Utility of intraindividual reaction time variability to predict white matter hyperintensities: a potential assessment tool for clinical contexts?
Intraindividual variability (IIV) refers to reaction time (RT) variation across the trials of a given cognitive task. Little research has contrasted different measures of IIV or assessed how many RT trials are required to provide a robust measure of the construct. We, therefore, investigated three measures of IIV (raw SD, coefficient of variation, and intraindividual SD statistically removing time-on-task effects) in relation to frontal white matter hyperintensities (obtained through structural MRI) in 415 cognitively normal community-dwelling adults aged 44 to 48 years. Results indicated the three IIV measures did not differ greatly in predictions of white matter hyperintensities, although it is possible that time-on-task effects were influential. As few as 20 trials taking approximately 52 s to administer provided a reliable prediction of frontal white matter hyperintensities. We conclude that future work should evaluate the comparative utility of different IIV measures in relation to persons exhibiting clear neuropathology.
1 Institute of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom.
David
D
Bunce
Allison A M
AA
Bielak
Nicolas
N
Cherbuin
Philip J
PJ
Batterham
Wei
W
Wen
Perminder
P
Sachdev
Kaarin J
KJ
Anstey
D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012111:Residence Characteristics