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Clinical Rehabilitation Sep 2023To develop a measure of the needs injured children and their families' needs throughout recovery; The MAnchester Needs Tool for Injured Children (MANTIC).
OBJECTIVE
To develop a measure of the needs injured children and their families' needs throughout recovery; The MAnchester Needs Tool for Injured Children (MANTIC).
DESIGN
Tool development, psychometric testing.
SETTING
Five children's major trauma centres in England.
PARTICIPANTS
Children aged 2 to 16 years with any type of moderate/severe injury(ies) treated in a major trauma centre within 12 months of injury, plus their parents.
METHODS
: Interviews with injured children and their parents to generate draft items. : Feedback about item clarity, relevance and appropriate response options was provided by parents and the patient and public involvement group. : Completion of the prototype MANTIC by injured children and their parents with restructuring (as necessary) to establish construct validity. Concurrent validity was assessed by correlation with quality of life (EQ-5D-Y). MANTICs were repeated 2 weeks later to assess test-retest reliability.
RESULTS
: Interviews (13 injured children, 19 parents) generated 64 items with semantic differential four-point response scale (strongly disagree, disagree, agree, strongly agree). : One hundred and forty-four participants completed MANTIC questionnaires (mean age 9.8 years, SD 3.8; 68.1% male). Item responses were strong requiring only minor changes to establish construct validity. Concurrent validity with quality of life was moderate ( = 0.55, < 0.01) as was test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.46 and 0.59, < 0.001). Uni-dimensionality was strong (Cronbach's > 0.7).
CONCLUSION
The MANTIC is a feasible, acceptable, valid self-report measure of the needs of injured children and their families, freely available for clinical or research purposes.
Topics: Child; Female; Humans; Male; Parents; Psychometrics; Reproducibility of Results; Surveys and Questionnaires; Child, Preschool; Adolescent; Wounds and Injuries; Needs Assessment; Trauma Centers; England
PubMed: 36872874
DOI: 10.1177/02692155231158475 -
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology Oct 2023Perceptual and action systems seem to be related to complex cognitive processes, but the scope of grounded or embodied cognition has been questioned. Zwaan and Yaxley...
BACKGROUND
Perceptual and action systems seem to be related to complex cognitive processes, but the scope of grounded or embodied cognition has been questioned. Zwaan and Yaxley (2003) proposed that cognitive processes of making semantic relatedness judgments can be facilitated when word pairs are presented in ways that their referents maintain their iconic configuration rather than their reverse-iconic configuration (the spatial iconicity effect). This effect has been observed in different semantic categories using specific experiments, but it is known that embodiment is highly dependent on task demands.
METHOD
The present study analyzed the spatial iconicity effect in three semantic categories (physical, abstract, and social) using the same experimental criteria to determine the scope of embodied cognition. In this reaction-time experiment, 75 participants judged the semantic relatedness of 384 word pairs whose experimental items were presented in their iconic or reverse-iconic configurations.
RESULTS
Two mixed-effects models with crossed random effects revealed that the interaction between word meaning and spatial position was present only for physical concepts but neither for abstract nor social concepts.
CONCLUSIONS
Within the framework of strong and weak embodiment theories, the data support weak embodiment theory as the most explicative one.
Topics: Humans; Semantics; Cognition; Reaction Time; Judgment; Semantic Differential
PubMed: 36843286
DOI: 10.1111/sjop.12909 -
Neurology Jan 2024Prior work suggests that cognitive resilience may contribute to the heterogeneity of cognitive decline. This study examined whether distinct cortical proteins provide...
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Prior work suggests that cognitive resilience may contribute to the heterogeneity of cognitive decline. This study examined whether distinct cortical proteins provide resilience for different cognitive abilities.
METHODS
Participants were from the Religious Orders Study or the Rush Memory and Aging Project who had undergone annual assessments of 5 cognitive abilities and postmortem assessment of 9 Alzheimer disease and related dementia (ADRD) pathologies. Proteome-wide examination of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex using tandem mass tag and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry yielded 8,425 high-abundance proteins. We applied linear mixed-effect models to quantify residual cognitive change (cognitive resilience) of 5 cognitive abilities by regressing out cognitive decline related to age, sex, education, and indices of ADRD pathologies. Then we added terms for each of the individual proteins to identify cognitive resilience proteins associated with the different cognitive abilities.
