Evidence suggests that cerebral blood flow patterns accompanying a mental activity are retained in many locked-in patients. Thus, real-time monitoring with functional transcranial Doppler (TCD) together with a specific mental task could control a brain-computer interface (BCI), thereby providing self-initiated interaction. The objective of this study was to create an automatic detection algorithm to differentiate hemodynamic responses coincident with one's performance of verbal fluency (VF) versus counting tasks. We recruited 10 healthy adults who each silently performed up to 30 VF tasks and counted between each. Both middle cerebral arteries were simultaneously imaged using TCD. Linear Discriminant Analyses (LDA) successfully differentiated between VF and both prior and post counting tasks. For every participant, LDA achieved the 70% classification accuracy sufficient for BCIs. Results demonstrate automatic detection of a VF task by TCD and warrant further investigation of TCD as a BCI.

Submitted by GABRIELA MELLONI ZUCULO null (gabriela.zuculo@gmail.com) on 2016-05-11T20:23:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO DEFESA GABRIELA ZUCULO PRONTO.pdf: 2423369 bytes, checksum: 1518ae3189c9a9ce35d3608fa0a5a980 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Felipe Augusto Arakaki (arakaki@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-05-13T16:28:45Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 zuculo_gm_me_mar.pdf: 2423369 bytes, checksum: 1518ae3189c9a9ce35d3608fa0a5a980 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-13T16:28:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 zuculo_gm_me_mar.pdf: 2423369 bytes, checksum: 1518ae3189c9a9ce35d3608fa0a5a980 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / As características comuns ao quadro do Transtorno do Espectro do Autismo (TEA) destacadas pelo DSM-5 são: déficit de comunicação, dificuldade em fazer amizades ou se relacionar, dependência de rotina, resistência a mudanças e obsessão por itens inapropriados. Tais comportamentos podem ser observados desde a infância, porém com variações em cada indivíduo, o que levou o TEA a ser considerado um “continuum” que varia de menos comprometido (leve) a muito comprometido (grave). Dentre a complexa sintomatologia do TEA nos diferentes graus destaca-se a alta prevalência de distúrbios de sono, com influência negativa nas alterações comportamentais, instabilidade de humor, déficits nas funções neurocognitivas, incluindo memória, atenção, criatividade verbal, flexibilidade cognitiva e raciocínio abstrato. Como possível causa dos distúrbios de sono nessa população, está o déficit na produção de melatonina, hormônio que tem dentre suas funções a modulação da qualidade do sono. Com o intuito de fornecer dados para futuros tratamentos visando à melhora da qualidade de vida de indivíduos com TEA, esse estudo teve como objetivo investigar parâmetros de ritmo sono-vigília, aspectos comportamentais e de fluência verbal, antes e após o uso de melatonina exógena em indivíduos com TEA leve. Indivíduos com TEA leve de ambos os gêneros, de 7 a 18 anos, foram avaliados por meio da Escala de sono para crianças (EDSC), actigrafia, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) e Teste de fluência verbal fonêmica antes e após o uso oral de melatonina (3mg). A análise estatística descritiva foi feita a partir da média e erro padrão da média ou do percentual nos diferentes parâmetros e a análise estatística inferencial foi feita a partir do teste Anova com o teste de Tukey (pós-teste) e o teste de correlação de Spearman. Os resultados mostraram que 55,5% dos participantes com TEA leve apresentam indicativo de ao menos um distúrbio de sono, sendo os maiores percentuais encontrados em distúrbios de hiperidrose de sono, distúrbios respiratórios de sono e distúrbios de início e manutenção de sono. O grupo que recebeu melatonina apresentou os menores percentuais de distúrbios de sono com exceção do distúrbio de hiperidrose do sono. A análise da actigrafia mostrou que: o grupo TEA leve melatonina apresentou maior tempo total de sono em comparação aos outros grupos. Houve divergência sobre o ritmo atividade-repouso entre os parâmetros de fragmentação e amplitude do ritmo, sendo encontrado que o grupo TEA leve melatonina apresentou: ritmo menos fragmentado segundo o Aczcm e o IVm; e maior amplitude de ritmo segundo RAd e menor amplitude de ritmo segundo Sumpim. Os resultados do inventário de comportamento indicaram que as crianças com TEA leve apresentam os maiores escores classificados como clínico em problemas de pensamento, ansiedade, retraimento, comportamentos internalizantes e comportamentos externalizantes. O grupo que recebeu melatonina apresentou menores percentuais de escores classificados como clínico pelo inventário CBCL. A média de acertos no teste de fluência verbal fonêmica no grupo TEA leve foi de 13,9 ± 1,6. Quando separado por letras, o resultado foi P= 5,4 ± 0,7, T= 4,3 ± 0,5, L= 4,6 ± 0,6. Houve correlação entre os distúrbios totais de sono e os