• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.294-304
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate objectively measured physical activity (PA) in institutionalized older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and to elucidate the influence of autonomic nervous function, salivary cortisol, and PA on cognitive functions based on neurovisceral integration model. Methods: Overall cognitive function was evaluated using the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and executive function was evaluated using semantic verbal fluency test and clock drawing test. Actigraph for PA, HRV and sAA for autonomous function, and the geriatric depression scale for depression were used. Saliva specimens were collected in the morning for sAA and cortisol. Results: Ninety-eight older adults from four regional geriatric hospitals participated in the study. They took 4,499 steps per day on average. They spent 753.93 minutes and 23.12 minutes on average in sedentary and moderate-to-vigorous activity, respectively. In the multiple regression analysis, lower salivary cortisol level (β = - .33, p = .041) and greater step counts (β = .37, p = .029) significantly improved MMSE score. Greater step count (β = .27, p = .016) also exerted a significant influence on verbal fluency, and greater sAA (β= .35, p = .026) was significantly associated with a better clock drawing test result. Conclusion: Salivary cortisol, sAA and physical activity were significantly associated with cognitive functions. To prevent older adults from developing dementia, strategies are needed to increase their overall PA amount by decreasing sedentary time and to decrease salivary cortisol for cognitive function, and to maintain their sympathetic nervous activity for executive function.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.3344-3352
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of Korean computer-based cognitive rehabilitation program (CoTras) on frontal-executive functions in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study was performed at C hospital in Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea from August 2013 to March 2014. Ten patients with TBI were randomly divided into two groups. The experimental group had been given CoTras once a day, five times a week for four weeks, whereas the control group had performed self-cognitive training under the same conditions. To verify the effect of intervention, the following executive function measures were used: Korean Montreal Cognitive Assessment (K-MoCA), Executive Clock Drawing Test (ECDT), Trail Making Test (TMT), Rey-Complex Figure Test (RCFT). Intervention group showed significant increase in K-MoCA, TMT, RCFT-delayed recall (p<.05). However, control group showed no significant change in any test. There was significant difference of changed scores (post test-pre test) between two groups in K-MoCA, TMT and RCFT-delayed recall (p<.05). This study showed that CoTras is effective to improve frontal-executive functions in patients with traumatic brain injury.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.258-265
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• 2001

Objectives : Chronic alcohol consumption has been known to result in various neurocognitive deficits. Many neuropsychological studies revealed that the major disturbances occurred in the executive function, learning and short-term memory, visuospatial performance function, perceptuo-motor skills, and abstraction and problem solving abilities. This study was done to identify which cognitive areas might be mainly affected. Methods : The cognitive disturbance was evaluated using the Korean Version of the Mini Mental State Examination(MMSEK) and the 7 Minute Screen(7MS) in male inpatients with alcohol dependence(N=3 : as well as in age and education level matched healthy male controls(N=30). Four individual tests of the 7MS were consisted of the Benton Temporal Orientation Test, the Enhanced Cued Recall, the Clock Drawing and the Category Fluency. Results : 1) The average scores of four individual test of the 7MS for the alcoholics were $2.77{\pm}4.38$ for the Benton Temporal Orientation Test, $13.90{\pm}2.02$ for the Memory Test(the Cued Recall $6.77{\pm}1.94$, the Uncued Recall $7.10{\pm}2.45$), $5.84{\pm}1.86$ for the Clock Drawing, and $12.58{\pm}3.29$ for the Category Fluency. Except the Benton Temporal Orientation Test, there were statistically significant differences between test scores of alcoholics and those of controls(p<0.01). 2) The alcoholics who had MMSE-K score <24 were 9.68%. The average(${\pm}S.D.$) score of the MMSE-K for the patient group($27.23{\pm}2.62$) was significantly(p<0.001) lower than that of the healthy controls($29.20{\pm}1.24$). There were no statistically significant differences between four individual test scores of the 7MS of alcoholics with the MMSE-K score <24(N=3) and those of alcoholics with the MMSE-K score ${\geq}24$(N=28). 3) Four individual test scores of the 7MS seemed to have statistically significant association with such variables as MMSE-K, duration of alcohol drinking, blood magnesium concentration, liver function and thyroid function. Conclusion : Mild deficits of cognitive areas such as orientation, memory, visuospatial abilities and verbal fluency could be found in alcohol dependence.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.191-198
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• 2010

