Search results for "Neuropsychological tests"
showing 10 items of 523 documents
Theory of Mind and Emotional Awareness Deficits in Patients With Somatoform Disorders
2010
To explore whether deficits are present in the mental representation of emotion signals and whether these are related to more general deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM) functioning test. To test this hypothesis in patients suffering from somatoform disorders, we used the Frith-Happé-Animations Task (AT)-an established ToM measure. We previously demonstrated that somatization in psychiatric patients is associated with decreased emotional awareness as measured by the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS). These findings suggest that individuals with decreased emotional awareness often fail to experience affective arousal as feelings and instead experience emotional distress somatically.We …
Maternal history of reading difficulty is associated with reduced language-related gray matter in beginning readers.
2012
Family history and poor preliteracy skills (referred to here as familial and behavioral risk, respectively) are critical predictors of developmental dyslexia. This study systematically investigated the independent contribution of familial and behavioral risks on brain structures, which had not been explored in past studies. We also examined the differential effects of maternal versus paternal history on brain morphometry, and familial risk dimensionally versus categorically, which were also novel aspects of the study. We assessed 51 children (5 to 6 years of age) with varying degrees of familial and behavioral risks for developmental dyslexia and examined associations with brain morphometry…
Familial dyslexia: neurocognitive and genetic correlation in a large Finnish family.
2007
Neuropsychological findings of individuals with dyslexia (n=24) from a large, three-generation Finnish family are presented. We have previously performed whole genome linkage scanning in this family and found that dyslexia in this kindred segregates with a single locus in the pericentromeric area of chromosome 3. Those included in the analyses were carefully evaluated for general cognitive ability, reading and spelling skills, and reading-related neurocognitive skills. The neurocognitive type of dyslexia segregating in this family consisted of deficits in phonological awareness, verbal short-term memory, and rapid naming. Severe dyslexia also seemed to be connected with a general language d…
Schizophrenia and automatic processing: an exploratory study.
1991
This study deals with the schizophrenic deficit as one of automatic processing. To test the idea, a special experimental task was designed on which 21 schizophrenics, 21 depressives, and 21 normal subjects had to complete a series of simple geometric figures. When the subjects had thoroughly learned this activity, another information source, a brief story, was introduced, and the subjects had to pay attention to the story while they did the task. Two dependent variables were considered, execution time and performance. There were no differences among the three groups in the first experimental condition; but in the second condition, when the distractor was introduced, schizophrenics needed m…
Dopamine D2/D3 receptor availability and venturesomeness.
2011
The construct of impulsivity is considered as a major trait of personality. There is growing evidence that the mesolimbic dopamine system plays an important role in the modulation of impulsivity and venturesomeness, the two key components within the impulsivity-construct. The aim of the present study was to explore an association between trait impulsivity measured with self-assessment and the dopaminergic neurotransmission as measured by positron emission tomography (PET) in a cohort of healthy male subjects. In vivo D2/D3 receptor availability was determined with [(18)F]fallypride PET in 18 non-smoking healthy subjects. The character trait impulsivity was measured using the Impulsiveness-V…
Who are maximizers? Future oriented and highly numerate individuals
2014
Two studies investigated cognitive mechanisms that may be associated with people's tendency to maximize. Maximizers are individuals who are spending a great amount of effort in order to find the very best option in a decision situation, rather than stopping the decision process when they encounter a satisfying option. These studies show that maximizers are more future oriented than other people, which may motivate them to invest the extra energy into optimal choices. Maximizers also have higher numerical skills, possibly facilitating the cognitive processes involved with decision trade-offs.
Cognitive and social impairments in patients with superficial siderosis
2005
Superficial siderosis of the CNS is a rare condition, caused by deposition of haemosiderin in the superficial layers of the CNS due to repeated chronic subarachnoid or intraventricular haemorrhage. Typically, the hindbrain structures, especially the cerebellum, are most affected. There is a surprising lack of studies investigating in detail the behavioural functioning of patients with such a condition. In this study, we document for the first time the cognitive, social and emotional processing of six patients with a confirmed clinical diagnosis of superficial siderosis. They were aged between 40 and 62 years, with a mean age of 50.2 years; four were male. We administered a comprehensive bat…
Moral reasoning and moral conflict in patients of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – Frontotemporal dementia spectrum
2020
The aim of this study was to investigate the moral reasoning and moral conflict in patients of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – frontotemporal dementia (ALSFTD) spectrum. Ten ALS patients without cognitive impairment, 10 ALS patients with cognitive or behavioral impairment, 10 ALSFTD patients and 23 controls were examined with neuropsychological and behavioral tests as well as with a set of eight well -designed moral dilemmas. The responses to the moral dilemmas were used as proxies to evaluate interpersonal moral reasoning. Reactivity to change, reaction time and arousal were used as markers of moral conflict. ALSFTD patients showed more “utilitarian” responses and less moral conflict t…
Conceptual proposition selection and the LIFG: neuropsychological evidence from a focal frontal group.
2010
Much debate surrounds the role of the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG). Evidence from lesion and neuroimaging studies suggests the LIFG supports a selection mechanism used in single word generation. Single case studies of dynamic aphasic patients with LIFG damage concur with this and extend the finding to selection of sentences at the conceptual preparation stage of language generation. A neuropsychological group with unselected focal frontal and non-frontal lesions is assessed on a sentence generation task that varied the number of possible conceptual propositions available for selection. Frontal patients with LIFG damage when compared to Frontal patients without LIFG damage and Posterio…
Physical Exercise Intensity During Submersion Selectively Affects Executive Functions
2019
Objective The intact cognitive processing capacity in highly demanding and dynamically changing situations (e.g., in extreme environmental conditions) is of central relevance for personal safety. This study therefore investigated whether underwater physical exercise (PE) affected cognitive performance by comparing these effects during underwater fin-swimming as opposed to inactivity under normal environmental conditions. Background Although acute bouts of PE can modulate cognitive performance under highly controlled and standardized laboratory conditions, no previous study has determined whether PE acutely modulates cognitive performance in non-laboratory testing conditions involving extrem…