Categoría: Papers con abstracts

Music Therapy and Disorders of Consciousness: Providing Clinical Data for Differential Diagnosis between Vegetative State and Minimally Conscious State from Music-Centered Music Therapy and Neuroscience Perspectives. Autores Lichtensztejn M., Macchi P, Lischinsky A. Año 2014 Journal  Lichtensztejn M., Macchi P, Lischinsky A. Volumen Abstract   Otra información    

Durante muchos años, el deterioro cognitivo se ha establecido como un síntoma bien conocido de la esclerosis múltiple. Además, sabemos que está presente incluso al principio de la enfermedad. En este estudio de casos y controles, decidimos evaluar si hay un deterioro de las funciones cognitivas, incluso antes de la aparición en aquellos pacientes que eventualmente sufren de esclerosis múltiple. Se evaluó el desempeño de la escuela en general, y en particular el rendimiento escolar en matemáticas y lenguaje en un grupo de pacientes que más tarde desarrollarían la enfermedad y comparamos nuestros resultados con un grupo control. Se encontró que el rendimiento escolar era más pobre en los sujetos que iban a sufrir esclerosis múltiple. Paralelamente, encontramos que cuanto más tardío fuera el comienzo del primer síntoma, mejor eran las calificaciones. La prueba de un déficit cognitivo premórbido por un método de evaluación indirecta validado nos permitió comprobar la existencia de un compromiso neurológico, incluso antes de un diagnóstico clínico o la realización de la primera resonancia magnética en pacientes que luego sufrirían de esclerosis múltiple.

The ´interpreter advantage hypothesis´ posits that task-specific cognitive skills developed by professional interpreters (PIs) generalize to more efficient linguistic and executive abilities in non-interpreting tasks. This paper reviews relevant studies in order to establish preliminary data patterns and outline new research questions. Though not entirely consistent, the evidence suggests that interpreting expertise enhances aspects of semantic processing, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. The data also gives rise to new related queries: Are linguistic and executive enhancements in PIs independent from each other? Are all the superior skills of PIs cumulatively enhanced by the double influence of bilingualism and interpreting experience? And how soon after the onset of formal training do these advantages appear? Tentative answers to these questions are also implied in the evidence considered.

En este trabajo analizamos la validez (fiabilidad y consistencia) de la versión español de Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) en una muestra de 400 usuarios de servicios de tratamiento drogas y alcohol ambulatorios y residenciales. La consistencia interna, el coeficiente de correlación intraclase (CCI) para la comparación test-retest y las pruebas de validación externa arrojaron valores adecuados, demostrando buenas propiedades psicomátricas del ASSIST.

In two self-paced, sentence-by-sentence reading experiments, we examined the difference in the processing of Spanish discourses containing overt and null pronouns. In both experiments, antecedents appeared in a single phrase (John met Mary) or in a conjoined phrase (John and Mary met). In Experiment 1, we compared reading times of sentences containing singular overt and null pronouns referring to the first or to the second mentioned antecedent. Overt pronouns caused a processing delay relative to null pronouns when they referred to the first antecedent in single but not in conjoined phrases. In Experiment 2, we compared reading times of sentences containing overt and null pronouns referring to singular or plural entities. Plural null pronouns were read faster than their singular counterparts in conjoined conditions. Plural overt pronouns were read more slowly than their null counterparts both in single and conjoined conditions. We explain our findings in a framework based on the notion of balance between processing cost and discourse function in line with the Informational Load Hypothesis.

Multiple studies have tried to establish the distinctive profile of individuals with Asperger’s syndrome (AS). However, recent reports suggest that adults with AS feature heterogeneous cognitive profiles. The present study explores inter-individual variability in children with AS through group comparison and multiple case series analysis. All participants completed an extended battery including measures of fluid and crystallized intelligence, executive functions, theory of mind, and classical neuropsychological tests. Significant group differences were found in theory of mind and other domains related to global information processing. However, the AS group showed high inter-individual variability (both sub- and supra-normal performance) on most cognitive tasks. Furthermore, high fluid intelligence correlated with less general cognitive impairment, high cognitive flexibility, and speed of motor processing. In light of these findings, we propose that children with AS are characterized by a distinct, uneven pattern of cognitive strengths and weaknesses

Mapping memory binding onto the connectome’s temporal dynamics: Towards a combined biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease. Autores Ibanez A, Parra M.  Año 2014 Journal  Ibanez A, Parra M.  Volumen 8:237. Abstract   Otra información  En este trabajo proponemos que tras la caída de la hipótesis de cascada amiloide en al enfermedad del Alzheimer (EA), la conectividad cerebral distribuida … Leer más

In the present work we analyzed the effect of contextual word predictability on the eye movement behavior of patients with mild Alzheimer disease (AD) compared to age-matched controls, by using the eyetracking technique and lineal mixed models. Twenty AD patients and 40 age-matched controls participated in the study. We first evaluated gaze duration during reading low and highly predictable sentences. AD patients showed an increase in gaze duration, compared to controls, both in sentences of low or high predictability. In controls, highly predictable sentences led to shorter gaze durations; by contrary, AD patients showed similar gaze durations in both types of sentences. Similarly, gaze duration in controls was affected by the cloze predictability of word N and N+1, whereas it was the same in AD patients. In contrast, the effects of word frequency and word length were similar in controls and AD patients. Our results imply that contextual-word predictability, whose processing is proposed to require memory retrieval, facilitated reading behavior in healthy subjects, but this facilitation was lost in early AD patients. This loss might reveal impairments in brain areas such as those corresponding to working memory, memory retrieval, and semantic memory functions that are already present at early stages of AD. In contrast, word frequency and length processing might require less complex mechanisms, which were still retained by AD patients. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study measuring how patients with early AD process well-defined words embedded in sentences of high and low predictability. Evaluation of the resulting changes in eye movement behavior might provide a useful tool for a more precise early diagnosis of AD.

Methodological considerations regarding cognitive interventions in dementia. Autores Ibanez A, Richly P, Roca M, Manes F. Año 2014 Journal  Ibanez A, Richly P, Roca M, Manes F. Volumen 6:212. Abstract   Otra información  Las intervenciones cognitivas en la demencia son un aspecto esencial en la rehabilitación. Sin embargo sus efectos no han sido adecuadamente respaldados en la mayoría de las investigaciones … Leer más

La neuroeducación busca detectar problemas en las prácticas escolares y proponer soluciones guiadas por evidencia neurocognitiva. En este sentido, la acumulación de conocimientos sobre el cerebro bilingüe permite reflexionar sobre las propuestas de enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. El presente artículo aborda dicha temática mediante una lectura crítica de los Diseños Curriculares (DCs) para la Educación Básica de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Específicamente, se consideran hallazgos neurolingüísticos para analizar los DCs en lo concerniente a la enseñanza de la gramática inglesa y sugerir modificaciones generales para superar las inconsistencias advertidas.