Distinguishing left from right: a large-scale investigation of left–right confusion in healthy individuals

Health and self-regulatio

Спогади про патріарха українського мистецтвознавства. До 100-річчя Григорія Логвина

22 травня цього року виповнилось би 100 років від дня народження доктора мистецтвознавства, лауреата національної премії України ім. Т. Шевченка, Заслуженого діяча мистецтв і Заслуженого архітектора України, лауреата премії ім. О і В. Антоновичів, почесного академіка Української академії архітектури Григорія Никоновича Логвина

Stroke & Body Ownership

The feeling of ownership over a limb is a belief that is taken for granted. Unfortunately, some patients experience as if their hand or leg does not belong to themselves after suffering from a stroke. It is as yet unclear how to diagnose these impairments, what the underlying mechanism is and to what extent it can be influenced. This thesis investigated this phenomenon from a neuropsychological perspective. Body ownership impairments were objectified by an experiment in which body ownership was manipulated. On implicit and objective outcome measures, it was found that patients with body ownership impairments showed en enhanced susceptibility to manipulations of the body image, compared to healthy controls. This can be interpreted as if the demarcation between what belongs to them and what not, is weakened. Furthermore, it was found that impairments in left right orientation are associated with body ownership impairments. More specifically, patients with body ownership impairments and problems with identifying their fingers were more likely to be impaired on left right orientation test when mental rotation was required. Furthermore, we found that lesions to the right insula cortex were associated with impairments in mental rotation and left right orientation. These findings connects lines of research that show that spatial cognition might be related to body ownership, and that the insula cortex is important for mediating these functions. Finally, we discovered that affective, pleasant touch has an unique influence on body ownership as opposed to regular touch. Pleasant touch is conveyed by a specific kind of nerve fiber (CT fibers) which is activated when someone is stroked with a velocity around 3 cm/s on hairy skin. Pleasant touch is therefore processed differently in the peripheral nerves, but also in the brain. Interestingly, input from affective touch is processed by the right insula, the same brain area that is associated with body ownership impairment. In this thesis, we describe an experiment in healthy individuals that show that there is an enhanced body related illusion when the illusion is induced by affective touch compared to regular touch. This was specific for hairy skin (that contain CT fibers). This suggests that affective touch modulates body ownership. This is in line with observations of patients with body ownership impairments that show a tendency to caress their affected arm in a loving manner. These findings provide evidence that affective touch might be a promising candidate for relieving symptoms of body ownership impairments

Symptom Checklist 90-Revised in neurological outpatients

The Symptom Checklist 90–Revised (SCL-90-R) is an international, widely used, self-report questionnaire of multidimensional complaints with normative data for healthy control subjects and psychiatric patients. The questionnaire is also often used in neurological patients. Little is known about the amount and pattern of complaints in this group, and normative data are lacking. We therefore analyzed self-reported symptoms on the SCL-90-R of a neurological population (N = 600). Moreover, we compared the answer patterns of five subgroups: neurodegenerative disease, cerebrovascular disease, epilepsy, brain tumor, and traumatic brain injury. Neurological outpatients scored significantly higher in comparison with normative data from healthy control subjects, with most pronounced scores on Inadequacy of Thinking and Acting, Depression, and Somatization (p < .01, effect sizes 1.69, 0.83, and 0.83). No differences between the various pathologies were found. Although it is difficult to determine whether the complaints arise directly from the neurological disease or more indirectly from psychiatric disturbances accompanying the disease, simply comparing a neurological patient to normative data for healthy control subjects can lead to inappropriate classifications. Complaints of our patients should not be directly interpreted as psychopathology. A two-step procedure in which scores on the SCL-90-R are first compared to healthy control subjects and secondly to neurological patients can be helpful in the interpretation

Symptom Checklist 90-Revised in neurological outpatients

The Symptom Checklist 90–Revised (SCL-90-R) is an international, widely used, self-report questionnaire of multidimensional complaints with normative data for healthy control subjects and psychiatric patients. The questionnaire is also often used in neurological patients. Little is known about the amount and pattern of complaints in this group, and normative data are lacking. We therefore analyzed self-reported symptoms on the SCL-90-R of a neurological population (N = 600). Moreover, we compared the answer patterns of five subgroups: neurodegenerative disease, cerebrovascular disease, epilepsy, brain tumor, and traumatic brain injury. Neurological outpatients scored significantly higher in comparison with normative data from healthy control subjects, with most pronounced scores on Inadequacy of Thinking and Acting, Depression, and Somatization (p < .01, effect sizes 1.69, 0.83, and 0.83). No differences between the various pathologies were found. Although it is difficult to determine whether the complaints arise directly from the neurological disease or more indirectly from psychiatric disturbances accompanying the disease, simply comparing a neurological patient to normative data for healthy control subjects can lead to inappropriate classifications. Complaints of our patients should not be directly interpreted as psychopathology. A two-step procedure in which scores on the SCL-90-R are first compared to healthy control subjects and secondly to neurological patients can be helpful in the interpretation