[Decision-making under ambiguity condition in epileptics].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the ability of decision making under ambiguity condition in epileptics. METHODS: Twenty-five epileptics (EP) at our hospital during June 2011 to March 2012 and 25 healthy controls (HC) were surveyed by Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) with ambiguous probability. Statistical analyses were performed with analysis of variance (ANOVA) and independent sample t test. And α = 0.05 denoted the level of significant differences. RESULTS: As compared with HC, the epileptics were impaired in decision-making under ambiguity and scored lower in IGT (EP: -4.56 ± 10.26; HC: 4.32 ± 24.14; t = -2.23, P = 0.029). A comparison between the scores of subjects on 5 blocks suggested: HC subjects scored higher on block 3 (HC: 2.40 ± 7.07; EP: -1.44 ± 3.98) and block 5 (HC: 4.00 ± 7.46; EP: 0.00 ± 4.51) than the scores of EP subjects (block 3, F = 3.950, P = 0.022, block 5, F = 6.416, P = 0.027). CONCLUSION: The EP patients have significant impairment in decision-making under ambiguity.

[Time perception in depressed and manic patients].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the time perception in affective disorders by using neuropsychological tests and to try to elucidate its neurobiochemical mechanism. METHODS: Using a time reproduction task, a comparative study was conducted for 28 depressive patients, 22 manic patients, and 26 age and education level matched healthy persons as healthy controls. RESULTS: Both depressive patients and manic patients are abnormal (P < 0.001), depressive patients over-reproduced the time interval than healthy controls (600 ms/delay 1 s: 1.6 +/- 0.6, P < 0.001; 600 ms/delay 5 s: 1.7 +/- 0.6, P < 0.001; 3 s/delay 1 s: 3.9 +/- 0.9, P < 0.001; 3 s/delay 5 s: 3.9 +/- 0.7, P < 0.001; 5 s/delay 1 s: 5.9 +/- 1.3, P < 0.001; 5 s/delay 5 s: 6.1 +/- 1.3, P < 0.001), yet manic patients under-reproduced the time interval (600 ms/delay 1 s: 0.7 +/- 0.2, P < 0.01; 600 ms/delay 5 s: 0.6 +/- 0.3, P < 0.001; 3 s/delay 1 s: 1.7 +/- 0.5, P < 0.001; 3 s/delay 5 s: 1.8 +/- 0.6, P < 0.001; 5 s/delay 1 s: 2.9 +/- 0.7, P < 0.001; 5 s/delay 5 s: 3.0 +/- 0.8, P < 0.001). The results of time reproduction task in patients were not related to age, education, duration of illness, number of admission (P > 0.05), but had some relation to severity of illness.And the results were positively correlated with the score of HAMD in depressive patients (six times: r = 0.44, 0.46, 0.73, 0.61, 0.55, 0.50, P < 0.05), but negatively with the score of BRMS in manic patients (six times: r = -0.57, -0.54, -0.71, -0.69, -0.80, -0.71, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Emotion will affect one's time perception. And the neurotransmitter in brain may participate in the processes of time perception.