The influence of environmental distraction on cognitive abilities in ADL performance after frontal brain injured.

Background: Previous studies have reported errors in Activities of Daily Living (ADL) under the presence of distracting objects in dementia and brain injury patients. However, little is known about which distractor-target objects relation might be more harmful for performance. Method: We compared the ADL execution in frontal brain injured patients and control participants under two conditions: One in which target objects were mixed with distractor objects that constituted an alternative semantically related but non-required task (contextual condition) and another in which target objects were mixed with related but isolated distractors that did not constituted a coherent task (non-contextual condition). We separately analyzed ADL commission errors (repetitions, substitutions, objects manipulations, failures in sequence, extra actions) and omissions. In addition, the participants were evaluated with a neuropsychological protocol including a very specific executive functions task (Selective attention, Stimulus-Stimulus and Stimulus-Response conflict). Results: We found that frontal patients produced more commission errors compared to control participants, but only under the contextual condition. No between groups significant differences were found in omissions in both conditions or commission errors in non-contextual conditions. Scores in the Stimulus-Response conflict was significantly correlated with commission errors in the contextual condition. Conclusion: The presence of different non-target objects in ADL performance could require different cognitive process. Contextual ADL conditions required a higher level of executive functions, especially at the level of response (Stimulus-Response conflict). Application to Practice: Occupational therapists should control the presence of objects related to the target task according to the intervention objectives with the patients.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Temporal preparation in patients with Neglect syndrome

The right parietal cortex has been widely associated with a spatial orienting network. Its damage frequently produces the Neglect syndrome consisting in deficits in spatial attention to the left hemifield. Neglect has also been related to temporal deficits (such as the estimation of the duration of a stimulus or the discrimination of two stimuli that occur at the same spatial location but at different time intervals). Such attentional deficits have been much less studied in the temporal as compared to the spatial domain. The current research focused on the study of temporal attention processes in patients with Neglect syndrome, specifically, on temporal preparation. We recruited 10 patients with Neglect syndrome, 10 patients without Neglect syndrome, as well as 11 healthy individuals. Each participant completed an experimental task which measures three main temporal preparation effects described in the literature: Temporal orienting and Foreperiod effects (both related to control mechanisms and prefrontal areas) and Sequential effects (automatic in nature and related to parietal and subcortical structures). The results showed a deficit in the sequential effects only in those patients who suffered from Neglect syndrome. The results suggest a causal relation between Neglect syndrome and the automatic mechanisms of temporal preparation. Since our sample of Neglect patients had suffered lesions mainly in the parietal cortex, the results are discussed taking into account the role of the parietal lobe in the processing of time and the models explaining sequential effects.This work was supported by the Junta de Andalucía (Research Project Reference: SEJ-3054

Ciberacoso sexual a menores "Online child grooming"

ACTUALMENTE SE PRODUCEN ABUSOS CONTRA LOS MENORES A TRAVÉS DE LAS NUEVAS TECNOLOGÍAS DE LA INFORMACIÓN Y LA COMUNICACIÓN, ANTE EL AUMENTO DE ESTAS CONDUCTAS ILÍCITAS NUESTRO LEGISLADOR DECIDIÓ MODIFICAR NUESTRO CÓDIGO PENAL, A TRAVÉS DE LA REFORMA 1/2015, DE 30 DE MARZO QUE MODIFICA EL CÓDIGO PENAL, TRAS ESTA REFORMA SE INTRODUCE IMPORTANTES CAMBIOS COMO LA INCORPORACIÓN DEL NUEVO ART. 183 TER DEL CÓDIGO PENAL. EL PRESENTE TRABAJO SE VA ANALIZAR LAS NOVEDADES INTRODUCIDAS SOBRE ESTE TIPO PENAL, TAMBIÉN SE COMPARARA CON OTRAS LEGISLACIONES Y POR ULTIMO PASAREMOS AL ENFOQUE PRACTICO.CURRENTLY THERE ARE ABUSES AGAINST MINORS THROUGH NEW INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES, IN VIEW OF THE INCREASE IN THESE ILLEGAL CONDUCTS OUR LEGISLATOR DECIDED TO MODIFY OUR PENAL CODE, THROUGH THE REFORM 1/2015, OF MARCH 30 THAT MODIFIES THE PENAL CODE, AFTER THIS REFORM INTRODUCES IMPORTANT CHANGES SUCH AS THE INCORPORATION OF THE NEW ART. 183 TER OF THE PENAL CODE. THE PRESENT WORK IS GOING TO ANALYZE THE NOVELTIES INTRODUCED ON THIS PENAL TYPE, IT WILL ALSO BE COMPARED WITH OTHER LEGISLATIONS AND FINALLY WE WILL PASS TO THE PRACTICAL APPROACH

