Table 3. Comparison of dependent neuropsychological variables between cognitive subgroups and healthy controls.
| HC | ALS-ni | ALS-ci | Inter-group -differences p | ||||||
| Dependent Variable | N | Mean | N | Mean | N | Mean | HC vs. ALS-ni | HC vs. ALS-ci | ALS-ci vs. ALS-ni |
| Age | 64 | 59.9 | 49 | 56.4 | 23 | 65.4 | 0.163 | 0.066 | 0.001 1 |
| ALSFRS | 49 | 36.3 | 23 | 37 | 0.6162 | ||||
| Disease duration (m) | 49 | 34.5 | 23 | 22.1 | 0.2412 | ||||
| Executive functions | |||||||||
| TMTa | 64 | 2.2 | 43 | 2.4 | 21 | 3.1 | 1.000 | 0.000 | 0.0021 |
| Stroop-Ia | 63 | 1.11 | 39 | 1.14 | 14 | 1.26 | 1.000 | 0.020 | 0.1012,4 |
| Stroop-Ca | 62 | 1.08 | 38 | 1.06 | 13 | 1.13 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 0.5612 |
| Stroop-Ea | 62 | 0.81 | 38 | 1.29 | 13 | 3.46 | 0.326 | 0.035 | 0.7673,4 |
| RWT-Ka | 64 | 3.68 | 46 | 3.64 | 19 | 5.93 | 1.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 2 |
| RWT-G/Ra | 64 | 3.94 | 45 | 4.99 | 19 | 7.65 | 0.018 | 0.000 | 0.001 3 |
| RWT-Aa | 64 | 1.82 | 45 | 1.76 | 20 | 3.2 | 1.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 2 |
| RWT-S/Fa | 64 | 3.14 | 45 | 3.11 | 19 | 4.52 | 1.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 2 |
| DSB | 64 | 6.2 | 49 | 6 | 22 | 4.4 | 0.835 | 0.000 | 0.000 3 |
| ToL-Ea | 54 | 0.8 | 27 | 1.2 | 10 | 0.4 | 0.857 | 0.910 | 0.7673 |
| ToL-Ma | 54 | 10.1 | 24 | 8.5 | 8 | 6.5 | 0.065 | 0.002 | 0.0821 |
| Memory | |||||||||
| DSF | 65 | 7.6 | 49 | 8 | 22 | 6.4 | 0.196 | 0.002 | 0.000 1 |
| VMIR | 64 | 83.9 | 49 | 81.3 | 21 | 57.1 | 1.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 2 |
| VMDR | 63 | 82.8 | 49 | 75.4 | 21 | 52.4 | 0.126 | 0.000 | 0.000 2 |
| VMR | 63 | 85.9 | 48 | 80 | 19 | 64.5 | 0.563 | 0.002 | 0.049 2,4 |
| Language | |||||||||
| BOSU-P | 64 | 19.3 | 44 | 19.4 | 15 | 18.7 | 0.933 | 0.028 | 0.023 3 |
| BOSU-N | 38 | 19.9 | 12 | 19.8 | 5 | 19.6 | 0.904 | 0.037 | 0.1773 |
| Visuo-spatial abilities | |||||||||
| RCFT | 49 | 32.9 | 29 | 32.9 | 17 | 29.2 | 1.000 | 0.000 | 0.0002 |
| Behaviour | |||||||||
| FrSBe-F-Aa | 55 | 23.2 | 43 | 28.9 | 20 | 28.5 | 0.000 | 0.007 | 0.6871 |
| FrSBe-F-Da | 55 | 22.9 | 43 | 24.4 | 20 | 22.2 | 0.242 | 0.844 | 0.3001 |
| FrSBe-S-Da | 57 | 22.5 | 39 | 25.8 | 16 | 25.8 | 0.005 | 0.973 | 0.0521 |
| FrSBe-F-Ea | 55 | 30.2 | 43 | 31.9 | 20 | 31.1 | 0.439 | 0.592 | 0.9511 |
| FrSBe-S-Ea | 57 | 27.8 | 39 | 32.2 | 16 | 30.33 | 0.007 | 0.261 | 0.4071 |
= higher scores indicate worse performance or high degree of abnormality respectively; 1 = analyzed by AN(C)OVA; 2 = analyzed by Welch-Test/ANOVA/Spearman rank correlations; 3 = analysed by Kruskal-Wallis-Test/U-Test/Spearman rank correlations; 4 = significant effect of the covariate age.
HC = Healthy Controls; ALS-ni = ALS patients without cognitive impairment; ALS-ci = ALS-patients with cognitive impairment; TMT = Trail-Making Test; Stroop-I = Stroop-Inhibition; Stroop-C = Stroop-Congruence; Stroop-E = Total errors; RWT = Regensburg word fluency test; ToL-E = Tower of London-Number of rule breakings; ToL-M = Tower of London Ratio of number of moves and number of correct trials; VMIR = Verbal memory Immediate Recall; VMDR = Verbal Memory Delayed Recall; VMR = Verbal Memory Recognition; DSF/DSB = Digit Span forward and backward; BOSU-P = Bogenhausen Semantic Test –Pointing; BOSU-N = Bogenhausen Semantic Test –Naming; RCFT = Rey complex figure test; FrSBe = Frontal System Behaviour Scale; A = Apathy; D = Disinhibition; E = Executive Dysfunction; S = self rating; F = family rating.