Art therapy after stroke: Evidence and a need for further research

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in The Arts in Psychotherapy. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2012 Elsevier B.V.This review presents available evidence regarding the benefits of art therapy and therapeutic arts interventions for stroke survivors. Whilst available evidence is very limited, it suggests that art therapy may address many of the diverse cognitive, emotional and functional needs of people disabled by stroke. Attention, spatial processing, sequencing and planning seem to improve among those who persist with art therapy. Use of the stroke-affected limb may increase. Several studies report improvements in social interaction, and emotional expression. Most published reports offer single case examples, which are idiographic and illuminating. Nonetheless, the brevity of these reports, the reliance on therapist's own accounts, and uncertainties surrounding case selection make generalization of the findings uncertain. There is a pressing need for multi-method research studies. These could use quantitative standardized scales to explore changes in stroke survivors’ physical and emotional functioning, and qualitative enquiry to gain the insights of stroke survivors concerning the art therapy process. Such research designs might help to establish a better recognized role for art therapy within multidisciplinary stroke rehabilitation programs

Effects of Pin-up Oxygen on [60]Fullerene for Enhanced Antioxidant Activity

The introduction of pin-up oxygen on C60, such as in the oxidized fullerenes C60O and C60On, induced noticeable increase in the antioxidant activity as compared to pristine C60. The water-soluble inclusion complexes of fullerenes C60O and C60Onreacted with linoleic acid peroxyl radical 1.7 and 2.4 times faster, respectively

Action observation can prime visual object recognition

Observing an action activates action representations in the motor system. Moreover, the representations of manipulable objects are closely linked to the motor systems at a functional and neuroanatomical level. Here, we investigated whether action observation can facilitate object recognition using an action priming paradigm. As prime stimuli we presented short video movies showing hands performing an action in interaction with an object (where the object itself was always removed from the video). The prime movie was followed by a (briefly presented) target object affording motor interactions that are either similar (congruent condition) or dissimilar (incongruent condition) to the prime action. Participants had to decide whether an object name shown after the target picture corresponds with the picture or not (picture–word matching task). We found superior accuracy for prime–target pairs with congruent as compared to incongruent actions across two experiments. Thus, action observation can facilitate recognition of a manipulable object typically involving a similar action. This action priming effect supports the notion that action representations play a functional role in object recognition

編集後記 / 奥付 / 次号予告 他

Many people with aphasia have difficulty understanding and producing the language of events, i.e. verbs and sentences. One proposal is that language production difficulties in some individuals may reflect impairment to the processes that construct event representations in a language-appropriate way. This has been termed "thinking for speaking" (Slobin 1996), or "conceptual preparation" (Levelt, Roelofs and Meyer 1999). This study aims to extend understanding of the relationship between event conceptualisation, event communication and language impairment in severe aphasia. Evidence from a number of sources suggests that several aspects of conceptual preparation may be shared by linguistic and non-linguistic communication modalities. This thesis examines the ability of seven individuals with severely restricted linguistic output to communicate about events using the non-linguistic medium of drawing. The experimental investigation involves a detailed statistical and qualitative analysis of event drawing in response to short video clips and linguistic descriptions. For each participant, event drawing performance was compared with control data and with the results of other event processing and language assessments. Five participants showed problems with conceptual preparation, reflecting difficulties in the schematisation of events for the purpose of communication in general. This suggests that event conceptualisation difficulties should be considered as a possible underlying source of deficit for these individuals. Two participants showed intact event conceptualisation, suggesting a linguistic source of their difficulties. The findings also revealed a correlation between event conceptualisation problems and the nature and extent of individuals' language impairments, suggesting that there may a reciprocal relationship between the two. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed. This study extends understanding of the consequences of impaired event processing on event communication and suggests a novel and theoretically motivated means of examining the underlying event conceptualisation and communication abilities of people with severe aphasia

Ant species associated with the dispersal of Eurhizococcus brasiliensis (Hempel in Wille) (Hemiptera: Margarodidae) in vineyards of the Serra Gaúcha, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

The ground-pearl, Eurhizococcus brasthensis (Hempel in Wille), is a hypogeic hemipteran that feeds oil plant roots, being one of the major pests of vineyards. Ant species may account for the dispersal of scale insects, since the ants tend first instar nymphs for honeydew. This research was conducted to investigate, Under experimental conditions, whether the ants also recognize and carry E. brasiliensis cysts. Therefore, choice experiments were condueted in two vineyards naturally infested with the ground-pearl, in the municipality of Bento Goncalves, RS. From the 11 ant species observed visiting the cysts Only two were actively dispersing them, Linepithema micans (Forel 1908) and all unidentified Pheidole species. This Phedole species and the L. micans removed and carried L brasiliensis cysts. The workers of L. micans visited the greatest amount of test plates, but the Phedole sp. 11 workers removed more cysts. Although both species were more active to disperse the hemipteran's cysts, L. micans workers were dominant in reference to the workers of Phedole sp. 11. Thus, in the vineyards where they occurred together; if the first species is controlled, the second species call become the main E. brasiliensis disperser

Linguistic encoding of motion events in English and French: Typological constraints on second language acquisition and agrammatic aphasia

International audienceLanguages show differences in how they encode motion in discourse: Verb-framed languages lexicalize Path in the verb, leaving Manner peripheral or implicit; Satellite-framed languages lexicalize Manner together with Path adjuncts. The present study investigates: 1) the extent to which such typological constraints affect the verbalizations of second language learners (English learners of French) and of aphasic speakers (English and French speakers with agrammatism) — who typically show dissociations between lexical and syntactic knowledge — in comparison to controls (English and French native speakers); as well as 2) the role of language-independent factors (level of acquisition, syndrome type). Despite some similarities between learners and speakers with aphasia due to language-independent factors, the findings suggest typologically constrained verbalizations in all groups, as well as diverging strategies that may reflect distinct underlying conceptualization processes

Ant species associated with the dispersal of Eurhizococcus brasiliensis (Hempel in Wille) (Hemiptera: Margarodidae) in vineyards of the Serra Gaúcha, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

The ground-pearl, Eurhizococcus brasthensis (Hempel in Wille), is a hypogeic hemipteran that feeds oil plant roots, being one of the major pests of vineyards. Ant species may account for the dispersal of scale insects, since the ants tend first instar nymphs for honeydew. This research was conducted to investigate, Under experimental conditions, whether the ants also recognize and carry E. brasiliensis cysts. Therefore, choice experiments were condueted in two vineyards naturally infested with the ground-pearl, in the municipality of Bento Goncalves, RS. From the 11 ant species observed visiting the cysts Only two were actively dispersing them, Linepithema micans (Forel 1908) and all unidentified Pheidole species. This Phedole species and the L. micans removed and carried L brasiliensis cysts. The workers of L. micans visited the greatest amount of test plates, but the Phedole sp. 11 workers removed more cysts. Although both species were more active to disperse the hemipteran's cysts, L. micans workers were dominant in reference to the workers of Phedole sp. 11. Thus, in the vineyards where they occurred together; if the first species is controlled, the second species call become the main E. brasiliensis disperser.Made available in DSpace on 2019-11-02T00:36:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 118432009p.9439542.pdf: 5723710 bytes, checksum: 39288b7767a0f3a944297df898e61808 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009bitstream/item/204170/1/11843-2009-p.943-954-2.pd