Self-atribuce u schizofrenie

Východiska: Schizofrenie je duševní onemocnění s velmi různorodým klinickým obrazem. Za jednotící charkteristiku napříč různými projevy schizofrenie je často považováno narušení hranic a rozlišování mezi já/ne-já. Porozumění tomu, jakým způsobem k němu dochází se stále formuje. Prezentovaná disertační práce se soustředí na centrální charakteristiku narušení self - schopnost rozpoznat autorství vlastního jednání (self-agency; SA). Cíle: Experimentální část sestává ze tří samostatných studií. První studie ověřuje, zda behaviorální narušení SA u schizofrenie reportované v předchozích studiích není zkresleno narušením obecnějších senzomotorických procesů. Dále se zaměřuje na vztah mezi intenzitou symptomů a narušením SA u schizofrenie a jeho změnu v čase. Druhá studie zkoumá rozdíly v mozkové aktivitě mezi pacienty a zdravými dobrovolníky během řešení SA úlohy. Třetí studie dále ověřuje, zda se klidová aktivita mozku promítá do schopnosti správně rozlišit SA. Metody: Studie kombinují data na úrovni symptomů, výkonu v behaviorálních úlohách a mozkové aktivity. Celkem se do studií zapojilo více než 300 participantů. Využity byly nově vytvořené úlohy na SA a senzomotoriku; škála PANSS pro zachycení intenzity psychotických symptomů a data z magnetické rezonance naměřená jak během řešení SA úlohy, tak v...Background: Schizophrenia is a mental disorder with highly variable clinical presentation. It has been proposed that the unifying characteristic across all its variants is a disturbance of self/other boundaries and distinction. However, the understanding of its mechanism is still emerging. The presented thesis examines the hallmark feature of altered self-attribution of agency (SA) in schizophrenia with the aim to depict the underlying and related processes. Objectives: The experimental part consists of three separate studies. The first study verifies whether SA alterations reported in the literature are not confounded by an impairment of broader sensorimotor capacities. Further, it focuses on the association between SA alterations in schizophrenia and symptom severity and their dependence in time. The second study examines the differences in brain activity between patients and healthy controls during SA processing. The last study investigates the possible role of intrinsic brain connectivity in self-agency processing. Methods: The studies combine data from the levels of clinical presentation (symptoms), behavioral performance, and brain activity. More than 300 participants were involved in the studies in total. We used a behavioral SA task and a control task; the Positive and Negative Syndrome...Department of PsychologyKatedra psychologieFaculty of ArtsFilozofická fakult

Intrinsic Rivalry. Can White Bears Help Us With the Other Side of Consciousness?

Studies of consciousness have traditionally been based mainly upon the perceptual domains of consciousness. However, there is another side of consciousness, represented by various types of intrinsic conscious experiences. Even though intrinsic experiences can represent up to 50% of our conscious experiences, they are still largely neglected in conscious studies. We assume there are two reasons for this. First, the field of intrinsic conscious experiences is methodologically far more problematic than any other. Second, specific paradigms for capturing the correlates of intrinsic conscious experiences are almost nonexistent. Nevertheless, we expect the intrinsic side of consciousness to soon take its place in conscious studies, but first new experimental paradigms will have to be devised, which would be of a similar design to the paradigms used in studies of perceptual consciousness. In this hypothesis and theory article, we propose such a hypothetical paradigm, presenting the exploratory data of our proof-of-concept study, discussing its use, and addressing its shortcomings and their possible remediation

The analysis of the use of outsourcing services in logistics by Czech manufacturing companies

This research analyses logistics outsourcing services from the viewpoint of client companies (manufacturing companies). The main goal is to show how intensively various logistics outsourcing services are used by Czech manufacturing companies in comparison with other world regions, and which areas of logistics outsourcing should be considered more seriously in order to increase logistic efficiency. The study is based on a quantitative and qualitative investigation of Czech manufacturing companies. Firstly, the brief overview of the present situation in the Czech market is presented. It is based on survey data. The results of this quantitative study are compared with global research activities, especially with the 2013 Third-Party Logistics Study carried out by Capgemini Consulting Company. Next, results of the qualitative investigation are discussed. This part describes the experience of four selected Czech manufacturing companies with logistics outsourcing, the main problems they face in this area and their future plans and expectations. The present study is part of a more complex research currently being carried out by the authors.Internal Grant Agency of FaME TBU [IGA/FaME/2013/006

