This systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis (IPDMA) examined the overall effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in reducing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, achieving response and remission, and reducing treatment dropout among adults with PTSD compared to other psychological treatments. Additionally, we examined available participant-level moderators of the efficacy of EMDR.

This study included randomized controlled trials. Eligible studies were identified by a systematic search in PubMed, Embase, PsyclNFO, PTSDpubs, and CENTRAL. The target population was adults with above-threshold baseline PTSD symptoms. Trials were eligible if at least 70% of study participants had been diagnosed with PTSD using a structured clinical interview. Primary outcomes included PTSD symptom severity, treatment response, and PTSD remission. Treatment dropout was a secondary outcome. The systematic search retrieved 15 eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs); 8 of these 15 were able to be included in this IPDMA (346 patients). Comparator treatments included relaxation therapy, emotional freedom technique, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral psychotherapies, and REM-desensitization.

One-stage IPDMA found no significant difference between EMDR and other psychological treatments in reducing PTSD symptom severity (β = −0.24), achieving response (β = 0.86), attaining remission (β = 1.05), or reducing treatment dropout rates (β = −0.25). Moderator analyses found unemployed participants receiving EMDR had higher PTSD symptom severity at the post-test, and males were more likely to drop out of EMDR treatment than females.

The current study found no significant difference between EMDR and other psychological treatments. We found some indication of the moderating effects of gender and employment status.

Individuals tend to overestimate their abilities in areas where they are less competent. This cognitive bias is known as the Dunning-Krueger effect. Research shows that Dunning-Krueger effect occurs in persons with traumatic brain injury and healthy comparison participants. It was suggested by Walker and colleagues (2017) that the deficits in cognitive awareness may be due to brain injury. Confrontational naming tasks (e.g., Boston Naming Test) are used to evaluate language abilities. The Cordoba Naming Test (CNT) is a 30-item confrontational naming task developed to be administered in multiple languages. Hardy and Wright (2018) conditionally validated a measure of perceived mental workload called the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX). They found that workload ratings on the NASA-TLX increased with increased task demands on a cognitive task. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the Dunning-Kruger effect occurs in a Latinx population and possible factors driving individuals to overestimate their abilities on the CNT. We predicted the low-performance group would report better CNT performance, but underperform on the CNT compared to the high-performance group.

The sample consisted of 129 Latinx participants with a mean age of 21.07 (SD = 4.57). Participants were neurologically and psychologically healthy. Our sample was divided into two groups: the low-performance group and the high-performance group. Participants completed the CNT and the NASA-TLX in English. The NASA-TLX examines perceived workload (e.g., performance) and it was used in the present study to evaluate possible factors driving individuals to overestimate their abilities on the CNT. Participants completed the NASA-TLX after completing the CNT. Moreover, the CNT raw scores were averaged to create the following two groups: low-performance (CNT raw score <17) and high-performance (CNT raw score 18+). A series of ANCOVA's, controlling for gender and years of education completed were used to evaluate CNT performance and CNT perceived workloads.

We found the low-performance group reported better performance on the CNT compared to the high-performance, p = .021, np2 = .04. However, the high-performance group outperformed the low-performance group on the CNT, p = .000, np2 = .53. Additionally, results revealed the low-performance group reported higher temporal demand and effort levels on the CNT compared to the high-performance group, p's < .05, nps2 = .05.

As we predicted, the low-performance group overestimated their CNT performance compared to the high-performance group. The current data suggest that the Dunning-Kruger effect occurs in healthy Latinx participants. We also found that temporal demand and effort may be influencing awareness in the low-performance group CNT performance compared to the high-performance group. The present study suggests subjective features on what may be influencing confrontational naming task performance in low-performance individuals more than highperformance individuals on the CNT. Current literature shows that bilingual speakers underperformed on confrontational naming tasks compared to monolingual speakers. Future studies should investigate if the Dunning-Kruger effects Latinx English monolingual speakers compared to Spanish-English bilingual speakers on the CNT.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) can be observed in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. Hallucinations are a core clinical symptom of Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). In this study, we investigated NPS in healthy control and MCI groups who would later be diagnosed with DLB to determine which symptoms would present early.

Participants included those originally diagnosed as healthy controls (n=55), MCI with DLB etiology (n=215), and DLB (n=1059). The control and MCI groups progressed to DLB at later visits in the study. NPS data were collected using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI-Q) that was obtained from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center.

To determine which NPS presented early in the DLB course, we ran ANCOVAs to assess the role of original diagnosis on each NPS, using age as a covariate and applying Bonferroni correction. The control and MCI groups, who were later diagnosed with DLB, had greater severity of delusions, hallucinations, agitation, and apathy than the DLB group. The MCI group that would later be diagnosed with DLB had greater severity of anxiety and motor symptoms than the DLB group. The control group had greater irritability severity than the DLB group, and the controls had greater nighttime behavior severity than the MCI group, who had greater severity than the DLB group.

