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Schizophrenia Research. Cognition Sep 2023Cognitive impairment is an essential feature of schizophrenia, and it involves a broad array of nonsocial and social cognitive domains. This study aimed to examine...
OBJECTIVE
Cognitive impairment is an essential feature of schizophrenia, and it involves a broad array of nonsocial and social cognitive domains. This study aimed to examine whether there are the same or different social cognition profiles between two cognitive subtypes of schizophrenia.
METHOD
There were one hundred and two chronic and institutionalized patients with schizophrenia from two referral tracks. One group is "Cognitively Normal Range" (CNR) (N = 52), and another group is "Below Normal Range" (BNR) (N = 50). We assessed or collected their apathy, emotional perception judgment, facial expression judgment, and empathy by the Apathy Evaluation Scale, the International Affective Picture System, the Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expression of Emotion, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, respectively.
RESULTS
We found different impairment profiles depending on the cognitive subtypes of the patient with schizophrenia. Surprisingly, the CNR presented impairments in apathy, emotional perception judgment, facial expression judgment, and empathy and feature impairment in empathy and affective apathy. In contrast, even though the BNR had significant neurocognition impairments, they had almost intact empathy with significantly impaired cognitive apathy. Both groups' global deficit scores (GDSs) were comparable, and all reached at least a mild impairment level.
CONCLUSIONS
The CNR and the BNR had similar abilities in emotional perception judgment and facial emotion recognition. They also had differentiable deficits in apathy and empathy. Our findings provide important clinical implications for neuropsychological pathology and treatment in schizophrenia.
PubMed: 37214255
DOI: 10.1016/j.scog.2023.100287 -
PloS One 2024Misophonia, a heightened aversion to certain sounds, turns common cognitive and social exercises (e.g., paying attention during a lecture near a pen-clicking classmate,...
Misophonia, a heightened aversion to certain sounds, turns common cognitive and social exercises (e.g., paying attention during a lecture near a pen-clicking classmate, coexisting at the dinner table with a food-chomping relative) into challenging endeavors. How does exposure to triggering sounds impact cognitive and social judgments? We investigated this question in a sample of 65 participants (26 misophonia, 39 control) from the general population. In Phase 1, participants saw faces paired with auditory stimuli while completing a gender judgment task, then reported sound discomfort and identification. In Phase 2, participants saw these same faces with novel ones and reported face likeability and memory. For both oral and non-oral triggers, misophonic participants gave higher discomfort ratings than controls did-especially when identification was correct-and performed slower on the gender judgment. Misophonic participants rated lower likeability than controls did for faces they remembered with high discomfort sounds, and face memory was worse overall for faces originally paired with high discomfort sounds. Altogether, these results suggest that misophonic individuals show impairments on social and cognitive judgments if they must endure discomforting sounds. This experiment helps us better understand the day-to-day impact of misophonia and encourages usage of individualized triggers in future studies.
Topics: Humans; Male; Female; Judgment; Cognition; Adult; Young Adult; Acoustic Stimulation; Memory
PubMed: 38722993
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299698 -
Traffic Injury Prevention 2024The first aim of the study was to identify sex differences in the use of psychoactive substances among subjects with a previous driving under the influence (DUI)... (Observational Study)
Observational Study
OBJECTIVE
The first aim of the study was to identify sex differences in the use of psychoactive substances among subjects with a previous driving under the influence (DUI) episode. The secondary objective was to propose specific strategies for medico-legal improvements.
METHODS
This was a retrospective observational study that took place between June 1, 2019, and August 31, 2023. It was conducted on DUI subjects examined for reinstatement of their driver's license using an integrated medico-legal and toxicological approach. Ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and illicit psychoactive substances were determined from hair samples. We performed descriptive statistical analyses for the entire sample as well as separately by sex. Additionally, we conducted binary logistic regression analyses separately for males and females to identify protective/risk factors associated with previous road accidents and judgments of unfitness to drive due to excessive alcohol consumption (EtG ≥ 30 pg/mg).
