to better understand factorial relationships among those variables. Methods A sample of 126 ambulatory American Veteran patients who presented for clinical evaluation with a wide variety of mixed neuropsychiatric diagnoses and general medical diagnoses were studied. There were no demographic or diagnostic exclusion criteria. Results Our first analysis demonstrated robust independent relationships of age to a late occurring BVRT item group and education to an early occurring BVRT item group. A two factor solution for the items of the multilingual aphasia exam visual naming subtest from previous research showed systematic and robust relationships of one visual naming factor to VCI and the other visual naming factor to PSI only. Factor scales were computed to represent the orthogonal factors for the new variables in each of these analyses. Factor scales from the first two analyses were factored together to produce a four-part solution that explained 86% of the variance. POI was related to the late BVRT item group and age. The early BVRT item grouping was related to educational level, VCI, PSI and both visual naming components. WMI was independent of demographic, linguistic and BVRT variables. Conclusions There are factorial relationships between factorial components of nonverbal memory, intelligence, naming and demographic variables.