Predictors of academic achievement and social competence in adolescence : facilitation, inhibition and general cognitive processing /

The relevance of attentional measures to cognitive and social adaptive behaviour was examined in an adolescent sample. Unlike previous research, the influence of both inhibitory and facilitory aspects of attention were studied. In addition, contributions made by these attentional processes were compared with traditional psychometric measures of cognitive functioning. Data were gathered from 36 grade 10 and 1 1 high school students (20 male and 16 female students) with a variety of learning and attentional difficulties. Data collection was conducted in the course of two testing sessions. In the first session, students completed questionnaires regarding their medical history, and everyday behaviours (the Brock Adaptive Functioning Questionnaire), along with non-verbal problem solving tasks and motor speed tasks. In the second session, students performed working memory measures and computer-administered tasks assessing inhibitory and facilitory aspects of attention. Grades and teacher-rated measures of cognitive and social impulsivity were also gathered. Results indicate that attentional control has both cognitive and social/emotional implications. Performance on negative priming and facilitation trials from the Flanker task predicted grades in core courses, social functioning measures, and cognitive and social impulsivity ratings. However, beneficial effects for academic and social functioning associated with inhibition were less prevalent in those demonstrating a greater ability to respond to facilitory cues. There was also some evidence that high levels of facilitation were less beneficial to academic performance, and female students were more likely to exceed optimal levels of facilitory processing. Furthermore, lower negative priming was ''S'K 'i\':y-: -'*' - r " j«v ; ''*.' iij^y Inhibition, Facilitation and Social Competence 3 associated with classroom-rated distraction and hyperactivity, but the relationship between inhibition and social aspects of impulsivity was stronger for adolescents with learning or reading problems, and the relationship between inhibition and cognitive impulsivity was stronger for male students. In most cases, attentional measures were predictive of performance outcomes independent of traditional psychometric measures of cognitive functioning. >,, These findings provide support for neuropsychological models linking inhibition to control of interference and arousal, and emphasize the fundamental role of attention in everyday adolescent activities. The findings also warrant further investigation into the ways which inhibitory and facilitory attentional processes interact, and the contextdependent nature of attentional control.associated with classroom-rated distraction and hyperactivity, but the relationship between inhibition and social aspects of impulsivity was stronger for adolescents with learning or reading problems, and the relationship between inhibition and cognitive impulsivity was stronger for male students. In most cases, attentional measures were predictive of performance outcomes independent of traditional psychometric measures of cognitive functioning. >,, These findings provide support for neuropsychological models linking inhibition to control of interference and arousal, and emphasize the fundamental role of attention in everyday adolescent activities. The findings also warrant further investigation into the ways which inhibitory and facilitory attentional processes interact, and the contextdependent nature of attentional control.

Le rôle des symptômes d'hyperactivité- impulsivité dans la performance à une tâche de pointage manuel : quel rôle pour l'inattention?

L'intégralité de ce projet a été réalisé à l'aide de logiciels sous licence libre.

Modulation of nociception and pain by attention and stress

Les facteurs psychologiques tels que l'hypnose, l'émotion, le stress et l’attention exercent un effet modulant puissant sur la nociception et la douleur. Toutefois, l’influence de l'attention sur la nociception et la douleur, ainsi que les mécanismes neuronaux sous-jacents, ne sont pas clairs. La littérature actuelle sur la modulation attentionnelle des réponses spinales nociceptives, telles que mesurées par le réflexe RIII, et de la perception de l’intensité de la douleur est discordante et souvent contradictoire. Ce mémoire fournit un nouveau cadre pour examiner la modulation du réflexe RIII et de la douleur par l’attention. Une tâche de discrimination sensorielle a été décomposée en trois composantes attentionnelles : la vigilance, l’orientation, et le contrôle exécutif. Auparavant, la nature multidimensionnelle de l’attention fut largement ignorée dans la littérature. Nous démontrons que les composantes attentionnelles ont des effets modulatoires distincts sur la nociception et la douleur et suggérons que ceci représente une partie de la confusion présente dans la littérature. En prenant compte du stress indépendamment, nous démontrons, pour la première fois, que le stress inhibe la modulation attentionnelle du réflexe RIII ce qui indique une interaction et dissociation de la modulation des réponses nociceptives par l’attention et le stress. Ces résultats importants clarifient, en grande partie, les contradictions dans la littérature, puisque les tâches cognitives produisent souvent des augmentations du stress ce qui confond l’interprétation des résultats. De plus, la tâche de discrimination inclut des stimuli visuels et somatosensoriels et révèle que l’influence de l'attention sur la douleur est spatialement spécifique tandis que la modulation attentionnelle de la nociception est spécifique à la modalité des stimuli, au moins en ce qui concerne les modalités examinées. A partir de ces résultats, un nouveau modèle de la modulation attentionnelle des processus de la douleur, basée sur les composantes attentionnelles, a été proposé. Celui-ci est appuyé par la littérature et fournit une explication systématique et intégratrice des résultats antérieurement contradictoires. De plus, à partir de ce modèle, plusieurs mécanismes neuronaux ont été proposés pour sous-tendre la modulation attentionnelle de la nociception et de la douleur.

