A preliminary study of a novel emergency department nursing triage simulation for research applications.

Background: Studying the effect on functioning of the emergency department of disasters with a potential impact on staff members themselves usually involves table top and simulated patient exercises. Computerized virtual reality simulations have the potential to configure a variety of scenarios to determine likely staff responses and how to address them without intensive utilization of resources. To decide whether such studies are justified, we determined whether a novel computer simulation has the potential to serve as a valid and reliable model of on essential function in a busy ED.

Differential brain response to alcohol cue distractors across stages of alcohol dependence.

Altered attention to alcohol-related cues is implicated in the craving and relapse cycle characteristic of alcohol dependence (ALC). Prior cue reactivity studies typically invoke explicit attention to alcohol cues, so the neural response underlying incidental cue exposure remains unclear. Here, we embed infrequent, task-irrelevant alcohol and non-alcohol cues in an attention-demanding task, enabling evaluation of brain responses to distracting alcohol cues.