The aim of the study was to describe the relationship between electroencephalographic (EEG) findings obtained by standardized visual analysis, subclinical white matter lesions (WML) and brain atrophy in a large memory clinic population. Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD, n=58), mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n=141), subjective cognitive impairment (SCI, n=194) had clinical, MRI based WML severity and regional atrophy assessments, and routine resting EEG recording. Background activity (BA) and episodic and continuous abnormalities were assessed visually in EEG. WML (p=0.006) and atrophy in medial temporal regions (MTA) (p=(0.001) were associated with slower BA in all diagnoses. WML were associated in SCI with total episodic EEG abnormalities (p=0.03). EEG is associated with subclinical WML burden and cortical brain atrophy in a memory clinic population. Even the standard visually assessed EEG can complement a memory clinic diagnostic workup.
COBISS.SI-ID: 4030124
We aimed to determine the added value of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to clinical and imaging tests to predict progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to any type of dementia. The risk of progression to dementia was estimated using two logistic regression models based on 250 MCI participants: the first included standard clinical measures (demographic, clinical, and imaging test information) without CSF biomarkers, and the second included standard clinical measures with CSF biomarkers. Adding CSF improved predictive accuracy with 0.11 (scale from 0-1). Of all participants, 136 (54%) had a change in risk score of 0.10 or higher (which was considered clinically relevant), of whom in 101, it was in agreement with their dementia status at follow-up. An individual person's risk of progression from MCI to dementia can be improved by relying on CSF biomarkers in addition to recommended clinical and imaging tests for usual care.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3596716
The aim of this study was to describe the rate and clinical predictors of cognitive decline in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and compare the findings with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) patients. Longitudinal scores for the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in 1,290 patients (835 DLB, 198 PDD, and 257 AD) were available from 18 centers with up to three years longitudinal data. Linear mixed effects analyses with appropriate covariates were used to model MMSE decline over time. Several subgroup analyses were performed, defined by anti-dementia medication use, baseline MMSE score, and DLB core features. The mean annual decline in MMSE score was 2.1 points in DLB, compared to 1.6 in AD (p = 0.07 compared to DLB) and 1.8 in PDD (p = 0.19). Rates of decline were significantly higher in DLB compared to AD and PDD when baseline MMSE score was included as a covariate, and when only those DLB patients with an abnormal dopamine transporter SPECT scan were included. Decline was not predicted by sex, baseline MMSE score, or presence of specific DLB core features. The average annual decline in MMSE score in DLB is approximately two points. Although in the overall analyses there were no differences in the rate of decline between the three neurodegenerative disorders, there were indications of a more rapid decline in DLB than in AD and PDD. Further studies are needed to understand the predictors and mechanisms of cognitive decline in DLB.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3674284
Human postural stability is commonly assessed by a set of posturographic tests during quiet upright standing. Numerous studies extend these tests with cognitive and mental tasks where various physiological and biomechanical sensors are used in combination with a force plate. The aim of our study is to determine whether psychological effects of sensor attachment and the awareness of the subject being measured could influence the posturographic tests performed using the force plate. A series of experiments were performed where 54 participants (14 women and 40 men) were subjected to different conditions. Measurement protocol was composed of combinations of conditions; performing posturographic tests with eyes open or eyes closed, with biomedical instrumentation sensors attached or not attached, being aware of the measurement or not being aware of it. The results indicate that the presence of biomedical instrumentation sensors and the awareness of being measured have a statistically significant impact on the centre of pressure path length and ellipse area as well as on the perceived difficulty of the task and its pleasantness. We conclude that the attachment of sensors on the body of the participants during biomechanical experiments significantly affects the perception of the experimental situation and alters the output of posturographic tests. It is therefore important to appropriately take into account the possible effects of psychological strain in the experimental design and in the interpretation of the results.
COBISS.SI-ID: 30009383
Many studies addressing age-related changes in driving performance focus on comparing young vs. older drivers, which might lead to the biased conclusion that driving performance decreases only after the age of 65. The main aim of the study was to show that changes in driving performance are progressive throughout the adult years. A sample of 351 drivers aged from 20 to 80 was assessed for their reaction times while driving between road cones. The drivers were exposed to two conditions varying according to task complexity. In single task conditions, the drivers performed a full stopping manoeuvre at a given signal; in dual task conditions, the drivers were distracted before the signal for stopping manoeuvre was triggered. Reaction times were compared across conditions and age groups. The results showed that both reaction times and variability of driving performance increased progressively between the ages of 20 and 80. The increase of both reaction times and variability was greater in the complex task condition. High performing quarter of elderly drivers performed equally well or better than younger drivers did. The data clearly supported the claim that driving performance changes steadily across age groups: both mean reaction time and inter-individual variability progressively increases with age. In addition, a significant group of older drivers were identified who did not show the expected age-related decrease in performance. The findings have important implications, suggesting that in relation to driving, ageing is a progressive phenomenon and may lead to variety of driving performance; age-related studies of driving performance should put more emphasis on investigating changes across the whole driver age range rather than only comparing younger and older drivers. In 2017, this paper was awarded by the Scientific Council of the Slovene Research Agency as one of the best research articles in the field of social sciences in Slovenia.
