TY  - JOUR
AU  - Nieto, A.
AU  - Correia, R.
AU  - De Nóbrega, E.
AU  - Montón, F.
AU  - Hess, S.
AU  - Barroso, J.
T1  - Cognition in friedreich ataxia
LA  - eng
PY  - 2012
SP  - 834
EP  - 844
T2  - Cerebellum
SN  - 1473-4222
VL  - 11
IS  - 4
AB  - Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) is the most frequent of the inherited ataxias. However, very few studies have examined the cognitive status of patients with genetically defined FRDA.Our aimwas to study cognitive performance of FRDA patients taking into account the motor problems characteristic of this clinical population. Thirty-six FRDA patients were administered a comprehensive neuropsychological battery measuring multiple domains: processing speed, attention, working memory, executive functions, verbal and visual memory, visuoperceptive and visuospatial skills, visuoconstructive functions, and language. Thirty-one gender, age, years of education, and estimated IQ-matched healthy participants served as control subjects. All participants were native Spanish speakers. Patients showed decreased motor and mental speed, problems in conceptual thinking, a diminished verbal fluency, deficits in acquisition of verbal information and use of semantic strategies in retrieval, visuoperceptive and visuoconstructive problems, and poor action naming. Scores on the depression inventory were significantly higher in patients than controls, but depression did not account for group differences in cognitive performance. The observed pattern of neuropsychological impairment is indicative of executive problems and parieto-temporal dysfunction. Neuropathological and neuroimaging studies with FRDA patients have reported only mild anomalies in cerebral hemispheres. Thus, cognitive impairment in FRDA is probably caused by the interruption of the cerebro-cerebellar circuits that have been proposed as the anatomical substrate of the cerebellar involvement in cognition. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012.
DO  - 10.1007/s12311-012-0363-9
UR  - https://portalciencia.ull.es/documentos/5e3c36f329995246bbf5e38b
DP  - Dialnet - Portal de la Investigación
ER  -