Sara Mondini

• Prof.ssa ordinaria
• Professor (Full) at University of Padua

Trajectories of decline from healthy aging to dementia are not linear; they may range from a more attenuated to a more accelerated cognitive worsening. This longitudinal study investigates the impact of Cognitive Reserve (CR) on task performance in a cohort of 117 individuals (mean age 74.89; SD = 7.43) who experienced difficulties in everyday life...

Age-related changes can impact cognitive and physical health, reducing quality of life and independence. While technologies are increasingly used in healthcare to support older adults, their application highly depends on cultural factors. Italy, with one of Europe's highest aging populations and low digital advancement, offers an interesting scenar...

Background Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients show heterogeneous cognitive profiles which suggest the existence of cognitive subgroups. A deeper comprehension of this heterogeneity could contribute to move toward a precision medicine perspective. Objective In this study, we aimed 1) to investigate AD cognitive heterogeneity as a product of the comb...

Pragmatics is key to communicating effectively, and its assessment in vulnerable populations is of paramount importance. Although tools exist for this purpose, they are often effortful and time-consuming, with complex scoring procedures, which hampers their inclusion in clinical practice. To address these issues, we present the Brief Assessment of...

Recent methodological developments have contributed to a significant advance in computerised neuropsychological instruments and procedures, including those accessible from remote. In this paper we present Auto-GEMS, a newly developed, web-based, self-administered screening test allowing to quickly estimate an individual’s cognitive state also consi...

Patients with health pathologies may exhibit psychological features in addition to medical symptomatology. A sample of 76 Italian women with an age range between 23 and 78 years old (mean = 50.22 ± 10.47 years) diagnosed with fibromyalgia (a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, cognitive and mood...

Auto-Gems And recode

Cognitive Reserve (CR) reflects acquired knowledge, skills, and abilities throughout life, and it is known for modulating cognitive efficiency in healthy and clinical populations. CR, which was initially proposed to explain individual differences in the clinical presentation of dementia, has subsequently been extended to healthy ageing, showing its...

Cognitive reserve (CR) represents the adaptive response of the cognitive system responsible for preserving normal functioning in the face of brain damage. Experiential factors such as education, occupation, and leisure activities influence the development of CR. Theoretically, such factors build up from childhood and across adulthood. Thus, appropr...

Cognitive Reserve (CR) reflects acquired knowledge, skills, and abilities throughout life, and it is known for modulating cognitive efficiency in healthy and clinical populations. CR, which was initially proposed to explain individual differences in the clinical presentation of dementia, has subsequently been extended to healthy ageing, showing its...

Background Cognitive reserve (CR) has not been studied in people with Intellectual Developmental Disability, a population with a high incidence of dementia. Commonly adopted CR proxies should be adapted to reflect more specifically the experiences of people with Intellectual Developmental Disability. Method This scoping review intended to identify...

Introduction With the rapid increase in the population over 65 years old, research on healthy aging has become one of the priorities in the research community, looking for a cost-effective method to prevent or delay symptoms of mild cognitive disorder or dementia. Studies indicate that cognitive reserve theory could be beneficial in this regard. Th...

Background Dementia in people with Intellectual Disability (ID) has a prevalence three times greater (Strydom et al., 2007) and with an earlier onset (Dodd et al., 2015) than in the general population. Despite the fact that virtually all adults with ID display neuropathology consistent with dementia by the age of 40, many of them never show the cli...

This study aimed at developing and standardizing the Telephone Language Screener (TLS), a novel, disease-nonspecific, telephone-based screening test for language disorders. The TLS was developed in strict pursuance to the current psycholinguistic standards. It comprises nine tasks assessing phonological, lexical-semantic and morpho-syntactic compon...

Nonagenarians and centenarians, also called oldest-old, are a very heterogeneous population that counts a limited number of individuals as it is a real challenge to reach this goal. Even if it is well known that cognitive reserve can be considered a factor in maintaining good cognitive functioning in ageing, only very few studies have been carried...

