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The Tower of London (ToL) in Italy: standardization of the ToL test in an Italian population

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Abstract

Deficit in planning and problem-solving, affecting a wide range of neuropsychological patients, has been widely investigated using the Tower of London (ToL) test, as developed by Shallice (Philos Trans R Soc Lond Ser B Biol Sci 298:199–209, 1). The ToL taps on several executive functions (EF), such as planning, time for planning or rule breaks, which may be usefully indexed by different ToL measurements. However, in its original version, the different aspects involved in ToL are not evaluated in a specific way.

Here, we report the standardization of the ToL, on 896 individuals aged 15–86 years, taking in account individual factors (i.e. gender, age, years of education) which may affect performances on ToL. We computed several indexes on the ToL including score, planning and execution times, perseverations, rule breaks and self-monitoring. We found that these indexes were affected by individual factors such as gender, age and education. Present results not only provide extensive normative data according to gender, as well as different age and education ranges, but also represent a very useful instrument for a more fine-grained diagnosis of EF deficits in a wide range of neuropsychological patients, including traumatic brain injury and brain-damaged patients, as well as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Maddalena Boccia, Giovanni D’Antuono, Gabriella Antonucci & Cecilia Guariglia

  2. Neuropsychology Unit, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Maddalena Boccia, Paola Ciurli, Chiara Incoccia, Gabriella Antonucci, Cecilia Guariglia & Laura Piccardi

  3. I.M.F.R. Gervasutta Hospital, Udine, Italy

    Dario Marin

  4. Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, L’Aquila University, L’Aquila, Italy

    Laura Piccardi

Authors
  1. Maddalena Boccia
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  2. Dario Marin
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  3. Giovanni D’Antuono
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  4. Paola Ciurli
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  5. Chiara Incoccia
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  6. Gabriella Antonucci
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  7. Cecilia Guariglia
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  8. Laura Piccardi
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Correspondence to Maddalena Boccia.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Electronic supplementary material

The sheet score is provided in supplementary materials. Please write to the corresponding author to obtain the full protocol of the ToL. (PDF 18 kb).

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Boccia, M., Marin, D., D’Antuono, G. et al. The Tower of London (ToL) in Italy: standardization of the ToL test in an Italian population. Neurol Sci 38, 1263–1270 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-017-2957-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-017-2957-y

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