The pre-frontal cortex is the basis of the most complex mental abilities of human development. In its evaluation process, the EFECO scale provides an important contribution to assess its status. In previous investigations this scale has been studied with its configuration of 67 items, narrative focused on the deficit and evaluation of 8 executive functions. This research presents a new version of the scale, centered on its narrative in executive ability, proposed items to assess executive verification function and a summarized version of 42 items. The study included 118 healthy adults between 18 and 25 years of age (Mage = 20.72, SD = 1.65). In the results it was found that the EFECO II-VC scale (modified and complete version) obtained as internal consistency α = .96 and its sub-scales internal consistency between α = .64 and .81. The EFECO II-VR scale (modified and summarized version) obtained α = .94 and its sub-scales between α = .68 and .79. The internal consistency of the factors in which the executive functions are included were adequate: the supervisory system of cognition II-VC α = .93 and II-VR α = .70, while the supervisor system of behavior II- VC α = .93 and II-VR α = .81. The correlations between the executive functions assessed with both scales were between medium and large r = .36 and .94. The work is closed discussing the clinical and scientific contribution of the modification of the EFECO scale.
Neuropsychological Evaluation
Evaluación de las Habilidades de la Corteza Prefrontal: La Escala Efeco II-VC y II-VR. Evaluation Of The Skills Of The Prefrontal Cortex: The Efeco II-VC And II-VR.
Evaluación Neuropsicológica del Control Inhibitorio y el Control de la Interferencia: Validación de Tareas Experimentales en el Contexto Ecuatoriano. Neuropsychological Evaluation Of Inhibitory Control And Interference Control: Validation Of Experimental Tasks In The Ecuadorian Context.
In this article we report a study in which three experimental tasks (SIMON, Go / No-Go and Stroop Victoria) were adapted and validated to evaluate the inhibitory control and interference control in a sample of Ecuadorian students. The sample consisted of 100 students between 6 and 15 years old (M = 10.13 years, SD = 2.48) belonging to the public education system of Ecuador. The process followed in the adaptation and validation was through the linguistic translation of the experiments, followed by an expert judgment and a pilot study. In the results it was found that there are no statistically significant differences in the measures that assess the inhibitory control and the interference considering the sociodemographic variables of the participants as comparison factors. In the correlation analysis we found a statistically significant association between the measurements of the experiments. We conclude by analyzing the associations found and underlining the need to continue providing evidence in the research line of adaptation and validation of test for using in neuropsychological evaluation.
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Conceptos Fundamentales en la Teoría Neuropsicológica. Fundamental Concepts In The Neuropsychological Theory.
This article presents three concepts that are fundamental in the neuropsychological theoretical: (a) historical data in the study of the human brain, (b) neuropsychological evaluation of brain functions and (c) neuropsychological rehabilitation of brain functions. As relevant data in the theoretical development of the study of the human brain is a tour of the trepanation acts performed hundreds of years ago, the contributions of phrenology, the masterful findings of Broca and Wernicke, the heuristic contribution of Luria and the current revolution with the neuro-image. In the neuropsychological evaluation of brain functions, the role of specific, non-specific and delayed observation tests in the interpretation of the neuropsychological state of the human being is analyzed, which allow analyzing neuropsychological functions in the laboratory and in real lifeactivities. Finally, we analyze the process of neuropsychological rehabilitation of brain functions, where mention is made of the processes of restoration, compensation, substitution, activation-stimulation and integration, which are very useful when intervening in a brain that has suffered an acquired damage. It is concluded that the current accelerated pace has determined the advance of neuroscience, where technology and the forceful scientific contribution propose new techniques and theories to understand the processes of evaluation and rehabilitation of brain functioning.
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La evaluación neuropsicológica en la Cirugía de Epilepsia.
Since the decade of the sixties objective systems of evaluation of the superior functions have been developed with the purpose of being able to establish the cognitive state from the patients candidates to epilepsy surgery, for that, the neuropsychological evaluation is made by means of the use of suitable instruments that allows to identify the cerebral dysfunction and taking into account the following aspects: a) to establish the global cognitive state, b) to guide in the lateralization of the cerebral dysfunction, c) to predict the risk of deterioration or cognitive improvement, with base in the preserved functions and in the altered functions, and d) after the surgery, to describe the patient’s cognitive state by means of periodic evaluations, with the purpose of having an evolutionary control of the neuropsychological functioning, providing in a precise and integrated way the effects that the surgical intervention produces in the cognitive functioning of the patients. The neuropsychological evaluation is an integrated process that requires of several hours to be completed, for that, it is important that this is carried out without the previous knowledge of the discoveries of image and/or electroencephalographic methods, since this could slant the exploration and the results, when it is not possible the identification of other possible cognitive alterations, or, one runs the risk of supposing the existence of cerebral pathology where there is not. In this article the theoretical-methodological aspects of the neuropsychological exploration are described in the area of epilepsy surgery.
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Aspectos Neuropsicológicos de la Resonancia Magnética Funcional.
Cognitive neuropsychology and functional magnetic resonance (RMf) have marked a particularly fertile period in the development of neurosciences. Their clinical value, although incipient, is unquestionable. Integration of these two disciplines allows the registration of cerebral images related to the neuronal activation of specific areas, providing structural and functional information of the human brain under normal and pathological conditions. The RMf has important clinical and research applications. For example, pointing the brain areas needed to be avoided during surgery, or observing the neurofunctional changes that take place with a pharmacological treatment or neuropsychological rehabilitation. It also permits increasing the knowledge of neurofunctional bases of different cerebral pathologies. It is of special interest and importance the selection and implementation of the activation paradigm on functions to be studied, condition that is required for the correct interpretation of the results. The procedure for RMf allows the study of a specific component in the cognitive process in response to a specific task. It doesn’t identify the function as a unique feature, but it identifies neurofunctional patterns. In this article, the basic theoretical-methodological neuropsychological aspects are described for the implementation of studies by RMf.
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A strange case of Comorbidity in a 60-year-old Portuguese war veteran: War Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Early Fronto- Temporal Cerebral Atrophy, and Strong Neuropsychological Symptomatology. A Neuropsychological Review.
The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a psychiatric disorder that derives from traumatic events. Although the literature and clinical reports of PTSD is known along centuries, only in 1980 was recognized by the American Psychiatric Association as a diagnostic category of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – III. The present article reports the case study of a man with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, initial signs of fronto-temporal dementia and other neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric symptomatology. Decurrent of the neuropsychological evaluation was possible to detect a variety of alterations in the humour and personalistic sphere, as well as deficits in orientation, memory, attention, concentration and also in the functions regulated by pre-frontal cortex. This study suggests not only the importance of a deep neuropsychological evaluation, as the necessity to integrate the deficits showed by the patient with the evidence from literature.
