Physical Exercise Improves Peripheral BDNF Levels and Cognitive Functions in Mild Cognitive Impairment Elderly with Different BDNF Val66Met Genotypes

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Ethanol intake-induced apoptosis in glial cells and axonal disorders in the cerebellar white matter of UChA rats (voluntary ethanol consumers)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Fairness, Justice and an Individual Basis for Public Policy

Prior models of the policy process have examined how human characteristics can affect policy decision-making in such a way that it leads to aggregate effects on policy outcomes as a whole. I develop a model of the policy process which suggests that emotions related to fair and unfair experiences in the same policy domain are utilized by decision-makers as policy criteria. In the lab, I empirically tested this, and find that emotions and experience related to fairness do influence the policy decision to move away from the status quo alternative. Based upon this result, I simulated the evolution of a society of agents engaged in decision-making using similar criteria. The simulation suggests that incentives have an important role in leading to cooperation and social success. The external validity of the simulation also implies that it can act as a platform for future evolutionary policy experimentation.

The prevalence of falls and associated factors among the elderly according to ethnicity

The historical and cultural characteristics reflect the Brazilian population. Elderly blacks are disadvantaged in socio-economic and demographic, clinical, functional and psychosocial aspects, reducing their social autonomy and functional independence. The decline in functional status due to variables associated with age and ethnicity can contribute to disabling events, such as falls. Socio-demographic, clinical and functional aspects related to falls were analyzed; Mobility, functional status and cognition were measured, with a statistical significance of pd '' 0.05. The sample of 196 elderly people was 48.5% white, 28% brown, 23.5% black, with an average of 69.9 years. There was reduced mobility classified as a medium risk for falls in 60% (p<0.013) among the elderly. With reference to groups analyzed, there were significant differences between variables for family income (p < 0.029), the occurrence of falls (p < 0.006), fear of falls (p < 0.023) and near-falls (p < 0.000). Blacks fall more often (p < 0.03). Statistical significance was revealed between ethnicity and self-reported occurrence of falls, fear of falling and the occurrence of near-falls, functional limitation and medium risk falls due to reduced mobility, with increased frequency of falls for elderly blacks.

A critical and descriptive approach to interictal behavior with the Neurobehavior Inventory (NBI)

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the Neurobehavior Inventory (NBI) in a group of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients from a tertiary care center, correlating its scores with the presence of psychiatric symptoms. Methods: Clinical and sociodemographic data from ninety-six TLE outpatients were collected, and a neuropsychiatric evaluation was performed with the following instruments: Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), structured psychiatric interview (MINI-PLUS), Neurobehavior Inventory (NBI), and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D). Results: Some traits evaluated by the NBI showed adequate internal consistency (mean inter-item correlation between 0.2 and 0.4) and were frequent, such as religiosity (74%) and repetitiveness (60.4%). Principal component analysis showed three factors, named here as emotions (Factor 1), hyposexuality (Factor 2), and unusual ideas (Factor 3). Depressive symptoms on HAM-D showed a strong association with emotions and hyposexuality factors. When patients with left TLE and right TLE were compared, the former exhibited more sadness (p=0.017), and the latter, a greater tendency toward sense of personal destiny (p=0.028). Conclusion: Depression influences NBI scoring, mainly emotionality and hyposexuality traits. Neurobehavior Inventory subscales can be better interpreted with an appropriate evaluation of comorbid mood and anxiety disorders. Compromise in left temporal mesial structures is associated with increased tendency toward sad affect, whereas right temporal pathology is associated with increased beliefs in personal destiny. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The impact of dental caries and trauma in children on family quality of life

Objectives: To assess the impact of childrens dental caries (DC) and traumatic dental injuries (TDI) on parents quality of life (QoL), adjusted by family income. Methods: Parents of 219 children aged 5 and 6 years answered the Family Impact Scale (FIS) on their perception of QoL and data about income. Three calibrated dentists examined the severity of DC according to decayed, missing and filled permanent teeth index, and children were categorized into: 0 = caries free; 15 = low severity; and =6 = high severity. TDI were classified into uncomplicated and complicated injuries. QoL was measured through FIS items and total score, and Poisson regression was used to associate the variables with the outcome. Results: Severity of DC showed a negative impact on the total score and subscales on parental/family activities, parental emotions and financial burden (P < 0.001). TDI showed a negative impact on total score and in some FIS items. The multivariate-adjusted model showed that only the increase in the severity of childrens DC (RR = 3.19; 95% CI = 2.36, 4.31; P < 0.001) was associated with a greater negative impact on parents QoL, while high family income was a protective factor (RR = 0.68; 95% CI = 0.48, 0.95; P < 0.001). Conclusions: The severity of childrens DC has a negative impact on parents QoL, whereas TDI do not. A lower family income might have a negative impact on parents QoL.

