🧠 Neuropsychology, Science and Advocacy: Amplifying Voices from Panama🇵🇦 at INS Philadelphia 2026🇺🇸

At the 54th Annual Meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society held in Philadelphia, USA, Neuropsyedu focused on a mission that fills us with pride: to be the bridge between cutting-edge science and our Latino community . 🎤✨

As a proudly Panamanian mental health company , we understand that science needs advocacy . Our role at this international event is not just about absorbing knowledge, but about exercising leadership in the democratization of information. It is not enough for researchers to discover something in the laboratory; our commitment is to be a bridge between scientific knowledge and our communities, ensuring that information reaches families in Panama and throughout Latin America in an accurate, humane, and accessible way.

🚀 Science and Dissemination: Our Commitment to the Truth

As part of our commitment to Continuous Improvement , we interview outstanding researchers and students during scientific poster sessions. We have taken special care to respect the essence of their findings, translating them into Spanish to break down language barriers and allow knowledge to flow to our communities.

Below, we present the key research topics interviewed for our YouTube channel (+8.5K subscribers) :

🎙️ 1. Brain Health and Misinformation in Latino Communities

Original Title: Brain Health Knowledge Gaps and Risk of Misinformation in Latino/a Communities: Barriers, Equity Gaps and Innovative Approaches.
Authors: Suagey Alvarez BA & Desiree Byrd PhD.
Why is this important?: Many Latino families are vulnerable to "false cures" (such as coconut oil supplements for Alzheimer's) because scientific information is not available in their language or does not consider their culture. This study teaches us how to protect our community from misinformation.
Finding: Structural barriers and poor translations on community websites push people toward erroneous beliefs about genetics and disease prevention.
Profile: Suagey Alvarez is a graduate student at Queens College, specializing in behavioral neuroscience.

🎙️ 2. Distraction Resistance and Task Load

Original Title: Distractor resistance in working memory as a function of task difficulty.
Authors: Elizabeth Rodríguez Santillán & Selene Cansino.
Why is it important?: Understanding how our brain handles distractions when performing difficult tasks is fundamental to designing better study strategies for children with ADHD and improving productivity in adults.
Finding: The brain's ability to ignore irrelevant information changes depending on how complex the activity we are performing is.

🎙️ 3. Dementia Screening Kit in Primary Care

Original Title: Implementation of an English and Spanish Dementia Screening Toolkit in Primary Care: Quality Improvement, Feasibility and Acceptability Study.
Authors: Gabriela Islas Huerta, Mirella Díaz-Santos, et al.
Why is this important?: Most families first consult their primary care physician. Bringing bilingual, validated neuropsychological tools to primary care allows for much earlier and more accurate diagnoses for Latinos.
Finding: It is possible and necessary to integrate rapid and effective screenings into general medical consultation to improve the patient care pathway.

🎙️ 4. Redesigning Assessment for Bilingual Populations

Original Title: From Limitations to Innovation: Rethinking Rapid Naming Assessment for Bilingual Population.
Authors: Giselle Carollo-DuPrey, MS, et al.
Why is it important?: It prevents a professional from "pathologizing" or misdiagnosing a bilingual person as if they had brain damage, when in reality they are just processing information between two languages.
Finding: Bilinguals exhibit more "tip-of-the-tongue" phenomena and are slower in auditory naming, but this is a normal process of their multilingual brain, not a symptom of disease.
Profile: Giselle Carollo-DuPrey (California Lutheran University) is an expert in the fair assessment of multilingual patients.

🎙️ 5. Executive Functions in Young Autistic Individuals

Original Title: Hot and Cold Executive Functioning in Daily Life among Autistic Youth: Considering the impact of Comorbidities.
Authors: Arabella W. Peters, Jacob Gutierrez, Erin Kang.
Why is this important?: It helps us understand why a young autistic person can be very organized in logical (cold) tasks but collapse in emotional (hot) situations. This guides the creation of more realistic and humane therapies.
Finding: Anxiety makes it extremely difficult for young people to use their organizational skills when emotions are involved.
Profile: Jacob Gutierrez is a research assistant at Montclair State University.

🎙️ 6. Stress and ADHD in Adults

Original Title: The impact of Stress on Objective Cognitive Functioning and Subjective Mood Complaints among Adults With ADHD.
Authors: Evan P. Fisher, MA, et al.
Why is it important?: It validates the patient's experience. Sometimes patients with ADHD feel "more distracted" due to stress, and although their brain continues to function just as well on tests, their emotional distress is real and needs to be addressed.
Finding: High stress dramatically increases anxiety and depression in adults with ADHD, even though their cognitive abilities as measured by tests do not change significantly.
Profile: Evan P. Fisher is conducting his doctoral research at the University of Illinois Chicago.

🎙️ 7. Reconciling Reports in Childhood ADHD

Original Title: Assessing the relationship of parent and teacher ratings of attention and hyperactivity in the context of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Diagnosis and Disorder Type.
Authors: Jennifer Ousborne, PhD, et al.
Why is this important? It alleviates parents' confusion when the teacher says one thing and they see another. The study confirms that both reports are necessary because children behave differently at home and at school.
Finding: There is no "rule" to dismiss one report over another; both informants capture vital symptoms in different contexts.
Profile: Dr. Jennifer Ousborne is a postdoctoral fellow at Endeavor Northshore Hospitals.

🎙️ 8. Brain Communication in Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum

Original Title: Functional Connectivity Changes Associated With Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum.
Authors: Tannor Morgan & Paul E. Moes.
Why is it important?: It explains the biological basis of social and intellectual challenges in this population, helping families to seek specific support instead of generic diagnoses.
Finding: There is a "neurodynamic deficiency"; communication is reduced both between the two hemispheres and within each of them.
Profile: Dr. Paul Moes is a historical reference in this field.

🎙️ 9. Vision and Concussion in Children

Original Title: Oculomotor Considerations in Pediatric Concussion Care and Implications For Neurocognitive Screening: A case Study.
Authors: Emily Wilson, MA, et al.
Why is this important?: It ensures that a child is not penalized in an assessment for "not trying hard," when the real problem is that their eyes cannot properly track information after the blow.
Finding: Problems with eye muscles (double vision, tracking) can cause a child to fail visual cognitive tests despite having intact intelligence.
Profile: Emily Wilson is a doctoral student at Midwestern University.

🇵🇦 Local Impact: Excellence from the Heart of Panama

Our active participation in the 54th Annual Meeting of the INS is not just an academic achievement; it is a direct investment that benefits every client who walks through our doors. The knowledge and expertise gained at this renowned scientific event strengthen the techniques and protocols we use at our Center located in Panama City .

Neuropsyedu: Constant updates for the well-being of our clients.

📽️ Live the INS Philadelphia 2026 Experience

To view the interview with the researchers, along with some of our experience at this renowned scientific event, we invite you to watch our YouTube video right here below: