The effects of chronic progressive neurological disorders in adults and children were evaluated by a broad range of neuropsychological tests evaluating brain-behavior relations. A neuropsychological profile was plotted for patients with Alzheimer's (AD), Huntington's (HD), or Parkinson's (PD) disorder. The evaluations extended into memory, learning and perception, applying standard and experimental tasks to identify functional changes accompanying aging processes. The results implicated dopamine deficiencies and frontal pathophysiology in PD, most notably, losses in executive capabilities and visuospatial and generic memory functions. With HD patients, perceptuomotor capacity and the ability to manipulate spatial information were affected whereas spatial discrimination was relatively intact. With a dichotic task, AD patients did poorer and were unable to selectively attend to serial information. The behavioral data extend neuropathologic impressions of degeneration of the frontal striatal system in HD and temporoparietal, cortical involvement in AD.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Intramural Research (Z01)
Project #
1Z01NS001658-23
Application #
3881670
Study Section
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
23
Fiscal Year
1989
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
City
State
Country
United States
Zip Code