Comparing adaptive cognitive training in virtual reality and paper-pencil in a sample of stroke patients

The growing number of people with cognitive deficits creates an urgent need for new cognitive training solutions. Paper-and-pencil tasks are still widely used for cognitive rehabilitation despite the proliferation of new computer-based methods, like VR-based simulations of ADL’s. The health professionals’ resistance in adopting new tools might be explained by the small number of validation trials. Studies have established construct validity of VR assessment tools with their paper-and-pencil versions by demonstrating significant associations with their traditional construct-driven measures. However, adaptive rehabilitation tools for intervention are mostly not equivalent to their counterpart paper-and-pencil versions, which makes it difficult to carry out comparative studies. Here we present a 12-session intervention study with 31 stroke survivors who underwent different rehabilitation protocols based on the same content and difficulty adaptation progression framework: 17 performed paper-and-pencil training with the Task Generator and 14 performed VR-based training with the Reh@City. Results have shown that both groups performed at the same level and there was not an effect of the training methodology in overall performance. However, the Reh@City enabled more intensive training, which may translate in more cognitive improvements.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Reh@City v2.0: a comprehensive virtual reality cognitive training system based on personalized and adaptive simulations of activities of daily living

Cognitive impairments are among the most common age-related disabilities worldwide. Literature has shown that cognitive training using Virtual Reality (VR) systems can be a valid and effective solution for cognitive rehabilitation. Virtual environments can be easily customized to deliver very specific training by controlling the presentation of stimuli and keeping track of the user responses. Reh@City (RC) is a virtual reality simulation of a city where patients can train a variety of cognitive skills while performing simulated activities of daily living. An initial prototype of this city with four environments was clinically validated with a stroke sample, and the encouraging results motivated further iterations and improvements in the RC, in terms of its tasks, interaction with the content, and task adaptation. This paper presents the efforts of creating RC v2.0, a VR-based software system for cognitive rehabilitation that presents different cognitive training tasks that take place in 8 realistically modeled 3D environments, that are personalized to the patient clinical profile and also implements automatic difficulty adaptation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

CARACTERÍSTICAS CLÍNICO EPIDEMIOLÓGICAS DE LA ENFERMEDAD DE PARKINSON EN UN HOSPITAL NACIONAL DE LA SIERRA PERUANA: CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PARKINSON'S DISEASE IN A NATIONAL HOSPITAL OF THE PERUVIAN HIGHLANDS

Objective: To determine the main epidemiological and clinical characteristics of Parkinson's disease at the National Hospital "Ramiro Prialé Priale" in Huancayo. Methods: Observational, descriptive retrospective study of a serie of cases. 84 patients were studied between 2015 and 2017, treated in the outpatient clinic or hospitalization of Neurology and Internal Medicine, for which their medical records were reviewed, the sampling was non-probabilistic of the census type selected by the investigator's judgment. Results: The average age was 72.93 years, the male gender prevailed (58.3%), the degree of university education (50%) and the origin of Huancayo (77.4%). Decompensated arterial hypertension was the reason for hospitalization (19.1%), disease time ranged between 1-7 years (57.1%) and tremor at rest and bradykinesia was the most frequent motor symptom (23.8%) In non-motor symptoms, 38.1% had sleep disorders, 21.4% family history of Parkinson's disease and the most associated comorbidities were: depression (48.8%) and insomnia (41.7%). Conclusion: Parkinson's disease is a frequent pathology in older adults and males; The predominant motor symptom is resting tremor and bradykinesia, and the associated neuropsychiatric comorbidities are depression and insomnia.Objetivo: Determinar las principales características epidemiológicas y clínicas de la enfermedad de Parkinson en el Hospital Nacional “Ramiro Prialé Priale” de Huancayo. Métodos: Estudio observacional, descriptivo tipo retrospectivo de una serie de casos. Se estudió 84 pacientes entre los años 2015 y 2017, atendidos en la consulta externa u hospitalización de Neurología y Medicina interna, para ello se revisó sus historias clínicas, el muestreo fue no probabilístico de tipo censal seleccionados por juicio del investigador. Resultados: El promedio de edad fue 72,93 años, predominó el género masculino (58,3%), el grado de instrucción universitario (50%) y la procedencia de Huancayo (77,4%). La hipertensión arterial descompensada fue el motivo de hospitalización (19,1%), el tiempo de enfermedad tuvo un rango de 1-7 años (57,1%) y el temblor de reposo y bradicinesia fue el síntoma motor más frecuente (23,8%). En los síntomas no motores, 38,1% tuvieron alteraciones del sueño, 21,4% antecedentes familiares de enfermedad de Parkinson y las comorbilidades más asociadas fueron: depresión (48,8%) e insomnio (41,7%). Conclusión: La enfermedad de Parkinson es una patología frecuente en adultos mayores y en el sexo masculino; el síntoma motor que predomina es el temblor de reposo y bradicinesia, y las comorbilidades neuropsiquiátricas asociadas son la depresión e insomnio

