Loading...
5 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
- Efficacy of ICT-based neurocognitive rehabilitation programs for acquired brain injury: a systematic review on Its assessment methodsPublication . Geraldo, Andreia; Dores, Artemisa R.; Coelho, Bárbara; Ramião, Eduarda; Castro-Caldas, Alexandre; Barbosa, FernandoThis systematic review aims to analyze the methods used in the assessment of the efficacy of Neurocognitive Rehabilitation Programs (NRP) based on Information and Communication Technologies in patients with Acquired Brain Injury, namely platforms and online rehabilitation programs. Studies with the main purpose of evaluating the efficacy of those programs were retrieved from multiple literature databases, accordingly to inclusion and exclusion criteria. The inclusion and analysis of the studies followed preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) and Cochrane Collaboration Guidelines. Thirty-one studies were included in this review. Results showed that most studies used a pre-post methodological design, with few studies performing assessment moments during intervention or follow-up. Attention, memory, and executive functions were the cognitive variables considered by a larger number of studies at the assessment of NRP efficacy. Despite that, there is a growing evidence on the inclusion of variables related to everyday functioning in this process, increasing its ecological validity. Concerning the instruments used, the studies presented a large heterogeneity of the instruments and methods used, even for the same assessment purpose, highlighting a lack of consensus regarding assessment protocol. Psychophysiological and neuroimaging techniques are seldom used on this field. This review identifies the main characteristics of the methodology used at the assessment of NRP and potential limitations, providing useful information to guide the practice of the health care professionals in rehabilitation of Acquired Brain Injury. It also suggests new directions for future studies.
- Effects of emotional valence and three-dimensionality of visual stimuli on brain activation: an fMRI studyPublication . Dores, A. R.; Almeida, I.; Barbosa, F.; Castelo-Branco, M.; Monteiro, L.; Reis, M.; Sousa, L. de; Caldas, A. CastroBACKGROUND: Examining changes in brain activation linked with emotion-inducing stimuli is essential to the study of emotions. Due to the ecological potential of techniques such as virtual reality (VR), inspection of whether brain activation in response to emotional stimuli can be modulated by the three-dimensional (3D) properties of the images is important. OBJECTIVE: The current study sought to test whether the activation of brain areas involved in the emotional processing of scenarios of different valences can be modulated by 3D. Therefore, the focus was made on the interaction effect between emotion-inducing stimuli of different emotional valences (pleasant, unpleasant and neutral valences) and visualization types (2D, 3D). However, main effects were also analyzed. METHODS: The effect of emotional valence and visualization types and their interaction were analyzed through a 3 × 2 repeated measures ANOVA. Post-hoc t-tests were performed under a ROI-analysis approach. RESULTS: The results show increased brain activation for the 3D affective-inducing stimuli in comparison with the same stimuli in 2D scenarios, mostly in cortical and subcortical regions that are related to emotional processing, in addition to visual processing regions. CONCLUSIONS: This study has the potential of clarify brain mechanisms involved in the processing of emotional stimuli (scenarios' valence) and their interaction with three-dimensionality.
- Meta-analytic evidence for a reversal learning effect on the Iowa gambling task in older adultsPublication . Pasion, Rita; Gonçalves, Ana R.; Fernandes, Carina; Ferreira-Santos, Fernando; Barbosa, Fernando; Marques-Teixeira, JoãoIowa Gambling Task (IGT) is one of the most widely used tools to assess economic decision-making. However, the research tradition on aging and the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) has been mainly focused on the overall performance of older adults in relation to younger or clinical groups, remaining unclear whether older adults are capable of learning along the task. We conducted a meta-analysis to examine older adults' decision-making on the IGT, to test the effects of aging on reversal learning (45 studies) and to provide normative data on total and block net scores (55 studies). From the accumulated empirical evidence, we found an average total net score of 7.55 (+/- 25.9). We also observed a significant reversal learning effect along the blocks of the IGT, indicating that older adults inhibit the prepotent response toward immediately attractive options associated with high losses, in favor of initially less attractive options associated with long-run profit. During block 1, decisions of older adults led to a negative gambling net score, reflecting the expected initial pattern of risk-taking. However, the shift toward more safe options occurred between block 2 (small-to-medium effect size) and blocks 3, 4, 5 (medium-to-large effect size). These main findings highlight that older adults are able to move from the initial uncertainty, when the possible outcomes are unknown, to decisions based on risk, when the outcomes are learned and may be used to guide future adaptive decision-making.
