El Rorschach en el diagnóstico de la esquizofrenia crónica

El objetivo fundamental de este trabajo consiste en comprobar la precisión diagnóstica de la prueba de Rorschach en pacientes diagnosticados de esquizofrenia crónica, en base al Research Diagnostic Criteria for schizophrenia, RDC. Los resultados aportan al diagnóstico dijerencial de esquizofienia más de 125 nuevos ítems (procedentes de la prueba de Rorschach), que permiten una visión más completa de la personalidad del paciente esquizofiénico crónico.The fundamental objective of this work consists in the verifcation of diagnostic precision using the Rorschach test in patients previously diagnosed as chronic schizophrenics, using Research Diagnostic Criteria for Schizophrenia, RDC. The results add more than 125 new items to the differential diagnostic of schizophrenia, and provide a more holistic understanding of the personality of the chronic schizophrenic

Gain modulation of synaptic inputs by network state in auditory cortex in vivo

The cortical network recurrent circuitry generates spontaneous activity organized into Up (active) and Down (quiescent) states during slow-wave sleep or anesthesia. These different states of cortical activation gain modulate synaptic transmission. However, the reported modulation that Up states impose on synaptic inputs is disparate in the literature, including both increases and decreases of responsiveness. Here, we tested the hypothesis that such disparate observations may depend on the intensity of the stimulation. By means of intracellular recordings, we studied synaptic transmission during Up and Down states in rat auditory cortex in vivo. Synaptic potentials were evoked either by auditory or electrical (thalamocortical, intracortical) stimulation while randomly varying the intensity of the stimulus. Synaptic potentials evoked by the same stimulus intensity were compared in Up/Down states. Up states had a scaling effect on the stimulus-evoked synaptic responses: the amplitude of weaker responses was potentiated whereas that of larger responses was maintained or decreased with respect to the amplitude during Down states. We used a computational model to explore the potential mechanisms explaining this nontrivial stimulus–response relationship. During Up/Down states, there is different excitability in the network and the neuronal conductance varies. We demonstrate that the competition between presynaptic recruitment and the changing conductance might be the central mechanism explaining the experimentally observed stimulus–response relationships. We conclude that the effect that cortical network activation has on synaptic transmission is not constant but contingent on the strength of the stimulation, with a larger modulation for stimuli involving both thalamic and cortical networks.Fil: Reig, Ramon. Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer; España. Karolinska Huddinge Hospital. Karolinska Institutet; SueciaFil: Zerlaut, Yann. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia. Unité de Neurosciences, Information et Complexité; FranciaFil: Vergara, Ramiro Oscar. Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer; España. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Acústica y Percepción Sonora; ArgentinaFil: Destexhe, Alain. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia. Unité de Neurosciences, Information et Complexité; FranciaFil: Sánchez Vives, María V.. Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer; España. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avancats; Españ

Transcending the self in immersive virtual reality

Cognitive neuroscientists have discovered various experimental setups that suggest that our body representation is surprisingly flexible, where the brain can easily be tricked into the illusion that a rubber hand is your hand or that a manikin body is your body. These multisensory illusions work well in immersive virtual reality (IVR). What is even more surprising is that such embodiment induces perceptual, attitudinal and behavioural changes that are concomitant with the displayed body type. Here we outline some recent findings in this field, and suggest that this offers a powerful tool for neuroscience, psychology and a new path for IVR

About assessing the learning of students with dyscalculia

Dyscalculia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects to the capacity for calculation, interfering with the academic performance, the level of social inclusion, the access to the working world, and especially in the realization, both personal and professional of the people who suffer it. This learning disability is nearly as common as dyslexia, nevertheless, it is studied much less, and it is worse understood, and so many times it is diagnosed inconsistently. With regard to academic performance, efforts are being made to improve learning, both at the level of the emerging scientific field of educational neuroscience and from the point of view of education. However, to date, scientists have only been studying how to help children affected by dyscalculia to develop new brain strategies that aim to improve their learning without taking into account the way to evaluate these learning. Through the exploration of subjacent neurocognitive processes inherent to practice and educational theory, the main objective of this work is to analyse the possible difference in the brain function of affected individuals with dyscalculia in the performance of evaluation tests in order to find the best way to be evaluated, to intervene in the strengthening of arithmetic processing and to improve their performance and self-esteem. The methodology used to achieve the desired goal is to analyse the activity of the brain during computation and answering test questions by using evoked potentials and to check with the dyscalculic students as they reasoned during the performing tests comparing them with students who do not have this learning difficulty. After the analysis carried out, we concluded that to evaluate students with dyscalculia, the test type should be avoided and must use alternative evaluation methods such as the oral examination, while at the same time allowing certain actions that can help them. Due to the difficulty of learning about the people who suffer this difficulty, the probability of them responding poorly in this kind of evaluation, regardless of the knowledge of the subject it is very high, so the result of the test is not valid to assess your learning, which is the final objective of the testPostprint (author's final draft

