Introduction Introduction: eating disorders (ED) such as anorexia nervosa (AN) or bulimia nervosa (BN), as well as obesity (OB), are related to emotional and neuropsychological impairments on measures of cognitive flexibility, central coherence or decision making. However, little is known about the association among emotional regulation, neuropsychological variables and affect. Objectives: to analyze whether neuropsychological and affect variables can predict emotional regulation in ED and in OB. Methods: thirty females with restricting ED (restricting AN) were assessed, 18 with purging ED (purging AN and BN), 33 with OB and 39 healthy controls matched for intelligence. The Wisconsin Card S…

A Critical View of Neurofeedback Experimental Designs: Sham and Control as Necessary Conditions

C l i n M e d International Library Citation: Alino M, Gadea M, Espert R (2016) A Critical View of Neurofeedback Experimental Designs: Sham and Control as Necessary Conditions. Int J Neurol Neurother 3:041 Received: January 29, 2016: Accepted: February 25, 2016: Published: February 27, 2016 Copyright: © 2016 Alino M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. ISSN: 2378-3001 Volume 3 | Issue 1 Alino et al. Int J Neurol Neurother 2016, 3:041

Psychobiological response to an anger induction task in schizophrenia: The key role of anxiety.

Abstract In this study an anger induction laboratory task was applied to men with schizophrenia, and resulted in significant changes in different psychophysiological parameters that were measured in a pre-post design. We observed a significantly greater self-reported anger mood and negative affection, lower self-reported positive affection, an increase in cardiovascular reactivity (with blood pressure in deeper affection compared to controls), higher salivary testosterone levels, lower salivary cortisol levels, and an increase in right ear items reported in dichotic listening. Furthermore, clinical risk factors related to anger in our patients were analyzed by Stepwise Regression analyses. …

Contribution of executive functions to eating behaviours in obesity and eating disorders.

AbstractBackground:Patients with eating disorders (ED) or obesity show difficulties in tasks assessing decision-making, set-shifting abilities and central coherence.Aims:The aim of this study was to explore executive functions in eating and weight-related problems, ranging from restricting types of ED to obesity.Method:Two hundred and eighty-eight female participants (75 with obesity; 149 with ED: 76 with restrictive eating, 73 with bingeing-purging symptoms; and 64 healthy controls) were administered the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, the Iowa Gambling Task, and the Group Embedded Figures Test to assess set-shifting, decision-making and central coherence, respectively.Results:Participants wi…

A comparison of the effects for sustained versus shifted attention on dichotic listening performance.

We measured the effect of two types of directed attention instructions, sustained by a verbal cue or shifted by a tone cue with different time intervals (150, 450, and 750 ms), on a consonant-vowel dichotic listening (C-V DL) test for a large group of right- and left-handed participants of both sexes. An increasing of the hits and a decreasing of the intrusions from the baseline DL test scores was evident for both types of attentional manipulations, with no differences regarding sex or handedness. Increasing the time from 150 to 450 ms benefited the focusing of attention but this advantage was markedly attenuated at the longer 750-ms interval. The improving effect was seen for the hits of b…

Deceit and facial expression in children: the enabling role of the “poker face” child and the dependent personality of the detector

This study presents the relation between the facial expression of a group of children when they told a lie and the accuracy in detecting the lie by a sample of adults. To evaluate the intensity and type of emotional content of the children’s faces, we applied an automated method capable of analyzing the facial information from the video recordings (FaceReader 5.0 software). The program classified videos as showing a neutral facial expression or an emotional one. There was a significant higher mean of hits for the emotional than for the neutral videos, and a significant negative correlation between the intensity of the neutral expression and the number of hits from the detectors. The lies ex…

Corpus callosum function in verbal dichotic listening: inferences from a longitudinal follow-up of Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis patients.