Objective : This study is planned to determine the neurocognitive difficulties of hydrocephalic adults. Methods : The research group contained healthy adults (control group, n : 15), and hydrocephalic adults (n : 15). Hydrocephalic group consisted of patients with idiopathic aquaduct stenosis and post-meningitis hydrocephalus. All patients were followed with shunted hydrocephalus and not gone to shunt revision during last two years. They were chosen from either asymptomatic or had only minor symptoms without motor and sensorineural deficit. A neuropsychological test battery (Raven Standart Progressive Matrices, Bender-Gestalt Test, Cancellation Test, Clock Drawing Test, Facial Recognition Test, Line Orientation Test, Serial Digit Learning Test, Stroop Color Word Interference Test-TBAG Form, Verbal Fluency Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Visual-Aural Digit Span Test-B) was applied to all groups. Results : Neuropsychological assessment of hydrocephalic patients demonstrated that they had poor performance on visual, semantic and working memory, visuoconstructive and frontal functions, reading, attention, motor coordination and executive function of parietal lobe which related with complex and perseverative behaviour. Eventually, these patients had significant impairment on the neurocognitive functions of their frontal, parietal and temporal lobes. On the other hand, the statistical analyses performed on demographic data showed that the aetiology of the hydrocephalus, age, sex and localization of the shunt (frontal or posterior parietal) did not affect the test results. Conclusion : This prospective study showed that adult patients with hydrocephalus have serious neuropsychological problems which might be directly caused by the hydrocephalus; and these problems may cause serious adaptive difficulties in their social, cultural, behavioral and academic life.

• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2006

For this study, we carried out dementia assessment examination of 74 patients with memory disturbance who have come to Cheongju oriental hospital of Daejeon university from April 2005 to February 2006. This study classified the patients as none-dementia(ND), questionable dementia(QD), and dementia(DA) groups and analyzed the result of examination. As a result, the following conclusion was drawn. 1. Among the 3 groups, there was no significant differences in the sex distribution. But according to age distribution, the age of QD and DA groups showed significant difference from that of ND group. 2. MMSE-K and HDS-K scores showed the significant differences among all groups, and 7 MS result showed the significant difference between ND and the other groups. 3. The DA group significantly got lower scores than ND group in the items of the MMSE-K, Orientation, Registration, Recall, Attention, Copy two pentagons and Comprehension. Especially, significant difference also was shown in the orientation item between QD and DA groups. 4. The scores in the items of 7 MS, Benton temporal orientation, Enhanced cued recall and Clock drawing showed significant difference among all groups. Category fluency score showed significant difference between ND and the other groups. 5. The results of Brain CT and clinical chemistry test didn't show significant difference among all groups.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.156-165
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• 2016

Objectives: This study reports on two cases of the clinical application of traditional Korean medicine on stroke patients with hemi-spatial neglect.Methods: We applied several traditional Korean medicine treatments and then evaluated the patients’ symptoms with Albert’s test, the clock-drawing test (CDT), the Catherine Bergego scale (CBS), and the numeric rating scale (NRS).Results: The scores of all of the scales showed improvement. In case 1, the Albert’s test score decreased from 2.5% to 0%, the CDT score increased from 6 to 10, and the CBS score decreased from 16 to 11. In case 2, the Albert’s test score decreased from 5% to 2.5%, the CDT score increased from 3 to 6, and the CBS score decreased from 23 to 16.Conclusion: We found that acupuncture, moxibustion, herbal medicine, and physical therapy appeared to be effective treatments for hemi-spatial neglect in these two stroke patients.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.191-199
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• 2021

