As our population ages, the prevalence of dementia, including Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), is increasing. Early dementia diagnoses facilitate access to interventions when they are most effective for prolonging and improving life. Verbal fluency tests (e.g., FAS and Animal Fluency) can aid in the diagnosis of AD and FTD through detecting declines in executive functioning and language. These tests may be particularly useful for diagnosing the behavioural variant of FTD (bvFTD), which is associated with declines in executive functioning. A systematic search of Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, MEDLINE, CINHAL, and AgeLine identified 127 peer-reviewed studies published from January 2010 to July 2024, which compared FAS and Animal Fluency Test performances of people with AD or FTD to cognitively-healthy controls. Hedges’ g effect sizes determined the effectiveness of three common score types (Total, Intrusion, Perseveration) for AD/FTD combined, AD and combined FTD subtypes, and AD and FTD subtypes (e.g., bvFTD). FAS and Animal Fluency Total Scores were the most reported and effective for detecting cognitive decline in these dementias combined (g = -1.31 and g = -1.95, respectively), but similar effects were seen for AD and bvFTD. The pattern of effects was not influenced by patient characteristics and remained consistent when only low risk-of-bias studies were analysed. However, significant publication bias may have inflated the effects for AD. Overall, the FAS and Animal Fluency Total Scores can effectively detect cognitive decline in both AD and FTD, although they cannot be recommended for differentiating between AD and bvFTD.
Evidence regarding the acute effect of brief mindfulness exercises (mindfulness inductions) on cognitive performance and executive functions (EFs) is mixed. This meta-analysis aimed to estimate the overall effect on the component of EFs (i.e. inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility) and investigate if the level of induced state of mindfulness explains this effect. The current pre-registered, three-level meta-analysis and systematic review included 66 published studies with 187 effect sizes, including a total of 2,503 participants in the experimental groups and 2,511 participants in control groups. Standardized mean differences were calculated for the post-test difference between the mindfulness and the control condition. Results from three-level meta-analytic model revealed that there is a small but significant effect of mindfulness inductions on overall EFs (k = 66, g = 0.09 95
This review examines whether recovery of spatial neglect reflects reinstatement of previously lost cognitive states or context-dependent reorganization. Although substantial remission is well documented, converging evidence indicates that recovery is highly sensitive to how it is measured. Across structured neuropsychological tasks, dual-task paradigms, ecological assessments, and functional connectivity analyses, different operationalizations yield systematically different conclusions about recovery. The present review suggests a pattern across the neglect literature: performance often normalizes under controlled conditions, while deficits re-emerge under increased cognitive load or ecological complexity, and recovery is accompanied by large-scale network reorganization. Rather than reflecting empirical inconsistency, this pattern suggests that different paradigms may probe distinct dimensions of cognitive function. The review argues that this method-dependence constrains how recovery should be interpreted and highlights the need for multi-level accounts linking behavioral performance, robustness, and neural organization. Theoretical frameworks, including the Reorganization of Elementary Functions model, the Multiple Generator Hypothesis, and predictive processing, are discussed as possible ways of integrating these findings. Spatial neglect is thus presented as a case in which recovery cannot be understood independently of how it is operationalized, with implications for both neurorehabilitation research and theories of cognitive organization.
Cognitive impairment is a key consequence of small vessel disease (SVD), yet prior work has often dichotomised cognitive outcomes as either intact or impaired, obscuring domain- and severity-specific effects. We conducted three-level random-effects meta-analyses to examine cognitive performance across multiple cognitive domains and levels of SVD severity. A total of 24 studies met the inclusion criteria, of which 16 provided sufficient group summary data of White Matter Hyperintensity (WMH) pathology for quantitative synthesis. The remaining studies contributed to descriptive analyses, which synthesised broader SVD pathology types. Processing speed showed the earliest and strongest deficits, with small effects at low WMH burden and medium-to-large effects by high WHM burden, Fazekas 3 (Fazekas 3 pooled g = − 1.02, 95
This systematic review aims to expand the characterization of apraxia in a spectrum of different neurodegenerative diseases and to explore associations between apraxia, on the one hand, and motor and cognitive disorders, on the other hand. 32 studies were included, representing a total of 430 patients with neurodegenerative diseases (n = 146 cases with CBS; n = 104 cases with SD; n = 66 cases with PD; n = 92 cases with bvFTD; n = 22 cases with PCA). The findings highlight that limb apraxia is multi-faceted in neurodegenerative diseases, as patients show polymorphic praxic performances depending on the cognitive disorders and the patterns of cortical or subcortical atrophy they exhibit. (1) According to a cortico-subcortical axis, patients with CBS are more impaired in gesture production than patients with PD. Whether gesture impairments met in PD are due to motor deficits or “true” apraxia remains an open issue. (2) According to a dorso-ventral axis, there is a double dissociation between gesture production that is better preserved in SD than in CBS, and semantic knowledge that is better preserved in CBS than in SD. (3) According to an antero-posterior axis, more data are needed to explore apraxia and its links with social and visual spatial skills in the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia and in posterior cortical atrophy. Overall, our review emphasizes the need to adopt a process-based approach to better understand the nature of gesture impairments in each syndrome.