RESULTS
We included 604 decedents (69% female; mean age at death = 89 years) with proteomic data. A total of 47 cortical proteins that provide cognitive resilience were identified: 22 were associated with specific cognitive abilities, and 25 were common to at least 2 cognitive abilities. NRN1 was the only protein that was associated with more than 2 cognitive abilities (semantic memory: estimate = 0.020, SE = 0.004, = 2.2 × 10; episodic memory: estimate = 0.029, SE = 0.004, = 5.8 × 10; and working memory: estimate = 0.021, SE = 0.004, = 1.2 × 10). Exploratory gene ontology analysis suggested that among top molecular pathways, mitochondrial translation was a molecular mechanism providing resilience in episodic memory, while nuclear-transcribed messenger RNA catabolic processes provided resilience in working memory.
DISCUSSION
This study identified cortical proteins associated with various cognitive abilities. Differential associations across abilities may reflect distinct underlying biological pathways. These data provide potential high-value targets for further mechanistic and drug discovery studies to develop targeted treatments to prevent loss of cognition.
Topics: Female; Humans; Aged, 80 and over; Male; Proteome; Proteomics; Resilience, Psychological; Cognition; Memory, Episodic; Neuropeptides; GPI-Linked Proteins
PubMed: 38165375
DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000207816 -
BMC Psychology May 2024People with neurodegenerative diseases may have difficulty learning new information, owing to their cognitive impairments. Teaching them techniques for learning in...
BACKGROUND
People with neurodegenerative diseases may have difficulty learning new information, owing to their cognitive impairments. Teaching them techniques for learning in social contexts could alleviate this difficulty. The present study will examine the performances of patients with Alzheimer's disease and patients with the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia on a memory test administered in three social contexts. The protocol will make it possible to identify determinants of social interactions, social abilities, cognition, and personality that can explain the potentially beneficial effect of social context on learning in these patients.
METHODS
Thirty dyads (patient with primary memory impairment who meets criteria for Alzheimer's disease paired with caregiver), 16 dyads (patient meeting criteria for semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia paired with caregiver), and 46 dyads (healthy controls with no cognitive complaints) will be recruited. A nonverbal memory test (social memory task) will be administered to each dyad in three different social contexts (presence-only, observation, collaboration). Patients and healthy controls will also undergo a neuropsychological assessment to measure social (interactions and abilities), cognitive and personality aspects. Patients will be compared with controls on differential social scores calculated between the presence-only and collaboration contexts, and between the presence-only and observation contexts. A multiple comparative case study will be conducted to identify social, cognitive and personality variables that potentially explain the differential scores in the collaboration and observation contexts.
DISCUSSION
For the first time, memory will be assessed in patients with Alzheimer's disease and patients with the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia in three different contexts (presence-only, observation, collaboration). The multiple comparative case study will make it possible to identify the determinants of memory performance in the social context, in order to create the most beneficial learning context for individual patients, according to their profile.
TRIAL REGISTRATION
This study was approved by the Ile de France XI institutional review board (2022-A00198-35), and registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (no. NCT05800028), on April 27, 2023.
Topics: Aged; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Alzheimer Disease; Aphasia, Primary Progressive; Cognition; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Neuropsychological Tests; Social Interaction; Social Learning
PubMed: 38807183
DOI: 10.1186/s40359-024-01791-w -
Psychophysiology Sep 2023The integration of word meaning into an unfolding utterance representation is a core operation of incremental language comprehension. There is considerable debate,...
The integration of word meaning into an unfolding utterance representation is a core operation of incremental language comprehension. There is considerable debate, however, as to which component of the ERP signal-the N400 or the P600-directly reflects integrative processes, with far reaching consequences for the temporal organization and architecture of the comprehension system. Multi-stream models maintaining the N400 as integration crucially rely on the presence of a semantically attractive plausible alternative interpretation to account for the absence of an N400 effect in response to certain semantic anomalies, as reported in previous studies. The single-stream Retrieval-Integration account posits the P600 as an index of integration, further predicting that its amplitude varies continuously with integrative effort. Here, we directly test these competing hypotheses using a context manipulation design in which a semantically attractive alternative is either available or not, and target word plausibility is varied across three levels. An initial self-paced reading study revealed graded reading times for plausibility, suggesting differential integration effort. A subsequent ERP study showed no N400 differences across conditions, and that P600 amplitude is graded for plausibility. These findings are inconsistent with the interpretation of the N400 as an index of integration, as no N400 effect emerged even in the absence of a semantically attractive alternative. By contrast, the link between plausibility, reading times, and P600 amplitude supports the view that the P600 is a continuous index of integration effort. More generally, our results support a single-stream architecture and eschew the need for multi-stream accounts.