RESULTS
The study included 2,221 subjects, comprising 1,970 men and 251 women. Men exhibited a higher prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit psychoactive substance use. Women were more frequently co-users of alcohol and psychoactive substances and involved in road accidents at the time of DUI. Among the men, being married or having a partner was found to be a protective factor concerning past traffic accidents. For both sexes, a DUI episode with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) exceeding 1.5 g/L or the co-ingestion of alcohol and drugs was identified as a risk factor for road accident involvement. For men, smoking more than 20 cigarettes per day and, for women, having a DUI episode with a BAC over 1.5 g/L were the main factors indicating unfitness to drive, as determined through high hair EtG levels (> 30 pg/mg). Women with a previous history of road accidents were less likely to have EtG levels of 30 pg/mg or more.
CONCLUSIONS
The study confirmed sex differences in subjects with a previous DUI episode. A BAC exceeding 1.5 g/L or the simultaneous use of alcohol and drugs at the time of DUI necessitate careful assessment of both men and women seeking driver's license reinstatement. In women, a BAC exceeding 1.5 g/L is considered a risk factor for a subsequent judgment of unfitness to drive. The medico-legal assessment should also involve a thorough investigation of smoking habits in men, as these habits could be related to an increased risk of excessive alcohol consumption.
Topics: Female; Humans; Male; Accidents, Traffic; Automobile Driving; Blood Alcohol Content; Driving Under the Influence; Ethanol; Glucuronates; Sex Characteristics; Substance-Related Disorders; Retrospective Studies
PubMed: 38497827
DOI: 10.1080/15389588.2024.2325607 -
Scientific Reports Nov 2023Automated accounts on social media that impersonate real users, often called "social bots," have received a great deal of attention from academia and the public. Here we...
Automated accounts on social media that impersonate real users, often called "social bots," have received a great deal of attention from academia and the public. Here we present experiments designed to investigate public perceptions and policy preferences about social bots, in particular how they are affected by exposure to bots. We find that before exposure, participants have some biases: they tend to overestimate the prevalence of bots and see others as more vulnerable to bot influence than themselves. These biases are amplified after bot exposure. Furthermore, exposure tends to impair judgment of bot-recognition self-efficacy and increase propensity toward stricter bot-regulation policies among participants. Decreased self-efficacy and increased perceptions of bot influence on others are significantly associated with these policy preference changes. We discuss the relationship between perceptions about social bots and growing dissatisfaction with the polluted social media environment.
Topics: Humans; Software; Social Media; Policy; Bias; Prevalence
PubMed: 38001150
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-46630-x -
Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) Dec 2023The pathophysiology of mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD-MCI) is still not fully elucidated. It has been shown in a few studies in the literature...
The pathophysiology of mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD-MCI) is still not fully elucidated. It has been shown in a few studies in the literature that volume loss in the occipital, parietal and frontal cortices and atrophy in the hippocampus of PD-MCI patients can occur in the early stages of PD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between gray and white matter volumes and different neuropsychological tests and volumetric magnetic resonance imaging parameters in patients with mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD-MCI). Twenty-six PD-MCI and twenty-six healthy elderly (HC) were included in this study. We found that Mini Mental State Examination, Trail Making Test Part A, Clock Drawing Test, Benton Line Judgment Orientation Test and pentagon figure-copying scores were impaired in PD-MCI patients due to the decrease in brain volumes. Our study revealed that among PD-MCI patients, there was a more noticeable decline in White matter volume (WMV) based on volumetric Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) compared to the localized loss of GMV. We think that these abnormal neuropsychological tests in PD-MCI patients can be used as pretests in the evaluation of the stage of transition to dementia.
Topics: Aged; Humans; Parkinson Disease; Atrophy; Cognitive Dysfunction; Health Status; Neuropsychological Tests
PubMed: 38256295
DOI: 10.3390/medicina60010033 -
International Journal of Nursing Studies May 2024Nurses are pivotal in averting patient falls through their assessment of cues presented by patients and their environments, rendering clinical judgments regarding the...
BACKGROUND
Nurses are pivotal in averting patient falls through their assessment of cues presented by patients and their environments, rendering clinical judgments regarding the risk of falling, and implementing tailored interventions. Despite the intricate cognitive processes entailed in nurses' judgment, no prior studies have explored their approach to assessing the risk of falling.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to examine how nurses judge the risk of falling among patients with different conditions, whether there are differences in the importance of risk factors as judged by nurses, how they justify their judgments, and what attributes of the nurses influence their judgments.
