Emoční paradox schizofrenního okruhu

THE EMOTION-PARADOX 1 Abstrakt Emoční paradox u schizofrenie popisuje disociaci mezi hrubě narušeným vnímáním emocí a jejich zachovaným prožíváním. Většina zastává, že emoční paradox vzniká z generalizovaného poškození emočního vjemu. Ostatní oponují, že představuje pouhý artefakt metodických omezení, popřípadě odlišnou disociaci mezi explicitním a implicitním zpracováním emocí. Předmětem této práce bylo objasnit původ emočního paradoxu u schizofrenie. Za tímto účelem byly provedeny dvě studie. Obé vycházely ze shodného vzorku, který zahrnoval 45 osob se schizofrenií o různorodé symptomatologii a 45 osob bez vlastní či rodinné psychiatrické anamnézy. Skupiny si odpovídaly věkem, pohlavím, vzděláním a hudebním vzděláním. Ve Studii 1 si probandi poslechli řadu hudebních podnětů a zhodnotili svůj vjem a prožitek jejich libosti a budivosti. Ve Studii 2 zodpověděli emocionální Stroopův test, v němž identifikovali barvu neutrálních či záporně laděných slov, která popisovala positivní, negativní či nijaké příznaky schizofrenie. Výsledky Studie 1 naznačily: a) že osoby se schizofrenií rozpoznávají hudební emoce s obdobnou přesností jako osoby bez schizofrenie, b) že projevují asociaci mezi vnímanou a prožívanou složkou hudební emoce s obdobnou silou, a c) že vnímají a prožívají hudební emoce s vyšší intenzitou....THE EMOTION-PARADOX 1 Abstract The emotion-paradox in schizophrenia describes a dissociation between the grossly impaired perception of emotion and relatively preserved experience thereof. Most posit that the emotion-paradox arises from a generalized emotion perception impairment. Others counter that it represents an artefact of methodological restrictions or a separate dissociation between explicit and implicit emotion. This thesis aimed to explain the emotion-paradox in schizophrenia and resolve the competing interpretations of its root. Two studies were conducted to this end. The studies drew from the same sample, including 45 persons with schizophrenia of various symptomatology, and 45 controls with no psychiatric anamnesis or familial history of schizophrenia. The groups did not differ in age, gender, education or music education. In Study 1, the participants listened to musical stimuli and rated their perception and experience of the valence and arousal that these stimuli relayed. In Study 2, the participants completed a newly developed emotional Stroop task, in which they identified the colour of a series of neutral and negative descriptors of positive, negative, or no symptoms of schizophrenia. Findings of Study 1 indicated: a) that persons with schizophrenia recognize musical emotions as accurately...Department of Psychiatry First Faculty of Medicine and General University HospitalPsychiatrická klinika 1. LF UK a VFNFirst Faculty of Medicine1. lékařská fakult

Smoking and attention in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: What are we neglecting?

IntroductionIndividuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) record elevated rates of smoking, which is often attributed to their effort to self-medicate cognitive and attentional symptoms of their illness. Empirical evidence for this hypothesis is conflicting, however. In this study, we aimed to test predictions derived from the cognitive self-medication hypothesis. We predicted that cigarette smoking status and extent would predict the attentional performance of participants with SSDs. Simultaneously, we wished to address methodological gaps in previous research. We measured distinct attentional components and made adjustments for the effects of other, attention-modulation variables.MethodsSixty-one smokers (82.0% males, 26.73 ± 6.05 years) and 61 non-smokers (50.8% males, 27.10 ± 7.90 years) with recent-onset SSDs completed an X-type Continuous Performance Test, which was used to derive impulsivity and inattention component scores. Relationships between the two component scores and cigarette smoking status and extent were assessed using hierarchical regression. Effects of estimated premorbid intellectual functioning and antipsychotic medication dosage were held constant.ResultsSmokers had significantly higher inattention component scores than non-smokers when covariates were controlled (p = 0.026). Impulsivity remained unaffected by smoking status (p = 0.971). Cigarette smoking extent, i.e., the number of cigarettes smoked per day, was not associated with either inattention (p = 0.414) or impulsivity (p = 0.079).ConclusionModels of smoking-related attentional changes can benefit from the inclusion of sample-specific component scores and attention-modulating covariates. Under these conditions, smokers with SSDs can show a partial attentional benefit. However, the limited scope of this benefit suggests that the cognitive self-medication hypothesis requires further testing or reconsidering

The emotion-paradox in schizophrenia spectrum disporders

THE EMOTION-PARADOX 1 Abstract The emotion-paradox in schizophrenia describes a dissociation between the grossly impaired perception of emotion and relatively preserved experience thereof. Most posit that the emotion-paradox arises from a generalized emotion perception impairment. Others counter that it represents an artefact of methodological restrictions or a separate dissociation between explicit and implicit emotion. This thesis aimed to explain the emotion-paradox in schizophrenia and resolve the competing interpretations of its root. Two studies were conducted to this end. The studies drew from the same sample, including 45 persons with schizophrenia of various symptomatology, and 45 controls with no psychiatric anamnesis or familial history of schizophrenia. The groups did not differ in age, gender, education or music education. In Study 1, the participants listened to musical stimuli and rated their perception and experience of the valence and arousal that these stimuli relayed. In Study 2, the participants completed a newly developed emotional Stroop task, in which they identified the colour of a series of neutral and negative descriptors of positive, negative, or no symptoms of schizophrenia. Findings of Study 1 indicated: a) that persons with schizophrenia recognize musical emotions as accurately..

Bridging big data: procedures for combining non-equivalent cognitive measures from the ENIGMA Consortium

Investigators in the cognitive neurosciences have turned to Big Data to address persistent replication and reliability issues by increasing sample sizes, statistical power, and representativeness of data. While there is tremendous potential to advance science through open data sharing, these efforts unveil a host of new questions about how to integrate data arising from distinct sources and instruments. We focus on the most frequently assessed area of cognition - memory testing - and demonstrate a process for reliable data harmonization across three common measures. We aggregated raw data from 53 studies from around the world which measured at least one of three distinct verbal learning tasks, totaling N = 10,505 healthy and brain-injured individuals. A mega analysis was conducted using empirical bayes harmonization to isolate and remove site effects, followed by linear models which adjusted for common covariates. After corrections, a continuous item response theory (IRT) model estimated each individual subject’s latent verbal learning ability while accounting for item difficulties. Harmonization significantly reduced inter-site variance by 37% while preserving covariate effects. The effects of age, sex, and education on scores were found to be highly consistent across memory tests. IRT methods for equating scores across AVLTs agreed with held-out data of dually-administered tests, and these tools are made available for free online. This work demonstrates that large-scale data sharing and harmonization initiatives can offer opportunities to address reproducibility and integration challenges across the behavioral sciences