COBISS.SI-ID: 60115042
Schizophrenia exerts its devastating effects mostly by causing a profound and poorly understood inability to function, affecting different aspects of everyday life from daily activities to a lack of social contacts, unemployment, and the consequences of stigmatisation. In empirical studies, social dysfunction is defined as a social performance measure, commonly based on the principles of cognitivism, and usually evaluated in laboratory and everyday settings. In schizophrenia, it is thought to be caused by cognitive dysfunction, related to brain dysfunction. From a medical perspective, schizophrenia is understood as a neurodevelopmental disorder resulting in a pattern of disconnection between important brain areas. Nevertheless, measures of neurocognition do not explain the expected amount of variance in social functioning. Other explanatory models of social dysfunction include structural functionalism, symbolic interactionism, and clinical phenomenology. Phenomenological accounts relate to the classical tradition in psychopathology, which describes schizophrenia as being marked by a certain “Gestalt”, which is in turn recognised as a distinctive and pervasive change in an individual’s self-experience and attunement to the surrounding world, thus emphasising the subjective experience of others. In the present paper, we empirically explore the dilemma concerning the causes of social dysfunction in schizophrenia and to show how the comprehension, gained via a neuroscientific approach to a complex brain phenomenon can be meaningfully expanded by adding insights from different explanatory models. These models need to be operationalised so that all the data can be incorporated into a comprehensive statistical analysis.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3395244
The article presents the use of the electroencephalographic (EEG) methods in the analysis of (literary) reading. Contrary to prevalent cognitive theories, which propose that the brain works according to the principle of specialized modular processes (the so-called modular model), alternative theories supported by emerging brain imaging data presuppose the existence and simultaneous interactions of a number of different representations, supported and maintained by distributed neuronal mechanisms (the so-called activated states model). This question can also be approached by using the time-frequency analysis of EEG data, which, compared to the classic ERP analysis, allows an insight into parallel processing by dividing time course of oscillatory electrical activity of the brain into frequency bands. Individual frequency bands are considered to be important for various aspects of cognitive mechanisms, which are also the basis of language processing in reading. In this context, the most interesting rapid brain rhythms are beta and gamma and the most interesting slow rhythm is theta.
COBISS.SI-ID: 60287330
Four individual profiles of ways toward happiness were found on a Slovene sample: Full, Empty, Pleasurable, and Meaningful life types. The present study aimed to validate these four types in samples from seven different countries (N = 3690) utilising four different languages. Participants completed the Orientation towards Happiness Scale and measures of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and ill-being. A two-step cluster analysis was performed with each of the seven country samples. A highly congruent, highly internally replicable four-cluster solution was found in all seven samples. Full and Empty life individuals have high and low scores on all three orientations to happiness, respectively. Pleasurable and Meaningful types reflect two traditional philosophic orientations: Pleasurable life individuals scored high on pleasure, average on engagement and low on meaning orientation, while Meaningful life individuals had high scores on meaning, average on engagement, and low scores on pleasure orientation. The four types differed in subjective happiness and psychological well-being with full life type characterized by the highest scores on subjective happiness and psychological well-being, and Empty life by the lowest scores. On the other hand, depressive symptoms were likely to be the lowest in the Full life type and the highest in the Empty life type. Meaningful and Pleasurable life types were characterized by moderate well- and ill-being, but the two types tended not to differ from each other on the measures used.
COBISS.SI-ID: 57814114
This study provides an interdisciplinary account determining how children and adolescents understand urban and architectural aspects of sustainable development. The concept of sustainability implies complex relations between ethical, economical, social, technical and other qualities of our environment. The concept is difficult to understand for children who lack the abilities of abstract reasoning and multi-dimensional thinking. A new measure of sustainability understanding was formed based on pictorial rather than textual format and was applied to a large sample of over 2000 participants aged 6-19 years. The results indicated that girls had higher levels of appreciation toward sustainability issues than boys. The results also showed that understanding of sustainability issues increased progressively with age, particularly with adolescents from urban environments. The findings are discussed in terms of cognitive changes in adolescence and their implications for educational policy.
COBISS.SI-ID: 5360737
The purpose of our study was (a) to evaluate an effect of information literacy (IL) training in the first year psychology students and (b) to follow changes in acquired IL in time. Two groups of first year psychology students from two Slovenian universities participated in a quasi-experimental study. Experimental group (EG) consisted of 44 students and control group (CG) consisted of 42 students. Students' IL was assessed using Slovene version of IL test (Mittermeyer & Quirion, 2003). EG students attended IL training as a part of their study, whereas CG did not. The IL test was applied three times in both groups, namely before the beginning of IL training, at the end of the training, and a few months after the training. EG's IL was increasing significantly over time and was the highest in delayed post-test, showing long-term effects of IL training. At the same time the differences in IL between EG and CG were increasing in favor of EG. Results have shown an important role of IL training in students' IL development over time. Study implications and limitations are discussed.
COBISS.SI-ID: 61123170