Quality of Life in Patients with Recurrent Vasovagal or Unexplained Syncope: Influence of Sex, Syncope Type and Illness Representations

Health-related quality of life (QoL) is reduced in patients with recurrent vasovagal (VVS) or unexplained (US) syncope. Little is known regarding these patients’ QoL as pertains to their capacity to attain their life goals. Factors influencing QoL, such as sex, syncope type and illness representations have not been studied. Our objective is to examine the relationship between illness representations and QoL, as well as possible sex and syncope type differences. One hundred and four patients undergoing tilt-table testing (TTT) for recurrent syncope were interviewed one month before TTT, using questionnaires. Data were analysed using ANCOVAs, a-priori Helmert contrasts for illness representations, and regressions. Patients with US had a poor QoL compared to those with VVS [F(1, 91) = 10.46; p < 0.01], particularly in men (p < 0.01). Patients with higher perceived syncope severity showed an impoverished QoL relative to those with less severe perceptions [F(1, 91) = 5.47; p < 0.05]. A hierarchical regression revealed that illness representations mediate the impact of lifetime number of syncope on QoL. In conclusion, QoL is reduced in these patients, and is influenced by illness representations. Helping patients change their perceptions about their syncope may be an efficient way to promote QoL.     

Abstract Events in Semantics

Philosophia - Here, we defend the thesis whereby the event (conceived as a mental and social abstract entity) plays a main role of sense in the meaning of certain sentences. This thesis is based on...     

Evidence for spontaneous retrieval of suspended but not finished prospective memories

McDaniel and Einstein (2007) argued that prospective memories can be retrieved through spontaneous retrieval processes stimulated by the presence of a target cue. To test this claim, we investigated whether presenting a prospective memory cue during a task that did not require an intention to be performed spontaneously triggered remembering of that intention. In two experiments, participants performed an image-rating task in which a prospective memory task (to press the “Q” key when a target word appeared) was embedded. Then, participants were told that their intention was finished or suspended. Finally, participants performed a lexical decision task in which each target (and a matched control) word appeared. RTs were slower to target words than to control words when the intention was suspended but not when it was finished. These results suggest that target cues associated with suspended intentions can spontaneously trigger remembering but that finished intentions are quickly deactivated.     

Self-controlled concurrent feedback and the education of attention towards perceptual invariants

The present study investigates the effects of different types of concurrent feedback on the acquisition of perceptual-motor skills. Twenty participants walked through virtual corridors in which rhythmically opening and closing sliding doors were placed. The participants aimed to adjust their walking speed so as to cross the doors when the doors were close to their maximal aperture width. The highest level of performance was achieved by learners who practiced the task with unambiguous self-controlled concurrent feedback, which is to say, by learners who could request that feedback at wish. Practice with imposed rather than self-controlled feedback and practice without concurrent feedback were shown to be less effective. Finally, the way in which the self-controlled concurrent feedback was presented was also found to be of paramount importance; if the feedback is ambiguous, it may even prevent participants from learning the task. Clearly, unambiguous self-controlled feedback can give rise to higher levels of performance than other feedback conditions (compared to imposed schedule) but, depending on the way it is presented, the feedback can also prevent the participants from learning the task.In the discussion it is argued that unambiguous self-controlled concurrent feedback allows learners to more rapidly educate their attention towards more useful perceptual invariants and to calibrate the relation between perceptual invariants and action parameters.     

Age-related effects in prospective memory are modulated by ongoing task complexity and relation to target cue

Two experiments examined the puzzling variation in the age-related patterns for event-based prospective memory tasks. Both experiments involved a famous faces ongoing task with a feature of the famous face as the target for the prospective memory task. In Experiment 1, a substantial age deficit was found on the prospective memory task when the cue was nonfocal (wearing glasses) to the ongoing task, replicating previous research, but this deficit was significantly reduced with a focal cue (first name John). In Experiment 2, the prospective memory cue (wearing glasses) was held constant and the demands of the ongoing task of naming faces were varied. The substantial age differences found with a nonfocal cue were eliminated when the ongoing task was made less challenging. The findings help reconcile the divergent age-related findings reported in the literature.     

