Neuropsychology

Simge Celik - Neuropsychologist M.Sc.
Network Aging Research
Bergheimer Straße 20
D-69115 Heidelberg

Phone: +49 (0)6221 54 8134
celik(at)nar.uni-heidelberg.de
Fellows: Prof. Dr. Lutz Frölich, Dr. rer. nat. Birgit Teichmann

Cross-cultural comparison of the MMSE and RUDAS in older Turkish immigrants and native-born German and Turkish participants with Alzheimer's disease.

One of the greatest challenges facing the neuropsychologist today is the assessment of persons who come from diverse cultural and language backgrounds. There have been increasing concerns regarding the effects of cultural bias on neuropsychological test performance among the older adults. Specifically, immigrants of Turkish origin getting older in Germany form the largest ethnic minority in Germany and the availability of accurate assessment of cognitive functioning in these elderly immigrant patients represents a significant challenge with limited literacy skills in language of residence and limited or no schooling. For this reason, this PhD project aims to find appropriate neuropsychological tests for cross-cultural assessment of patients from these backgrounds. Its general aim is to give insights into the distribution of test scores in people of Turkish origin with dementia in Germany and Turkey. An additional objective of this project is to examine the interactions between acculturation level, knowledge of second language and education on neuropsychological test performance in the elderly Turkish immigrants living in Germany. The result of this study have theoretical implications for understanding the impact of culture and also have broader implications for understanding the role of demographic characteristics of study population on cognitive performance. Additionally, it may be helpful in finding basic principles to improve the diagnostic accuracy and utility of neuropsychological measures across all ethnic and linguistic groups.

Publications

• Celik, S., Onur, O., Yener, G., Kessler, J., Özbek, Y., Meyer, P., Frölich, L., & Teichmann, B. (2021). Cross-cultural comparison of MMSE and RUDAS in German and Turkish patients with Alzheimer's disease. Neuropsychology, 10.1037/neu0000764. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/neu0000764
• Kokje, E., Celik, S., Wahl, H.-W., & Stutterheim, C. von (2021). Can discourse processing performance serve as an early marker of Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment? A systematic review of text comprehension. European Journal of Ageing. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-021-00619-5
• Dolscheid, S., Çelik, S., Erkan, H., Küntay, A., & Majid, A. (2020). Space-pitch associations differ in their susceptibility to language. Cognition, 196, 104073. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104073
• Celik, S., Kokje, E., Meyer, P., Frölich, L., & Teichmann, B. (2020). Does bilingualism influence neuropsychological test performance in older adults? A systematic review. Applied Neuropsychology. Adult, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/23279095.2020.1788032

Poster presentations

• Celik, S., Kokje, E., Meyer, P., Frölich, L., & Teichmann, B. (2020). The impact of bilingualism and multilingualism on neuropsychological test performance in older adults: Systematic Review. Poster presented at: 7th Meeting of the Federation of the European Societies of Neuropsychology (FESN), 2019 September 5-7 ; Milan, Italy.
• Celik, S., Papadogiannaki, A., & Newson, M. (2018).  An examination of psychological factors related to impaired cognitive performance in healthy older adults: Simulation Study. Poster presented at: 2018 Mid-year Meeting of International Neuropsychological Society, 2018 July 18-20;  Prague, Czech Republic.

Vita