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6 Trauma Exposure as a Predictor for Score Profiles on Structured and Unstructured Tasks of Verbal Memory in a Community Sample
- Halima Hussaini, Hannah VanLandingham, Madeline Sadoff, Kush Patil, Jay Rosen, Allison Kaup, Lori Haase Alasantro
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 525-526
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Objective:
Evidence suggests that the most consistent cognitive impairment found in individuals experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder symptomology is verbal memory impairment (Johnsen & Asbjornsen, 2008). More specifically, research has shown that patients with PTSD perform poorer on verbal memory tasks relating to logical (story) memory than on word memory tasks, such as CVLT-III (Barrera-Valencia et al., 2017). While recent literature accounts for memory impairments related to PTSD, less is known about this relationship for individuals with mere trauma exposure compared to individuals without trauma exposure. The present research aims to determine if there is a significant impact on WMS-LM when compared to CVLT-III for individuals in a community sample that have been exposed to a traumatic event in their lifetime.
Participants and Methods:One hundred nineteen patients presented to a community-based practice for neuropsychological evaluation. Patients were screened for trauma exposure during a clinical interview. Immediate and long delay trials of Wechsler Memory Scale IV Logical Memory (WMS-LM) were used to examine structured learning and memory and the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT-II) immediate and long delay recalls were used to examine unstructured learning and memory. Out of the 119 patients, 36 patients reported trauma exposure. Twenty-five were diagnosed as “normal,” 62 were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, and 32 were diagnosed with dementia. A one-way MANOVA was conducted to examine the relationship across the multiple dependent variables.
Results:There was a statistically significant difference in immediate recall in memory based on exposure to trauma, F (2, 116) = 3.28, p < .05; Wilk’s A = 0.947, partial n2 = .53, such that individuals with trauma exposure performed better. For long delay recall performance, there was a similar trend though it did not reach statistical significance F (2, 114) = 3.03, p = .052; Wilk’s A = 0.949, partial n2 = .51.
Conclusions:Data showed that patients who reported trauma exposure scored significantly higher on immediate recall performance on CVLT and WMS-LM than those who did not report trauma exposure. Although research suggests that patients who were exposed to trauma often experience cognitive deficits on verbal memory tasks, evidence also shows that trauma exposure can lead to higher immediate recall performance in memory related to attentional allocation modeling (Hayes et al., 2012).
13 Investigating the Influence of Educational Attainment and Crystalized Verbal Skills on Verbal Fluency Performance Among Patients from a Community-Based Outpatient Neurology Clinic
- Kush Patil, Jay Rosen, Madeline Sadoff, Lori Haase-Alasantro, Halima Hussaini, Hannah VanLandingHam, Allison Kaup
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 890-891
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Objective:
Neuropsychological measures of verbal fluency help detect cognitive decline and neuropathology. The discrepancy between semantic verbal fluency and phonemic verbal fluency is commonly utilized to differentiate between cortical and subcortical processes. Understanding how other factors influence a patient’s verbal fluency scores is vital in informing clinical interpretation of neuropsychological test data. This study aimed to investigate how educational attainment and crystalized verbal skills (i.e., word reading and vocabulary) influence verbal fluency performance among a clinical sample of patients seen for neuropsychological evaluation services at a community-based outpatient neurology clinic.
Participants and Methods:We utilized data from N=26 patients [mean age = 50.5 (SD = 22.0), 31% female, mean education = 13.5 (SD = 2.3)] who completed neuropsychological evaluations as part of their clinical care at an outpatient neurology clinic. Participants were included in this study if they had complete data for all variables of interest. We used Pearson correlation analyses to investigate associations between each predictor variable of interest (years of education, WRAT-5 Reading, WASI-2 Vocabulary) and age-norm corrected D-KEFS Verbal Fluency scores. Prior to analysis, all variables were converted to z-scores.
