Table 1.
Neuropsychological assessment of cognitive impairments in adults with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome—an overview of selected studies published after year 2000
| Study | Study group | Methods | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rouleau et al. (2002) | 28 OSA patients 18 controls |
Mirror tracing; rotary pursuit skill learning tasks | No significant differences in procedural skill learning abilities in OSA patients compared to controls |
| Sforza et al. (2004) | 152 OSA patients 45 controls |
PVT | Lower speed and accuracy in OSA patients |
| Verstraeten et al. (2004) | 36 OSA patients 32 controls |
TMT; SDMT; digit span forward and backward; Stroop color-word test; five-point design fluency; Attentional flexibility task | Lower performance of OSA patients in the SDMT, digit span forward task, and attentional flexibility task |
| Mazza et al. (2005) | 20 OSA patients 40 controls |
OSLER, CPT, and driving simulator tests at three time sessions | Worse performance in all three attentional tests at the three time sessions in OSA patients |
| Naëgelé et al. (2006) | 95 OSA patients 95 controls |
Extensive battery of tests evaluating verbal episodic, procedural, and working memory | Overall lower performance in all tests in OSA patients |
| Quan et al. (2006) | 67 mild to moderate OSA patients 74 controls |
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test-Third Edition; Stroop test; TMT; Grooved pegboard test | No significant differences in any test in OSA patients compared to controls |
| Lis et al. (2008) | 20 OSA patients 10 controls |
N-back test | Deficits in n-back tasks in OSA patients regarding accuracy and reaction times |
| Pierobon et al. (2008) | 157 obese OSA patients | Digit symbol test; TMT | 59.2 % of OSA patients were impaired in at least one cognitive function |
| Saunamäki et al. (2009) | 40 newly diagnosed male OSA patients 20 controls |
RCFT; block design, TMT; intra-extra dimensional set shifting test | Generally lower performance in all tests in OSA patients |
| Yaouhi et al. (2009) | 16 newly diagnosed OSA patients 14 controls |
TAP; Wechsler memory scale (WMS3); verbal fluency test; Purdue pegboard test | Worse performance in two of the WMS3 episodic memory subtests and Purdue pegboard test in OSA patients |
| Bawden et al. (2011) | 17 OSA patients 20 controls |
MMSE; brief cognitive screening battery; digit-symbol test; phonemic verbal fluency | Significantly worse performance in all administered tests in OSA patients |
| Canessa et al. (2011) | 17 treatment-naive OSA patients 15 controls |
Raven; digit-span test; Corsi task; Rey-list; Stroop test; TMT; paced auditory serial addition test | Overall lower performance in all tests in OSA patients |
| Nemeth et al. (2012) | 20 OSA patients 20 controls |
Listening span task; alternating serial reaction time task | Preserved general skill and sequence-specific learning, and impaired working memory performance in OSA patients |
| Torelli et al. (2011) | 16 OSA patients 14 controls |
Rey auditory-verbal learning test; Stroop test; digit-span test | Lower performance in Rey auditory-verbal learning test, Stroop test and digit span backward scores in OSA patients |
| Borges et al. (2013) | 22 OSA patients without comorbidities 22 controls |
Test battery that included measures of six distinct executive domains | No significant group differences in all test scores in OSA patients compared to controls |
| Joo et al. (2013) | 38 severe male OSA patients 36 controls |
Korean California verbal test; RCFT; digit-span test; Corsi block-tapping tests; Korean Boston naming test | Significantly decreased speed of processing, verbal and visual attention, and memory in OSA patients |
| Tulek et al. (2013) | 24 OSA patients 14 controls |
Simon, Flanker and Stroop tasks | Deficient attentional control processes when focal attention (Flanker task) processes were involved |
| Sales et al. (2013) | 14 OSA patients 13 controls |
Toulouse-Pieron attention test; WCST; digit symbol substitution test; digit-span test; similarities test; logical memory and verbal paired association tests; RCFT | Worse performance in attention tests and tests of long-term memory and working memory/executive function in OSA patients |
| Djonlagic et al. (2014) | 20 newly diagnosed OSA patients 20 controls |
PVT; MST in the evening and in the morning | Similar learning in the evening, but significantly less overnight improvement on the MST in OSA patients |
CPT continuous performance task, MST motor sequence learning task, OSA obstructive sleep apnea, OSLER oxford sleep resistance, PVT psychomotor vigilance task, RCFT Rey complex figure test, SDMT symbol digit modalities, TAP test battery for attentional performance, TMT trail-making test, WCST Wisconsin card sorting test