A psychophysiology practical as part of the medical psychology course

Die Vermittlung der Zusammenhänge zwischen psychologischen Funktionen und körperlichen Veränderungen sowie deren Relevanz für die Entstehung und Aufrechterhaltung von Krankheiten stellt ein zentrales Ziel der Ausbildung in Medizinischer Psychologie dar. Zur Veranschaulichung dieser Zusammenhänge führten wir ein Psychophysiologie-Praktikum im ersten vorklinischen Semester ein. Die Studierenden führten in Vierergruppen mit Hilfe ausführlicher schriftlicher Instruktionen jeweils ca. 30 Minuten andauernde praktische Übungen durch, die die folgenden Themen behandelten: (1) Stress (abhängige Variable: Herzrate), (2) "Lügendetektor" (abhängige Variable: Hautleitwertsreaktionen), (3) Biofeedback (abhängige Variable: Hauttemperatur) und (4) Elektroenzephalogramm (abhängige Variable: Amplituden der vier klassischen Frequenzbänder). Die praktischen Übungen wurden durch theoretische Gruppenarbeiten und einen Termin zur Zusammenfassung der Ergebnisse der Übungen ergänzt. Die studentische Evaluation des Praktikums war durchweg positiv. So wurde das Praktikum als Bereicherung des Kurses angesehen, und der selbstbeurteilte Kenntnisstand auf dem Gebiet der Psychophysiologie zeigte eine signifikante Verbesserung. Diese Ergebnisse sowie unsere Eindrücke während des Praktikums bekräftigten unseren Entschluss, ein Psychophysiologie-Praktikum als Teil des Kurses der Medizinischen Psychologie und Medizinischen Soziologie fest zu etablieren.Teaching in medical psychology aims at establishing an understanding of the relationships between psychological functions and bodily reactions and of the relevance of these interactions for the development and maintenance of diseases. To illustrate these relationships, a psychophysiology practical was introduced in the first semester. Students performed practical 30-minute exercises in groups of four on the basis of comprehensive written instructions. The following topics were covered: (1) stress (dependent variable: heart rate), (2) "lie detection" (dependent variable: skin conductance response), (3) biofeedback (dependent variable: skin temperature), and (4) electroencephalogram (dependent variable: amplitude in the four classical frequency bands). The practical exercises were complemented by theoretical group work and a summary of the results of the exercises. Students evaluated the practical positively. It was considered a benefit to the course, and the self-rated knowledge in the area of psychophysiology increased significantly. These results, as well as our experiences during the practical, have reinforced our decision to establish a psychophysiology practical as part of the medical psychology/medical sociology course

Vom neuronalen Einzelfahrschein zur kortikalen Netzkarte : audio-visuelle Objekterkennung in der Großhirnrinde

Die Wahrnehmung von Objekten gelingt uns jeden Tag unzählige Male – zumeist rasend schnell und problemlos. Obwohl fast immer mehrere unserer Sinne gleichzeitig bei ihrer Wahrnehmung angesprochen werden, erscheinen uns diese Objekte dennoch als ganzheitlich und geschlossen. Für die neuronale Verarbeitung eines bellenden Hundes zum Beispiel empfängt die Großhirnrinde zumindest Eingangsdaten des Seh- und des Hörsystems. Sie werden auf getrennten Pfaden und in spezialisierten Arealen mit aufsteigender Komplexität analysiert. Dieses Funktionsprinzip der parallel verteilten Verarbeitung stellt die Wissenschaftler aber auch vor das so genannte »Bindungsproblem«: Wo und wie werden die Details wieder zu einem Ganzen – zu einer neuronalen Repräsentation – zusammengefügt? Am Institut für medizinische Psychologie der Universitätsklinik Frankfurt untersuchen Neurokognitionsforscher die crossmodale Objekterkennung mit einer Kombination modernster Verfahren der Hirnforschung und kommen dabei den Ver - arbeitungspfaden in der Großhirnrinde auf die Spur

Cognitive Impairment in Multiple Sclerosis Is Reflected by Increased Susceptibility to the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion

Objective: To determine whether the performance of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in the sound-induced flash illusion (SiFi), a multisensory perceptual illusion, would reflect their cognitive impairment.Methods: We performed the SiFi task as well as an extensive neuropsychological testing in 95 subjects [39 patients with relapse-remitting MS (RRMS), 16 subjects with progressive multiple sclerosis (PMS) and 40 healthy control subjects (HC)].Results: MS patients reported more frequently the multisensory SiFi than HC. In contrast, there were no group differences in the control conditions. Essentially, patients with progressive type of MS continued to perceive the illusion at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) that were more than three times longer than the SOA at which the illusion was already disrupted for healthy controls. Furthermore, MS patients' degree of cognitive impairment measured with a broad neuropsychological battery encompassing tests for memory, attention, executive functions, and fluency was predicted by their performance in the SiFi task for the longest SOA of 500 ms.Conclusions: These findings support the notion that MS patients exhibit an altered multisensory perception in the SiFi task and that their susceptibility to the perceptual illusion is negatively correlated with their neuropsychological test performance. Since MS lesions affect white matter tracts and cortical regions which seem to be involved in the transfer and processing of both crossmodal and cognitive information, this might be one possible explanation for our findings. SiFi might be considered as a brief, non-expensive, language- and education-independent screening test for cognitive deficits in MS patients