Background The wide use of the term Cognitive Reserve (CR) is in need of a clear and shared definition of its concept and of the development of new tools, quick and easy to use and updated for the people of today. This study describes the online short CRIq (s-CRIq), the new shorter version of the CRIq, following an item analysis revision, and compa...

(i) Background: Cognitive impairment in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) has been studied in relation to certain clinical variables (e.g., motor disability and disease duration) and lifestyle factors such as cognitive reserve (CR). However, only very few studies have considered the interaction of clinical variables and cognitive reserve in prese...

(1) Background. Cognitive impairment in people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) has been studied in relation to some clinical variables (e.g., motor disability and disease duration) and lifestyle fac-tors such as Cognitive Reserve (CR). However, only very few studies have considered the interac-tion of clinical variables and cognitive reserve in preser...

Tele-neuropsychology, i.e., the application of remote audio-visual technologies to neuropsychological evaluation or rehabilitation, has become increasingly popular and widespread during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. New tools with updated normative data and appropriate methodological developments are necessary. We present Tele-GEMS, a telephone-...

Cognitive impairment and sexual dysfunction are common symptoms in persons with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The present study focuses on the relationship between these two dimensions by means of a specific assessment commonly used in clinical practice with this population. Fifty-five persons with a diagnosis of MS underwent specific cognitive tests an...

Objectives: Aging of the population encourages research on how to preserve cognition and quality of life. Many studies have shown that Physical Activity (PA) positively affects cognition in older adults. However, PA carried out throughout the individual's lifespan may also have an impact on cognition in old age. We hypothesize the existence of Mot...

In a recent study we showed that Cognitive Reserve (CR) did not significantly predict the neuropsychological outcomes of patients with severe Acquired Brain Injury (sABI), after a rehabilitation program. The present study aims to extend the previous results by assessing the role of CR on long-term neuropsychological outcomes of a subgroup (N = 27)...

Gliomas are commonly characterized by neurocognitive deficits that strongly impact patients’ and caregivers’ quality of life. Surgical resection is the mainstay of therapy, and it can also cause cognitive impairment. An important clinical problem is whether patients who undergo surgery will show post-surgical cognitive impairment above and beyond t...

L’esame neuropsicologico dell'adulto con lesioni cerebrali o patologie che influenzano il sistema nervoso centrale si è rivelato indispensabile a fini diagnostici, prognostici, peritali e riabilitativi. Pertanto la valutazione neuropsicologica è diventata una parte fondamentale della pratica clinica di molte strutture sanitarie e richiede l'utilizz...

Background This study aimed at standardizing and providing preliminary evidence on the clinical usability of the Italian telephone-based Verbal Fluency Battery (t-VFB), which includes phonemic (t-PVF), semantic (t-SVF) and alternate (t-AVF) verbal fluency tasks. Methods Three-hundred and thirty-five Italian healthy participants (HPs; 140 males; ag...

Objective: Psychomotor slowdown was observed in individuals with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS). Previous studies evaluated separately cognitive and motor reaction times, finding that OSAS individuals show a specific impairment in the latter. The present study investigates whether eye-to-hand coordination (EHC), a specific psychomotor abi...

Background The aim of this paper is to present a freely accessible new instrument for the evaluation of cognition: the Global Examination of Mental State (GEMS). Methods It is made up of 11 items tapping into a range of skills, such as Orientation in time and space, Memory, Working memory, Visuo‐spatial, Visuo‐constructional and Planning abilities...

Background Despite the relevance of telephone-based cognitive screening tests in clinical practice and research, no specific test assessing executive functioning is available. The present study aimed at standardizing and providing evidence of clinical usability for the Italian telephone-based Frontal Assessment Battery (t-FAB). Methods The t-FAB (...

Cognitive reserve (CR) refers to acquired experience that modulates resistance to physiological aging or brain damage. A relatively neglected issue is whether or not CR affects cognitive abilities equally. One relevant component of CR seems to be the richness of connections in semantic knowledge. We examined, in N = 66 healthy older adults, the pot...