Topics: Humans; Electroencephalography; Evoked Potentials; Comprehension; Semantics
PubMed: 37042061
DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14302 -
Alzheimer's Research & Therapy Apr 2024Differential diagnosis among subjects with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) can be challenging. Structural MRI can support the clinical profile. Visual rating scales...
INTRODUCTION
Differential diagnosis among subjects with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) can be challenging. Structural MRI can support the clinical profile. Visual rating scales are a simple and reliable tool to assess brain atrophy in the clinical setting. The aims of the study were to establish to what extent the visual rating scales could be useful in the differential diagnosis of PPA, to compare the clinical diagnostic impressions derived from routine MRI interpretations with those obtained using the visual rating scale and to correlate results of the scales in a voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis.
METHOD
Patients diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) according to current criteria from two centers-Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico of Milan and Hospital Clínic de Barcelona-were included in the study. Two blinded clinicians evaluated the subjects MRIs for cortical atrophy and white matter hyperintensities using two protocols: routine readings and the visual rating scale. The diagnostic accuracy between patients and controls and within PPA subgroups were compared between the two protocols.
RESULTS
One hundred fifty Subjects were studied. All the scales showed a good to excellent intra and inter-rater agreement. The left anterior temporal scale could differentiate between semantic PPA and all other variants. The rater impression after the protocol can increase the accuracy just for the logopenic PPA. In the VBM analysis, the scores of visual rating scales correlate with the corresponding area of brain atrophy.
CONCLUSION
The Left anterior temporal rating scale can distinguish semantic PPA from other variants. The rater impression after structured view improved the diagnostic accuracy of logopenic PPA compared to normal readings. The unstructured view of the MRI was reliable for identifying semantic PPA and controls. Neither the structured nor the unstructured view could identify the nonfluent and undetermined variants.
Topics: Humans; Brain; Aphasia, Primary Progressive; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Positron-Emission Tomography; Atrophy
PubMed: 38582927
DOI: 10.1186/s13195-024-01442-7 -
Journal of Integrative and... Aug 2023Gambling disorder (GD) has been associated with economic, social, mental, and physical problems. Alternative leisure activities or stress-relieving activities have been... (Clinical Trial)
Clinical Trial
Gambling disorder (GD) has been associated with economic, social, mental, and physical problems. Alternative leisure activities or stress-relieving activities have been adopted as part of GD treatment. Moreover, it has been proven that activities utilizing the natural environment, such as shinrin-yoku, have a relaxing effect on healthy people. In this study, we examined the physiological and psychological responses of patients with GD to determine whether nature therapy could reduce their stress responses. This study included 22 Japanese male participants who were found to be pathological gamblers, with a South Oaks Gambling Screen score of ≤5. We exposed the participants to the digital nature sounds of insects and city sounds of a scramble intersection. The nature and city sounds were presented in a counterbalanced order. A two-channel near-infrared spectroscopy system was used to measure the changes in oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb) concentrations in the bilateral prefrontal cortex. The heart rate variability was measured to evaluate the autonomic nervous activity. Subjective evaluation was performed using the modified version of the semantic differential method and the Profiles of Mood States, Second Edition (POMS2). The oxy-Hb level in the bilateral prefrontal cortex significantly decreased. No significant difference in the high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency/HF ratio was observed. The subjective evaluation indicated that the participants experienced increased comfort and relaxation and had more natural feelings. Nature sounds significantly decreased the POMS2 negative emotion subscale and total mood disturbance scores and increased the positive emotion subscale scores. Nature-based stimulus exposure induces physiological relaxation and other positive effects among individuals even with GD. Exposure to nature-based sounds induces physiological relaxation and other positive responses among individuals with GD. In patients with GD, nature sounds produce the same relaxation response as in healthy individuals. (Umin.ac.jp under registration number: UMIN000042368).
Topics: Humans; Male; Cross-Over Studies; Emotions; Gambling; Relaxation; Relaxation Therapy
PubMed: 36971853
DOI: 10.1089/jicm.2022.0611 -
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 2024Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by linguistic impairment. The two main clinical subtypes are semantic (svPPA) and...
INTRODUCTION
Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by linguistic impairment. The two main clinical subtypes are semantic (svPPA) and non-fluent/agrammatic (nfvPPA) variants. Diagnosing and classifying PPA patients represents a complex challenge that requires the integration of multimodal information, including clinical, biological, and radiological features. Structural neuroimaging can play a crucial role in aiding the differential diagnosis of PPA and constructing diagnostic support systems.
