What Drives Task Performance in Fluency Tasks in People With HIV?

Introduction: Fluency tasks require language (i.e., semantics, phonological output lexicon, and phonological assembly) and executive functions (i.e., inhibition; mental set shifting; updating, and monitoring). Little is known about whether people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are more impaired on a specific type of fluency task and what aspects of language and executive functions drive such performance. Aims: To understand (1) whether people with HIV are more impaired in animal, letter, or unconstrained fluency relative to a normative sample; (2) whether there exist differences between tasks relative to the total number of words; and (3) which aspects of executive function and language are involved in their performance. Methods: Data from animal, letter, and unconstrained fluency of 50 Spanish-speaking people with HIV were analyzed. The number of switches and mean cluster size for each task and 10 word properties (e.g., frequency, age of acquisition, length in graphemes) for each of the correct words were measured. A chi-square test was used to address Aim 1, linear mixed effects models for Aim 2, and random forests and conditional inference trees for Aim 3. The results were cross-validated with a normative sample. Results: People with HIV were not more impaired in animal, letter, or unconstrained fluency relative to a normative sample. People with HIV produced fewer words in letter fluency compared to animal and unconstrained fluency. In addition, they produced fewer words in animal fluency compared to unconstrained fluency. Number of switches emerged as the most important variable to predict the total number of correct words when considering the three tasks together and for each task separately. Word frequency was relevant to predict animal fluency, age of acquisition to predict letter fluency, and cluster size to predict unconstrained fluency. These results were cross-validated with the exception cluster size. Conclusion: People with HIV rely on language (phonological output lexicon, not necessarily semantics) and executive functioning (updating and monitoring) to produce words in fluency tasks. These results concur with the current literature. Future work may correlate fluency scores with other tests measuring language and executive functions or study other types of fluency tasks (e.g., action, cities, supermarket, and professions).

Types of acquired dyslexia in Spanish-speaking patients with aphasia.

The different types of acquired dyslexia described by cognitive neuropsychology have been observed in single-case and case series studies in different languages. However, no multipatient study of Spanish-speaking individuals has been reported that uses the same criteria and tasks to identify each participant's acquired dyslexia pattern. In this study, we analyzed participants' performance in three tasks (oral reading of words and nonwords, visual lexical decision with pseudohomophones, and written homophone comprehension) among 16 Spanish-speaking patients with aphasia. We identified 9 patients with acquired phonological dyslexia, 3 with acquired surface dyslexia, and 4 with acquired mixed dyslexia. The results of this research provide more information about the relative frequency of each type of acquired dyslexia in Spanish, which could be used to help design more appropriate treatments for rehabilitation. Identifying which processes have been impaired and which have been preserved will allow professionals to plan more specific interventions.

Disociaciones entre prosodia emocional y lingüística en pacientes con lesiones cerebrales del hemisferio derecho / Dissociations between emotional and linguistic prosody in patients with right hemisphere lesions

El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar patrones de disociación entre el procesamiento de prosodia lingüística y emocional con el fin de analizar la independencia funcional entre ambos. Se realizó un estudio con un diseño de múltiples casos únicos de 17 pacientes con lesiones del hemisferio derecho debidas a accidente cerebro vascular. Se analizaron los perfiles de alteración/ conservación de la capacidad para procesar ambos tipos de prosodia con cuatro pruebas de comprensión y repetición de prosodia emocional y lingüística, y se comparó el rendimiento de cada paciente con un grupo control sano. Los resultados mostraron rendimiento disociado entre prosodia emocional y lingüística en la habilidad de comprensión prosódica en 3/17 pacientes y no se hallaron disociaciones dobles. El hallazgo de distintos patrones de alteración/conservación entre prosodia lingüística y emocional, tanto en la habilidad para comprender como para repetir prosodia, es evidencia que apoya el supuesto de independencia funcional entre los procesamientos de ambos tipos de prosodia.

The goal of this study was to evaluate dissociation patterns between processing of linguistic prosody and emotional (or affective) prosody, in order to analyze the functional independence between them. We carried out a multiple single-cases study of 17 patients with right hemisphere lesions due to stroke. The alteration / conservation profiles of the ability to process both types of prosody were analyzed with four tasks of comprehension and repetition of emotional and linguistic prosody. The performance of each patient was compared with a healthy control group. The results showed a dissociated performance between emotional and linguistic prosody in prosodic comprehension in 3/17 patients, and no double dissociations were found. Finding different patterns of alteration / conservation between linguistic and emotional prosody, both in the ability to understand and to repeat prosody, supports the assumption of functional independence between processing of both types of prosody.

The right hemisphere's contribution to discourse processing: A study in temporal lobe epilepsy.