This study aims to present the need to supplement the driver's license renewal test for elderly drivers. In Korea, the proportion of elderly drivers is increasing as the elderly population increases rapidly. Overall the traffic accident rate is decreasing but the traffic accident and death rate from traffic accidents are increasing in older drivers. In this study the assessments and education conducted when renewing the driver's license for elderly drivers conducted in Korea were conducted to find out the necessary tests compared to the current situation of foreign countries. Although it is appropriate to evaluate the three key functional areas of vision, cognition, motor and somatosensory, we currently evaluate visual acurity in vison area. While MMSE-K and Clock drawing tests are not recognizable for mild cognitive impairment in cognitive areas. The motor and somato sensory function to perform driving are not evaluated at all. Therefore for safe driving of older drivers, the test to be conducted during renewal of the driver's license will need to supplement that the visual field and contrast sensitivity in vision area, cognitive function from mild cognitive impairments, and the endurance, functional range of motion and proprioception in motor function area.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.89-95
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• 2020

Purpose : This study aims to evaluate the correlation of cognitive function, activities of daily living (ADL), and driving performance in stroke hemiplegic patients residing in Korea. Methods : Subjects of the study were 18 stroke hemiplegic patients admitted to hospitals situated in Seoul. A clock drawing test (CDT), a modified Barthel index (MBI), and a virtual reality driving simulator (Eca faros-driving simulator) were used to examine their cognitive function, their ADL ability, and their driving skills, respectively. Results : Driving skills of stroke hemiplegic patients were shown to be associated with the CDT evaluation tool (r=-.777) (p<.001), but they were found to have any correlation with MBI (r=-.022) (p>.05). Additionally, an individual's CDT showed that the driving simulator evaluation result (pass/fail) could be discriminated with a sensitivity of 100.0 %, a specificity of 40.0 %, and an accuracy of 66.7 %. The result confirmed that the CDT is a useful evaluation tool for screening driving ability in people with stroke. But the MBI did not show any significant results (sensitivity of 62.5 %, specificity of 40.0 %, and predicted the results of the simulator with 50.0 % of accuracy) (p>.05). Conclusion : This study shows that cognitive function influences the driving performance in people with stroke. Driving skills of stroke hemiplegic patients are seen to be highly related to CDT. In the field of driving rehabilitation, these findings could be useful for evaluating driving skills relating to CDT. Furthermore, the study results will set a guideline for domestic occupational therapists to use the evaluation tool for assessing driving abilities in people with stroke.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2013

Objectives: Cognitive impairment in restless legs syndrome (RLS) patients can be affected by sleep deprivation, anxiety and depression, which are common in RLS. The objective of this study is to investigate relationship between cognitive impairment and RLS in the non-medicated Korean elderly with controlling for psychiatric conditions. Method: The study sample for this study comprised 25 non-medicated Korean elderly RLS patients and 50 age-, sex-, and education- matched controls. All subjects were evaluated with comprehensive cognitive function assessment tools- including the Korean version of Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Packet (CERAD-K), severe cognitive impairment rating scale (SCIRS), frontal assessment battery (FAB), and clock drawing test (CLOX). Sleep quality and depression were also assessed with Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and geriatric depression scale (GDS). Results: PSQI and GDS score showed no difference between RLS and control group. There was no significant difference between two groups in nearly all the cognitive function except in constructional recognition test, in which subjects with RLS showed lower performance than control group (t=-2.384, p=0.02). Subjects with depression ($GDS{\geq}10$) showed significant cognitive impairment compared to control in verbal fluency, Korean version of Mini Mental Status Examination in the CERAD-K (MMSE-KC), word list memory, trail making test, and frontal assessment battery (FAB). In contrast, no difference was observed between subjects who have low sleep quality (PSQI>5) and control group. Conclusions: At the exclusion of the impact of insomnia and depression, cognitive function was found to be relatively preserved in RLS patients compared to control. Impairment of visual recognition in RLS patients can be explained in terms of dopaminergic dysfunction in RLS.