METHODS
In this study, we conducted a white matter texture analysis on T1-weighted images, including 56 patients with PPA (31 svPPA and 25 nfvPPA), and 53 age- and sex-matched controls. We trained a tree-based algorithm over combined clinical/radiomics measures and used Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) model to extract the greater impactful measures in distinguishing svPPA and nfvPPA patients from controls and each other.
RESULTS
Radiomics-integrated classification models demonstrated an accuracy of 95% in distinguishing svPPA patients from controls and of 93.7% in distinguishing svPPA from nfvPPA. An accuracy of 93.7% was observed in differentiating nfvPPA patients from controls. Moreover, Shapley values showed the strong involvement of the white matter near left entorhinal cortex in patients classification models.
DISCUSSION
Our study provides new evidence for the usefulness of radiomics features in classifying patients with svPPA and nfvPPA, demonstrating the effectiveness of an explainable machine learning approach in extracting the most impactful features for assessing PPA.
PubMed: 38562661
DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2024.1324437 -
Cognition & Emotion Nov 2023The effect of emotion on associative memory is still an open question. Our aim was to test whether discrepant findings are due to differential impact of emotion on...
The effect of emotion on associative memory is still an open question. Our aim was to test whether discrepant findings are due to differential impact of emotion on different types of associative memory or to differences in the way participants encoded stimuli across studies. We examined the effect of negative content on multiple forms of associative memory, using the same encoding task. Two registered experiments were conducted in parallel with random allocation of participants to experiments. Each experiment included 4 encoding blocks, in which participants read a neutral text comprised of 6 paragraphs, which were interleaved with neutral or negative images. Images were controlled for visual properties and semantic similarity. Memory tests included recognition memory, Remember/Know, order memory, temporal source memory and contextual memory. Analyses showed that emotion decreased contextual memory but not order memory or temporal source memory. We also found that temporal source memory and contextual memory were correlated. Recognition accuracy and subjective recollection were not impacted by emotion. In agreement with previous work, participants self-reported a reduced ability to integrate blocks containing negative images with paragraphs. In contrast to our hypothesis, results suggest that emotion does not impact all types of associative memory when stimuli are controlled.
PubMed: 37955276
DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2023.2279182 -
Seizure Jan 2024A clinical decision tool for Transient Loss of Consciousness (TLOC) could reduce currently high misdiagnosis rates and waiting times for specialist assessments. Most...
OBJECTIVE
A clinical decision tool for Transient Loss of Consciousness (TLOC) could reduce currently high misdiagnosis rates and waiting times for specialist assessments. Most clinical decision tools based on patient-reported symptom inventories only distinguish between two of the three most common causes of TLOC (epilepsy, functional /dissociative seizures, and syncope) or struggle with the particularly challenging differentiation between epilepsy and FDS. Based on previous research describing differences in spoken accounts of epileptic seizures and FDS seizures, this study explored the feasibility of predicting the cause of TLOC by combining the automated analysis of patient-reported symptoms and spoken TLOC descriptions.
METHOD
Participants completed an online web application that consisted of a 34-item medical history and symptom questionnaire (iPEP) and spoken interaction with a virtual agent (VA) that asked eight questions about the most recent experience of TLOC. Support Vector Machines (SVM) were trained using different combinations of features and nested leave-one-out cross validation. The iPEP provided a baseline performance. Inspired by previous qualitative research three spoken language based feature sets were designed to assess: (1) formulation effort, (2) the proportion of words from different semantic categories, and (3) verb, adverb, and adjective usage.
RESULTS
76 participants completed the application (Epilepsy = 24, FDS = 36, syncope = 16). Only 61 participants also completed the VA interaction (Epilepsy = 20, FDS = 29, syncope = 12). The iPEP model accurately predicted 65.8 % of all diagnoses, but the inclusion of the language features increased the accuracy to 85.5 % by improving the differential diagnosis between epilepsy and FDS.
CONCLUSION
These findings suggest that an automated analysis of TLOC descriptions collected using an online web application and VA could improve the accuracy of current clinical decisions tools for TLOC and facilitate clinical stratification processes (such as ensuring appropriate referral to cardiological versus neurological investigation and management pathways).
Topics: Humans; Seizures; Syncope; Unconsciousness; Epilepsy; Surveys and Questionnaires; Diagnosis, Differential
PubMed: 38091849
DOI: 10.1016/j.seizure.2023.11.022