Realizing complex delayed intentions in young and old adults: The role of planning aids

Although it has been suggested that the delayed realization of intended actions should benefit from appropriate intention planning, empirical evidence on this issue is scarce. In three experiments, we examined whether and which planning aids provided in the intention formation phase affect delayed intention realization in young and old adults. One finding was that intention planning directly affected delayed intention realization: instructing participants to include the cue for appropriate intention initiation in their plans benefited delayed performance. Another finding was that older adults' performance was improved when they were guided in structuring their plan in combination with guidance in implementing this plan after a delay. In sum, the results point to the importance of plan-related factors for understanding the delayed realization of intended actions.     

Harmonic analysis of a complex motor behavior

This study deals with the learning of a complex motor task. The example used is rock climbing, where the subject's motricity is highly constrained by the natural environment. The working hypothesis is that the sensorimotor system searches for behavioral solutions characterized by minimal energy expenditure in the dissipation of forces. Harmonic systems — which satisfy this requirement — are used as models for testing the source signal defined by the acceleration curve at the learner's center of gravity. It is shown that only the dynamics of an expert's motor behavior are harmonic, while those of a beginner are stochastic (or chaotic). It is also shown that for experts, the process of adaptation to environmental constraints involves the relaxation of the dynamics and the ensuing emergence of a stable state which corresponds to a quasi-periodic attractor. A harmonic analysis is used to distinguish the environmental and intrinsic components of the behavioral dynamics, shown to result from the coupling of these two components via resonance.     

Task-related versus stimulus-specific practice

When people repeatedly practice the same cognitive task, their response times (RT) invariably decrease. Dutilh, Vandekerckhove, Tuerlinckx, and Wagenmakers (2009) argued that the traditional focus on how mean RT decreases with practice offers limited insight; their diffusion model analysis showed that the effect of practice is multifaceted, involving an increase in rate of information processing, a decrease in response caution, adjusted response bias, and, unexpectedly, a strong decrease in nondecision time. In this study, we aim to further disentangle these effects into stimulus-specific and task-related components. The data of a transfer experiment, in which repeatedly presented sets and new sets of stimuli were alternated, show that the practice effects on both speed of information processing and time needed for peripheral processing are partly task-related and partly stimulus-specific. The effects on response caution and response bias appear to be task-related. This diffusion model decomposition provides a perspective on practice that is more detailed and more informative than the traditional analysis of mean RT.     

Executive functioning in normal aging: a study of action planning using the Zoo Map Test

A particularly important aspect of executive functioning involves the ability to form and carry out complex plans, that is to say planning. This study aimed to investigate planning in 18 older and 16 younger normal participants using an ecological planning subtask derived from the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome test battery, the "Zoo Map Test." There are two trials. The first trial consists of a "high demand" version of the subtask in which the participants must plan in advance the order in which they will visit designated locations in a zoo (formulation level). In the second, or "low demand" version, the participant is simply required to follow a concrete externally imposed strategy to reach the locations to visit (execution level). The two-way ANOVAs mainly showed more difficulties in elderly adults than in younger adults, more difficulties in formulation level than in execution level, and lastly a greater difference between formulation and execution in older participants than in younger adults. These results suggest that elderly participants have some problems developing logical strategies whereas they are able to execute complex predetermined plans.     

Lack of the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 7 selectively modulates Theta rhythm and working memory

Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) are known to play a role in synaptic plasticity and learning. We have previously shown that mGluR7 deletion in mice produces a selective working memory (WM) impairment, while other types of memory such as reference memory remain unaffected. Since WM has been associated with Theta activity (6-12 Hz) in EEGs, and since EEG abnormalities have been observed in these mice before, we studied the effect of mGluR7 gene ablation on EEG activity in the hippocampus, in particular in the Theta range, during performance of a WM task. In an eight-arm maze with four arms baited, mGluR7 knock-out (KO) and wild-type mice committed the same number of reference memory errors, whereas KOs committed more WM errors. While performing the task, KO mice showed substantially higher Theta amplitudes, and the ratio of Theta to overall EEG power was much increased. No change was seen in the Delta (0-5 Hz), or Gamma (30-40 Hz) EEG bands compared with controls. When recording EEGs during periods of rest in the home cages, no difference was seen between groups. These findings suggest that mGluR7 is important for modulation and control of Theta activity. Since only WM was affected, and only the Theta range of EEG activity was altered, these results show a correlation between Theta rhythm and WM performance, and therefore support the concept that Theta activity in the hippocampus is involved in WM storage.