Background The Italian telephone-based Mini-Mental State Examination (Itel-MMSE), despite being psychometrically sound, has shown relevant ceiling effects, which may negatively impact the interpretation of its scores. In address to overcome such an issue, this study aimed at providing item-level insights on the Itel-MMSE through Item Response Theor...

Normative data of neuropsychological tests typically consider the effect of demographic variables like age and education on performance. However, a broad literature has shown that, after the school age, other cognitively stimulating experiences (e.g., occupational attainment and a variety of leisure-time activities) may increase and build up cognit...

The multitude of training models and curricula for the specialty of clinical neuropsychology around the world has led to organized activities to develop a framework of core competencies to ensure sufficient expertise among entry-level professionals in the field. The Standing Committee on Clinical Neuropsychology of the European Federation of Psycho...

Background Many different factors have been hypothesized to modulate cognition in an aging population according to their functioning at baseline. Methods This retrospective study quantifies the relative contribution of age and sex as demographic factors, comorbidity, education, and occupation (classified with the International Standard Classificat...

Normative data of neuropsychological tests typically take into account the effect of demographic variables like age and education on performance. However, a broad literature has shown that, after the school age, other cognitively stimulating experiences (e.g., occupational attainment and a variety of leisure-time activities) may increase and build...

Normative data of neuropsychological tests typically take into account the effect of demographic variables like age and education on performance. However, a broad literature has shown that, after the school age, other cognitively stimulating experiences (e.g., occupational attainment and a variety of leisure-time activities) may increase and build...

Objective: Cognitive reserve (CR) is a term used to describe the adaptability of cognitive processes to brain changes. It helps to explain the different cognitive adaptation to daily functioning in aging individuals and in individuals with brain pathology: a higher CR is associated with a delay in the manifestation of cognitive symptoms. CR is esti...

Background: Although cognition in multiple sclerosis (MS) is assessed by means of several neuropsychological tests, only a few tools exist to investigate patients' perspectives on cognitive functioning. Objective: To develop a new questionnaire aimed at exploring patients' self-perception with respect to cognition in Italian MS patients. Methods: A...

This study analyzed aspects of the work of clinical neuropsychologists across Europe. There are no published comparisons between European countries regarding the nature of clinical neuropsychologists’ work. Forty-one national psychological and neuropsychological societies were approached, of which 31 (76%) responded. Data from seven countries with...

OBJECTIVE: Cognitive reserve (CR) is a term used to describe the adaptability of cognitive processes to brain changes. It helps to explain the differential cognitive adaptation to daily functioning in aging individuals and in individuals with brain pathology, with a higher CR associated with a delay in the manifestation of cognitive symptoms. CR ca...

PARTE 1 PARTE 2 75 partecipanti sani (età 50-89) Riserva Motoria: questionario ad-hoc (Motor Reserve Index questionnaire, MRIq). Esso valuta, non solo l'esercizio fisico, ma anche l'attività fisica incidentale. Cognizione: batteria computerizzata completa (CFD, Schuhfried) 101 partecipanti sani (età 50-84) Riserva Motoria Test specifici per le funz...

This retrospective study quantifies the relative contribution of age and sex as demographic factors, comorbidity, education and occupation as cognitive reserve (CR) proxies in accounting for cognitive aging. Participants underwent three neuropsychological evaluations, with their cognitive profiles being classified as unimpaired, mildly or severely...

Cognitive Reserve (CR) refers to cognitive resources acquired through experiences along the lifespan that allow for flexibility in coping with neurocognitive changes. Investigating the role of CR measures across well-established psycholinguistic features can provide new insight into how CR interplays with cognition. Sixty-five Italian older adults...

Cognitive reserve refers to acquired learnings that modulate brain resistance to physiological aging or brain damage. One relevant component of cognitive reserve seems to be the richness of connections in the semantic knowledge. We examined the influence of cognitive reserve and semantic knowledge on proper name and common noun retrieval.Sixty-six...