DESIGN
A mixed method approach using the Q Methodology was employed.
SETTING(S)
Three public and private hospitals in Japan.
PARTICIPANTS
Eighteen nurses participated in the study.
METHODS
Participants were tasked with ranking 36 patient scenarios, each featuring a distinct set of fall risk factors. Subsequently, post-sorting interviews were conducted to gather insights into their typical approach to assessing fall risk and the rationale behind their ranking decisions. A by-person principal component factor extraction was employed to examine differences in the rankings of the scenarios. The interview data were analyzed descriptively to elucidate the reasons behind these discrepancies.
RESULTS
Nurses engage in complex cognitive manipulations when evaluating the risk of patient falls, drawing extensively from their wealth of experience while utilizing assessment tools to support their judgments. In essence, nurses identify patients' tendency to act alone without calling a nurse, impaired gait and cognition, sedative use, drains, and limited information sharing among healthcare professionals as key fall risks. In addition, nurses vary in the importance they attribute to certain risk factors, leading to the discrimination of three distinct judgment profiles. One group of nurses judges patients with cognitive impairment and acting alone as high risk. Another group of nurses considers patients with unstable gait and acting alone as high risk. The last group of nurses sees patients wearing slippers as high risk. The post-sorting interviews revealed that their judgments are closely related to the healthcare context and patient population.
CONCLUSIONS
Nurses operate within diverse contexts, wherein they interact with patients of varying characteristics, collaborate with professionals from diverse disciplines, and have access to varying levels of human and physical resources. This nuanced understanding empowers the formulation of judgments that are finely attuned to the specific context at hand.
STUDY REGISTRATION
Not registered.
Topics: Accidental Falls; Humans; Risk Factors; Judgment; Nursing Staff, Hospital; Adult; Female; Japan; Male; Middle Aged; Risk Assessment
PubMed: 38408403
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2024.104720 -
Parkinsonism & Related Disorders Sep 2023The evaluation of motor impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD) is mainly assessed with the motor subdomain of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating scale (UPDRS part...
BACKGROUND
The evaluation of motor impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD) is mainly assessed with the motor subdomain of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating scale (UPDRS part III) and, lately, with the MDS-UPDRS part III. To optimize efforts and special needs during specific circumstances in clinical practice, we sought to identify the most sensitive items to assess motor impairment in PD.
METHODS
We included the COPPADIS-PD cohort and collected the UPDRS part III at baseline (V0), 12 months (V1), and 24 months (V2). Factor analysis and effect size using Cohen's d formula were performed in the Off and On states at V0, V1, and V2.
RESULTS
We included 667 patients with PD, mean age of 62.59 ± 8.91 years, 410 (60.2%) males, with a median HY stage of 2.00 (1.00; 4.00) at baseline. Over time, the most discriminating items were postural stability and body bradykinesia ("arise from chair" and "gait") in the Off state, right and left upper extremity bradykinesia ("finger tap", "hand movements" and "prono/supination") in the On state. Body bradykinesia and right-left finger tapping were the items with the largest effect size (0.93, 0.84, 0.83, respectively) to assess motor improvement after receiving antiparkinsonian medications over time.
CONCLUSION
Under specific circumstances, selecting a few items of the UPDRS part III, including postural stability, body bradykinesia, and upper extremity bradykinesia, could be used to create a quick clinical judgment of motor status and improvement in PD.
Topics: Male; Humans; Middle Aged; Aged; Female; Parkinson Disease; Hypokinesia; Movement; Upper Extremity; Ambulatory Care Facilities
PubMed: 37607410
DOI: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2023.105773 -
Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf... Sep 2023This article presents the first meta-analysis on correlations of morphological awareness (MA) with reading-related abilities in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
This article presents the first meta-analysis on correlations of morphological awareness (MA) with reading-related abilities in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students (k = 14, N = 556). The results showed high mean correlations of MA with all three reading-related abilities: rs = 0.610, 0.712, and 0.669 (all ps < 0.001), respectively, for word reading, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension. A set of moderator analysis was conducted of language, DHH students' age/reading stage and degree of hearing loss, and task type. The correlation of MA with word reading was significantly stronger in alphabetic than in non-alphabetic languages, and for fluency than accuracy; for vocabulary knowledge, the correlation was significantly stronger for production MA tasks than for judgment tasks; for reading comprehension, derivational MA tasks showed a stronger correlation than those having a mixed focus on inflection and derivation. While no other moderator effects were significant, the correlations for subsets of effect sizes were largely high for a moderator. These findings reaffirmed the importance of morphology in DHH students' reading development. The present synthesis, while evidencing major development of research on the metalinguistic underpinnings of reading in DHH students, also showed that the literature on MA is still very limited.
