Assessing inhibitory control in early‐stage Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease using the Hayling Sentence Completion Test

Abstract

The ability to inhibit irrelevant information is essential for coping with the demands of everyday life. Inhibitory deficits are present in all stages of dementia and commonly observed in people with Parkinson's disease (PwPD). Inhibition is frequently tested with the Stroop test, but this may lack ecological validity. This study investigates inhibitory control in people with Alzheimer's disease dementia (PwD) and PwPD using the Hayling Sentence Completion Test (HSCT), which aspires to be a more ecologically valid task. A total of 117 people completed the HSCT, a test where participants have to complete a sentence with an unrelated word. The sample comprised 30 PwD, 33 PwPD, and 54 healthy older controls. We compared response times and the number and type of errors across the three groups. Completion time in Part B (Inhibition) did not distinguish between PwD, PwPD, and controls when controlling for the initiation speed, but a higher proportion of Category A errors (producing a word that fits the sentence when instructed otherwise) was a unique characteristic of inferior performance in PwD and PwPD. While not part of the standard test scoring protocol, controlling for the initiation speed and distinguishing between speed and accuracy in test performance appear to be essential for accurate evaluation of the inhibitory control in HSCT in older people. The findings suggest that the HSCT may be sensitive to verbal suppression deficits and may provide insight into inhibitory control in PwD and PwPD.

Cognitive inhibition impairments in presymptomatic C9orf72 carriers

“…The Hayling Sentence Completion Test (HSCT) has been highlighted as an ecological cognitive inhibition task due to its ability to predict everyday functioning1 and its resemblance to real-life inhibitory demands, such as the ability to suppress inappropriate words, which is part of many social interactions 2. Clinically, the HSCT has been used in many populations presenting with disinhibition, such as patients with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, bipolar disorder and finally, patients with cerebrovascular accidents or tumours 3–7. Neuroimaging studies suggest that the HSCT is mainly associated with frontal damage 5–11.…”

Spectro-temporal neural dynamics during sentence completion

“…It also opens new perspectives in understanding the physiopathology of language alterations in various brain disorders. For instance, sentence completion tests have been administered to evaluate cognition in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (Kim & Thompson, 2004;Martyr et al, 2019) Parkinson's disease (Martyr et al, 2019;Siquier & Andrés, 2021) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Abrahams et al, 2005). MEG should bring novel insights in the spectro-temporal correlates of previously reported abnormalities.…”

Arabic version of the Hayling sentence completion test: scale validation, normative data and factors associated with executive functions in a sample of the Lebanese adults

“…Individuals included in this study were aged above 18 years old, having no known history of neurological or psychological impairment. Excluded participants were those expected to have abnormal performances on the HSCT, which have been described in a wide variety of neurological, psychiatric, and neurodevelopmental conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment [22][23][24], brain traumatic injury [25], cerebrovascular accidents [26], Parkinson's disease [27], amyotrophic later sclerosis [28], frontotemporal dementia [28], schizophrenia [29], bipolar disorder [30], and autism spectrum disorder [31]. Participants aged above 55 years old [32] underwent a mini mental state examination (MMSE); those obtaining a score of 24 or more were included in the study [33].…”