Jennifer Zientz

• The University of Texas at Dallas

Objective Many individuals who experienced a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) have persistent cognitive complaints. Traditional cognitive rehabilitation (TCR) interventions were primarily developed for severe neurological injury which has limited effectiveness in rehabilitation of active duty military personnel who have the goal of returning to f...

Introduction The workplace typically affords one of the longest periods for continued brain health growth. Brain health is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the promotion of optimal brain development, cognitive health, and well-being across the life course, which we expanded to also include connectedness to people and purpose. This...

Background Military personnel require a level of cognitive readiness that ensures they function safely and effectively in high-stress situations. Warfighters who experienced a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) often complain of persistent cognitive issues that may impact those abilities. This study presents preliminary data on the efficacy of a 4-...

Introduction: Brain health is neglected in public health, receiving attention after something goes wrong. Neuroplasticity research illustrates that preventive steps strengthen the brain's component systems; however, this information is not widely known. Actionable steps are needed to scale proven population-level interventions. Objectives: This pil...

Introduction Research shows that cognitive performance and emotional well-being can be significantly strengthened. A high-performance brain training protocol, Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Training (SMART), was developed by cognitive neuroscientists at The University of Texas at Dallas Center for BrainHealth based on 25-plus years of scientif...

Cognitive deficits in executive function and memory among individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) are well-documented; however, only recently have efforts begun to address whether such cognitive deficits can be ameliorated through cognitive training. This pilot study examined the effects of a top–down, cognitive reasoning training program in adults...

Cognitive impairment is a key factor that threatens functionality and quality of life in seniors. Given the projection that the population of individuals 65 years of age and older will double within the next 25 years, a critical need exists to identify and test effectiveness of protocols that target higher-order cognitive skills such as gist reason...

The greatest accomplishment of the 20th century—the doubling of the human lifespan—has brought issues related to brain health to the forefront of public health policy. Given that our bodies are outlasting our minds, maximizing brain health is the scientific cause of this millennium. In this paper, we address three major issues related to maintainin...

Background: Little is known about how to maintain communicative effectiveness in semantic dementia as the disease progresses from impairment in word retrieval to a loss of conceptual knowledge. Aim: The purpose of this study is twofold. The first objective is to characterise communicative effectiveness using a modified framework derived from Chapma...

Eight adolescents (ages 13-18 years) who sustained traumatic brain injury (TBI) and eight gender- and age-matched typically developing (TD) adolescents underwent event-related functional MRI (fMRI) while performing a Sternberg letter recognition task. Encoding, maintenance, and retrieval were examined with memory loads of one or four items during i...

The Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences (ANCDS), the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), its Special Interest Division 2 (SID-2, Neurophysiology and Neurogenic Speech and Language Disorders), and the Veterans Administration (VA) collaborated to establish evidence-based practice recommendations for speech-lang...

The Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences (ANCDS), the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), its Special Interest Division 2 (SID-2, Neurophysiology and Neurogenic Speech and Language Disorders), and the Veterans Administration (VA) collaborated to establish evidence-based practice guidelines for speech-language...

In 2001, the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences (ANCDS), in collaboration with the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA), its Special Interest Division 2 (SID-2: Neurophysiology and Neurogenic Speech and Language Disorders), and the Veterans Administration (VA) established a committee to write evidence-based pr...

Alzheimer's disease (AD), an insidious neurodegenerative process that produces inexorable decline in intellectual functioning, is the leading cause of dementia and is creating the profession's largest clinical population. As the multiple cognitive deficits exhibited by individuals with AD result in impaired communicative functioning, speech-languag...

The characterization of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is complicated and not widely recognized. Connected language measures (ie, discourse) and functional neuroimaging may advance knowledge specifying early distinctions among frontal dementias. The present study examined the correspondence of discourse measures with (1) clinical diagnosi...

This randomized study evaluated the combined effect of a cognitive-communication program plus an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (donepezil; donepezil-plus-stimulation group; n = 26), as compared with donepezil alone (donepezil-only group; n = 28) in 54 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD; Mini-Mental Status Examination score of 1...

The purpose of this study was to determine the sensitivity of discourse gist measures to the early cognitive-linguistic changes in Alzheimer disease (AD) and in the preclinical stages. Differences in discourse abilities were examined in 25 cognitively normal adults, 24 adults with mild probable AD, and 20 adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI)...