Search results for "Psychological tests"
showing 10 items of 594 documents
Time and spatial attention: Effects of prism adaptation on temporal deficits in brain damaged patients
2011
Growing evidence indicates that the representations of space and time interact in the brain but the exact neural correlates of such interaction remain unknown. Neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies show that processing of temporal information engages a distributed network in the right hemisphere and suggest a link between deficits in spatial attention and deficits in time perception. In the present study we used the procedure of prismatic adaptation (PA) to directionally manipulate spatial attention in order to explore the effect of attentional deviation on time perception in patients with right (RBD) vs. left (LBD) brain damage. In a first experiment, two groups of RBD and LBD patien…
Facilitation of bottom-up feature detection following rTMS-interference of the right parietal cortex
2010
In visual search tasks the optimal strategy should utilize relevant information ignoring irrelevant one. When the information at the feature and object levels are in conflict, un-necessary processing at higher level of object shape can interfere with detection of lower level orientation feature. We explored the effects of inhibitory trains of transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on the right and left parietal cortex in healthy subjects performing two visual search tasks. One task (Task A) was characterised by an object-to-feature interference. The other task (Task B) was without such interference. We found that rTMS of the right parietal cortex significantly reduced reaction times (RTs)…
A meta-analysis of cognitive performance in melancholic versus non-melancholic unipolar depression
2016
Abstract Background Recently there is increasing recognition of cognitive dysfunction as a core feature of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The goal of the current meta-analysis was to review and examine in detail the specific features of cognitive dysfunction in Melancholic (MEL) versus Non-Melancholic (NMEL) MDD. Methods An electronic literature search was performed to find studies comparing cognitive performance in MEL versus NMEL. A meta-analysis of broad cognitive domains ( processing speed , reasoning/problem solving , verbal learning , visual learning , attention/working memory ) was conducted on all included studies (n=9). Sensitivity and meta-regression analyses were also conducted…
Testosterone responses to competition: the opponent’s psychological state makes it challenging
2010
Testosterone (T) increases after competition have typically been attributed to winning, yet there is also evidence that being victorious is not in itself sufficient to provoke a T response. Instead, it has been proposed that T responses are moderated by psychological processes. Here, we investigated whether the opponent's psychological state affected hormonal changes in men competing face to face on a rigged computer task. The results show that, irrespective of outcome, the competition led to increases in heart rate and T levels. We found that the T levels of the participants increased more when their opponents had high self-efficacy and that T levels were not influenced by participants' ow…
The Use of Heart Rate Variability in Assessing Precompetitive Stress in High-Standard Judo Athletes
2012
The objective of this study is to examine the sensitivity to and changes in heart rate variability (HRV) in stressful situations before judo competitions and to observe the differences among judo athletes according to their competitive standards in both official and unofficial competitions. 24 (10 male and 14 female) national- and international-standard athletes were evaluated. Each participant answered the Revised Competitive State Anxiety Inventory (CSAI-2R) and their HRV was recorded both during an official and unofficial competition. The MANOVA showed significant main effects of the athlete's standard and the type of competition in CSAI-2R, in HRV time domain, in HRV frequency domain an…
A computerized system for measuring time perception in human subjects.
1991
We describe an integrated computerized approach to the design, execution and recording of time perception experiments in human subjects. The program is menu driven and runs on an IBM-compatible microcomputer. The method is easy to use, non-obtrusive to the subjects, and flexible enough to allow the investigator to design studies with a wide range of experimental protocols and study parameters. The fact that the results do not depend on proctor bias or subject-proctor interactions are additional advantages. The technique was applied to study the effects of prompt positive feedback on the time perception of normal human subjects who undergo training. The results of this study are reported.
Implicit memory functioning in schizophrenia: Explaining inconsistent findings of word stem completion tasks
2014
The definitive implicit memory profile of schizophrenia is yet to be clarified. Methodological differences between studies could be the reason for the inconsistent findings reported. In this study, we have examined implicit memory functioning using a word stem completion task. In addition, we have addressed methodological issues related with lexical and perceptual stimuli characteristics, and with the strategy used to calculate priming scores. Our data show similar performance values in schizophrenic patients and healthy controls. Furthermore, we have not detected significant differences in priming between the two groups, even when this parameter was calculated using three different procedu…
Perceptual priming in schizophrenia evaluated by word fragment and word stem completion
2011
Implicit memory seems to be preserved in schizophrenia as a whole, but dissociations between conceptual and perceptual tasks and between accuracy and reaction time measures have appeared. The present research has revealed some methodological limitations in many studies to date that are focused on the study of perceptual implicit memory in schizophrenic patients using accuracy measures. The review of these studies revealed that limitations are related to an inadequate definition of performance and priming measures, a lack of control over the characteristics of the stimuli, and the absence of information on the experimental procedures used in data collection. Moreover, the task used in these …
Confabulation: damage to a specific inferior medial prefrontal system
2008
Confabulation, the pathological production of false memories, occurs following a variety of aetiologies involving the frontal lobes, and is frequently held to be underpinned by combined memory and executive deficits. However, the critical frontal regions and specific cognitive deficits involved are unclear. Studies in amnesic patients have associated confabulation with damage to the orbital and ventromedial prefrontal cortices. However, neuroimaging studies have associated memory-control processes which are assumed to underlie confabulation with the right lateral prefrontal cortex. We used a confabulation battery to investigate the occurrence and localisation of confabulation in an unselect…
Taking both sides: do unilateral anterior temporal lobe lesions disrupt semantic memory?
2010
The most selective disorder of central conceptual knowledge arises in semantic dementia, a degenerative condition associated with bilateral atrophy of the inferior and polar regions of the temporal lobes. Likewise, semantic impairment in both herpes simplex virus encephalitis and Alzheimer's disease is typically associated with bilateral, anterior temporal pathology. These findings suggest that conceptual representations are supported via an interconnected, bilateral, anterior temporal network and that it may take damage to both sides to produce an unequivocal deficit of central semantic memory. We tested and supported this hypothesis by investigating a case series of 20 patients with unila…