OBJECTIVE: Discourse skills - in which the right hemisphere has an important role - enables verbal communication by selecting contextually relevant information and integrating it coherently to infer the correct meaning. However, language research in epilepsy has focused on single word analysis related mainly to left hemisphere processing. The purpose of this study was to investigate discourse abilities in patients with right lateralized medial temporal lobe epilepsy (RTLE) by comparing their performance to that of patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy (LTLE). METHODS: 74 pharmacoresistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients were evaluated: 34 with RTLE and 40 with LTLE. Subjects underwent a battery of tests that measure comprehension and production of conversational and narrative discourse. Disease related variables and general neuropsychological data were evaluated. RESULTS: The RTLE group presented deficits in interictal conversational and narrative discourse, with a disintegrated speech, lack of categorization and misinterpretation of social meaning. LTLE group, on the other hand, showed a tendency to lower performance in logical-temporal sequencing. SIGNIFICANCE: RTLE patients showed discourse deficits which have been described in right hemisphere damaged patients due to other etiologies. Medial and anterior temporal lobe structures appear to link semantic, world knowledge, and social cognition associated areas to construct a contextually related coherent meaning.

Comprensión de textos en contextos desfavorecidos: El efecto de un programa de intervención en la habilidad para detectar errores e incongruencias en textos escritos / Reading comprehension in deprived social backgrounds: The effect of an intervention program based on the ability to detect errors and inconsistencies in written texts

La comprensión de textos es una de las competencias fundamentales para el desarrollo social y educativo de los seres humanos y constituye un tema esencial en la agenda educativa. Sin embargo, el estudio y la sistematización de los efectos de programas que buscan mejorar la comprensión lectora, sobre todo en el caso de alumnos pertenecientes a entornos sociales desfavorecidos, son todavía escasos. Se presentan los resultados de una intervención realizada en un grupo de alumnos de primero y segundo año de nivel medio y de contexto desfavorecido de una escuela de gestión social de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (Argentina). Dicha intervención estuvo basada en la habilidad metacognitiva de detectar errores e incongruencias, fundamental para el proceso de comprensión de un texto. Inicialmente fueron evaluados 50 adolescentes con un test de eficacia lectora, una prueba estandarizada de comprensión de textos y una prueba específica que evalúa la habilidad de detectar errores e incongruencias. Se conformó un grupo control con 23 participantes y un grupo experimental con los 27 restantes. El entrenamiento se llevó a cabo durante tres meses, con una frecuencia de una hora semanal y una vez finalizado, ambos grupos fueron reevaluados. Los resultados muestran un efecto positivo de la intervención sobre el grupo experimental, que alcanzó una diferencia estadísticamente significativa entre la cantidad de respuestas correctas de la evaluación inicial y de la evaluación final.

Reading comprehension is one of the core competencies for social and educational development of human beings and an essential topic in education agenda. However, the study and systematization of the effects of programs that seek to improve reading comprehension, especially in students from deprived social backgrounds, are still scarce. As a strategic skill that requires a conscious and active reader who can process the text and formulate a plan according to his or her purposes, reading comprehension must be flexible enough to adjust text demands. In this respect, a good reader should be aware of his or her cognitive abilities in order to understand a text successfully. Hence training in metacognitive skills improves significantly whole reading comprehension ability. Metacognitive training allows children to internalize and also anticipate the effective and useful strategies to be applied in each case. This paper aims to promote social inclusion to adolescents from a deprived social environment. To gain this goal, a program was designed considering, measurable, agreed and communicable targets, according to real deadlines that fit the raised population needs and realities. It presents the results of an intervention in a group of students of first and second year from secondary school from a deprived context in Gran Buenos Aires (Argentina). This intervention was based on the ability to detect errors and inconsistencies, fundamental to understanding texts. 50 adolescents were initially evaluated with a reading efficiency test, a standardized reading comprehension test and a specific proof to assess the ability to detect errors and inconsistencies. 23 students were part of the control group and 27, were involved in the experimental group. The one hour training was held weekly for three months and once this training was completed, both groups were reevaluated. The training involved twelve sessions which kept the same structure. First the ability was orally introduced. A video, a song, a painting, language games, among other resources, were used to include an error (or more) and / or a mismatch (or more). Then, the students altogether discussed, orally, the strategies used to resolve de introduction activity in order to detect these errors and inconsistencies. In third place, an understanding activity that included a situation that supposed an error or inconsistency was introduced. A fourth step was to present a written activity to strengthen the target ability, asking the children to produce a similar situation. The session finally ended with a pooling of production. This scheme was repeated over the 12 sessions by modifying the content thereof. The last two activities were carried out in pairs to stimulate mutual learning. In every session the information was presented with Power point Program, in differentiates place from, especially assigned for the interventions. The results show a positive effect of the intervention on the experimental group, whose performance achieved a statistically significant difference between the number of correct responses from the initial to the second assessment. One-sample t test was applied to compare the means of performance from the same population before and after the intervention. For the experimental group, statistically significant differences between means were checked before and after the intervention in both variables. time and right answers. For the control group, which received no intervention but had traditional instruction, a t test showed that the difference in performance between the first and second evaluation was not significant.

From Semantic to Social Deficits: Dysfunction of the Nondominant Posterior Perisylvian Area in Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is characterized by profound deficits in social competence and functioning, independent from active psychotic symptoms at different stages of the disease. Social deficits in schizophrenia are clinically well characterized, but their neurobiological underpinnings are undetermined. This article reviews recent evidence supporting heritable deficits in a circuit necessary for appropriate naming of emotions and mental states in others, centered at the temporoparietal junction of the nondominant hemisphere. The clinical implications of this model are discussed, including the potential use of rehabilitation techniques oriented to recognition and naming of emotions and mental states as a necessary step for social rehabilitation.