Evaluating the effectiveness of reasoning training in military and civilian chronic traumatic brain injury patients: study protocol.

Background: Individuals who sustain traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) often continue to experience significant impairment of cognitive functions mediated by the prefrontal cortex well into chronic stages of recovery. Traditional brain training programs that focus on improving specific skills fall short of addressing integrative functions that draw upon multiple higher-order processes critical for social and vocational integration. In the current study, we compare the effects of two short-term, intensive, group-based cognitive rehabilitation programs for individuals with chronic TBI.

Right diagnosis, wrong care: patient management reasoning errors in emergency care computer-based case simulations.

The pervasiveness of reasoning errors in emergency care (EC) is commonly acknowledged in clinical research. Much of this work has focused on diagnostic errors; yet, in EC, providing a specific diagnosis is generally secondary to managing the patient. To gain insights into non-diagnostic, treatment-related errors, we presented EC residents with computer-based case simulations and recorded their actions and verbalized thoughts.

Considering complexity in healthcare systems.

A recent trend in the literature has been to characterize healthcare activities in terms of complex systems theory. Complexity has often been loosely and variously defined, with meanings ranging from "not simple" to "complicated" to "intractable." In this paper, we consider various aspects of complexity and how they relate to modern healthcare practice, with the aim of developing research approaches for studying complex healthcare environments.

Patterns of brain atrophy that differentiate corticobasal degeneration syndrome from progressive supranuclear palsy.

Background: Progressive brain atrophy is associated with the corticobasal degeneration syndrome (CBDS) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Regional differences in brain atrophy may reflect the clinical features of disease.

Objective: To quantify the structural neuroanatomical differences between CBDS and PSP.

Neuroanatomical correlates of behavioural disorders in dementia.

Neurodegenerative diseases are associated with profound changes in social and emotional function. The emergence of increasingly sophisticated methods for measuring brain volume has facilitated correlation of local changes in tissue content with cognitive and behavioural changes in neurodegenerative disease. The current study examined neuroanatomical correlates of behavioural abnormalities, as measured by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, in 148 patients with dementia using voxel-based morphometry.

Neuroanatomical correlates of impaired recognition of emotion in dementia.

Neurodegenerative diseases frequently affect brain regions important for emotional processing, offering a valuable opportunity to study the effects of brain injury on emotion. The current study examined the neuroanatomical correlates of impaired recognition of emotions in patients with neurodegenerative disease. Performance on recognition of facial expressions, as measured by the Florida Affect Battery, was correlated with regional changes in gray matter tissue content in 50 patients with neurodegenerative disease using voxel-based morphometry.

Right and left medial orbitofrontal volumes show an opposite relationship to agreeableness in FTD.

Recent investigations of the neuroanatomy of complex social behaviors suggest that the underlying brain circuits involve multiple cortical and subcortical structures. The neuroanatomic origins of agreeableness have not yet been clearly elucidated. However, frontotemporal dementia (FTD) patients can evidence dramatic alterations in agreeableness arising from frontal and temporal lobe damage.