problemas somáticos de comportamento apresentados pelo grupo TEA leve. Estes dados mostram que crianças com TEA leve apresentam alta incidência de distúrbios de sono assim como no TEA sem especificação de grau, porém em menor escala. Estes distúrbios afetam aspectos comportamentais destas crianças e o tratamento com melatonina pode levar a melhora deste quadro. A fluência verbal de crianças com TEA grau leve é similar a de crianças com desenvolvimento típico. / The features common to the ASD highlighted by the DSM-5 are: communication deficit, difficulty making friends or relating, routine dependence, resistance to change, inappropriate items obsession. Such behavior can be verified since childhood, but with individual variations, which led the ASD to be considered as a "continuum" ranging from less committed (mild) to very committed (serious). Among the complex symptoms of ASD there is the high prevalence of sleep disorders, with a negative influence on behavioral changes, mood instability, deficits in neurocognitive functions including memory, attention, verbal creativity, cognitive flexibility and abstract reasoning. As a possible cause of sleep disorders in this population is the deficit of the melatonin production, hormone that modulates the sleep quality. In order to collaborate with future treatments that improving the life quality of ASD individuals, this study aimed to investigate parameters of sleep wake rhythm, behavior and verbal fluency before and after exogenous melatonin use in mild ASD individuals. For this, mild ASD individuals of both genders, 7-18 years were assessed by Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC), actigraphy, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and phonemic verbal fluency test before and after oral melatonin (3 mg). Descriptive statistical analysis was analyzed by mean and standard error or by percentage of the different parameters and inferential statistical analysis was performed by ANOVA with Tukey test (post-test) and Spearman correlation test. The results showed that 55,5% of mild ASD participants showed at least one sleep disorder, with the highest percentages found in sleep hyperhidrosis, sleep-breathing disorders and disorders of initiating and maintaining sleep. The group receiving melatonin had the lowest percentage of sleep disorders with the exception of sleep hyperhidrosis disorder. The actigraphy showed that: the mild ASD melatonin group showed higher total time of sleep than other groups. There was disagreement about between fragmentation parameters and amplitude of the activity-rest rhythm, since was found that the group of mild ASD melatonin showed: less fragmented rhythm according to Aczcm and IVm; and greater amplitude following Rad and lower amplitude rhythm following Sumpim. The results of behavior indicated that children with mild ASD have the high scores classified as clinical problems in thinking, anxiety, withdrawal, internalizing behaviors and externalizing behaviors. The group receiving melatonin had lower percentages of scores classified as clinical CBCL inventory. The mean score on the verbal fluency test in the group of mild ASD was 13,9 ± 1,6. When separated by letter, the result was P= 5,4 ± 0,7, T= 4,3 ± 0,5, L= 4,6 ± 0,6. There was a correlation between total sleep disorders and somatic behavior problems presented by mild ASD group. These data show that children with mild ASD have a high incidence of sleep disorders as well as in the ASD level without specification, but to a lesser extent. These disorders affect behavioral aspects of these children and the treatment with melatonin can improve of the clinical condition. Verbal fluency of children with ASD mild is similar to typically developing children.

The research on bilingual language processing explores two main avenues of relevance to the present study: lexico-semantic access and cognitive control. Lexico-semantic access research investigates the manner in which bilingual individuals retrieve single words from their lexical system. Healthy bilingual individuals can manipulate their lexico-semantic access to accommodate settings in which code- or language-switching is expected. Alternatively, they can manipulate their lexico-semantic access to speak only their first (L1) or second (L2) languages. Cognitive control, also known as executive functioning, is closely related to lexico-semantic access. Specifically, bilingual individuals maintain and switch between their languages through a mechanism known as cognitive control. Both cognitive control and lexico-semantic access are important for language processing in healthy bilingual individuals as well as bilingual persons with aphasia (BPWA). However, the extent to which BPWA utilize each of these processes in the production of single words is still unknown. The present study used a method of verbal fluency in the form of a novel modified category generation task to assess the relative contributions of lexico-semantic access and cognitive control in bilingual healthy controls and BPWA.