Topics: Humans; Reading; Persons With Hearing Impairments; Cognition; Language; Hearing Loss; Vocabulary; Comprehension; Awareness
PubMed: 37474585
DOI: 10.1093/deafed/enad024 -
Nederlands Tijdschrift Voor Geneeskunde Jul 2023Chemsex refers to the use of drugs, including ecstasy, GHB, cocaine and methamphetamine, by Males who have Sex with Males (MSM) and transgenders with the specific...
Chemsex refers to the use of drugs, including ecstasy, GHB, cocaine and methamphetamine, by Males who have Sex with Males (MSM) and transgenders with the specific intention to perform sexual activities due to the drugs' facilitating influence on sexual performance and experience. Chemsex is predominantly situated in a private setting. Multiple routes of drug administration are applied, including 'slamming' and 'bootybumping'. Chemsex is associated with increased sexual risk behaviour, an increased risk of contracting a sexual transmitted bacterial disease or hepatitis-c infection and impaired mental health, in addition to the health risks of drugs use in general. Some MSM have a need for discussing chemsex-related issues, but experience hurdles when seeking professional help due to shame, fear of judgement and the perception of insufficient expertise in healthcare professionals. Healthcare professionals are often unaware of chemsex and report the need for additional knowledge and training.
Topics: Male; Humans; Homosexuality, Male; Substance-Related Disorders; Sexual and Gender Minorities; Sexual Behavior; Delivery of Health Care; HIV Infections
PubMed: 37493310
DOI: No ID Found -
Journal of Speech, Language, and... Nov 2023Auditory training has been shown to reduce rater variability in perceptual voice assessment. Because rater variability is also a central issue in the auditory-perceptual... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
PURPOSE
Auditory training has been shown to reduce rater variability in perceptual voice assessment. Because rater variability is also a central issue in the auditory-perceptual assessment of dysarthria, this study sought to determine if training produces a meaningful change in rater reliability, criterion validity, and scaling magnitude of four features: overall speech impairment, articulatory imprecision, monotony, and slow rate.
METHOD
Forty-four nonexperts randomized to training and nontraining listener groups completed a pretest and posttest. Only the former group underwent auditory training between pre- and posttests. For both testing and training, listeners rated samples from speakers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD), and neurologically healthy control speakers using separate visual analog scales (VASs) for each of the four features. Intraclass correlation coefficients were used to compare inter- and intrarater reliability between pre- and posttest for both listener groups. For criterion validity, severity ratings from the two nonexpert listener groups were compared to those of two experienced listeners for all four features. To determine changes in scaling magnitude, raw VAS scores for each feature were compared from pre- to posttest within the two nonexpert listener groups. Scaling changes were also compared between the two listener groups for the pre- and posttest conditions.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
In the training group, a meaningful improvement in interrater reliability was observed for some features in all three speaker groups, but not in the nontraining group. In contrast, for intrarater reliability, in the nontraining group, a meaningful improvement was observed for many features in all three speaker groups, but only for PD monotony and slow rate in the training group. All ratings from the nonexpert listeners were valid except for monotony. Raw VAS scores did not meaningfully change from pre- to posttest for any of the features, but there was a trend toward lower scores posttraining, mainly for the ALS samples. Modifications to the auditory training paradigm to further improve reliability and validity, along with future goals for optimizing training, are discussed.
Topics: Humans; Dysarthria; Speech Perception; Judgment; Reproducibility of Results; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; Speech Intelligibility; Speech Production Measurement; Parkinson Disease
PubMed: 37774738
DOI: 10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00322