Generalized systemic cryptococcosis in a dog after immunosuppressive corticotherapy

Um cão da raça Boxer, macho, com 2 anos e 11 meses de idade foi encaminhado ao hospital veterinário com histórico de distúrbio gastroentérico de dois meses de duração, apatia, hiporexia, emagrecimento progressivo e deficiência visual. Ataxia e vocalização foram observadas posteriormente. O animal estava sendo tratado em outra clínica veterinária com antibióticos e doses imunossupressoras de corticóides, direcionados ao controle de provável enterite alimentar. A morte ocorreu após cinco dias. As observações macro e microscópica revelaram tratar-se de criptococose sistêmica, atingindo trato digestório, olhos, SNC, rins, pâncreas e linfonodos. O presente relato enfatiza a infecção fúngica criptocócica quanto aos seus aspectos grastrointestinais iniciais a serem considerados no diagnóstico clínico, ressaltando a imunossupressão induzida pela corticoterapia.

A prática pedagógica de professores de alunos com transtorno de déficit de atenção/hiperativadade

This study is inserted at the Line of Strategical Research of Thinking and Knowledge production which scientific projects about the relation of thinking and knowledge production are realized. The accomplishment of this dissertation involved an empiric research at a school of the municipal district of Natal RN. Our purpose was to investigate the practice of the staff working with students who present Disabilities and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity (DADH) at regular classes due to the organization of thinking in pedagogical strategies. The object of this study is presented at the center of the questions which involves the conscious analysis of the problems and needs that emerge at the school. Considering the specialty of the theme, we choose a methodology whose focus is the dialogue and the sharing of meanings with the partners of this research through the observation of the activities developed at class/school and interviews/conversations with six teachers of first and second cycles of primary education. According with the study, some theoretician presumptions of Mr. Freire (2001), Mr. Nóvoa (1995), Mr. Bohm (2005) and son on. The results reveled at the research indicate the fragility of a continuous formation directed to the development of critical-reflexive thinking of the teachers.The teachers revel conceptions due to formation, pedagogical practices and the relation with the parents and coordinators, through their performances and speeches, allowing us to identify some pedagogical strategies used. We identified some negative response about the process of learning-developing of these pedagogical strategies such as the one we call unconcern . The strategy of sitting the student at the front row chairs can have positive and negative responses depending on the way the teacher act and follow the student. Other strategies identified as positive response bringers at the learning-developing process and that should be reinforced by the staff are the playful and the group assignments . At this perspective, the school needs to develop a collective project between the pedagogical team and teachers to overcome the needs of all students, and as a consequence, of the staff and improve the positive strategies, minimizing the negative ones and allowing the organizations of new strategies that promotes the improvement of learning-teaching process of the students with DADH

Water deficit affects photosynthetic induction in Bauhinia forficata Link (Fabaceae) and Esenbeckia leiocarpa Engl. (Rutaceae) growing in understorey and gap conditions

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

Qualidade de vida, avaliação cognitiva e comportamental de prematuros de muito baixo peso com idade entre cinco e oito anos

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Análise molecular de pacientes com síndromes de Smith-Magenis

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Habilidade auditiva em criança desnutrida

PurposeTo characterize and compare the performance of malnourished children and normal children in auditory processing. MethodThe sample comprised 30 children from five to ten years old, both genders, being 15 malnourished children (G1) and 15 children with adequate nutritional status, as a control group (G2). The groups were paired according to gender, age and grade level. Both groups underwent peripheral and central auditory assessment, noting that malnourished children had higher changes in the skill of sequencing score for verbal and nonverbal when compared to normal children, and the same occurred in closing skills and background figure. ResultRegarding the degree of auditory processing disorder, it was more severe in malnourished children. ConclusionChildren with malnutrition have higher frequency alterations in auditory abilities when compared to normal children, being the temporal ordering skills, auditory memory, selective attention, figure-ground and closing the most affected skills.

Clinical Efficacy of a New Automated Hemoencefalographic Neurofeedback Protocol

Among the ongoing attempts to enhance cognitive performance, an emergent and yet underrepresented venue is brought by hemoencefalographic neurofeedback (HEG). This paper presents three related advances in HEG neurofeedback for cognitive enhancement: a) a new HEG protocol for cognitive enhancement, as well as b) the results of independent measures of biological efficacy (EEG brain maps) extracted in three phases, during a one year follow up case study; c) the results of the first controlled clinical trial of HEG, designed to assess the efficacy of the technique for cognitive enhancement of an adult and neurologically intact population. The new protocol was developed in the environment of a software that organizes digital signal algorithms in a flowchart format. Brain maps were produced through 10 brain recordings. The clinical trial used a working memory test as its independent measure of achievement. The main conclusion of this study is that the technique appears to be clinically promising. Approaches to cognitive performance from a metabolic viewpoint should be explored further. However, it is particularly important to note that, to our knowledge, this is the world's first controlled clinical study on the matter and it is still early for an ultimate evaluation of the technique.

