7 research outputs found
Translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the 10-item Weekly Calendar Planning Activity in Spanish-speaking ABI patients: a multicenter study
We present the process of translation, adaptation, and validation in the Spanish
context of the 10-item version of the Weekly Calendar Planning Activity
(WCPA-10), a performance-based measure of cognitive instrumental activities of
daily living (C-IADL). The study consisted of two phases: I) translation/cultural
adaptation of theWCPA, conducted by professional bilingual translators, a panel of
experts, and a pilot study, and II) validation in a sample of 42 acquired brain injury
patients (ABI) and 42 healthy participants (HC). WCPA primary outcomes showed
expected convergent/discriminant validity patterns with socio-demographical
and clinical variables and cognitive processes identifying those WCPA outcomes
that best predicted executive and memory deficits measured with a battery of
traditional neuropsychological tests. In addition, performance on the WCPA was
a significant predictor of everyday functioning over variables such as socio-
demographics or global cognition when measured with traditional tests. External
validity was established by theWCPA’s ability to identify everyday cognitive deficits
in ABI patients compared to HC, even in those with subtle cognitive impairment
based on neuropsychological tests. The Spanish WCPA-10 seems an appropriate
and sensitive assessment tool to identify cognitive-functional impairment in ABI-
patients, even those with subtle cognitive impairment. The results also highlight
the relevance of this kind of test, as they indicate a better prediction of patients’
real-world functioning than traditional neuropsychological testsSpanish Ministry of
Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO)PSI2016-80331-PJunta de Andalucía through a research project (P20.00693National Council of Science and Technology
(CONACYT) scholarship (CVU- 349933
The Cognitive Scale of Basic and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living for Multidomain Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Patients: Validation of its Extended Version
This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of
Science and Innovation through a PhD research fellowship
awarded to the last author (FPI BES-2009-020741), the
Regional Government of Andalusia, Spain, through a
research project granted to the second and last authors
(Junta de Andalucía SEJ-6351) and the Fundación para
la Investigación Biosanitaria de Andalucía Oriental –
Alejandro Otero, a foundation for biomedical research in
Eastern Andalusia, through a scholarship granted to the
first author. Funding for open access charge: University
of Málaga.Objective: To validate an informant-based tool – the extended version of the Cognitive Scale of Basic and Instrumental
Activities of Daily Living (BADL and IADL) or Ext. Cog-ADL Scale – in a larger sample and with a broader range of
cognitive-functional items related to activities of daily living (ADL). Method: The Ext. Cog-ADL Scale was
administered to family informants of 42 patients with dementia, 43 patients with multidomain mild cognitive
impairment (mdMCI), and 23 healthy control participants. We analyzed the convergent and concurrent validity and
external validity of this scale. Results: The Ext. Cog-ADL Scale demonstrated good psychometric properties. Episodic
and working memory tests were the main predictors of most cognitive-functional items of the scale. While patients with
dementia obtained lower scores in most error categories of the scale, affecting both BADL and IADL, mdMCI patients
showed a more specific pattern of difficulties. Apart from the typical alterations in IADL, mdMCI patients also showed
difficulties in several error categories related to BADL (i.e., error detection, problem solving, task self-initiation,
distraction inhibition, and restore). Conclusions: The Ext. Cog-ADL Scale seems to be an adequate tool to capture the
specific pattern of cognitive alterations related to IADL and BADL that differentiates dementia from mdMCI and
healthy aging; it shows that mdMCI can involve specific cognitive difficulties that affect even BADL.Spanish Ministry of
Science and Innovation (FPI BES-2009-020741)Regional Government of Andalusia, Spain (Junta de Andalucía SEJ-6351)Fundación para
la Investigación Biosanitaria de Andalucía Oriental –
Alejandro OteroUniversity
of Málag
A process-specific approach in the study of normal aging deficits in cognitive control: What deteriorates with age?
Bearing in mind that cognitive control is a complex function that includes several processes, it is not clear exactly
which ones deteriorate with age. In fact, controversial results have been found. For example, some studies
indicate that age-related deficits are observed in proactive and not in reactive control, others show that it is
reactive control that is impaired and not proactive control, and some studies find no deficits at all (e.g., Kopp,
Lange, Howe, & Wessel, 2014; Xiang et al., 2016). One possible reason is that the contribution of different
processes to the deterioration of cognitive control was investigated separately, i.e., without testing all processes
within the same paradigm. Therefore, the main goal of the present experiment was to study the impact of normal
aging on several processes related to cognitive control within the same task, which included both Simon and
Spatial Stroop trials. The study focused on the following processes: generation of conflict measured by automatic
response capture (i.e., stronger task-irrelevant information processing compared to task-relevant information
processing); conflict detection; and control implementation (which can be reactive control, both within trials and
across trials, and proactive control, as a task-set strategy). The results showed larger automatic response capture
for older adults when facing a stimulus-response conflict (Simon) but not a stimulus-stimulus conflict (Spatial
Stroop). Similarly, older adults also showed larger detection effects for both conflicts. However, regarding
control implementation, they only showed difficulties in inhibiting the early automatic response capture (withintrial
reactive control) but not reactive control across trials or proactive control. In conclusion, it seems that older
adults are more affected by the presence of task-irrelevant information, especially when it comes to resolving
stimulus-response conflict. However, they showed no impairments in their ability to implement cognitive control
both across trials and as a task-set strategy.Spanish Government AP2008-04006
PSI2008-04223
PSI2011-22416
PSI2012-34158
PID2020-114790GB-I0
A Feasibility Study of a Program Integrating Mindfulness, Yoga, Positive Psychology, and Emotional Intelligence in Tertiary‑Level Student Musicians
Objectives Higher education student musicians face high physical, psychological, and emotional demands affecting their
well-being and academic experience. This study examined the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of the so-called
CRAFT program, based on mindfulness, yoga, positive psychology, and emotional intelligence, to improve psychological
well-being, psychological distress, emotional regulation, and physical flexibility amongst tertiary education student
musicians.