Effectiveness of a neuropsychological treatment for confabulations after brain injury: A clinical trial with theoretical implications

The study is part of a doctoral dissertation by Estrella Ródenas, supervised by the other three authors.Confabulators consistently generate false memories without intention to deceive and with great feelings of rightness. However, to our knowledge, there is currently no known effective treatment for them. In order to fill this gap, our aim was to design a neuropsychological treatment based on current theoretical models and test it experimentally in 20 confabulators sequentially allocated to two groups: an experimental and a control group. The experimental group received nine sessions of treatment for three weeks (three sessions per week). The sessions consisted of some brief material that participants had to learn and recall at both immediate and delayed time points. After this, patients were given feedback about their performance (errors and correct responses). Pre- and post-treatment measurements were recorded. Confabulators in the control group were included in a waiting list for three weeks, performed the pre- and post- measurements without treatment, and only then received the treatment, after which a post-treatment measurement was recorded. This applied to only half of the participants; the other half quit the study prematurely. Results showed a significant decrease in confabulations and a significant increase in correct responses in the experimental group; by contrast, patients in the control group did not improve during the waiting list period. Only control group patients who subsequently received the treatment after serving as controls improved. The effects of the treatment were generalized to patients’ everyday lives, as reported by relatives, and persisted over time. This treatment seems to be effective and easy to implement and consequently of clinical interest. Moreover, it also has theoretical implications regarding the processes related to the genesis and/or maintenance of confabulations. In particular, results point to a deficit in early stages of memory retrieval with the preservation of later strategic monitoring processes. Specifically, some of the processes involved may include selective attention or early conflict detection deficits. Future research should test these hypotheses.This research was carried out in San Rafael University Hospital in Granada, Spain, and was supported by the research grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education to Juan Lupiáñez (PSI2011-22416 and PSI2014-52764-P) and to María Jesús Funes (PSI2012-34158), the research grant from the Regional Government of Andalusia to María Jesús Funes (SEJ-6351), and the research grant from the Progress and Health Foundation of the Regional Government of Andalusia to Mónica Triviño (PI-0361-2014)

How do preschoolers interact with peers? Characterising child and group behaviour in games with tangible interfaces in school

Learning social skills is an important part of the socialisation process of children, which should occur at school, at home and in any place where children live. There are very few studies on social interaction and collaboration roles with 3–4 year old. In this paper, we aim to understand collaboration in young children to help them develop their social skills and improve their overall development. To get this, we have designed an observational experiment to monitor and characterise group activity and roles, mediated by technology and using data mining techniques. First, we have designed a game as a free-play situation where the conditions require interplay of three children with toys and among interaction among peers. Children interacts with game through tangible toys. The environment collects accurate data on children’s actions automatically and non-intrusively. We also consider other data from direct observation by psychologists and educators. Then, we have organised a study for groups(triads) of 3 to 4-year-old children playing with this game. We analyse data from 81 children (51.9% boys and 48.1% girls) in groups of three randomly selected. The work proposes a set of actions in the game and from them a set of indicators, which are used as intermediate measures of observation to analyse the playing process. Social interaction is characterised in 5 levels: Coordination, Cooperation, Collaboration, Troubled and Unproductive; and five roles: Saboteur, Missing, Explorer, Actor, Collaborator and Director. We found that children interact socially, engage in play, help each other and mostly reach the level of collaboration. There are minority cases of non-cooperation (Troubled or Unproductive), with conflict situations or trial and error solving processes, which cause the task to last a long time before it is finally finished. We have also found that children can adopt different roles in the group. (...)Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA

Brain networks of temporal preparation: A multiple regression analysis of neuropsychological data.