This study conducted a follow-up of 13 early-onset slightly disabled Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) patients within an year, evaluating both CC area measurements in a midsagittal Magnetic Resonance (MR) image, and Dichotic Listening (DL) testing with stop consonant vowel (C-V) syllables. Patients showed a significant progressive loss of posterior CC areas (isthmus and splenium) related to increasing EDSS scores and an enhancing right ear advantage (REA) over time. A significant correlation between posterior CC areas and DL scores emerged in both evaluations, being negative for the right and positive for the left ear. The pattern of correlations suggests that the CC can serve …

Neuropsychological Impairments in Anorexia Nervosa: A Spanish Sample Pilot Study

This work was aimed at obtaining a profile of neuropsychological impairments in young Spanish participants with anorexia nervosa (AN) to demonstrate that right-hemisphere and frontal capacity impairments are present not only in the acute phase but also after weight recovery in a Spanish sample compared with a healthy control group. Twelve patients with AN in the acute phase (body mass index [BMI]= 17) matched by age, IQ, and educational level by utilizing a wide neuropsychological battery. Differences were found between AN groups only for long-term verbal memory, which worsens as BMI increases. Among participants with AN as a group, results showed differences in speed of information process…

Increased cortisol and decreased right ear advantage (REA) in dichotic listening following a negative mood induction.

This study aimed to evaluate neuroendocrine responses and changes in perceptual asymmetry following an induced negative affect. Cortisol increasing in response to negative affect has been reported, while current brain models of emotion processing link negative affect to the right hemisphere. In this study, the Velten Mood Induction Procedure was used to generate neutral or negative affect in 44 healthy subjects. The PANAS scales were used to assess self-reported mood. A consonant-vowel dichotic listening (DL) test was applied after the neutral and negative affect inductions, and levels of salivary cortisol were determined by radioimmunoassay. For the negative affect condition, and congruent…

Dichotic listening: elimination of the right ear advantage under a dual task procedure.

The aim of this article is to investigate the attentional effect on the dichotic listening (DL) performance when doing a simultaneous right hemisphere task. A group of 30 right-handed male participants had a standard DL test followed by a dual task procedure that consisted of a manipulospatial discrimination through the left hand and performed while doing the DL test. Participants showed the typical right ear advantage (REA), which lost its significance when they were confronted with the dual task, presumably due to the manipulospatial performance. The elimination of the REA was mainly due to facilitation of the left ear responses. Results are discussed in terms of Kinsbourne's model and ot…

Salivary testosterone is related to both handedness and degree of linguistic lateralization in normal women.

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that individual differences in testosterone (T) are associated with different patterns of linguistic lateralization and hand preference. Twenty left-handed (LH) and 19 right-handed (RH) women filled in a handedness questionnaire and performed a consonant–vowel dichotic listening test (DL-CV). Salivary T was measured by radioimmunoassay (RIA). LH women showed significantly lower mean salivary T than RH women. T levels were negatively correlated with the absolute value of the DL laterality index. Subjects with right ear advantage (REA) were classified into strongly and weakly lateralized following Wexler et al. method (Brain Lang. 13 (1981) 13)…

Study of the tear effect with Eye tracking methodology: A pilot study

Según Darwin, el lloro emocional fue considerado un resultado fortuito a la luz de la evolución; sin propósito alguno, y debía ser visto como una consecuencia secundaria a fenómenos más importantes. Aunque es el comportamiento más dramático por el cual las emociones emergen en el rostro, muy poco es lo que se sabe desde la neurociencia. El presente estudio tiene como objetivo demostrar que la idea de Darwin está lejos de ser cierta, y que el lloro emocional parece jugar un papel esencial en el desarrollo de las relaciones sociales, siendo un factor de influencia en la percepción de sinceridad. Estudios previos han encontrado una influencia en la inhibición de la agresión, y que favorece la …

Organizational and activational effects of testosterone on risk-taking in economical behavior: A systematic review

Resumen El objetivo de esta revisión sistemática es evaluar la influencia de la testosterona circulante (efectos activacionales) y de la exposición prenatal a ella (efectos organizacionales) sobre la asunción de riesgos en conductas económicas, evaluando los trabajos de investigación existentes hasta la fecha acerca de la temática. La base bibliográfica analizada se obtuvo de distintas bases de datos especializadas en el ámbito de la psicología y las neurociencias. Los resultados obtenidos concluyen en una relación contrastada entre la testosterona circulante y la asunción de riesgo financiero. En lo referente a la exposición prenatal se evidencia un estado inmaduro de la investigación sobr…

Entrenamiento en remediación cognitiva y habilidades emocionales en formato grupal para pacientes con obesidad: un estudio piloto

Abstract: Group cognitive remediation and emotion skills training for patients with obesity. A pilot study. Cognitive remediation and emotion skills training was initially designed by the Tchanturia group for individual intervention in patients with eating disorders. The purpose of the present study is to present its adaptation to patients with obesity in group format. It is structured in 8 weekly sessions that work on central executive functions, the relation between emotion and thought, and emotion regulation in oneself and others. In addition, we present the preliminary results of its application to a group of 5 participants with morbid obesity to assess its possible efficacy. The result…