Methods Using a single-arm pre-post study design, student musicians (n = 25) at a royal conservatory of music in Spain
followed a 25-week CRAFT program that was curricularly implemented during the academic year 2018/2019, once a week
for 50 min. The outcome measures included were the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), the Subjective Psychological
Well-Being Subscale (SPWS), the Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), the Depression Anxiety and Stress
Scale (DASS-21), and the Sit and Reach Test (SRT).
Results Paired samples t-test and practical significance analyses revealed significant improvements for the total scale of the
FFMQ (g = 0.28), the Observe (g = 0.44) and Describe (g = 0.38) subscales of the FFMQ, the SPWS (g = 0.32), the Reappraisal
subscale of the ERQ (g = 0.43), and the SRT (g = 0.39). A similar pattern of results was observed in a filtered sample
(n = 15) when excluding participants simultaneously engaged in yoga/meditation activities other than the CRAFT program.
Conclusions These results indicated that the CRAFT program is a promising intervention for improving mindfulness skills
and health and well-being states and abilities amongst higher education student musicians. Further research is needed to
substantiate these findings and extend them to similar settings and populations with complex psychophysical concerns.Junta de Andalucia PIV-052/1
Comparing neural substrates of emotional vs. non-emotional conflict modulation by global control context
The efficiency with which the brain resolves conflict in information processing is determined by contextual factors that modulate internal control states, such as the recent (local) and longer-term (global) occurrence of conflict. Local “control context” effects can be observed in trial-by-trial adjustments to conflict (congruency sequence effects: less interference following incongruent trials), whereas global control context effects are reflected in adjustments to the frequency of conflict encountered over longer sequences of trials (“proportion congruent effects”: less interference when incongruent trials are frequent). Previous neuroimaging and lesion studies suggest that the modulation of conflict-control processes by local control context relies on partly dissociable neural circuits for cognitive (non-emotional) vs. emotional conflicts. By contrast, emotional and non-emotional conflict-control processes have not been contrasted with respect to their modulation by global control context. We addressed this aim in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study that varied the proportion of congruent trials in emotional vs. non-emotional conflict tasks across blocks. We observed domain-general conflict-related signals in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and pre-supplementary motor area and, more importantly, task-domain also interacted with global control context effects: specifically, the dorsal striatum and anterior insula tracked control-modulated conflict effects exclusively in the emotional domain. These results suggest that, similar to the neural mechanisms of local control context effects, there are both overlapping as well as distinct neural substrates involved in the modulation of emotional and non-emotional conflict-control by global control context.This work was supported by NIMH grant 5R01MH087610 (Tobias Egner), a research position grant (FPU grant; AP2008-04006) (Maryem Torres-Quesada), and Spain's Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (PSI2008-04223PSIC, PSI2012-34158, and CONSOLIDER-INGENIO2010 CS)
Preliminary cognitive scale of basic and instrumental activities of daily living for dementia and mild cognitive impairment.
In the present study we explored cognitive and functional deficits in patients with multidomain mild cognitive
impairment (MCI), patients with dementia, and healthy age-matched control participants using the Cognitive
Scale for Basic and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, a new preliminary informant-based assessment tool.
This tool allowed us to evaluate four key cognitive abilities—task memory schema, error detection, problem
solving, and task self-initiation—in a range of basic and instrumental activities of daily living (BADL and IADL,
respectively). The first part of the present study was devoted to testing the psychometric adequateness of this new
informant-based tool and its convergent validity with other global functioning and neuropsychological measures.
The second part of the study was aimed at finding the patterns of everyday cognitive factors that best discriminate
between the three groups. We found that patients with dementia exhibited impairment in all cognitive abilities in
both basic and instrumental activities. By contrast, patients with MCI were found to have preserved task memory
schema in both types of ADL; however, such patients exhibited deficits in error detection and task self-initiation
but only in IADL. Finally, patients with MCI also showed a generalized problem solving deficit that affected even
BADL. Studying various cognitive processes instantiated in specific ADL differing in complexity seems a
promising strategy to further understand the specific relationships between cognition and function in these and
other cognitively impaired populations