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Brain Research Jul 2015Not all memory processes are equally affected by aging. A widely accepted hypothesis is that older adults rely more on familiarity-based processing, typically linked... (Review)
Review
Not all memory processes are equally affected by aging. A widely accepted hypothesis is that older adults rely more on familiarity-based processing, typically linked with the perirhinal cortex (PRC), in the context of impaired recollection, linked with the hippocampus (HC). However, according to the dedifferentiation hypothesis, healthy aging reduces the specialization of MTL memory subregions so that they may mediate different memory processes than in young adults. Using fMRI, we tested this possibility using a conceptual fluency manipulation known to induce familiarity-related PRC activity. The study yielded two main findings. First, although fluency equivalently affected PRC in both young (18-28; N=14) and older (62-80; N=15) adults, it also uniquely affected HC activity in older adults. Second, the fluency manipulation reduced functional connectivity between HC and PRC in young adults, but it increased it in older adults. Taken together, the results suggest that aging may result in reduced specialization of the HC for recollection, such that the HC may be recruited when fluency increases familiarity-based responding. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Memory & Aging.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aging; Analysis of Variance; Concept Formation; Female; Hippocampus; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Judgment; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Oxygen; Recognition, Psychology; Semantics; Temporal Lobe; Vocabulary; Young Adult
PubMed: 25305568
DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2014.09.061 -
Scientific Reports Sep 2021Some of the behavioral disorders observed in Parkinson's disease (PD) may be related to an altered processing of social messages, including emotional expressions....
Some of the behavioral disorders observed in Parkinson's disease (PD) may be related to an altered processing of social messages, including emotional expressions. Emotions conveyed by whole body movements may be difficult to generate and be detected by PD patients. The aim of the present study was to compare valence judgments of emotional whole body expressions in individuals with PD and in healthy controls matched for age, gender and education. Twenty-eight participants (13 PD patients and 15 healthy matched control participants) were asked to rate the emotional valence of short movies depicting emotional interactions between two human characters presented with the "Point Light Displays" technique. To ensure understanding of the perceived scene, participants were asked to briefly describe each of the evaluated movies. Patients' emotional valence evaluations were less intense than those of controls for both positive (p < 0.001) and negative (p < 0.001) emotional expressions, even though patients were able to correctly describe the depicted scene. Our results extend the previously observed impaired processing of emotional facial expressions to impaired processing of emotions expressed by body language. This study may support the hypothesis that PD affects the embodied simulation of emotional expression and the potentially involved mirror neuron system.
Topics: Aged; Emotions; Facial Expression; Female; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Judgment; Kinesics; Male; Middle Aged; Parkinson Disease
PubMed: 34535699
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-97788-1 -
British Journal of Pain Aug 2020The purpose of this narrative review is to discuss the interrelations between pain, stress and executive functions.
AIM
The purpose of this narrative review is to discuss the interrelations between pain, stress and executive functions.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Self-regulation, through executive functioning, exerts control over cognition, emotion and behaviour. The reciprocal neural functional connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system allows for the integration of cognitive and emotional neural pathways and then for higher-order psychological processes (reasoning, judgement etc.) to generate goal-directed adaptive behaviours and to regulate responses to psychosocial stressors and pain signals. Impairment in cognitive executive functioning may result in poor regulation of stress-, pain- and emotion-related processing of information. Conversely, adverse emotion, pain and stress impair executive functioning. The characteristic of the feedback and feedforward neural connections (quantity and quality) between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system determine adaptive behaviour, stress response and pain experience.
PubMed: 32922780
DOI: 10.1177/2049463719889380 -
Health Psychology : Official Journal of... Aug 2016Fuzzy-trace theory is a dual-process model of memory, reasoning, judgment, and decision making that contrasts with traditional expectancy-value approaches. We review the... (Review)
Review
OBJECTIVE
Fuzzy-trace theory is a dual-process model of memory, reasoning, judgment, and decision making that contrasts with traditional expectancy-value approaches. We review the literature applying fuzzy-trace theory to health with 3 aims: evaluating whether the theory's basic distinctions have been validated empirically in the domain of health; determining whether these distinctions are useful in assessing, explaining, and predicting health-related psychological processes; and determining whether the theory can be used to improve health judgments, decisions, or behaviors, especially compared to other approaches.
METHOD
We conducted a literature review using PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science to identify empirical peer-reviewed papers that applied fuzzy-trace theory, or central constructs of the theory, to investigate health judgments, decisions, or behaviors.
RESULTS
Seventy nine studies (updated total is 94 studies; see Supplemental materials) were identified, over half published since 2012, spanning a wide variety of conditions and populations. Study findings supported the prediction that verbatim and gist representations are distinct constructs that can be retrieved independently using different cues. Although gist-based reasoning was usually associated with improved judgment and decision making, 4 sources of bias that can impair gist reasoning were identified. Finally, promising findings were reported from intervention studies that used fuzzy-trace theory to improve decision making and decrease unhealthy risk taking.
CONCLUSIONS
Despite large gaps in the literature, most studies supported all 3 aims. By focusing on basic psychological processes that underlie judgment and decision making, fuzzy-trace theory provides insights into how individuals make decisions involving health risks and suggests innovative intervention approaches to improve health outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record
Topics: Adult; Attentional Bias; Comprehension; Cues; Decision Making; Female; Health Behavior; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Individuality; Judgment; Male; Mental Recall; Models, Psychological; Problem Solving; Psychological Theory; Retention, Psychology; Risk Reduction Behavior
PubMed: 27505197
DOI: 10.1037/hea0000384 -
Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences Dec 2019The European policy emphasis on providing informal care at home causes caregivers and home care professionals having more contact with each other, which makes it... (Review)
Review
Informal caregivers' judgements on sharing care with home care professionals from an intersectional perspective: the influence of personal and situational characteristics.