Title: Estimation of normative values for the semantic verbal fluency test in older adults over 50 Objective: The aim of the diploma thesis was to create normative values for the semantic verbal fluency test (animal category) for older adults over 50 years, depending on the level of education achieved. Methods: The diploma thesis is constructed as a cross-sectional study. All data were obtained from the international project Survey of Health Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The descriptive statistics of participants were produced with calculated means and standard deviation for continuous variables and percentage for categorical variables. The median and interquartile range for age and semantic verbal fluency test (animal category), and 2nd , 7th , and 16th percentile as the cut-off points for verbal fluency test (animal category) were calculated for participants divided into ISCED - 97 education levels and for each country separately. Results: Data from 64,242 participants aged 66.4 were analyzed, and the female ratio was 55.8 %. All respondents were older adults over 50 years old from 20 European countries. Figures and tables show that all percentiles as cut-off points increased linearly with levels of education. Other result is that the performance in the test gradually decreased with...

Research in dual task performance varies widely in its methodology and results. The present study employed three different types of activity to provide insights into the interference that occurs in dual task performance. Twenty young adults completed a speech task (repeating a sentence), a verbal fluency task (listing words beginning with the same letter), and right- and left-handed motor tasks (placing pegs and washers in a peg board) in isolation and in concurrent conditions. Speech kinematic data revealed that during concurrent performance of manual tasks, lip displacement and peak velocity decreased, while sound pressure level and spatiotemporal variability increased. The impact of manual motor performance on speech differed between the right and left hand. Manual motor scores significantly decreased when concurrently performed with the verbal fluency task. Also, verbal fluency results declined when performed concurrently with left-handed manual motor task. These findings suggest that cortical localization of control may be more complex than is predicted by the functional distance hypothesis.

Many of us have experienced that speech in a non-native language under noise can be challenging. This study examined whether semantic and phonological predictability improves the intelligibility of degraded speech in a non-native language. An online experiment was conducted with 15 participants. Based on these data, a repeated-measures ANOVA showed that both overall semantic and phonological prediction enhanced perceptual clarity in degraded speech for non-native listeners. Semantic predictability was effective for non-native speakers only when the sound quality was slightly intelligible. In contrast, phonological predicatively enhance perceptual clarity at all sound quality levels except in clear and unintelligible settings. Another aim of this study was to investigate if individual cognitive ability differences are related to the benefit of phonological and semantic predictability in the non-native context. Results showed a positive Spearman correlation between working memory score and the overall benefit of phonological predictability. As for the effect per sound level, the results were significant only at intermediately intelligible sound quality level. However, there was no correlation between working memory and the benefit of semantic coherence. Verbal fluency did not correlate with either of the benefits of semantic or phonetic predictability.

Une étude récente rapporte que des participants souffrant de cauchemars idiopathiques fréquents (CIF) produisaient plus d’erreurs de persévération sur une tâche de fluence verbale (TFV) que des participants contrôle (CTL) (Simor et al., 2012). Cela suggère une dysfonction exécutive chez les participants CIF, soutenant le modèle des cauchemars Affective Network Dysfunction (AND). Notre objectif était de reproduire cette trouvaille auprès d’une cohorte francophone. Des TFV lexicale et sémantique ont été administrées à 23 participants avec CIF et à 16 CTL. Contrairement aux attentes, le groupe CIF n’affichait pas plus de persévération (p=.87). L’absence de reproduction pourrait infirmer la suggestion d’une dysfonction exécutive liée au CIF, toutefois des différences méthodologiques entre les études et les complexités de la TFV peuvent jouer un rôle dans le décalage entre les études. Nous suggérons que l’étude future des déficits exécutifs liés aux CIF emploie des tâches neuropsychologiques non linguistiques empiriquement associées au sommeil paradoxal. / A recent study reported that individuals suffering from frequent idiopathic nightmares (NMs) produced more perseveration errors on a verbal fluency task (VFT) than did control participants (CTLs) (Simor et al., 2012). These findings suggest executive dysfunction in NM sufferers and support the Affective Network Dysfunction (AND) model relating NM production. We sought to replicate these results in a French speaking cohort. Lexical and semantic VFTs were administered to 23 participants with frequent NMs, and to 16 CTLs with few NMs. Contrary to expectations, groups did not exhibit more fluency perseveration errors (p=.87). Though failure to replicate may indicate that NM sufferers do not have an executive dysfunction, methodological differences between studies and challenges inherent to the use of the VFT may also play a role in the discrepancy between studies. Future study of executive deficits in NM participants should be measured by non linguistic-dependant neuropsychological tasks empirically linked to REM sleep.