There are only a few studies on the brain networks involved in the ability to prepare in time, and most of them followed a correlational rather than a neuropsychological approach. The present neuropsychological study performed multiple regression analysis to address the relationship between both grey and white matter (measured by magnetic resonance imaging in patients with brain lesion) and different effects in temporal preparation (Temporal orienting, Foreperiod and Sequential effects). Two versions of a temporal preparation task were administered to a group of 23 patients with acquired brain injury. In one task, the cue presented (a red versus green square) to inform participants about the time of appearance (early versus late) of a target stimulus was blocked, while in the other task the cue was manipulated on a trial-by-trial basis. The duration of the cue-target time intervals (400 versus 1400ms) was always manipulated within blocks in both tasks. Regression analysis were conducted between either the grey matter lesion size or the white matter tracts disconnection and the three temporal preparation effects separately. The main finding was that each temporal preparation effect was predicted by a different network of structures, depending on cue expectancy. Specifically, the Temporal orienting effect was related to both prefrontal and temporal brain areas. The Foreperiod effect was related to right and left prefrontal structures. Sequential effects were predicted by both parietal cortex and left subcortical structures. These findings show a clear dissociation of brain circuits involved in the different ways to prepare in time, showing for the first time the involvement of temporal areas in the Temporal orienting effect, as well as the parietal cortex in the Sequential effects

Experiencias de innovación educativa - Tomo 5

El laboratorio de Experiencias de Aprendizaje Inmersivo para Educación Virtual del Politécnico Grancolombiano presenta este libro que consolida once nuevos proyectos trabajados durante el año 2021. Para este año se implementan once proyectos nuevos que se presentan en este libro, de los cuales cinco son laboratorios virtuales, uno es un laboratorio de realidades hibridas que se transforma en una apuesta institucional al ser único para el área de aerolíneas, buscando fortalecer el programa virtual de Psicología se realizaron cuatro simuladores y una serie de juegos serios para la salud laboral, otro juego serio sobre la teoría de juegos y por último un simulador para la gestión de inventarios

Interference Control Modulations Over Conscious Perception

The relation between attention and consciousness has been a controversial topic over the last decade. Although there seems to be an agreement on their distinction at the functional level, no consensus has been reached about attentional processes being or not necessary for conscious perception. Previous studies have explored the relation of alerting and orienting systems of attention and conscious perception, but the impact of the anterior executive attention system on conscious access remains unexplored. In the present study, we investigated the behavioral interaction between executive attention and conscious perception, testing control mechanisms both at stimulus-level representation and after error commission. We presented a classical Stroop task, manipulating the proportion of congruent and incongruent trials, and analyzed the effect of reactive and proactive control on the conscious perception of near-threshold stimuli. Reactive control elicited under high proportion congruent conditions influenced participants’ decision criterion, whereas proactive control elicited under low proportion congruent conditions was ineffective in modulating conscious perception. In addition, error commission affected both perceptual sensitivity to detect near-threshold information and response criterion. These results suggest that reactivation of task goals through reactive control strategies in conflict situations impacts decision stages of conscious processing, whereas interference control elicited by error commission impacts both perceptual sensitivity and decision stages of conscious processing. We discuss the implications of our results for the gateway hypothesis about attention and consciousness, as they showed that interference control (both at stimulus-level representation and after error commission) can modulate the conscious access of near-threshold stimuli

Temporal orienting deficit after frontal damage

Tesis Univ. Granada. Departamento de Psicología Experimental y Fisiología del Comportamiento. Leída el 21 de junio de 201