Relación entre la variación horaria de la concentración de polen de Púmtago y la meteorología

XV lnternational A.P.L.E. Symposium of Palynolog

The benefits of emotional stimuli in a virtual reality cognitive and motor rehabilitation task: assessing the impact of positive, negative and neutral stimuli with stroke patients

VR-based methods for stroke rehabilitation have mainly focused on motor rehabilitation, but there is increasing interest towards the integration of cognitive training for providing more ecologically valid solutions. However, more studies are needed, especially in the definition of which type of content should be used in the design of these tools. One possibility is the use of emotional stimuli, which are known to enhance attentional processes. According to the Socio-emotional Selectivity Theory, as people age, this emotional salience arises for positive and neutral, but not for negative stimuli. Conversely, negative stimuli can be better remembered. In this study, we investigated the impact of using emotional stimuli with positive, negative and neutral valence in a VR cognitive and motor attention task. Ten stroke patients participated in a within subjects experiment with four conditions based on the type of stimuli: abstract (control condition), positive, negative and neutral. The main task consisted of finding a target stimulus, shown for only two seconds, among fourteen neutral distractors. Eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracking system to investigate differences between conditions and in search patterns. Subsequently, a recall task took place and the patients had to identify all the target images among a valence-matched number of distractors. Our results corroborate the attention salience effect of positive and neutral stimuli in the VR task performance. Although we found no statistically significant differences between conditions in the recall task, there was a trend for recalling more negative images. This negative advantage comes at the expense of significantly more wrongly identified images/false memories for negative stimuli. Finally, we performed an analysis in which we relate performance scores with well-established cognitive assessment instruments, which supportsG the use of this approach both for assessment and rehabilitation purposes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Electrophysiological Evidence of a Delay in the Visual Recognition Process in Young Children

The present study analyzes the development of the visual recognition processing of the relevant stimulus in a Delayed Match-To-Sample (DMS) task during the matching phase. To do so, Electroencephalograms of 170 subjects between 6 and 26 years old were recorded. Behavioral responses and Event Related Potentials (ERPs) induced by the stimuli were obtained. Reaction times and errors, mainly omissions, were inversely related to age. The ERPs analysis showed a parietal negativity in the P7 and P8 electrodes when the relevant stimulus was presented in the contralateral site. This negativity resulting from the recognition and selection of the relevant stimulus was present in all age groups. However, the youngest children showed an extended latency in the recognition process. The results suggest that children and adults use similar processes to recognize the item maintained in visual short-term memory (VSTM), but children need more time to successfully recognize the memorized item.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación PSI2013-47506-RJunta de Andalucía CTS-153.C

Air-sea fluxes of methanol, acetone, acetaldehyde, isoprene and DMS from a Norwegian fjord following a phytoplankton bloom in a mesocosm experiment