Mini-Mental State Examination performance in frail, pre-frail, and non-frail community dwelling older adults in Ermelino Matarazzo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Background: Frailty in older adults is a multifactorial syndrome defined by low metabolic reserve, less resistance to stressors, and difficulty in maintaining organic homeostasis due to cumulative decline of multiple physiological systems. The relationship between frailty and cognition remains unclear and studies about Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) performance and frailty are scarce. The objective was to examine the association between frailty and cognitive functioning as assessed by the MMSE and its subdomains. Methods: A cross-sectional population-based study (FIBRA) was carried out in Ermelino Matarazzo, a poor subdistrict of the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Participants were 384 community dwelling older adults, 65 years and older who completed the MMSE and a protocol to assess frailty criteria as described in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Results: Frail older adults had significantly worse performance on the MMSE (p < 0.001 for total score). Linear regression analyses showed that the MMSE total score was influenced by age (p < 0.001), education (p < 0.001), family income (p < 0.001), and frailty status (p < 0.036). Being frail was associated more significantly with worse scores in Time Orientation (p < 0.004) and Immediate Memory (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our data suggest that being frail is associated with worse cognitive performance, as assessed by the MMSE. It is recommended that the assessment of frail older adults should include the investigation of their cognitive status.

Bias and learning in temporal binding: intervals between actions and outcomes are compressed by prior bias

It has consistently been shown that agents judge the intervals between their actions and outcomes as compressed in time, an effect named intentional binding. In the present work, we investigated whether this effect is result of prior bias volunteers have about the timing of the consequences of their actions, or if it is due to learning that occurs during the experimental session. Volunteers made temporal estimates of the interval between their action and target onset (Action conditions), or between two events (No-Action conditions). Our results show that temporal estimates become shorter throughout each experimental block in both conditions. Moreover, we found that observers judged intervals between action and outcomes as shorter even in very early trials of each block. To quantify the decrease of temporal judgments in experimental blocks, exponential functions were fitted to participants’ temporal judgments. The fitted parameters suggest that observers had different prior biases as to intervals between events in which action was involved. These findings suggest that prior bias might play a more important role in this effect than calibration-type learning processes.

Integration of cognitive and affective processes in perception and decision-making

The relationship between emotion and cognition is a topic that raises great interest in research. Recently, a view of these two processes as interactive and mutually influencing each other has become predominant. This dissertation investigates the reciprocal influences of emotion and cognition, both at behavioral and neural level, in two specific fields, such as attention and decision-making. Experimental evidence on how emotional responses may affect perceptual and attentional processes has been reported. In addition, the impact of three factors, such as personality traits, motivational needs and social context, in modulating the influence that emotion exerts on perception and attention has been investigated. Moreover, the influence of cognition on emotional responses in decision-making has been demonstrated. The current experimental evidence showed that cognitive brain regions such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are causally implicated in regulation of emotional responses and that this has an effect at both pre and post decisional stages. There are two main conclusions of this dissertation: firstly, emotion exerts a strong influence on perceptual and attentional processes but, at the same time, this influence may also be modulated by other factors internal and external to the individuals. Secondly, cognitive processes may modulate emotional prepotent responses, by serving a regulative function critical to driving and shaping human behavior in line with current goals.

When the Practice of Theorizing Meets the Theorizing of Practice. Social Knowledge Making in Organization Science Academia and Managerial Communities

The aim of the present work is to contribute to a better understanding of the relation between organization theory and management practice. It is organized as a collection of two papers, a theoretical and conceptual contribution and an ethnographic study. The first paper is concerned with systematizing different literatures inside and outside the field of organization studies that deal with the theory-practice relation. After identifying a series of positions to the theory-practice debate and unfolding some of their implicit assumptions and limitations, a new position called entwinement is developed in order to overcome status quo through reconciliation and integration. Accordingly, the paper proposes to reconceptualize theory and practice as a circular iterative process of action and cognition, science and common-sense enacted in the real world both by organization scholars and practitioners according to purposes at hand. The second paper is the ethnographic study of an encounter between two groups of expert academics and practitioners occasioned by a one-year executive business master in an international business school. The research articulates a process view of the knowledge exchange between management academics and practitioners in particular and between individuals belonging to different communities of practice, in general, and emphasizes its dynamic, relational and transformative mechanisms. Findings show that when they are given the chance to interact, academics and practitioners set up local provisional relations that enable them to act as change intermediaries vis-a-vis each other’s worlds, without tying themselves irremediably to each other and to the scenarios they conjointly projected during the master’s experience. Finally, the study shows that provisional relations were accompanied by a recursive shift in knowledge modes. While interacting, academics passed from theory to practical theorizing, practitioners passed from an involved practical mode to a reflexive and quasi-theoretical one, and then, as exchanges proceeded, the other way around.

