Factor structure of the Comprehensive Trail Making Test in children and adolescents with brain dysfunction.

Abstract

The Comprehensive Trail Making Test (CTMT) is a relatively new version of the Trail Making Test that has a number of appealing features, including a large normative sample that allows raw scores to be converted to standard T scores adjusted for age. Preliminary validity information suggests that CTMT scores are sensitive to brain injury and demonstrate expected correlations with other neuropsychological tests, although the evidence also suggests that the factor structure of the CTMT may differ in children with brain dysfunction in comparison to the standardization sample. The present study addresses this matter by conducting a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the CTMT in 382 children and adolescents. Of the 382, 191 were diagnosed with various forms of brain dysfunction, including 140 who had sustained a traumatic brain injury. The other 191 participants were healthy controls who were individually matched on age and gender to the clinical group with brain dysfunction. Results of the CFA indicated that for the clinical group, a 2-factor model composed of Simple Sequencing and Complex Sequencing/Shifting factors provided the best fit for the data. Although these 2 factors were also identified in the controls, differences in pattern of loadings were present. Results suggest that the presence of brain dysfunction may alter the factor structure of the CTMT in children and adolescents.

Factor Structure of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children

“…These results showed the contribution of the second-order G factor and the residualized first-order factors to each of the WISC-IV subtests. Although the original Schmid–Leiman procedure was designed to use an exploratory first-order analysis, confirmatory models can also serve as the first-order analysis, as stated by the original authors and subsequently demonstrated in other studies (Allen & Barchard, 2009; Allen, Thaler, Barchard, Vertinski, & Mayfield, in press; Luo, Petrill, & Thompson, 1994).…”

Trail making test performance in youth varies as a function of anatomical coupling between the prefrontal cortex and distributed cortical regions

“…The TMT is probably best known as being a part of the Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological battery (Reitan and Wolfson, 1993). More recently, modified versions of the TMT have become available, such as the Comprehensive Trail Making Test (Allen et al, 2012a) and the Trail Making subtest on the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (Fine et al, 2011; Allen et al, 2012b). …”

Validation of the Norma Latina Neuropsychological Assessment Battery in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease in Mexico

“…The neuropsychological battery was composed of nine neuropsychological tests most used by clinicians and researchers in Latin American countries [ 46 ]: Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) [ 60 , 61 , 62 ]; Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R) [ 63 , 64 ]; Modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (M-WCST) [ 65 , 66 ]; Stroop Color-Word Interference Test (Stroop test) [ 39 , 67 , 68 ]; Verbal Fluency Test (VFT-Phonological and semantic) [ 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 ]; Boston Naming Test (BNT) [ 74 , 75 , 76 ]; Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) [ 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 ]; Trail Making Test (TMT) [ 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 ]; and Brief Test of Attention (BTA) [ 86 ]. For more details by each test, please see Supplementary Material S1 .…”