No description available.

INTRODUÇÃO: A Estimulação cerebral profunda (ECP) do núcleo subtalâmico (NST) é uma técnica neurocirúrgica utilizada para tratamento de indivíduos com Doença de Parkinson (DP) idiopática quando a terapia farmacológica não atinge mais a sua finalidade. Entretanto, a ECP provoca deterioração nos sintomas fonoarticulatórios e fluência verbal. Durante as testagens vocais estudos mostram grande variação do intervalo entre a desativação da ECP e o início das tarefas vocais sendo inconclusivo seu efeito. Este estudo teve o objetivo de verificar as modificações acústicas da voz, fala, fluência verbal fonológica e motoras durante a ECP do NST ligado e desligado em pacientes com DP. MÉTODOS: Foram avaliados 16 pacientes com DP submetidos ao implante de ECP do NST, em tratamento estabilizado e sob efeito da medicação antiparkinsoniana. As avaliações acústicas da voz e da fluência verbal fonológica foram realizadas no início e 5, 15, 30, 45 e 60 minutos após o ECP ser desligado. Após religar o neuroestimulador estas avaliações foram repetidas aos 5 e 15 minutos. Já as avaliações motora global através do UPDRS III e perceptiva da fala (item 18 da UPDRS III) foram realizadas no início e 5, 30 e 60 minutos após o ECP ser desligado, após religar o neuroestimulador estas avaliações foram repetidas aos 5 minutos. RESULTADOS: Um padrão sequencial de retorno dos sinais parkinsonianos foi observado, com agravamento do tremor e da bradicinesia logo nos primeiros 5 minutos após o ECP desligado, já a rigidez retornou de forma significativa após 30 minutos do aparelho desligado. Os sintomas se estabeleceram quando o ECP foi religado. A fala apresentou melhora significativa após 5 minutos do ECP desligado, apresentando escores semelhantes ao baseline após o aparelho ser religado. O parâmetro acústico Shimmer apresentou melhora significativa nos momentos 30, 45 e 60 minutos após o ECP desligado e também aos 5 minutos após religar o ECP, a proporção ruído-harmônico apresentou piora significativa nos momentos 15, 30, 45 e 60 minutos após o ECP desligado. Os demais parâmetros não apresentaram alteração significativa. Os resultados da fluência verbal não apresentou alteração significativa em nenhum dos momentos testados. CONCLUSÃO: A descontinuação da ECP do NST acarreta um agravamento dos sintomas motores, sendo o tremor o primeiro sintoma a reaparecer seguido da bradicinesia e rigidez. Em contrapartida, pacientes submetidos a este procedimento sofrem de alterações da fala e voz que pioram com estimulador ligado. / INTRODUCTION: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of subthalamic nucleus (STN) is a technique used for neurosurgical treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) idiopathic when drug therapy does not achieve its purpose more. However, DBS causes deterioration symptoms phonoarticulatory and verbal fluency. During testing vocal studies showed wide variation in the interval between the deactivation of the DBS and the beginning of the tasks being inconclusive vocal effect. This study aimed to check the voice acoustic, speech, phonologic verbal fluency and motor changes during the on and off states of the subthalamic nucleus (SNT) deep brain stimulation (DBS) in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). METHODS: Sixteen PD patients with a STN DBS and stable antiparkinsonian medication were evaluated. Voice acoustics and verbal fluency were assessed with DBS on and after 5, 15, 30, 45, 60 minutes after the device was turned off and after 5 and 15 minutes of DBS was on again. Motor assessment was done using the UPDRS III and speech perception with the DBS on and after 15, 30, 60 minutes of DBS off and 5 minutes after DBS on again. RESULTS: A sequence pattern was identified for the return of the parkinsonian signs. There is an aggravation of the tremor and bradykinesia after 5 minutes of DBS off while rigidity aggravates after 30 minutes. Speech showed a significant improvement after 5 minutes of DBS off. Symptoms approached baseline 5 minutes after the DBS was turned on. The Shimmer acoustic parameters showed significant improvement after 30 minutes of DBS off and after 5 minutes of DBS on, the noise-harmonic ratio showed significant worsening after 15 minutes of DBS off. The results of verbal fluency did not 13 change significantly in any of the times tested. CONCLUSION: Discontinuation of the DBS of the subthalamic nucleus carries a worsening of motor symptoms, the tremor being the first symptom to reappear followed by bradykinesia and rigidity. In contrast, patients undergoing this procedure suffer from speech and voice changes that worsen with stimulator is turned on.