Spectroscopic axonal damage of the right locus coeruleus relates to selective attention impairment in early stage relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

Summary Lower levels of N-acetylaspartate (NAA), a marker of axonal damage, have been found in the normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients with low physical disability. However, its relation to the clinical status of these patients remains unclear. We explored the association between NAA levels [normalized to creatine (Cr), NAA/Cr] and a cognitive feature that is not measured by the standard scales that address functional disability [e.g. Expanded Disability Scale Score (EDSS)] in early RRMS. Given that a considerable number of RRMS patients present attentional dysfunction early in the disease and assuming a functional-anatomical orient…

Efectos organizacionales y activacionales de la testosterona sobre la asunción de riesgos en conductas económicas: una revisión sistemática

Resumen El objetivo de esta revision sistematica es evaluar la influencia de la testosterona circulante (efectos activacionales) y de la exposicion prenatal a ella (efectos organizacionales) sobre la asuncion de riesgos en conductas economicas, evaluando los trabajos de investigacion existentes hasta la fecha acerca de la tematica. La base bibliografica analizada se obtuvo de distintas bases de datos especializadas en el ambito de la psicologia y las neurociencias. Los resultados obtenidos concluyen en una relacion contrastada entre la testosterona circulante y la asuncion de riesgo financiero. En lo referente a la exposicion prenatal se evidencia un estado inmaduro de la investigacion sobr…

Analysis of the Effectiveness of Cognitive Remediation and Emotional Skills Training in a Group format. Preliminary results in patients with eating disorders

Eating disorders (ED) are associated with cognitive and emotional impairments. Cognitive and Emotional Remediation Skill Training (CREST) was developed as an intervention program targeting patients' thinking styles and their skills in recognizing and managing emotions. AIM: to analyze the effects of the CREST intervention in a group format in females with ED. METHOD: eight females underwent a CREST program (eight 90-minute sessions) targeting cognitive (central coherence, set shifting, problem solving) and emotional (recognizing emotions, managing emotions) difficulties. It was assessed cognitive flexibility (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test), decision-making (Iowa Gambling Task), central cohere…

Effects of a single session of SMR neurofeedback training on anxiety and cortisol levels.

Objectives: According to some studies, a putatively calming effect of EEG neurofeedback training could be useful as a therapeutic tool in psychiatric practice. With the aim of elucidating this possibility, we tested the efficacy of a single session of ¿sensorimotor (SMR)/¿theta neurofeedback training for mood improvement in 32 healthy men, taking into account trainability, independence and interpretability of the results. Methods: A pre-post design, with the following dependent variables, was applied: (i) psychometric measures of mood with regards to anxiety, depression, and anger (Profile of Mood State, POMS, and State Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI); (ii) biological measures (salivary leve…

What happens when we get angry? Hormonal, cardiovascular and asymmetrical brain responses

This study aimed to evaluate neuroendocrine and cardiovascular responses together with changes in brain asymmetry following an anger mood induction laboratory task. Previous research has shown an increase in heart rate and blood pressure when anger is experienced. Increased testosterone and decreased cortisol in response to anger and aggressive behavior have also been reported. With regard to asymmetrical frontal brain activity and emotion, the valence model links negative affect (as anger) to the right hemisphere while the motivational direction model links approach-related emotions (as anger) to the left hemisphere. From the subjective perception and from the neuroendocrine and cardiovasc…

Eficacia del neurofeedback para el tratamiento de los trastornos del espectro autista: Una revisión sistemática

Los trastornos del espectro autista (TEA) se caracterizan por deficits en la comunicacion e interaccion con los demas, patrones estereotipados de conducta e intereses restringidos. Presentan patrones de encefalograma (EEG) anomalos que podrian explicar estos deficits, y por ello el neurofeedback se plantea como una alternativa terapeutica dirigida a normalizarlos. El objetivo consistio en analizar el grado de eficacia del neurofeedback como tratamiento de los TEA. Se llevo a cabo una revision sistematica de 17 estudios empiricos localizados mediante busqueda bibliografica exhaustiva en PsycINFO, PsycArticles y Pubmed. Los resultados indican cierta eficacia del neurofeedback para tratar los …