• Korean Journal of Schizophrenia Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.15-28
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• 2020

Objectives: This study investigated the relationship between clock-drawing test (CDT) performance and neuropsychological functions in patients with chronic schizophrenia. Methods: Thirty-one patients with schizophrenia and 30 healthy controls participated in this study. The CDT was administered in three conditions and analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative scoring systems. Comprehensive neuropsychological tests were administered. Results: The results of the quantitative analysis showed that the schizophrenia group performed significantly worse in all three conditions of the CDT compared with the control group. However, no significant differences were observed between the two groups, when the IQ and educational level were controlled. The qualitative analysis showed that the schizophrenia group exhibited significantly more errors in "graphic difficulty" compared with the control group. In addition, CDT quantitative scores were significantly correlated with visuospatial function, memory, attention and executive functions in patients with schizophrenia. Conversely, each qualitative error type was correlated with specific cognitive domains. Furthermore, "graphic difficulty" and "spatial/planning deficit" were identified as predictors of depression symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that the CDT is useful for assessing cognitive dysfunctions in patients with schizophrenia, while qualitative analyses provide more specific information about cognitive deficits compared with quantitative analyses.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.157-164
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• 2016

Objectives : The objective of this study was to investigate the characteristics of language profiles according to whether or not Korean children with autism spectrum disorder(ASD) also have ADHD, and to examine the relationship with executive function. Methods : Participants in the study were boys with ADHD aged 6 to 11 years who visited the clinic from January 2012 to December 2013. In this study, 25 boys with ASD were included, and completed scales included the Korean version of Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised(K-ADI-R), Korean version of Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule(K-ADOS), Korean ADHD Rating Scale(K-ARS), and Korean-Conners' Parent Rating Scale(K-CPRS). They also completed neuropsychological tests and assessed language profiles. Patients were categorized into two groups(with ADHD and without ADHD). T-test and Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used for analysis. Results : Statistically, no difference was found in receptive and expressive language ability between the ASD groups with and without ADHD. However, a lower score in Test of Problem solving(TOPS) was observed for ASD with ADHD than for ASD without ADHD, with problem solving and finding cues showing significant differences. Conclusions : These findings suggest that language profiles in the ASD group without ADHD could be similar to those in the ASD group with ADHD, but comorbid ADHD could lead to more difficulty in linguistic ability for problem solving and could be related with executive function of the frontal lobe.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.51-62
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• 2019

Objective: To develop and verify the usability of a cognitive rehabilitation system with diverse cognitive functional levels based on tangible objects for the elderly population. Methods: A study was conducted to investigate the system's strengths and weaknesses by upgrading it with responses from two groups of 15 patients and 4 occupational therapists. After undergoing three forms of training - regarding executive function, memory, and concentration for a total of 20-30 min, the participants were asked to answer a structured questionnaire about contents of the three forms of training, hardware including the tablet PC functioning as a CPU and display media and tangible objects, and satisfaction of experiential usage of the system. Results: Both groups responded that the most interesting training area was executive function while the least interesting was concentration. Six participants reported that the size of the screen of the tablet PC was inappropriate, and five responded that the size of the tool was inappropriate. All therapists and 40% of the patients responded that they were satisfied with this system. Conclusion: This system's features include easy manipulation of tangible tools for performing training tasks, easy selection of and training in cognitive areas based on users' needs, and automatic adjustment of difficulty level based on users' performance. The training environment was designed to be similar to the natural environment by using tangible objects in both hands as input devices for the system, and the system was considered as an alternative to the lack of community cognitive rehabilitation specialists.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.25-38
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• 2021

Objective : This study aimed to establish an analytic methodology that can objectively evaluate the proverb comprehension levels that vary based on the aging process. Method : This study recruited 70 normal elderly aged ≥ 65 years and performed proverb comprehension tasks using an explanation method. A scoring estimation method was designed on 3 and 5-point scales. The difficulty and discrimination levels were calculated based on the two scales, thereby selecting the final questions and evaluation scale. Results : First, the item discrimination index on the 5-point scale was relatively higher than that on the 3-point scale, and 10 items were finally selected. Second, in terms of proverb comprehension ability, the elderly group aged 70 ~ 84 years showed significantly lower performance than those aged 65 ~ 69 years. Additionally, subjects with ≥ 10 years of education showed significantly higher performance than those with 9 ≤ years of education. Third, the performance of the proverbs comprehension task negatively correlated with the reaction time of the executive function task. Conclusion : Proverb comprehension is a task that can distinctively show a deterioration of brain functions in line with the aging process even among the normal elderly group and therefore, can estimate the difference more effectively with an increase in the score of the evaluation scale.