Functional and neural mechanisms of intertemporal choice

People are daily faced with intertemporal choice, i.e., choices differing in the timing of their consequences, frequently preferring smaller-sooner rewards over larger-delayed ones, reflecting temporal discounting of the value of future outcomes. This dissertation addresses two main goals. New evidence about the neural bases of intertemporal choice is provided. Following the disruption of either the medial orbitofrontal cortex or the insula, the willingness to wait for larger-delayed outcomes is affected in odd directions, suggesting the causal involvement of these areas in regulating the value computation of rewards available with different timings. These findings were also supported by a reported imaging study. Moreover, this dissertation provides new evidence about how temporal discounting can be modulated at a behavioral level through different manipulations, e.g., allowing individuals to think about the distant time, pairing rewards with aversive events, or changing their perceived spatial position. A relationship between intertemporal choice, moral judgements and aging is also discussed. All these findings link together to support a unitary neural model of temporal discounting according to which signals coming from several cortical (i.e., medial orbitofrontal cortex, insula) and subcortical regions (i.e., amygdala, ventral striatum) are integrated to represent the subjective value of both earlier and later rewards, under the top-down regulation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The present findings also support the idea that the process of outcome evaluation is strictly related to the ability to pre-experience and envision future events through self-projection, the anticipation of visceral feelings associated with receiving rewards, and the psychological distance from rewards. Furthermore, taking into account the emotions and the state of arousal at the time of decision seems necessary to understand impulsivity associated with preferring smaller-sooner goods in place of larger-later goods.

Conceptual and normative issues of memory enhancement

Our growing understanding of human mind and cognition and the development of neurotechnology has triggered debate around cognitive enhancement in neuroethics. The dissertation examines the normative issues of memory enhancement, and focuses on two issues: (1) the distinction between memory treatment and enhancement; and (2) how the issue of authenticity concerns memory interventions, including memory treatments and enhancements. rnThe first part consists of a conceptual analysis of the concepts required for normative considerations. First, the representational nature and the function of memory are discussed. Memory is regarded as a special form of self-representation resulting from a constructive processes. Next, the concepts of selfhood, personhood, and identity are examined and a conceptual tool—the autobiographical self-model (ASM)—is introduced. An ASM is a collection of mental representations of the system’s relations with its past and potential future states. Third, the debate between objectivist and constructivist views of health are considered. I argue for a phenomenological account of health, which is based on the primacy of illness and negative utilitarianism.rnThe second part presents a synthesis of the relevant normative issues based on the conceptual tools developed. I argue that memory enhancement can be distinguished from memory treatment using a demarcation regarding the existence of memory-related suffering. That is, memory enhancements are, under standard circumstances and without any unwilling suffering or potential suffering resulting from the alteration of memory functions, interventions that aim to manipulate memory function based on the self-interests of the individual. I then consider the issue of authenticity, namely whether memory intervention or enhancement endangers “one’s true self”. By analyzing two conceptions of authenticity—authenticity as self-discovery and authenticity as self-creation, I propose that authenticity should be understood in terms of the satisfaction of the functional constraints of an ASM—synchronic coherence, diachronic coherence, and global veridicality. This framework provides clearer criteria for considering the relevant concerns and allows us to examine the moral values of authenticity. rn

Neuropsychological impairments and the impact of dystrophin mutations on general cognitive functioning of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Mutations in the dystrophin gene have long been recognised as a cause of mental retardation. However, for reasons that are unclear, some boys with dystrophin mutations do not show general cognitive deficits. To investigate the relationship between dystrophin mutations and cognition, the general intellectual abilities of a group of 25 boys with genetically confirmed Duchenne muscular dystrophy were evaluated. Furthermore, a subgroup underwent additional detailed neuropsychological assessment. The results showed a mean full scale intelligence quotient (IQ) of 88 (standard deviation 24). Patients performed very poorly on various neuropsychological tests, including arithmetics, digit span tests and verbal fluency. No simple relationship between dystrophin mutations and cognitive functioning could be detected. However, our analysis revealed that patients who lack the dystrophin isoform Dp140 have significantly greater cognitive problems.

[Psychosomatic medicine and arterial hypertension - love it or leave it?]

Over the last two decades modern psychosomatic research has found multiple evidence for an impact of psychosocial factors on the control of arterial blood pressure as well as the development of arterial hypertension. This narrative review focuses first on the current stress concept and factors that influence the degree of blood pressure change following a psychosocial stressor. Second, relevant psychosocial factors associated with blood pressure are presented such as marital status, social support, socioeconomic status and work conditions. In addition, the influence of personality and cognition on blood pressure will be discussed. The second part focuses on the outcome of cognitive-behavioral therapies and relaxation techniques as a means to effectively control blood pressure. In conclusion, there is now good evidence showing that psychosocial factors and stressors may increase blood pressure. The working environment, the socioeconomic status as well as aspects of personality and cognitive factors like rumination may also impact blood pressure with to an extent that is clinically relevant. With respect to therapeutic options, cognitive-behavioral interventions, combined with relaxation techniques all fitting the needs of the individual patient best can offer a clinically meaningful contribution of an effective blood pressure control.