Personality based on affective prosody: implications for speech therapy (Abstract)

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Cognitive deficits in sleep apnea: A meta-analysis

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Prognostic model to predict postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery based on a national prospective observational cohort study.

Background: Acute illness, existing co-morbidities and surgical stress response can all contribute to postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery. The aim of this study was prospectively to develop a pragmatic prognostic model to stratify patients according to risk of developing AKI after major gastrointestinal surgery. Methods: This prospective multicentre cohort study included consecutive adults undergoing elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection, liver resection or stoma reversal in 2-week blocks over a continuous 3-month period. The primary outcome was the rate of AKI within 7 days of surgery. Bootstrap stability was used to select clinically plausible risk factors into the model. Internal model validation was carried out by bootstrap validation. Results: A total of 4544 patients were included across 173 centres in the UK and Ireland. The overall rate of AKI was 14·2 per cent (646 of 4544) and the 30-day mortality rate was 1·8 per cent (84 of 4544). Stage 1 AKI was significantly associated with 30-day mortality (unadjusted odds ratio 7·61, 95 per cent c.i. 4·49 to 12·90; P < 0·001), with increasing odds of death with each AKI stage. Six variables were selected for inclusion in the prognostic model: age, sex, ASA grade, preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate, planned open surgery and preoperative use of either an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker. Internal validation demonstrated good model discrimination (c-statistic 0·65). Discussion: Following major gastrointestinal surgery, AKI occurred in one in seven patients. This preoperative prognostic model identified patients at high risk of postoperative AKI. Validation in an independent data set is required to ensure generalizability

Dissociation of verbal and nonverbal memory: A meta-analysis

This free journal suppl. entitled: American Epilepsy Society ProceedingsThis journal suppl. entitled: American Epilepsy Society ProceedingsRATIONALE: Dissociations of both verbal and nonverbal memory in epileptic patients after temporal lobectomy have remained controversial. While some studies have found that such dissociations exist, others have found otherwise. The purpose of this study is to identify the overall consistency of these research findings and to what extent these findings support the presence of memory dissociations. METHODS: A meta-analysis was performed by reviewing an initial set of 54 articles on memory in temporal lobe epilepsy. Articles were excluded it they were characterized by one of the following: (1) absence of verbal or nonverbal measure, or both, (2) did not report usable statistics for meta-analytic techniques, (3) no explicit mentioning of cerebral dominance, (4) non-complimentarity of verbal and nonverbal measures, and (5) did not employ Weschler Memory Scale (WMS) as a primary memory measure. Five studies that qualified for subsequent analyses had left cerebral dominance (mostly right-handers). Logical memory (LM) and Visual Reproduction (VR) subscales of WMS indicated verbal and nonverbal memory respectively. Differences were calculated on both LM and VR between left- (LTL) and right temporal lobectomized (RTL) patients, as well as between pre- and post-lobectomy. RESULTS: Differences between LTL and RTL were found in both preand post-lobectomy. RTL had better scores than LTL on both immediate and delayed recall of LM and VR, with the exception of immediate recall on VR. In terms of within-subject differences from pre- to post-lobectomy, for both immediate and delayed recall, LTL had decreased LM, with an increase in VR. In contrast, RTL had an increased immediate and delayed recall on LM, but only a decrease in delayed recall on VR post-lobectomy. RTL had an increase in immediate recall on VR, though the effect size was neglible. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings support the presence of a double dissociation, though this pattern was more apparent for delayed than immediate recall on LM and VR. The possible presence of verbal components in nonverbal measures of memory may have rendered less apparent findings for nonverbal memory in this study.link_to_OA_fulltex

Relationships between frontal executive functions and language processing: Implications for aphasia rehabilitation

Models such as those proposed by Gullapalli and Gelfand (1995) serve to highlight the complexities of frontal executive functioning. Previous lesion studies have implied frontal-subcortical loops for both frontal executive functioning and language processing. Nicholas (2003) has also suggested that the assessment of frontal executive functioning will be useful in determining the appropriate of various types aphasic treatments for patients with language impairment. Of particular interest to the present paper, the nature of the relationship between frontal executive functioning and language processing will be explored with special attention paid to its implication for rehabilitation of patients with language impairments.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Cultural differences in facial emotion recognition

Part 2: posters of abstractsThe 12th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 25–26 March, 2002. In Brain and Cognition, 2003, v. 51 n. 2, p. 169-170, abstract no.

