The Trail Making Test A and B: A Technical Note on Structural Nonequivalence

Rossini, Edward D.; Karl, Michael A.

doi:10.2466/pms.1994.78.2.625

Cited by 37 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The two versions were well accepted by the participants. Rossini and Karl (1994) noted that the motor component is more significant in Part B than in Part A. Some of the results are consistent with published data on other computerized versions of the Trail Making Test, although those were not actually adaptations.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Nonequivalence of Computerized and Paper-and-Pencil Versions of Trail Making Test

et al. 2007

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A computerized version of the Trail Making Test, an adaptation of the classical paper-and-pencil form, was compared with the paper-and-pencil form. The testee must connect targets on the screen with the cursor using the mouse instead of a sheet of paper and a pen. The participants were 68 healthy adolescents and young adults. The comparison of scores on the two versions showed that they cannot be considered equivalent; the difference between the two parts of the test (Parts A and B) was greater in the paper-and-pencil version; correlations between the two versions of Part A and of Part B were significant, but too low to consider the two versions parallel. Both versions were accepted by participants. As expected, mean scores were different in Parts A and B in both versions and magnitude of differences was large.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Nonequivalence of Computerized and Paper-and-Pencil Versions of Trail Making Test

et al. 2007

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“…We then studied the performance of both groups in their attention skills using TMT [36], a test that analyzes visual attention and task switching. When analyzing the results of different subsets, A and B (Test-A: sustained attention; Test B: divided attention; and Test B-A: task coordination and set-shifting) we found no statistically significant differences within and between the groups (Supporting Information, Tables S2, S3).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combination Training in Aging Individuals Modifies Functional Connectivity and Cognition, and Is Potentially Affected by Dopamine-Related Genes

et al. 2012

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BackgroundAging is a major co-risk factor in many neurodegenerative diseases. Cognitive enrichment positively affects the structural plasticity of the aging brain. In this study, we evaluated effects of a set of structured multimodal activities (Combination Training; CT) on cognitive performances, functional connectivity, and cortical thickness of a group of healthy elderly individuals. CT lasted six months.MethodologyNeuropsychological and occupational performances were evaluated before and at the end of the training period. fMRI was used to assess effects of training on resting state network (RSN) functional connectivity using Independent Component Analysis (ICA). Effects on cortical thickness were also studied. Finally, we evaluated whether specific dopamine-related genes can affect the response to training.Principal FindingsResults of the study indicate that CT improves cognitive/occupational performances and reorganizes functional connectivity. Intriguingly, individuals responding to CT showed specific dopamine-related genotypes. Indeed, analysis of dopamine-related genes revealed that carriers of DRD3 ser9gly and COMT Val158Met polymorphisms had the greatest benefits from exposure to CT.Conclusions and SignificanceOverall, our findings support the idea that exposure to a set of structured multimodal activities can be an effective strategy to counteract aging-related cognitive decline and also indicate that significant capability of functional and structural changes are maintained in the elderly.

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“…Lexical production and phonemic verbal fluency as well as attention were evaluated by means of the verbal fluency test (Tombaugh et al, 1999;Oppenheimer, 2008). Attention skills, sustained attention, divided attention, task coordination and set shifting were evaluated using the Trail Making Test A and B (Rossini and Karl, 1994;Robertson et al, 1996). Attentional matrices were employed to evaluate speed and attention (Abbate et al, 2007).…”

Section: Neuropsychiatric and Neuropsychological Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

GABA content within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is related to trait anxiety

Pizzi

Padulo

Brancucci

et al. 2015

Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci

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The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) plays a key role in emotion processing and regulation. vmPFC dysfunction may lead to disinhibition of amygdala causing high anxiety levels. c-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) inter-neurons within vmPFC shape the information flow to amygdala. Thus, we hypothesize that GABA content within vmPFC could be relevant to trait anxiety. Forty-three healthy volunteers aged between 20 and 88 years were assessed for trait anxiety with the Subscale-2 of the State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y2) and were studied with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to investigate GABA and Glx (glutamateþglutamine) contents within vmPFC. Total creatine (tCr) was used as internal reference. Partial correlations assessed the association between metabolite levels and STAI-Y2 scores, removing the effect of possible nuisance factors including age, educational level, volumes of gray matter and white matter within magnetic resonance spectroscopy voxel. We observed a positive relationship between GABA/tCr and STAI-Y2 scores. No significant relationships were found between Glx/tCr and STAI-Y2 and between tCr/water and STAI-Y2. No differences were found between males and females as regards to age, STAI-Y2, GABA/tCr, Glx/tCr, tCr/water, gray matter and white matter volumes. We suggest a close relationship between GABA content within vmPFC and trait anxiety providing new insights in the physiology of emotional brain.

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The Trail Making Test A and B: A Technical Note on Structural Nonequivalence

Cited by 37 publications

References 5 publications

Nonequivalence of Computerized and Paper-and-Pencil Versions of Trail Making Test

Nonequivalence of Computerized and Paper-and-Pencil Versions of Trail Making Test

Combination Training in Aging Individuals Modifies Functional Connectivity and Cognition, and Is Potentially Affected by Dopamine-Related Genes

GABA content within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is related to trait anxiety

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