Temporal perception deficits in schizophrenia: integration is the problem, not deployment of attentions

Patients with schizophrenia are known to have impairments in sensory processing. In order to understand the specific temporal perception deficits of schizophrenia, we investigated and determined to what extent impairments in temporal integration can be dissociated from attention deployment using Attentional Blink (AB). Our findings showed that there was no evident deficit in the deployment of attention in patients with schizophrenia. However, patients showed an increased temporal integration deficit within a hundred-millisecond timescale. The degree of such integration dysfunction was correlated with the clinical manifestations of schizophrenia. There was no difference between individuals with/without schizotypal personality disorder in temporal integration. Differently from previous studies using the AB, we did not find a significant impairment in deployment of attention in schizophrenia. Instead, we used both theoretical and empirical approaches to show that previous findings (using the suppression ratio to correct for the baseline difference) produced a systematic exaggeration of the attention deficits. Instead, we modulated the perceptual difficulty of the task to bring the baseline levels of target detection between the groups into closer alignment. We found that the integration dysfunction rather than deployment of attention is clinically relevant, and thus should be an additional focus of research in schizophrenia

A história da Educação Física na educação profissional: entrada, saída e retorno à Escola Federal de Porto Alegre

Esse artigo se propõe a contar a história da disciplina de Educação Física no currículo da mais antiga Escola Profissionalizante de Porto Alegre. O texto foi construído a partir da análise de documentos relativos ao ensino ministrado nesta instituição de ensino entre os anos de 1966 e 2012. Após a análise, a história foi contada em três categorias temáticas, às quais representam a entrada da Educação Física nos currículos da Escola; o desaparecimento da Educação Física dos currículos da Escola; e, o retorno da disciplina aos currículos da mais antiga Escola Profi ssionalizante de Porto Alegre. O recente retorno da Educação Física aos currículos dessa Escola ocorre em uma nova modalidade de ensino de nível médio (curso técnico integrado ao ensino médio) e indica uma mudança nos conteúdos historicamente desenvolvidos pela disciplina nessa Escola Profissionalizante.This article proposes to tell the history of Physical Education subject at the oldest Porto Alegre’s Vocational School. The text was built up from the analyses of documents related to the teaching process developed in the School between 1966 and 2012. After the analyses, this history was told in three thematic categories which represent the entrance of Physical Education subject in the School’s curricula; the disappearing of Physical Education subject from the School’s curricula; and, fi nally, the returning of Physical Education subject to the School’s curricula. The recently return of Physical Education subject in this School’s curricula occurs in a new course (that offers a Technical Course degree plus High School degree) and it indicates a change in the practice that had been historically performed during Physical Education classes at this Vocational School

Zazie@60: some linguistic considerations

This article considers the colloquial language used in Zazie dans le métro from a sociolinguistic viewpoint. To the extent that a fictional work can be said to provide evidence of linguistic variation, Zazie offers glimpses into the pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary of French at the time it was written, as well as confirmation of other sources regarding social variation, notably working-class speech and the style dimension, partly in relation to regional variation, or rather its absence. For this reason, the novel remains a valuable point of reference for contemporary linguists. The novel, in conjunction with other works by Queneau, prompts further questions to do with the level of cognition at work when linguistic variation takes place

Violência sexual contra mulheres no Brasil: conquistas e desafios do setor saúde na década de 2000

O artigo traz uma revisão sobre as políticas públicas para o enfrentamento da violência sexual contra mulheres desenvolvidas ao longo da década de 2000. Analisa o embate sobre os avanços, retrocessos e desafios do tema à luz das proposições do setor saúde. Foram analisados documentos institucionais e artigos selecionados sobre o assunto, apontando variadas estratégias para intervenções propostas e realizadas pelo Sistema Único de Saúde. O texto apresenta ainda questões emblemáticas que nos fazem refletir sobre os desafios a serem superados pelos gestores de saúde na década atual, tais como a cobertura e continuidade dos serviços de atenção e capacitação permanente dos profissionais, bem como o atendimento para a interrupção da gravidez, prevista em lei.The article brings a revision on the public politics for the confronting of the sexual violence against women developed along the decade of 2000s. It analyzes the collision on the progress, retreats and challenges of the theme to the light of the proposi-tions of the section health. Institutional documents and articles were analyzed selected on the subject, pointing varied strategies for intervention proposed and accomplished by the Brazilian National Health System. The text still presents emblematic ques-tions that send us to think on the challenges to be overcome by the managers of health in the current decade, such as the covering and continuity of the services of attention, the professionals’ permanent training, as well as the service to the legal abortion

Diverse definitions of the early course of schizophrenia - a targeted literature review

Schizophrenia is a debilitating psychiatric disorder and patients experience significant comorbidity, especially cognitive and psychosocial deficits, already at the onset of disease. Previous research suggests that treatment during the earlier stages of disease reduces disease burden, and that a longer time of untreated psychosis has a negative impact on treatment outcomes. A targeted literature review was conducted to gain insight into the definitions currently used to describe patients with a recent diagnosis of schizophrenia in the early course of disease ('early' schizophrenia). A total of 483 relevant English-language publications of clinical guidelines and studies were identified for inclusion after searches of MEDLINE, MEDLINE In-Process, relevant clinical trial databases and Google for records published between January 2005 and October 2015. The extracted data revealed a wide variety of terminology and definitions used to describe patients with 'early' or 'recent-onset' schizophrenia, with no apparent consensus. The most commonly used criteria to define patients with early schizophrenia included experience of their first episode of schizophrenia or disease duration of less than 1, 2 or 5 years. These varied definitions likely result in substantial disparities of patient populations between studies and variable population heterogeneity. Better agreement on the definition of early schizophrenia could aid interpretation and comparison of studies in this patient population and consensus on definitions should allow for better identification and management of schizophrenia patients in the early course of their disease

Do employed and not employed 55 to 64-year-olds' memory complaints relate to memory performance? A longitudinal cohort study

Background: Whether middle-aged individuals are capable of employment continuation may be limited by poor memory. Subjective memory complaints may be used to identify those at risk of poor memory. Research questions, therefore, were (i) are prevalent memory complaints associated with relevantly poor memory performance and decline in 55 to 64-year-olds; (ii) are incident memory complaints associated with relevant memory decline; and (iii) do these associations differ between employed and not employed individuals? Methods: Participants of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) were examined. Data were weighted by sex, age and region. To examine the association of prevalent memory complaints with relevantly poor learning ability (n = 903) and delayed recall (n = 897; both assessed with the Auditory Verbal Learning Test), subnormal (mean-1 SD) and impaired (mean-1.5 SD) memory performance were defined. To examine the association of prevalent and incident memory complaints with relevant decline after 3 years in learning ability (n = 774 and 611, respectively) and delayed recall (n = 768 and 603, respectively), above normal (mean-1 SD) and clinically relevant (mean-1.5 SD) memory decline were investigated. Logistic regression analyses were applied. Results: Adjusted for gender, education and age, individuals with memory complaints more often had impaired delayed recall and clinically relevant decline in learning ability. Incident memory complaints were borderline significantly associated with clinically relevant decline in learning in continuously employed individuals (paid job 1 h weekly), but not in continuously not employed individuals. Conclusion: Memory complaints may identify 55 to 64-year-olds at risk of memory impairment and decline. Our results provide hypotheses about the association between memory complaints and decline in employed 55 to 64-year-olds. © 2012 The Author