Correlates of hallucinatory experiences in the general population: an international multi-site replication study

Hallucinatory experiences can occur in both clinical and nonclinical groups. However, in previous studies of the general population, investigations of the cognitive mechanisms underlying hallucinatory experiences have yielded inconsistent results. We ran a large-scale preregistered multisite study, in which general-population participants (N = 1,394 across 11 data-collection sites and online) completed assessments of hallucinatory experiences, a measure of adverse childhood experiences, and four tasks: source memory, dichotic listening, backward digit span, and auditory signal detection. We found that hallucinatory experiences were associated with a higher false-alarm rate on the signal detection task and a greater number of reported adverse childhood experiences but not with any of the other cognitive measures employed. These findings are an important step in improving reproducibility in hallucinations research and suggest that the replicability of some findings regarding cognition in clinical samples needs to be investigated

Item-specific overlap between hallucinatory experiences and cognition in the general population: A three-step multivariate analysis of international multi-site data

Hallucinatory experiences (HEs) can be pronounced in psychosis, but similar experiences also occur in nonclinical populations. Cognitive mechanisms hypothesized to underpin HEs include dysfunctional source monitoring, heightened signal detection, and impaired attentional processes. Using data from an international multisite study on non-clinical participants (N = 419), we described the overlap between two sets of variables - one measuring cognition and the other HEs - at the level of individual items. We used a three-step method to extract and examine item-specific signal, which is typically obscured when summary scores are analyzed using traditional methodologies. The three-step method involved: (1) constraining variance in cognition variables to that which is predictable from HE variables, followed by dimension reduction, (2) determining reliable HE items using split-halves and permutation tests, and (3) selecting cognition items for interpretation using a leave-one-out procedure followed by repetition of Steps 1 and 2. The results showed that the overlap between HEs and cognition variables can be conceptualized as bi-dimensional, with two distinct mechanisms emerging as candidates for separate pathways to the development of HEs: HEs involving perceptual distortions on one hand (including voices), underpinned by a low threshold for signal detection in cognition, and HEs involving sensory overload on the other hand, underpinned by reduced laterality in cognition. We propose that these two dimensions of HEs involving distortions/liberal signal detection, and sensation overload/reduced laterality may map onto psychosis-spectrum and dissociation-spectrum anomalous experiences, respectively

Self-attribution in Schizophrenia

Background: Schizophrenia is a mental disorder with highly variable clinical presentation. It has been proposed that the unifying characteristic across all its variants is a disturbance of self/other boundaries and distinction. However, the understanding of its mechanism is still emerging. The presented thesis examines the hallmark feature of altered self-attribution of agency (SA) in schizophrenia with the aim to depict the underlying and related processes. Objectives: The experimental part consists of three separate studies. The first study verifies whether SA alterations reported in the literature are not confounded by an impairment of broader sensorimotor capacities. Further, it focuses on the association between SA alterations in schizophrenia and symptom severity and their dependence in time. The second study examines the differences in brain activity between patients and healthy controls during SA processing. The last study investigates the possible role of intrinsic brain connectivity in self-agency processing. Methods: The studies combine data from the levels of clinical presentation (symptoms), behavioral performance, and brain activity. More than 300 participants were involved in the studies in total. We used a behavioral SA task and a control task; the Positive and Negative Syndrome..

The Effectiveness of Cognitive Training in Patients after Traumatic Brain Injury or Stroke

Recently, the literature concerned with the possibilities and limitations of working memory training has been growing rapidly. Nonetheless, there are still no clear answers about the principles of its effectiveness or transfer effect. The main questions we ask are about effectiveness of cognitive training in patients after stroke or TBI. To our knowledge this group hasn't been studied in this context yet. To do this, we compare two types of cognitive training - extensively studied N-back training (n=11) and still more popular group cognitive therapy (n=9) with a placebo control group (n=5) who recieves "training" in a simple computer game. The placebo control group then continues in N-back training. Our hypothesis is that after 3 weeks the two trainings should lead to significantly higher gains in cognitive tests scores than the placebo condition. Also, we expected N-back to be more effective than group cognitive training in domains more closely related to executive control. We tested attention, fluid intelligence, short-term and working memory. We also recorded participants well-being. Following training, there were no significant differences between N-back and group training. N-back group scored significantly higer on Trail Making Test A than control group (p=0,026). Although our study doesn't..