The prevalence and negative impact of brain disorders are increasing. Clinical Neuropsychology is a specialty dedicated to understanding brain-behavior relationships, applying such knowledge to the assessment of cognitive, affective, and behavioral functioning associated with brain disorders, and designing and implementing effective treatments. The...

This review aimed to systematically summarize the possible neural correlates of cognitive reserve thus giving an insight into prospective biomarkers for the concept. A total of 44 studies were analyzed following PRISMA guidelines and four studies were included in the further analysis. The results indicated a relationship between P3b waveform and co...

This paper highlights that, in the diagnostic process, the integration of an appropriate and valid cogni- tive reserve measure is extremely important, considering the numerous clinical advantages described above. Grounded on daily clinical practice, our suggestion also allows to quantify CR without no additional costs in terms of time and eco- nomi...

Objective Patients with an equivalent clinical background may show unexpected interindividual differences in their outcome. The cognitive reserve (CR) model has been proposed to account for such discrepancies, but its role after acquired severe injuries is still being debated. We hypothesize that inappropriate investigative methods might have been...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01220.].

In neuropsychology, the assessment of speech production has to be very accurate and precise when a patient shows disorganized discourse in conversation. Clinician's work in such cases, consists in a multi-tasking operation based on the observation and the quantification of a number of parameters of speech, occurring during the patient's discourse p...

Study Objectives: Prior research has linked obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) to varied cognitive deficits. Additionally, OSA in rapid eye movement (REM) versus non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep has been shown to be a stronger predictor of outcomes such as hypertension. The present study aimed to investigate whether OSA—as characterized by the apnea-...

It is known that patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) may show deficits in several areas of cognition, including speech and language abilities. One domain of particular interest is pragmatics, which refers to the capacity of using language in context for a successful communication. Several studies showed that some specific aspects of pragmatics –...

Previous studies showed that high Cognitive Reserve (CR, years of education and experience and knowledge acquired in life) is correlated with language proficiency as measured with vocabulary size, verbal analogy, and semantic processing. The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between CR and the ability in retrieving differe...

In the domain of cognitive studies on the lexico-semantic representational system, one of the most important means of ensuring effective experimental designs is using ecological stimulus sets accompanied by normative data on the most relevant variables affecting the processing of their items. In the context of image sets, color photographs are part...

In the domain of cognitive studies on the lexico-semantic representational system, one of the most important means of ensuring well-suited experimental designs is using ecological stimulus sets accompanied by normative data on the most relevant variables affecting the processing of their items. In the context of image sets, color photographs are pa...

This study explores the retrieval of proper names and the sensitivity of this lexical category to the modulatory effect of cognitive reserve in an aging population. Thirty-two elderly patients, undergoing their first neuropsychological evaluation were matched for age and education to thirty-two healthy controls. All participants were administered t...

Abstract published here: http://www.frontiersin.org/Community/AbstractDetails.aspx?ABS_DOI=10.3389/conf.fnhum.2017.223.00083

Abstract published here: https://www.frontiersin.org/Community/AbstractDetails.aspx?ABS_DOI=10.3389/conf.fpsyg.2018.73.00016&eid=5689&sname=XPRAG_it_2018_-_Second_Experimental_Pragmatics_in_Italy_Conference

Here the link of the abstract published: https://www.frontiersin.org/10.3389/conf.fnhum.2018.228.00009/5656/Academy_of_Aphasia_56th_Annual_Meeting/all_events/event_abstract

Background Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects the global quality of life of persons who suffer from it and their caregivers, because of the behavioral and psychological consequences associated with the pathology and its caring. The Alzheimer Café (AC) is one example of approach aimed to help persons and caregivers deal with their disease. AimThis is...

Objective: The aims of the study were to analyze the current European situation of specialist education and training within clinical neuropsychology, and the legal and professional status of clinical neuropsychologists in different European countries. Method: An online survey was prepared in 2016 by a Task Force established by the European Feder...

In the next 30 years, a significant increase of the population aged over 65 is expected (WHO, 2015). Ageing can often be associated with cognitive decline; however, recent research indicates that symptoms of age-related cognitive impairment are modulated by Cognitive Reserve (CR), which derives from level of education, working activity, and social...