Overall, we found that NPS present early in those who will be diagnosed with DLB, even when they are diagnosed as healthy controls. These results suggest that examination of NPS is important even in healthy adults, and their presence may be the onset of the DLB process before an official diagnosis of the condition.

Workload is a useful construct in human factors and neuroergonomics research that describes “the perceived relationship between the amount of mental [and physical] processing capability or resources and the amount required by the task”. We apply this concept to neuropsychology and assess several dimensions of workload as it relates to performance on the Trail Making Test.

Twenty college students completed the Trail Making Test (TMT). After completion of each Part A and B, workload was assessed with the NASA-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX), a popular self-report measure of workload including subscales: Mental Demand, Physical Demand, Temporal Demand, Performance, Effort, and Frustration, with an overall average total score as well.

Completion time differed of course between Parts A and B (p < .001). Of more interest, overall workload differed between TMT A (M = 20.33, SD = 13.32) and TMT B (M = 35.79, SD = 17.37) (p < .001, h2 = .68). The greatest subscale differences were with Mental Demand (p < .001, h2 = .68) and Effort (p < .001, h2 = .59), but Physical Demand also showed a difference (p < .007, h2 = .33). Temporal Demand showed the smallest and nonsignificant difference (p = .081, h2 = .152).

Based on previous research in our lab, most results were expected and understandable. As we know with the TMT, Part B is more cognitively demanding (in various ways) than Part A. The greater Physical Demand with Part B is a somewhat more complex finding, needing a solid explanation. Finally, the NASA-TLX appears to be a valid instrument of workload with a standard neuropsychologist test. We argue it can provide useful interesting information in the assessment of cognitive status in clinical populations.

Inadequate nutrient intakes have been linked with poor dentition in older adults. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between the composition of functional tooth units (FTU) and nutrient intakes in older men.

A cross-sectional study with a standardised validated diet history assessment and comprehensive oral health assessments. FTU were categorised by dentition type: (i) Group A (Natural FTU Only), (ii) Group B (Natural and Replaced FTU) and (iii) Group C (No Natural FTU). Attainment of nutrient reference values (NRV) for sixteen micronutrients was incorporated into a micronutrient risk variable, dichotomised ‘good’ (≥ 12) or ‘poor’ (≤ 11), and for seven macronutrients into a macronutrient risk variable, dichotomised ‘good’ (≥ 5) or ‘poor’ (≤ 4).

Subjects selected from the local Sydney geographical areas.

Community-dwelling older men (n 608).

32 % (n 197) of participants were categorised as Group A, 27 % (n 167) as Group B and 40 % (n 244) as Group C. In adjusted logistic regression analysis, being in Group C, compared with Group A, was associated with intakes below NRV recommendations for fibre (OR: 2·30, 95 % CI 1·30, 4·05). Adjusted analysis also showed that men in Group C, compared with Group A, were more likely to have poor intake of macronutrients (OR: 2·00, 95 % CI 1·01, 3·94).

Our study shows statistically significant associations between the composition of FTU and poor macronutrient intakes. Maintaining natural pairs of occluding FTU may be important for attaining adequate nutrient intakes in older men.

Depression is characterised by negative views of the self. Antidepressant treatment may remediate negative self-schema through increasing processing of positive information about the self. Changes in affective processing during social interactions may increase expression of prosocial behaviours, improving interpersonal communications.

To examine whether acute administration of citalopram is associated with an increase in positive affective learning biases about the self and prosocial behaviour.

Healthy volunteers (n = 41) were randomised to either an acute 20 mg dose of citalopram or matched placebo in a between-subjects double-blind design. Participants completed computer-based cognitive tasks designed to measure referential affective processing, social cognition and expression of prosocial behaviours.

Participants administered citalopram made more cooperative choices than those administered placebo in a prisoner's dilemma task (β = 20%, 95% CI: 2%, 37%). Exploratory analyses indicated that participants administered citalopram showed a positive bias when learning social evaluations about a friend (β = 4.06, 95% CI: 0.88, 7.24), but not about the self or a stranger. Similarly, exploratory analyses found evidence of increased recall of positive words and reduced recall of negative words about others (β = 2.41, 95% CI: 0.89, 3.93), but not the self, in the citalopram group.

Participants administered citalopram showed greater prosocial behaviours, increased positive recall and increased positive learning of social evaluations towards others. The increase in positive affective bias and prosocial behaviours towards others may, at least partially, be a mechanism of antidepressant effect. However, we found no evidence that citalopram influenced self-referential processing.