- Realidade virtual na reabilitação: por que sim e por que não? uma revisão sistemáticaPublication . Dores, Artemisa R.; Barbosa, Fernando; Marques, António; Carvalho, Irene P.; Sousa, Liliana de; Castro-Caldas, AlexandreO processo de reabilitação, independentemente da área de saúde a que se refere, continua a ser um desafio para profissionais, pacientes e suas famílias. Na tentativa de superar as limitações das intervenções tradicionais, a tecnologia de Realidade Virtual (RV) tem sido aplicada de forma crescente à reabilitação e começa a fornecer importantes ferramentas que, contudo, geram debate e posicionamentos divergentes. Com o objetivo de investigar quais os contributos da RV aplicada ao domínio da reabilitação, nomeadamente em termos das vantagens e limitações que comporta, o presente estudo procede a uma revisão sistemática da produção científica nesta área e apresenta um modelo que permite, de modo hierarquizado, descrever e sistematizar a natureza dos estudos revistos e as principais temáticas abordadas. A revisão sistemática focou-se sobre trabalhos científicos indexados, até novembro de 2010, na base de dados ISI Web of Knowledge. Os trabalhos incluídos foram analisados por dois investigadores independentes no programa NVivo 9 e o modelo desenvolvido aplicado à recodificação do material em análise. Foram identificados 963 artigos, dos quais, aplicados os critérios de exclusão, 288 títulos e resumos foram analisados. O modelo desenvolvido indica, como categorias centrais da bibliografia: Tipo de Artigo (Empírico; Teórico); Contextualização do Projeto; Tipo de Abordagem (Tecnologia Assistiva; Realidade Aumentada; Abordagens Tradicionais; Realidade Virtual). Esta última categoria (RV) foi decomposta de forma exaustiva para documentação da sua aplicabilidade, efeitos e tendências futuras. Como vantagens da RV, surgem: a possibilidade de sua aplicação a uma diversidade de domínios, funções cognitivas, comportamentos, doenças neurológicas e incapacidades físicas; as suas características e respetivas consequências; e a possibilidade de superar limitações das intervenções tradicionais. Do lado das limitações aparecem discutidos: os efeitos secundários da RV, as causas das limitações e precauções sugeridas. Os resultados evidenciam tendências promissoras acerca da utilização da tecnologia de RV no domínio da reabilitação, com implicações para a forma como será realizada no futuro. Sugerem ainda a necessidade de dar continuidade aos trabalhos que procuram avaliar a aplicabilidade da RV na reabilitação em geral e na reabilitação (neuro) cognitiva em particular.
- Registered Replication Report: Rand, Greene, and Nowak (2012)Publication . Bouwmeester, S.; Verkoeijen, P. P. J. L.; Aczel, B.; Barbosa, F.; Bègue, L.; Brañas-Garza, P.; Chmura, T. G. H.; Cornelissen, G.; Døssing, F. S.; Espín, A. M.; Evans, A. M.; Ferreira-Santos, F.; Fiedler, S.; Flegr, J.; Ghaffari, M.; Glöckner, A.; Goeschl, T.; Guo, L.; Hauser, O. P.; Hernan-Gonzalez, R.; Herrero, A.; Horne, Z.; Houdek, P.; Johannesson, M.; Koppel, L.; Kujal, P.; Laine, T.; Lohse, J.; Martins, E. C.; Mauro, Carlos; Mischkowski, D.; Mukherjee, S.; Myrseth, K. O. R.; Navarro-Martínez, D.; Neal, T. M. S.; Novakova, J.; Pagà, R.; Paiva, T. O.; Palfi, B.; Piovesan, M.; Rahal, R.-M.; Salomon, E.; Srinivasan, N.; Srivastava, A.; Szaszi, B.; Szollosi, A.; Thor, K. Ø.; Tinghög, G.; Trueblood, J. S.; Van Bavel, J. J.; van ‘t Veer, A. E.; Västfjäll, D.; Warner, M.; Wengström, E.; Wills, J.; Wollbrant, C. E.In an anonymous 4-person economic game, participants contributed more money to a common project (i.e., cooperated) when required to decide quickly than when forced to delay their decision (Rand, Greene & Nowak, 2012), a pattern consistent with the social heuristics hypothesis proposed by Rand and colleagues. The results of studies using time pressure have been mixed, with some replication attempts observing similar patterns (e.g., Rand et al., 2014) and others observing null effects (e.g., Tinghög et al., 2013; Verkoeijen & Bouwmeester, 2014). This Registered Replication Report (RRR) assessed the size and variability of the effect of time pressure on cooperative decisions by combining 21 separate, preregistered replications of the critical conditions from Study 7 of the original article (Rand et al., 2012). The primary planned analysis used data from all participants who were randomly assigned to conditions and who met the protocol inclusion criteria (an intent-to-treat approach that included the 65.9% of participants in the time-pressure condition and 7.5% in the forced-delay condition who did not adhere to the time constraints), and we observed a difference in contributions of -0.37 percentage points compared with an 8.6 percentage point difference calculated from the original data. Analyzing the data as the original article did, including data only for participants who complied with the time constraints, the RRR observed a 10.37 percentage point difference in contributions compared with a 15.31 percentage point difference in the original study. In combination, the results of the intent-to-treat analysis and the compliant-only analysis are consistent with the presence of selection biases and the absence of a causal effect of time pressure on cooperation.