OBJECTIVE: To generate normative data for the Verbal Fluency Tests across 11 countries in Latin America, with country-specific adjustments for gender, age, and education, where appropriate. METHOD: The sample consisted of 3,977 healthy adults who wer

Objective: To examine the current status of professional neuropsychology in Spain, with particular focus on the areas of professional training, current work situation, evaluation and diagnostic practice, rehabilitation, teaching, and research. Methods: Three hundred and thirty-nine self-identified professionals in neuropsychology from Spain completed an online survey between July and December of 2013. Respondents had an average age of 35.8 years and 77% were women. Results: Ninety-seven percent of the respondents identified as psychologists; 82% of the sample had a master’s degree, and 33% a doctoral degree. The majority (91%) received their neuropsychological training at a graduate level; 88% engaged in neuropsychological evaluation, 59% in rehabilitation, 50% in research, and 40% in teaching. Average number of hours per week dedicated to work in neuropsychology was 29.7, with 28% of the respondents reporting working in hospitals, 17% in not-for-profit rehabilitation centers, 15% in universities, and 14% in private clinics. Clinicians primarily work with individuals with stroke, traumatic brain injury, and dementia. The top perceived barriers to development of neuropsychology in Spain included lack of clinical and academic training opportunities, and negative attitude toward professional collaboration. Conclusions: The field of neuropsychology in Spain is young and rapidly growing. There is a need to regulate professional neuropsychology, improve graduate curricula, enhance existing clinical training, develop professional certification programs, validate and create normative data for existing neuropsychological tests, and create new, culturally relevant instruments.

Objective: To generate normative data on the Boston Naming Test (BNT) across 10 countries in Latin America, with country-specific adjustments for gender, age, and education, where appropriate. Method: The sample consisted of 3,779 healthy adults who

Objective: To quantify the evolution, impact, and importance of normative data (ND) calculation by identifying trends in the research literature and what approaches need improvement. Methods: A PRISMA-guideline systematic review was performed on literature from 2000 to 2022 in PubMed, Pub-Psych, and Web of Science. Inclusion criteria included scientific articles about ND in neuropsychological tests with clear data analysis, published in any country, and written in English or Spanish. Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies were included. Bibliometric analysis was used to examine the growth, productivity, journal dispersion, and impact of the topic. VOSViewer compared keyword co-occurrence networks between 1952–1999 and 2000–2022. Results: Four hundred twelve articles met inclusion and exclusion criteria. The most studied predictors were age, education, and sex. There were a greater number of studies/projects focusing on adults than children. The Verbal Fluency Test (12.7%) was the most studied test, and the most frequently used variable selection strategy was linear regression (49.5%). Regression-based approaches were widely used, whereas the traditional approach was still used. ND were presented mostly in percentiles (44.2%). Bibliometrics showed exponential growth in publications. Three journals (2.41%) were in the Core Zone. VOSViewer results showed small nodes, long distances, and four ND-related topics from 1952 to 1999, and there were larger nodes with short connections from 2000 to 2022, indicating topic spread. Conclusions: Future studies should be conducted on children’s ND, and alternative statistical methods should be used over the widely used regression approaches to address limitations and support growth of the field.

To generate normative data for the verbal fluency tests (VFT-letter M, fruits, and occupations categories) in Spanish-speaking adult populations, with country-specific adjustments for age, education, and sex when appropriate. The sample consisted of 3,977 healthy adults from 11 countries in Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Puerto Rico; sample size per country ranged between n = 184 and n = 1,300). Each participant was administered the VFT as part of a larger neuropsychological battery. Scores for letter M, fruits, and occupations categories were normed using multiple linear regressions. The country-specific regression models included age, age2, education, education2, and sex as predictors. The final multiple linear regression models showed that age affected the performance on these tests but not uniformly. For example, M letter scores decrease linearly with age except for Argentina, Guatemala, and Mexico, in which quadratic age effect was found. Scores also increase linearly as a function of education but not in all countries. For example, a quadratic education effect was found for the fruits category in Bolivia, Honduras, and Paraguay. Sex had a significant impact on the M letter category fluency in Guatemala, fruits category in Guatemala and Peru, and occupations' category in Mexico. This study presents verbal fluency test normative data across 11 countries in Latin America. These norms are expected to be useful for neuropsychologists of these countries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The aims of this study were to assess the trajectories of community integration in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) through one, two, and five years post-injury and to examine whether those trajectories could be predicted by demographic and injury characteristics. A longitudinal cohort study was conducted with 105 individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI admitted to a trauma referral center in 2005-2007. Demographics and injury-related factors were extracted from medical records. At the one-, two- and five-year follow-ups, community integration was measured by the Community Integration Questionnaire (CIQ). A hierarchical linear model (HLM) examined whether longitudinal trajectories of community integration could be predicted by: time, sex, age, relationship status, education, employment status, occupation, acute Glasgow Coma Scale score, cause of injury, days in post-traumatic amnesia (PTA), computed tomography Marshall Score, and Injury Severity Score. CIQ scores improved across the three time-points (p<0.001). Additionally, higher trajectories of community integration were predicted by being single at the time of injury (p<.001), higher level of education (p=0.006), employment (p<0.001), and a shorter length of PTA (p<0.001). In a follow-up HLM with interaction terms, time*PTA was statistically significant (p<0.001), suggesting that participants with longer PTA increased in community integration more rapidly than those with shorter PTA. The longitudinal course of community integration described in this study may help rehabilitation professionals to plan more extensive follow-ups and targeted rehabilitation programs in the early stage of recovery for patients with specific demographic and injury characteristics.