title: Benton Judgment of Line Orientation (JoLO) Test: A Brief and Useful Measure for Assessing Visuospatial Abilities in Manifest, but not Premanifest, Huntington's Disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Visuospatial deficits have been described in Huntington's disease (HD); however, the extent of these deficits remains unclear. The Benton Judgment of Line Orientation (JoLO) Test, commonly used to assess visuospatial ability, requires minimal motor involvement. It has demonstrated sensitivity to visuospatial deficits in Parkinson's disease; however, few studies have examined performance on this test in HD.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of the current study was to assess visuospatial ability in premanifest and manifest HD using the JoLO.
  
  
  METHODS
  A global cognitive measure, the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS), was used to stratify manifest HD patients as mild (DRS ≥129) vs. moderate-severe (DRS ≤128). Fifty mild, 42 moderate-severe, and 30 premanifest HD subjects, as well as 35 matched controls, were administered the JoLO. HD Burden of Pathology (BOP) scores were used as a measure of disease severity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results revealed that the total manifest HD sample (p <  0.001), in addition to the mild (p = 0.028), and moderate-severe (p <  0.001), but not premanifest, HD subjects scored significantly lower on the JoLO compared to normal controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that the JoLO is useful for detecting visuospatial deficits across various stages of manifest HD. However, any visuospatial impairment that might be present during the premanifest stage of HD was not detected using the JoLO in the present sample.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Jody
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Corey-Bloom
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Shea
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gluhm
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Herndon
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Ameera S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Haque
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Sungmee
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: San Diego State University-University of California, San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Gilbert
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Huntington’s disease; Judgment of Line Orientation (JoLO); visuospatial impairment