School of Psychology, University of Exeter, UK.
PenCLAHRC, Institute of Health Research, University of Exeter Medical School, UK.
J Neuropsychol. 2019 Mar;13(1):67-81. doi: 10.1111/jnp.12129. Epub 2017 Jun 20.
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.
抑制无关信息的能力对于应对日常生活的需求至关重要。在痴呆症的所有阶段都存在抑制缺陷，并且在帕金森病患者（PwPD）中经常观察到。抑制通常通过 Stroop 测试进行测试，但这可能缺乏生态有效性。本研究使用 Hayling 句子完成测试（HSCT）来研究阿尔茨海默病痴呆症（PwD）和 PwPD 患者的抑制控制，该测试旨在成为更具生态有效性的任务。共有 117 人完成了 HSCT，这是一项要求参与者用不相关的词完成句子的测试。该样本包括 30 名 PwD、33 名 PwPD 和 54 名健康的老年对照组。我们比较了三组参与者的反应时间、错误数量和类型。当控制启动速度时，B 部分（抑制）的完成时间在 PwD、PwPD 和对照组之间没有区别，但 A 类错误（在指示其他情况下生成适合句子的单词）的比例较高是 PwD 和 PwPD 表现较差的独特特征。虽然不在标准测试评分协议的范围内，但控制启动速度并在测试表现中区分速度和准确性对于准确评估老年人 HSCT 中的抑制控制似乎至关重要。研究结果表明，HSCT 可能对言语抑制缺陷敏感，并可能为 PwD 和 PwPD 的抑制控制提供深入了解。
