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Published on: April 11, 2019
Pupillary response: cognitive effort for breast cancer survivors
Jamie S Myers1, Melike Kahya2, Melissa Mitchell3
1Office of Grants and Research, University of Kansas School of Nursing, MS 4043, 3901 Rainbow Blvd, Kansas City, KS, 66160, USA. jmyers@kumc.edu.
Purpose:
The purpose of this cross-sectional comparative pilot study was to evaluate cognitive effort, indexed by pupillary response (PR), for breast cancer survivors (BCS) with complaints of cognitive dysfunction following chemotherapy.
Study Aims:
Compare the cognitive effort employed by BCS to healthy controls (HC) during neuropsychological tests (NPT) for memory, sustained attention, verbal fluency, visuospatial ability, processing speed and executive function; and Investigate the relationship between PR-indexed cognitive effort and participants' self-report of cognitive function.
Methods:
Self-report of cognitive function was collected from 23 BCS and 23 HC. PR was measured during NPT. Independent two-sample t tests or Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used to compare group scores. Between-group effect size (Cohen's d) was calculated for each outcome. Correlation between mean self-report scores and PR values, as well as 95% confidence intervals, was calculated.
Results:
No group differences were demonstrated for NPT performance. BCS reported more issues with cognitive function than HC (p < .0001). A group effect for BCS was seen with PR-indexed cognitive effort for components of most NPT (p < .05). PR was correlated with most self-report measures of cognitive function (r = 0.33-0.45).
Conclusions:
PR sensitivity to cognitive effort across a variety of NPT and correlation with self-report of cognitive function was demonstrated. The portability, affordability, and "real-time" aspects of PR are attractive for potential use in the clinic setting to assess cognitive function. A larger study is needed to confirm these results. Prospective investigation of PR in BCS is needed to demonstrate sensitivity to cognitive function changes over time.
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