The ocean's influence on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere is poorly understood. This work characterises the oceanic emission and/or uptake of methanol, acetone, acetaldehyde, isoprene and dimethyl sulphide (DMS) as a function of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and a suite of biological parameters. The measurements were taken following a phytoplankton bloom, in May/June 2005 with a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS), from mesocosm enclosures anchored in the Raunefjord, Southern Norway. The net flux of methanol was always into the ocean, and was stronger at night. Isoprene and acetaldehyde were emitted from the ocean, correlating with light (ravcorr, isoprene=0.49; ravcorr, acetaldehyde=0.70) and phytoplankton abundance. DMS was also emitted to the air but did not correlate significantly with light (ravcorr, dms=0.01). Under conditions of high biological activity and a PAR of ~450 μmol photons m‑2 s‑1, acetone was emitted from the ocean, otherwise it was uptaken. The inter-VOC correlations were highest between the day time emission fluxes of acetone and acetaldehyde (rav=0.96), acetaldehyde and isoprene (rav=0.88) and acetone and isoprene (rav=0.85). The mean fluxes for methanol, acetone, acetaldehyde, isoprene and DMS were ‑0.26 ng m‑2 s‑1, 0.21 ng m‑2 s‑1, 0.23 ng m‑2 s‑1, 0.12 ng m‑2 s‑1 and 0.3 ng m‑2 s‑1, respectively. This work shows that compound specific PAR and biological dependency should be used for estimating the influence of the global ocean on atmospheric VOC budgets

Entangled effects of allelic and clonal (genotypic) richness in the resistance and resilience of experimental populations of the seagrass Zostera noltii to diatom invasion

Background - The relationship between species diversity and components of ecosystem stability has been extensively studied, whilst the influence of the genetic component of biodiversity remains poorly understood. Here we manipulated both genotypic and allelic richness of the seagrass Zostera noltii, in order to explore their respective influences on the resistance of the experimental population to stress. Thus far intra-specific diversity was seldom taken into account in management plans, and restoration actions showed very low success. Information is therefore needed to understand the factors affecting resistance and resilience of populations. Results Our results show a positive influence of both allelic and genotypic richness on the resistance of meadows to environmental perturbations. They also show that at the low genotypic (i.e. clonal) richness levels used in prior experimental approaches, the effects of genotypic and allelic richness could not be disentangled and allelic richness was a likely hidden treatment explaining at least part of the effects hitherto attributed to genotypic richness. Conclusions Altogether, these results emphasize the need to acknowledge and take into account the interdependency of both genotypic and allelic richness in experimental designs attempting to estimate their importance alone or in combination. A positive influence of allelic richness on resistance to perturbations, and of allelic richness combined with genotypic richness on the recovery (resilience) of the experimental populations is supported by differential mortality. These results, on the key species structuring of one of the most threatened coastal ecosystem worldwide, seagrass meadows, support the need to better take into account the distinct compartments of clonal and genetic diversity in management strategies, and in possible restoration plans in the future.Peer Reviewe

MEPSA: Minimum energy pathway analysis for energy landscapes

From conformational studies to atomistic descriptions of enzymatic reactions, potential and free energy landscapes can be used to describe biomolecular systems in detail. However, extracting the relevant data of complex 3D energy surfaces can sometimes be laborious. In this article, we present MEPSA (Minimum Energy Path Surface Analysis), a cross-platform user friendly tool for the analysis of energy landscapes from a transition state theory perspective. Some of its most relevant features are: identification of all the barriers and minima of the landscape at once, description of maxima edge profiles, detection of the lowest energy path connecting two minima and generation of transition state theory diagrams along these paths. In addition to a built-in plotting system, MEPSA can save most of the generated data into easily parseable text files, allowing more versatile uses of MEPSA's output such as the generation of molecular dynamics restraints from a calculated path.Grant IPT2011-0964-900000 (Government of Spain).Peer Reviewe