Introdução: Os transtornos de ansiedade na infância e adolescência são extremamente comuns e incapacitantes. Embora algumas das suas características neuropsicológicas já tenham sido descritas, a maioria dos processos mentais subjacentes envolvidos na sua fisiopatologia ainda não foram elucidados. Objetivo: Investigar as características neuropsicolinguísticas de adolescentes com e sem transtornos de ansiedade selecionados a partir de uma amostra da comunidade. Métodos: Foram incluídos nesse estudo adolescentes com idades entre 12 e 18 anos, provenientes de escolas públicas da rede da abrangência do Hospital de Clínicas de Porto. O diagnóstico psiquiátrico foi realizado utilizando o instrumento K-SADS-PL. Para avaliação dos domínios neuropsicológicos de orientação, atenção, percepção, memória, aritmética, linguagem, praxias, funções executivas (fluência verbal e resolução de problemas) foi utilizada a Bateria de Avaliação Neuropsicológica Breve NEUPSILIN. Resultados: Um total de 58 adolescentes (25 casos e 34 controles) foram incluídos nessa amostra. Resultados dos testes multivariados da MANCOVA revelaram um efeito principal dos transtornos de ansiedade nos domínios cognitivos avaliados (F=2,246; p=0,039). Análises complementares revelaram que adolescentes com transtornos de ansiedade tiveram pior desempenho no teste de fluência verbal fonêmica em comparação ao grupo controle, com um tamanho de efeito moderado, d=1,21 (IC95% 0,91-1,50, p <0,001). Uma análise qualitativa desse achado revela um menor número de palavras recuperadas corretamente na tarefa e menor número de permutação em indivíduos com ansiedade se comparados aos controles. Não foram encontradas outras diferenças nas demais dimensões investigadas neste estudo. Conclusão: foram encontradas evidências preliminares de uma associação entre o desempenho na tarefa de fluência verbal fonêmica (acesso lexical e funções executivas) e transtornos de ansiedade em adolescentes. Isso pode representar uma evidência de um déficit cognitivo de funções mais complexas de processamento em uma tarefa tempo-dependente. / Introduction: anxiety disorders are extremely common and impairing psychiatric conditions. Although some neuropsychological characteristics have already been described, most of the underlying mental processes involved in its pathophysiology are still to be investigated. Objetive: Investigate a broad range of neuropsychological characteristics in adolescents with and without anxiety disorders selected from a community sample. Methods: Were included in this study adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years, from public schools of the scope of the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre. Psychiatric diagnosis was performed with K-SADS-PL. We used a neuropsychological battery of tasks addressing major neuropsychological domains – Brazilian Brief Neuropsychological Assessment Battery NEUPSILIN: orienting, attention, perception, memory, arithmetic, language, praxis, and executive functions (verbal fluency and problem solving). Results: A total of 58 adolescents (25 cases and 34 controls) were included in this study. Results from the multivariate tests of the MANCOVA reveal a main effect of anxiety disorders in the neurocognitive domains evaluated (F=2.246; p-value=0.039). Post-hoc analyses reveal that phonemic verbal fluency was markedly different between cases and controls, with a moderate effect size, d=1.21 (CI95% 0.91-1.50; p<0.001). Supplementary qualitative analysis reveals a lower number of retrieved correct words and lower number of switches in subjects with anxiety if compared to controls in this specific task. We found no other significant differences in the remaining seven dimensions investigated in this study. Conclusion: we found preliminary evidence of an association between phonemic verbal fluency and anxiety disorders. This may represent an evidence of a high order cognitive deficit in time-dependent tasks involving performance.