Dr. Julie Stout, an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Indiana University on the Bloomington, Indiana campus has completed 2 studies focused on brain function in Huntington’s disease patients. Dr. Stout’s research aims to improve measurement methods so that behavioral changes in Huntington’s disease can be detected with high sensitivity. This work is important because it helps identify the brain mechanisms that account for the difficulties in behavior that people with HD experience in daily life. Sensitive measurement techniques are also essential for successful clinical trials that could help to treat or prevent HD.

In the first study, a number of key findings were made about HD:

• People with HD can have difficulties suppressing distracting information, and this can interfere with their later processing of new information
• People with HD may have difficulties with decision making related to problems remembering the outcomes of their past choices.
• People with HD initiate conversations less frequently and tend to use fewer words to describe their thoughts than healthy controls.
• People with HD have elevated levels of apathy.

In the second study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, difficulties with decision making were explored further, and the following findings were made:

• People with HD tend to react less strongly to loss on a simulated gambling task than do healthy controls.
• This reduced reaction to loss is also associated with a failure to consider the longer term impacts of negative consequences.

A number of publications have already resulted and are listed below.

Publications resulting from the first study:

1. Murray, L. L., Stout, J. C. (1999). Discourse comprehension in Huntington's and Parkinson's diseases. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 8, 137-148.
   
   
2. Paulsen, J. S., Stout, J. C., DeLaPena, J. H., Romero, R., Tawfik-Reedy, Z., Hamilton, J., Swenson, M. R., Grace, J., Malloy, P. F. (1996). Frontal behavioral syndromes in corticaland subcortical dementia. Assessment, 3(3), 327-337.
   
   
3. Stout JC, Rodawalt WC, Siemers ER. Risky decision making in Huntington’s disease. (2001). Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 7, 92-101.
   
   
4. Stout JC, Wylie SA, Simone PM, Siemers ER. (2001). Influence of competing distractors on response selection in Huntington’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 18, 643-653.

Publications resulting from the second, NIH-funded study:

1. Busemeyer, J. R., Stout, J. C. (2002). (Invited Article) A contribution of cognitive decision models to clinical assessment: Decomposing performance on the Bechara Gambling Task. Psychological Assessment, Stout, J. C., 14 Stout, J. C., (3), 2523-262.
   
   
2. Campbell, M. C., Stout, J. C., Finn, P. R. (2004). Reduced autonomic responsiveness to gambling task losses in Huntington's Disease. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 10(2), 239-245.