Results:We found that years of education (r = 0.49, p = 0.01) and vocabulary (r = 0.41, p = 0.04) were significantly positively correlated with category fluency performance. Reading was also positively correlated with category fluency at trend level, but this association was not statistically significant (r = 0.36, p = 0.07). We found that vocabulary (r = 0.47, p = 0.02) and reading (r = 0.51, p = 0.007) were significantly positively correlated with phonemic fluency performance, while the association between education and phonemic verbal fluency performance was not significant (r = 0.27, p = 0.18).
Conclusions:Our results suggest that educational attainment and crystalized verbal skills are positively associated with verbal fluency performance, though the degree of influence of these individual factors may differ for category fluency vs phonemic fluency performance. Our results have implications for the clinical practice of neuropsychology. Namely, appreciating a patient’s educational attainment and crystalized verbal skills can help guide clinical interpretation of whether or not a patient’s verbal fluency test scores reflect a decline from their baseline. This may be particularly important to consider among patients with high educational attainment or high premorbid verbal skills, as a subtle decline in their verbal fluency abilities may not be appreciated if relying only on age-based norms for interpretation. This is clinically relevant including when assessing for the early stages of neurodegenerative disorders (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, Primary Progressive Aphasia) or for subtle changes associated with stroke or brain injury.
9 - Mindfulness Training in Elite Athletes: mPEAK with BMX Cyclists
- from II - FORMAL MINDFULNESS INTERVENTIONS IN SPORT
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- By Lori Haase, University of California, San Diego, U.S.A., Göran Kenttä, Stockholm University, Sweden, Steven Hickman, University of California, San Diego, U.S.A., Amy L. Baltzell, Boston University, U.S.A., Martin Paulus, Laureate Institute for Brain Research, U.S.A.
- Edited by Amy L. Baltzell, Boston University
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- Book:
- Mindfulness and Performance
- Published online:
- 05 January 2016
- Print publication:
- 19 January 2016, pp 186-208
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Summary
We introduce the Mindful Performance Enhancement, Awareness and Knowledge (mPEAK) program along with the theory and research that contributed to creating mPEAK, which was developed by Haase, Paulus, and Hickman. The mPEAK program is an intervention for peak performance based on the mindfulness approach and inspired by Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). The mPEAK intervention is specifically designed to support high-level athletes in becoming more resilient to high demands and pressure in competitive sport and ultimately optimizing sport performance (see Haase et al., 2015). This chapter will provide a brief overview of the theory and research upon which mPEAK was based, including mindfulness, resilience, and the tenets and efficacy of MBSR. Other interventions in sport using mindfulness meditation (MM) will be considered. In addition, each of the four pillars of mPEAK will be reviewed, namely interoception (i.e., sensitivity to body experience); intentional versus default mode of thinking and acting; orientation toward pain and difficulty (versus avoidance); and rejection of perfectionism (acceptance or tolerance of what is). Finally, the mPEAK intervention will be presented, including initial empirical support for the program.
Background
Mindfulness
The mPEAK program's underlying premise is based on the Buddhist conceptualization of mindfulness. The most commonly cited Buddhist-inspired definition of mindfulness comes from Jon Kabat-Zinn (2003). He writes, “An operational working definition of mindfulness is: the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment” (p. 145). The mindful approach to sport performance is quite different from the typical cognitive behavioral approach used in sport psychology, which is geared toward changing or suppressing thoughts. Such attempts to ignore or stop unwanted thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations often result in the increase of such unwanted thoughts and potentially a disappointing performance (Gardner & Moore, 2007; Wegner, 1994). In contrast, a mindfulness-based approach facilitates performance via the acceptance of physical experience, thoughts, and emotions.
Bishop and colleagues’ (2004) two-component definition of mindfulness brings to light the potential benefit that a mindful approach can bring to performance. Mindfulness practices can cultivate attention, enhance engagement, and when necessary also strengthen the individual's tolerance of emotional or physical difficulty.