Clinical effectiveness of mindfulness-based music therapy on improving emotional regulation in blind older women: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: This study aimed to investigate clinical effectiveness of a structured eight-week mindfulness-based music therapy (MBMT) program on improving mood regulation in older women with blindness. This investigation compared a MBMT group with a mindfulness intervention (MI) group and a control group. Methods: Ninety-two older females with blindness from a residential setting in Hong Kong were recruited and randomly allocated to a MBMT (n = 31), MI (n = 30), or control (n = 31) group. Psychological measurements regarding mood regulation and general mood states (namely, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale [DERS], Geriatric Depression Scale [GDS], and Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21), were taken at pretest and posttest. Outcome assessors were blinded to group assignment. Results: Data was analyzed based on intention-to-treat basis. At posttest, DERS scores in the MBMT group (mean differences and 95% confidence interval: 12.1, 5.5 to 18.8) and the MI group (7.2, 0.5 to 13.8) were lower than that in the control group. GDS scores in the MBMT group (2.9, 1.7 to 4.0) and the MI group (1.7, 0.6 to 2.9) were lower than those in the control group. Compared with the MI group, the MBMT group improved emotional awareness sub-scores in DERS (2.1, 0.2 to 4.1) and appeared to lower depression in GDS scores (1.1, -0.0 to 2.3; p = 0.053). Conclusion: MBMT seems more beneficial than MI alone for improving emotional regulation in older women with blindness. The combination of mindfulness and music can generate a synergetic effect by enhancing both attention and appraisal components within the emotional-regulation process. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05583695.

Differentiation of perceptual and semantic subsequent memory effects using an orthographic paradigm.

This study aimed to differentiate perceptual and semantic encoding processes using subsequent memory effects (SMEs) elicited by the recognition of orthographs of single Chinese characters. Participants studied a series of Chinese characters perceptually (by inspecting orthographic components) or semantically (by determining the object making sounds), and then made studied or unstudied judgments during the recognition phase. Recognition performance in terms of d-prime measure in the semantic condition was higher, though not significant, than that of the perceptual condition. The between perceptual-semantic condition differences in SMEs at P550 and late positive component latencies (700-1000ms) were not significant in the frontal area. An additional analysis identified larger SME in the semantic condition during 600-1000ms in the frontal pole regions. These results indicate that coordination and incorporation of orthographic information into mental representation is essential to both task conditions. The differentiation was also revealed in earlier SMEs (perceptual>semantic) at N3 (240-360ms) latency, which is a novel finding. The left-distributed N3 was interpreted as more efficient processing of meaning with semantically learned characters. Frontal pole SMEs indicated strategic processing by executive functions, which would further enhance memory.

Effects of age, education and gender in the Consortium to Establish a Registry for the Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD)-Neuropsychological Assessment Battery for Cantonese-speaking Chinese elders.

BACKGROUND: The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (CERAD-NAB) offers information on the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and gives a profile of cognitive functioning. This study explores the effects of age, education and gender on participants' performance on eight subtests in the Chinese-Cantonese version of the CERAD-NAB. METHODS: The original English version of the CERAD-NAB was translated and content-validated into a Chinese-Cantonese version to suit the Hong Kong Chinese population. The battery was administered to 187 healthy volunteers aged 60 to 94 years. Participants were excluded if they had neurological, medical or psychiatric disorders (including dementia). Stepwise multiple linear regression analyses were performed to assess the relative contribution of the demographic variables to the scores on each subtest. RESULTS: The Cantonese version of CERAD-NAB was shown to have good content validity and excellent inter-rater reliability. Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that performances on seven and four out of eight subtests in the CERAD-NAB were significantly influenced by education level and age, respectively. Age and education had significant effects on participants' performance on many tests. Gender also showed a significant effect on one subtest. CONCLUSIONS: The preliminary data will serve as an initial phase for clinical interpretation of the CERAD-NAB for Cantonese-speaking Chinese elders.