Specific attentional impairments and complex visual hallucinations in eye disease

OBJECTIVE: To test the prediction by the Perception and Attention Deficit (PAD) model of complex visual hallucinations that cognitive impairment, specifically in visual attention, is a key risk factor for complex hallucinations in eye disease. METHODS: Two studies of elderly patients with acquired eye disease investigated the relationship between complex visual hallucinations (CVH) and impairments in general cognition and verbal attention (Study 1) and between CVH, selective visual attention and visual object perception (Study 2). The North East Visual Hallucinations Inventory was used to classify CVH. RESULTS: In Study 1, there was no relationship between CVH (n=10/39) and performance on cognitive screening or verbal attention tasks. In Study 2, participants with CVH (n=11/31) showed poorer performance on a modified Stroop task (p<0.05), a novel imagery-based attentional task (p<0.05) and picture (p<0.05) but not silhouette naming (p=0.13) tasks. Performance on these tasks correctly classified 83% of the participants as hallucinators or non-hallucinators. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that, consistent with the PAD model, complex visual hallucinations in people with acquired eye disease are associated with visual attention impairment.

Sustained attention in children with two etiologies of early hydrocephalus.

Several studies have shown that children with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) and hydrocephalus have attention problems on parent ratings and difficulties in stimulus orienting associated with a posterior brain attention system. Less is known about response control and inhibition associated with an anterior brain attention system. Using the Gordon Vigilance Task (Gordon, 1983), we studied error rate, reaction time, and performance over time for sustained attention, a key anterior attention function, in 101 children with SBM, 17 with aqueductal stenosis (AS; another condition involving congenital hydrocephalus), and 40 typically developing controls (NC). In SBM, we investigated the relation between cognitive attention and parent ratings of inattention and hyperactivity and explored the impact of medical variables. Children with SBM did not differ from AS or NC groups on measures of sustained attention, but they committed more errors and responded more slowly. Approximately one-third of the SBM group had attention symptoms, although parent attention ratings were not associated with task performance. Hydrocephalus does not account for the attention profile of children with SBM, which also reflects the distinctive brain dysmorphologies associated with this condition.

Respuesta adaptada a las necesidades específicas de estudiantes con de espectro austista (TEA) trastorno en la materia de tecnología

El trabajo desarrollado pretende dar a conocer cuales son las necesidades especificas de alumnos con trastorno del espectro autista (TEA).Se enmarca en los estudios que afrontan la temática de la Atención a Diversidad y la inclusión de los alumnos con TEA en centros ordinarios educativos. Se pretende desarrollar recursos metodológicos para ofrecer una respuesta adaptativa ante el reto de afrontar las competencias clave a través de la nueva asignatura de “Tecnología, programación y robótica”; Para ello se analizan las características de cuatro estudiantes con TEA escolarizados en secundaria del centro concertado Colegio Lourdes (FUHEM) de la comunidad de Madrid y se ofrecen respuestas diferentes en función de ellas, apoyándonos en sus fortalezas para vencer sus dificultades, con el objetivo de alcanzar las mismas competencias claveque el resto de compañeros, como marca la Ley Orgánica de Mejora de la Calidad de la Educación, LOMCE, que entra en vigor en este nivel en el curso 2015-2016. ABSTRACT The developed work seeks to highlight what are the specific needs of students with autism spectrum (ASDs).The part of the studies faced the issue of Attention to diversity and the inclusion of students with ASD in mainstream schools educational disorder. It aims to develop methodological resources to offer an adaptive response to the challenge of addressing key skills through the new subject of "Technology, Programming and Robotics"; To do the characteristics of four students with ASD are discussed in secondary school concerted Lourdes (FUHEM) of the Madrid and different responses depending on them are offered, building on their strengths to overcome their difficulties, in order to achieve the same core competencies of other colleagues as brand organic law of Quality Improvement of Education, LOMCE, which takes effect in the 2015-2016 year.

The association between early minor motor difficulties in extreme low birth weight infants and school age attentional difficulties

Introduction: Extremely premature infants of normal intellectual ability have an increased prevalence of motor and attentional difficulties. Knowledge of the relationship between early motor difficulties and measures of attention at school age would enhance understanding of these developmental pathways, their interrelationship and opportunities for intervention. Objective: This study examines whether an association exists between early findings of minor motor difficulties and school age clinical and psychometric measures of attention. Methodology: 45/60 eligible ELBW(1000 g) or preterm (< 27/40 gestation) infants born at the Mater Mother's Hospital were assessed at 12 and 24 months for minor motor deficits (using NSMDA) and at 7-9 years for attention, using clinical (Conners and Du Paul Rating Scales) and psychometric (assessing attention span, selective and divided attention) measures. Results: NSMDA at 12 months was only associated with the psychometric measures of verbal attention span. It was not associated with later clinical measures of attention. NSMDA at 24months was strongly associated with specific clinical measures of attention at school age, independent of biological and social factors. It was not associated with psychometric measures of attention. Conclusion: The major finding of this study is that motor difficulties in ELBW infants at 2 years are associated with later clinical measures of attention. Possible mechanisms underlying this relationship are considered. Crown Copyright (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.