Automatized smoking-related action schemata are reflected by reduced fMRI activity in sensorimotor brain regions of smokers

In the later stages of addiction, automatized processes play a prominent role in guiding drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior. However, little is known about the neural correlates of automatized drug-taking skills and drug-related action knowledge in humans. We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while smokers and non-smokers performed an orientation affordance task, where compatibility between the hand used for a behavioral response and the spatial orientation of a priming stimulus leads to shorter reaction times resulting from activation of the corresponding motor representations. While non-smokers exhibited this behavioral effect only for control objects, smokers showed the affordance effect for both control and smoking-related objects. Furthermore, smokers exhibited reduced fMRI activation for smoking-related as compared to control objects for compatible stimulus-response pairings in a sensorimotor brain network consisting of the right primary motor cortex, supplementary motor area, middle occipital gyrus, left fusiform gyrus and bilateral cingulate gyrus. In the incompatible condition, we found higher fMRI activation in smokers for smoking-related as compared to control objects in the right primary motor cortex, cingulate gyrus, and left fusiform gyrus. This suggests that the activation and performance of deeply embedded, automatized drug-taking schemata employ less brain resources. This might reduce the threshold for relapsing in individuals trying to abstain from smoking. In contrast, the interruption or modification of already triggered automatized action representations require increased neural resources

Visual search in naturalistic scenes reveals impaired cognitive processing speed in multiple sclerosis

Background: Standardized neuropsychological testing serves to quantify cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. However, the exact mechanism underlying the translation of cognitive dysfunction into difficulties in everyday tasks has remained unclear. To answer this question, we tested if MS patients with intact vs. impaired information processing speed measured by the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) differ in their visual search behavior during ecologically valid tasks reflecting everyday activities. Methods: Forty-three patients with relapsing-remitting MS enrolled in an eye-tracking experiment consisting of a visual search task with naturalistic images. Patients were grouped into “impaired” and “unimpaired” according to their SDMT performance. Reaction time, accuracy and eye-tracking parameters were measured. Results: The groups did not differ regarding age, gender, and visual acuity. Patients with impaired SDMT (cut-off SDMT-z-score < −1.5) performance needed more time to find and fixate the target (q = 0.006). They spent less time fixating the target (q = 0.042). Impaired patients had slower reaction times and were less accurate (both q = 0.0495) even after controlling for patients' upper extremity function. Exploratory analysis revealed that unimpaired patients had higher accuracy than impaired patients particularly when the announced target was in unexpected location (p = 0.037). Correlational analysis suggested that SDMT performance is inversely linked to the time to first fixation of the target only if the announced target was in its expected location (r = −0.498, p = 0.003 vs. r = −0.212, p = 0.229). Conclusion: Dysfunctional visual search behavior may be one of the mechanisms translating cognitive deficits into difficulties in everyday tasks in MS patients. Our results suggest that cognitively impaired patients search their visual environment less efficiently and this is particularly evident when top-down processes have to be employed

Cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis is reflected by increased susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion

Objective: To determine whether the performance of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in the sound-induced flash illusion (SiFi), a multisensory perceptual illusion, would reflect their cognitive impairment. Methods: We performed the SiFi task as well as an extensive neuropsychological testing in 95 subjects [39 patients with relapse-remitting MS (RRMS), 16 subjects with progressive multiple sclerosis (PMS) and 40 healthy control subjects (HC)]. Results: MS patients reported more frequently the multisensory SiFi than HC. In contrast, there were no group differences in the control conditions. Essentially, patients with progressive type of MS continued to perceive the illusion at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) that were more than three times longer than the SOA at which the illusion was already disrupted for healthy controls. Furthermore, MS patients' degree of cognitive impairment measured with a broad neuropsychological battery encompassing tests for memory, attention, executive functions, and fluency was predicted by their performance in the SiFi task for the longest SOA of 500 ms. Conclusions: These findings support the notion that MS patients exhibit an altered multisensory perception in the SiFi task and that their susceptibility to the perceptual illusion is negatively correlated with their neuropsychological test performance. Since MS lesions affect white matter tracts and cortical regions which seem to be involved in the transfer and processing of both crossmodal and cognitive information, this might be one possible explanation for our findings. SiFi might be considered as a brief, non-expensive, language- and education-independent screening test for cognitive deficits in MS patients