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) has been recurrently associated with cognitive and psychomotor impairments. However, the occurrence and possible reversibility of these deficits are still extremely controversial, also as a result of different methodologies adopted used by scholars. The aim of the present study was to compare over time the gl...

Cognitive Reserve is the capital of knowledge and experiences that an individual acquires over their life-span. Cognitive Reserve is strictly related to Brain Reserve, which is the ability of the brain to cope with damage. These two concepts could explain many phenomena such as the modality of onset in dementia or the different degree of impairment...

The supplementary data contains a list of the jobs of the participants included in the study.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) is mainly associated with executive dysfunction. Although delayed reaction times (RTs) in patients with OSAS have been reported, sensitivity of processing speed has not been adequately assessed. This study suggests sensitive and reliable measures to clarify whether different components of information processi...

‘MEDIEVAL TOMBS AND THEIR SPATIAL CONTEXT: STRATEGIES OF COMMEMORATION IN CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM’, UNIVERSITY OF TÜBINGEN, KUNSTHISTORISCHES INSTITUT, GERMANY, FEBRUARY 18–20, 2016

Obstructive Sleep Apnea syndrome (OSAs) is often reported as mainly associated with executive dysfunction (Gagnon et al., 2014). Although delayed reaction times in patients with OSAs have also been reported (Kilpinen et al., 2014), sensitivity of processing speed has not often been assessed. The aim of this study is to provide sensitive and reliabl...

Background: Olfactory dysfunctions have been frequently observed in ageing, in various neurodegenerative conditions and in psychiatric disorders. Notably olfactory impairments that accompany or precede the early stage of Alzheimer’s disease may be seen as first clinical biomarkers of the pathology and predictors of the it’s progression. Methods: Th...

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is a sleep disorder that may affect many brain functions. We are interested in the cognitive consequences of the condition with regard to the quality of life of individuals with this disorder. A debate is still underway as to whether cognitive difficulties caused by obstructive sleep apnea actually induce a "pseudod...

INTRODUCTION The aim of the present work is to verify whether Cognitive Reserve (CR) maintains its protective role even in patients with an early diagnosis of dementia. This concept has been extensively investigated in the typical onset of neurodegenerative disease, but it is still poorly considered in patients with young onset (Young Onset Dementi...

Le apnee notturne ostruttive (OSA) sono spesso associate a deficit cognitivi (Gagnon et al., 2014) soprattutto a carico delle funzioni esecutive. Alcuni studi (e.g., Kilpinen et al., 2014) evidenziano, inoltre, un rallentamento dei tempi di reazione nei pazienti con OSA, anche se nella maggior parte di questi i test utilizzati non sono computerizza...

Cognitive reserve (CR) is a potential mechanism to cope with brain damage. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of cognitive reserve on a cognitive training (CT) in a group of patients with dementia. 86 participants with mild to moderate dementia were identified by their level of CR quantified by the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnair...

Craik, F. I., Bialystok, E., & Freedman, M. (2010). Delaying the onset of Alzheimer disease Bilingualism as a form of cognitive reserve. Neurology, 75(19), 1726-1729. Fratiglioni, L., Paillard-Borg, S., & Winblad, B. (2004). An active and socially integrated lifestyle in late life might protect against dementia. The Lancet Neurology, 3(6), 343-353...

Nucci, M., Mapelli, D., & Mondini, S. (2012). The Cognitive Reserve Questionnaire (CRIq): a new instrument for measuring the cognitive reserve. Aging clinical and experimental research, 24, 218-26. Semenza, C., Meneghello, F., Arcara, G., Burgio, F., Gnoato, F., Facchini, S., Benavides-Varela, S., Clementi, M., Butterworth, B. (2014). A new clinic...

Many situations in our everyday life call for a mechanism deputed to outright stop an ongoing course of action. This behavioral inhibition ability, known as response stopping, is often impaired in psychiatric conditions characterized by impulsivity and poor inhibitory control. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has recently been propose...