The European policy emphasis on providing informal care at home causes caregivers and home care professionals having more contact with each other, which makes it important for them to find satisfying ways to share care. Findings from the literature show that sharing care between caregivers and professionals can be improved. This study therefore examines to what degree and why caregivers' judgements on sharing care with home care professionals vary. To improve our understanding of social inequities in caregiving experiences, the study adopts an intersectional perspective. We investigate how personal and situational characteristics attached to care judgements are interwoven. Using data of the Netherlands Institute for Social Research, we conducted bivariate and multivariate linear regression analysis (N = 292). We combined four survey questions into a 1-4 scale on 'caregiver judgement' (α = 0.69) and used caregivers' personal (such as gender and health status) and situational characteristics (such as the care recipient's impairment and type of care) as determinants to discern whether these are related to the caregivers' judgement. Using a multiplicative approach, we also examined the relationship between mutually constituting factors of the caregivers' judgement. Adjusted for all characteristics, caregivers who provide care to a parent or child with a mental impairment and those aged between 45 and 64 years or with a paid job providing care to someone with a mental impairment are likely to judge sharing care more negatively. Also, men providing care with help from other caregivers and caregivers providing care because they like to do so who provide domestic help seem more likely to be less satisfied about sharing care. This knowledge is vital for professionals providing home care, because it clarifies differences in caregivers' experiences and hence induce knowledge how to pay special attention to those who may experience less satisfaction while sharing care.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Caregivers; Europe; Female; Home Care Services; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Young Adult
PubMed: 31037751
DOI: 10.1111/scs.12699 -
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 -
Cortex; a Journal Devoted To the Study... Feb 2014In human cognition, self and memory processes strongly interact, as evidenced by the memory advantage for self-referential materials [Self-Reference Effect (SRE) and...
In human cognition, self and memory processes strongly interact, as evidenced by the memory advantage for self-referential materials [Self-Reference Effect (SRE) and Self-Reference Recollection Effect (SRRE)]. The current study examined this interaction at the behavioural level and its neural correlates in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Healthy older controls (HC) and AD patients performed trait-adjectives judgements either for self-relevance or for other-relevance (encoding phase). In a first experiment, the encoding and subsequent yes-no recognition phases were administrated in a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner. Brain activation as measured by functional MRI (fMRI) was examined during self-relevance judgements and anatomical images were used to search for correlation between the memory advantage for self-related items and grey matter density (GMD). In a second experiment, participants described the retrieval experience that had driven their recognition decisions (familiarity vs recollective experience). The behavioural results revealed that the SRE and SRRE were impaired in AD patients compared to HC participants. Furthermore, verbal reports revealed that the retrieval of self-related information was preferentially associated with the retrieval of contextual details, such as source memory in the HC participants, but less so in the AD patients. Our imaging findings revealed that both groups activated the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) at encoding during self-relevance judgements. However, the variable and limited memory advantage for self-related information was associated with GMD in the lateral prefrontal cortex in the AD patients, a region supporting high-order processes linking self and memory. These findings suggest that even if AD patients engage MPFC during self-referential judgements, the retrieval of self-related memories is qualitatively and quantitatively impaired in relation with altered high-order processes in the lateral PFC.
Topics: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer Disease; Brain Mapping; Cognition; Female; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Memory; Middle Aged; Neuroimaging; Neuropsychological Tests; Self Concept
PubMed: 23993283
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2013.06.009 -
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 -
PloS One 2020Self-agency, the sense that one is the author or owner of one's behaviors, is impaired in multiple psychological and neurological disorders, including functional... (Clinical Trial)
Clinical Trial
Self-agency, the sense that one is the author or owner of one's behaviors, is impaired in multiple psychological and neurological disorders, including functional movement disorders, Parkinson's Disease, alien hand syndrome, schizophrenia, and dystonia. Existing assessments of self-agency, many of which focus on agency of movement, can be prohibitively time-consuming and often yield ambiguous results. Here, we introduce a short online motion tracking task that quantifies movement agency through both first-order perceptual and second-order metacognitive judgments. The task assesses the degree to which a participant can distinguish between a motion stimulus whose trajectory is influenced by the participant's cursor movements and a motion stimulus whose trajectory is random. We demonstrate the task's reliability in healthy participants and discuss how its efficiency, reliability, and ease of online implementation make it a promising new tool for both diagnosing and understanding disorders of agency.
Topics: Adult; Hand; Humans; Judgment; Male; Metacognition; Movement; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 33347502
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244113 -
Alzheimer's & Dementia (Amsterdam,... 2021Understanding of the natural history of apathy and its impact on patient function is limited. This study examines, in a large, national sample of Alzheimer's disease...
INTRODUCTION
Understanding of the natural history of apathy and its impact on patient function is limited. This study examines, in a large, national sample of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients with long follow-ups: (1) prevalence, incidence, and persistence of apathy, and (2) impact of apathy on function across dementia severity.
METHODS
A longitudinal study of 9823 well-characterized AD patients in the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center Uniform Data Set.
RESULTS
Apathy was highly prevalent across disease severity with cumulative prevalence of 48%, 74%, and 82% in Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0, respectively. Persistence of apathy from clinician judgment varied from visit to visit at earlier disease stages but remained high at moderate dementia. Independent of cognition, persistent apathy was strongly associated with accelerated rate of functional decline.
DISCUSSION
Findings point to important targets for the treatment and management of apathy, include functional outcomes, and study designs that account for variable persistence of the apathy syndrome.
PubMed: 35141391
DOI: 10.1002/dad2.12169