Control theory tools for best understanding brain learning disorders

© 2022 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting /republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other worksRecent developments in cognitive neuroscience have made it possible to take a step forward in understanding the processes involved in the development of learning. Sometimes there are alterations in learning processes that cause structural and functional dysfunctions at the brain level called learning disorders. These disorders are brain-specific disorders that for detection, are needed specific screeners are needed, rather than more general tests of learning abilities. One of the brain disorders that is little studied and that causes great damage to those who suffer from it is dyscalculia. The lack of study on this alteration means that many cases remain undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, and therefore remain untreated. In order to make a correct diagnosis for the correct treatment we have been able to prove that by performing a BAEP and analyzing wave VI, the presence or absence of a learning disorder can be objectified. Another problem that arises is that of the evolution of the disorder, for which a good tool could be the modeling of brain activity through dynamic systems. In this work, in addition to delving into how to make a correct diagnosis, the evolution and possible control of linear dynamic systems that model the process in order to infer it are analyzed, taking advantage of brain plasticity that can facilitate the control that allows improvement of the dysfunctionPeer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de QualitatObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::3 - Salut i BenestarPostprint (author's final draft

Evaluación del aprendizaje en los alumnos con discalculia

La discalculia es un trastorno del neurodesarrollo que afecta,a quien lo padece,a sucapacidad para el cálculo, interfiriendo ensurendimiento académico,su nivel de inclusión social, su acceso al mundo laboral, y en especial en su realización tanto personal como profesional. Por lo que respectaal rendimiento académico se están haciendo esfuerzos en la mejora del aprendizaje,dejando en segundo plano laforma de evaluar el mismo.En este trabajo analizamos las dificultades de estos estudiantes frente a los exámenes,con el propósitode hallar la mejor forma de ser evaluados,mejorando así su rendimiento y autoestimaPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Is Consciousness First in Virtual Reality?

The prevailing scientific paradigm is that matter is primary and everything, including consciousness can be derived from the laws governing matter. Although the scientific explanation of consciousness on these lines has not been realized, in this view it is only a matter of time before consciousness will be explained through neurobiological activity in the brain, and nothing else. There is an alternative view that holds that it is fundamentally impossible to explain how subjectivity can arise solely out of material processes-the hard problem of consciousness-and instead consciousness should be regarded in itself as a primary force in nature. This view attempts to derive, for example, the laws of physics from models of consciousness, instead of the other way around. While as scientists we can understand and have an intuition for the first paradigm, it is very difficult to understand what consciousness is primary might mean since it has no intuitive scientific grounding. Here we show that worlds experienced through virtual reality (VR) are such that consciousness is a first order phenomenon. We discuss the Interface Theory of Perception which claims that in physical reality perceptions are not veridical and that we do not see the truth but that perception is based on evolutionary payoffs. We show that this theory may provide an accurate description of perception and consciousness within VR, and we put forward an experimental study that could throw light on this. We conclude that VR does offer an experimental frame that provides intuition with respect to the idea that consciousness is first and what this might mean regarding the perceived world. However, we do not draw any conclusions about the veracity of this notion with respect to physical reality or question the emergence of consciousness from brain function

Anxiety Disorder Caused by Learning Difficulties in Mathematics

One of the brain disorders causing great damage to those who suffer from it is dyscalculia. Dyscalculia often causes math anxiety. This circumstance is characterized by feelings of tension and fear that interfere with performance in tasks related to Mathematics. Mathematics anxiety is not always caused by a learning difficulty but in cases where this difficulty exists, if it is not diagnosed and treated properly, it is not possible to eliminate the anxiety. By using the BAEP technique, it is possible to determine the existence of a certain type of learning disorder, which allows attention to be focused on remedying the specific cause that produces the anxiety. Due to the existence of multiple factors that cause anxiety, the neuronal system that is activated is a network of interconnected networks whose controllability we need to study. In this work, we also study the controllability of multiagent neural networks by simulating possible brain networks.Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de QualitatObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::3 - Salut i BenestarPostprint (published version

Controllability of brain neural networks in learning disorders—a geometric approach

The human brain can be interpreted mathematically as a linear dynamical system that shifts through various cognitive regions promoting more or less complicated behaviors. The dynamics of brain neural network play a considerable role in cognitive function and therefore of interest in the bid to understand the learning processes and the evolution of possible disorders. The mathematical theory of systems and control makes available procedures, concepts, and criteria that can be applied to ease the perception of the dynamic processes that administer the evolution of the brain with learning and its control with treatment in case of disorder. In this work, a geometric study through the conception of exact controllability is comprehended to detect the minimum set and the location of the driving nodes of learning. We will describe the different roles of the nodes in the control of the paths of brain networks and show the transition of some driving nodes and the preservation of the rest in the course of learning in patients with some learning disability.Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::3 - Salut i BenestarPostprint (published version

The latency-amplitude binomial of waves resulting from the application of evoked potentials for the diagnosis of dyscalculia

Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience have allowed a step forward in perceiving the processes involved in learning from the point of view of acquiring new information or the modification of existing mental content. The evoked potentials technique reveals how basic brain processes interact to achieve adequate and flexible behaviours. The objective of this work, using evoked potentials, is to study if it is possible to distinguish if a patient suffers a specific type of learning disorder to decide the possible therapies to follow. The methodology used in this work is to analyze the dynamics of different brain areas during a cognitive activity to find the relationships between the other areas analyzed to understand the functioning of neural networks better. Also, the latest advances in neuroscience have revealed the existence of different brain activity in the learning process that can be highlighted through the use of non-invasive, innocuous, low-cost and easy-access techniques such as, among others, the evoked potentials that can help to detect early possible neurodevelopmental difficulties for their subsequent assessment and therapy. From the study of the amplitudes and latencies of the evoked potentials, it is possible to detect brain alterations in the learning process, specifically in dyscalculia, to achieve specific corrective measures for the application of personalized psycho-pedagogical plans that allow obtaining an optimal integral development of the affected people.Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de QualitatObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::3 - Salut i BenestarPostprint (published version