Selective impairment of sadness and disgust recognition in abstinent ecstasy users

Previous data have suggested that ecstasy use may affect cognitive functions. The relationship between ecstasy use and emotion recognition remains largely unknown. This study reports the findings on the neuropsychological effects of ecstasy use on recognition of basic human emotions among 100 abstinent ecstasy users, along with 100 demographically matched nonusers. Recognition of both facial and prosodic emotions was studied. In addition, neuropsychological predictors of emotion recognition for abstinent ecstasy users were examined. The results showed that abstinent ecstasy users were impaired, relative to nonusers, on overall emotion recognition. In particular, recognition of sadness and disgust was significantly affected. The emotion-recognition deficits observed among the abstinent ecstasy users may reflect a complex derangement of monoamines and/or general degenerative change observed in the addicted populations. The length of time in months since ecstasy was last consumed, cumulative ecstasy dosage, and years of education negatively predicted various domains of emotion recognition. The observation that nonverbal and verbal fluency functions were significant predictors of emotion identification, as well as of recognition of sadness and disgust, suggests that the frontal executive system might be affected by ecstasy use. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Effect of ecstasy use on neuropsychological function: A study in Hong Kong

Rationale: Previous studies on the effects of ecstasy on neuropsychological performance have often recruited small sample sizes. Objectives: The present study was conducted to validate previous findings regarding the effects of ecstasy consumption on neuropsychological performance. Method: A comprehensive neuropsychological investigation was conducted in 100 abstinent ecstasy users and 100 matched non-user counterparts on standardized measures of working memory, verbal and non-verbal memory, verbal and figural fluency, and selective and switching attention. Results: Abstinent ecstasy users were impaired on verbal and non-verbal memory, complex attention, and verbal fluency, but not on working memory, relative to their non-user counterparts. Of particular interest was the fact that abstinent ecstasy users performed better on figural fluency relative to their non-user counterparts. In addition, only cumulative ecstasy consumption correlated with neuropsychological performances among abstinent ecstasy users. Canonical discriminant analysis yielded verbal and visual memory, switching attention, and verbal fluency as potential core neuropsychological variables for differentiating abstinent ecstasy users from non-users. Levels of depression and general non-verbal intelligence, as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory and the test of non-verbal Intelligence, respectively, were not likely to affect these findings, since these measures were matched between ecstasy users and non-users. Conclusions: These findings suggest that previous ecstasy consumption can affect a wide range of neuropsychological performance, though figural fluency may be subsequently enhanced as a result of the phenomenon of "cortical disinhibition." Furthermore, measures of verbal and visual memory, switching attention, and verbal fluency may be particularly useful for differentiating abstinent ecstasy users from non-users. © Springer-Verlag 2005.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Differential impairment on measures of attention in patients with paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenia

The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether patients with different subtypes of schizophrenia are differentially impaired on measures of attention. Forty-eight patients with schizophrenia (19 paranoid and 29 nonparanoid) and 48 healthy controls (matched on chronological age, sex, and years of education) were administered five measures of attention including the Stroop Color-Word Test (SCWT; Stroop, 1935), the Digit Vigilance Test (DVT; Lewis, 1992), the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT; Smith, 1982), the Backward Digit Span Test (BDST; Wechsler, 1987), and the Color Trails Test (CTT; D'Elia et al., 1996) to assess selective attention, sustained attention, switching attention, and attentional control processing by the latter two tests respectively. Results from the present study showed that patients with schizophrenia performed poorer on the SCWT, the DVT, and the SDMT, relative to their healthy counterparts. Furthermore, patients with different subtypes of schizophrenia also had different degrees of attentional impairment. While patients with paranoid schizophrenia performed worse on the SCWT, those with nonparanoid schizophrenia performed worse on the SDMT. Nevertheless, these findings may suggest that patients with paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenia may have different profiles with respect to their performances on measures of attention. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.link_to_subscribed_fulltex